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Interview with Dan Barry of Riffstation Guitar Learning Software

*Retweet this post to enter to win your own Riffstation. *Hurry … 5 Winners will be drawn on June 1, 2012!

Riffstation is a new guitar learning software developed by Sonic Ladder Ltd. It’s billed as the ultimate jam and practice tool for guitar players. It’s got a bunch of features including slow down, key change and guitar isolation technology and lots more.

What immediately stands out about this product is that you can use the music you already have on your pc or iPod in wav, mp3, wma formats. It allows you to take your favorite songs and manipulate them to learn the chords and riffs, create your own backing bracks, and build new riffs and songs.

I recently had an chance to interview Dan Barry, one of the founders and developers of Riffstation to talk about the development of this software and the technology behind. I highly recommend that you check out Riffstation for yourself.

Interview with Dan Barry of Riffstation

1. How long did it take to develop the Riffstation software which allows you to learn the chords, master the riffs and create custom jam tracks using songs in your own music collection?
DB: We formed the company in late 2010 and began developