Hi, how’re you doing? Justin Sandercoe here, welcome to BC-103
made sure I got that right by looking down here!
What I’m gonna talk about in this lesson is some accessories that you'll
probably find really useful if you’re gonna do my Beginners Course.
Just gonna talk a little bit about them so you know what to look for when you go to the shop.
The first thing I want to talk about is Plectrums. Now, the most
important thing to look for when you’re a beginner guitar player and
you don’t really know what you want, is to get yourself a very, very thin plectrum.
I would recommend the “Jim Dunlop USA Nylon .46mm” pick.
They’re white and very, very thin, should be a little picture just here showing you
what they look like. That’s the one I’d recommend that you start off with.
If you want to get – later on in the Course when we start doing some Scales and stuff,
and playing some single lines, single notes – you might want to get a slightly thicker pick.
I recommend these orange Dunlop picks…. Tortoise. Tortus, tortoise?
Something like that they’re called. Yeah, really good picks; slightly thicker, good texture,
easy to grip. If you’re just playing electric guitar, I tend to use a thicker pick. Jim Dunlop again,
a “Jazz 3”. Nearly everyone I know uses the same pick: these little “Jazz 3’s”.
I really like them, but the type of pick and the brand you that you buy is really your choice.
You don’t have to buy a Jim Dunlop, buy whatever brand you want.
Fender make good picks, I mean it really doesn’t make any difference, just find one that you like.
So, that’s the first thing. Second thing, I highly recommend that you get yourself a Guitar Strap.
Why? Because I don’t want your guitar falling off!
Especially if you’re gonna stand up – you need to buy a strap, right,
there’s no way around it if you’re gonna stand up. But if you’re sitting down as well,
it can stop you kind of trying to grip the guitar in a funny way and altering your posture.
It kind of makes it awkward if you’re trying to hold your guitar all the time, so getting
a strap so that it’s kind of just almost tight on you when you’re sitting down is a good way to do it.
So I try and think of my guitar being the same sitting down as when I’m standing up,
I think that’s a good kind of practice to get into.
But getting a strap’s quite a good idea – doesn’t matter the type of strap you get.
If you’ve got a heavy guitar, like a Les Paul type guitar, an electric guitar,
you probably want to get a padded strap, because, well maybe I’m just a big wussy but my shoulder
gets really sore when I play with my Les Paul. So I’ve got an extra big thick padded strap for that guitar.
Anyway, next really important thing that you need to get is a Metronome.
Now, the metronome that I use is called a “Korg-MA30”.
Again, don’t have a deal with Korg, just it’s a really good metronome – all my students have it.
It’s got a lot of features that are really quite advanced that you’re
not gonna use straight away as a beginner, but it’s just good. So,
I’d go and check that out. And they’re not particularly expensive either,
but it doesn’t really matter, just I wouldn’t advise that you buy the ‘tick-tock’ one,
you know the ‘tick-tock-tick’ that you see sitting on the piano teacher’s desk.
Don’t get one of them, silly idea. You can only choose certain speeds and stuff, just generally a bad idea.
OK, Guitar Tuner. Now I use a really big “Peterson’s Strobe Tuner”, right, and they’re quite expensive.
Really would be over the top if you’re a beginner guitar player to get one of those.
The Korg MA-30 Metronome has a guitar tuner
which looks exactly the same except it’s silver, I think, and works as a fine tuner.
I do recommend getting an electronic tuner because if your guitar’s in tune it sounds nicer,
which is a lot more inspiring when you’re learning guitar. So I’d recommend getting yourself
a Korg electronic tuner, but it doesn’t really matter what tuner you get.
If you’ve got oodles of money, and you just want to spunk it around unnecessarily, then get yourself a Peterson’s
Strobe Tuner, because they’re fantastic tuners; really accurate, just too expensive, in my opinion, for a beginner.
Anyway. Capo – or “Cay-Po” – I don’t know how it’s pronounced and I don’t really care, right.
I call it a Capo; some people call it a “Cay-Po”.
I don’t really know and I don’t really care! I recommend these ones called a ‘Kaiser’ capo.
Why? Because I think they’re really good and I’ve never had one wear out or break.
They just seem to last forever, they’re really good.
There’s no little screws that you have to tighten up or anything like that.
They’re really easy to move positions, they’re really good. They’re slightly more expensive
than the regular capo, but you’re probably only gonna buy one in your
lifetime – unless you lose it like I do. I lose mine all the time,
but that’s just because I’m a bit dim when it comes to losing stuff like capos.
Anyway…. I get that where people nick them off me all the time,
maybe; either one. Anyway, get yourself a capo, ‘Kaiser’ capos – really good.
We’re gonna discuss how to use a capo later on, so I’m not gonna go into that right now,
it’s just a good idea to get yourself one.
Display Folder! Get yourself a little…some sort of book with the clear pages in it so you can keep all your notes in.
Really good idea, keeps them organised. You keep organised in a book, you keep organised in here.
Don’t know how that works, but it does, so that would be a really really good thing to get going on as well.
Couple of other, slightly less important accessories, but I still think are really valuable.
Strap Locks. If you’re gonna buy a strap for your guitar, get Strap Locks.
I use a big metal thing on the end of here which I have to kind of ‘click’ off
to get the strap off and it makes a clicking noise.
The strap’s never gonna come off, right. It’s really important because I have seen really expensive guitars – guys with,
you know, posh Les Pauls or whatever, Les Pauls have got a really fragile headstock –
playing away, this strap comes off, guitar falls down
like that and smacks the headstock on the floor. Headstock gone,
guitar worth half of what it used to be, and it’ll cost you a fortune to get it replaced.
So, if you’re gonna stand up and play guitar, get yourself Strap Locks.
I use these big metal ones which cost about £10,
which is about $20 or something like that. Exchange Rate’s going crazy at the moment so I can’t really tell.
But you can buy really cheap ones for like a dollar, plastic ones.
So, again I’ll stick links up on the website, but go and check them out as well.
If you can, get yourself some sort of Tape Recorder,
it’s a really, really good idea. The best thing in the world that you can have when you’re
learning guitar is a Jam Buddy – somebody to play along with
that you can practice songs with, and as you develop a little bit and
somebody’s learned to play Lead Guitar, then one guy can play some Rhythm,
the other guy plays Lead. You can go back-to-back
and test each other on naming chords. It’s great to have a Jam Buddy.
If you don’t know anybody that’s learning guitar at the same time as you,
then getting yourself some sort of a Tape Recorder is a really,
really good idea, so you can record yourself, listen back –
listening back is a really good teacher. And, as well, you can record yourself
doing some Rhythm Guitar, and then practice doing either Rhythm Guitar along with it
or practising a little Lead Guitar along with it. It’s a
really, really good thing to do. Some sort of audible Tape Recorder, not necessary, but very useful.
And last thing, Music Stand. A lot of people end up with back problems because they practice sitting on their bed,
with their music on the bed next to them. Their back’s twisted round like this
and their neck hunched over and they’re looking like that,
then they’re reaching and looking at the guitar neck.
Really, really good way to have to spend a whole lot of money in the chiropractor – don’t do it.
Get yourself a Music Stand, they don’t cost a lot. Stick it up in front of you,
make sure that you’re not twisting your spine around all the time.
It’s a good idea to sit up fairly straight when you’re practising guitar, don’t be all hunching over like this,
because it will lead you to some neck and back problems if you end up practising guitar a lot.
There you go, there’s a few accessories for you. Like I said,
there’ll be some links to some other pages from this page on the website
with direct links and stuff to go and buy at your local music store or whatever.
Hope that’s helped you with some ideas of some things
that you need to buy that first time that you go to the music shop,
or if you’ve already bought your guitar, the second time that you go to the music shop.
Or maybe you go to the music shop all the time, so it won’t be that…..you know what I mean.
I’ll see you for another lesson sometime soon. Bye-Bye!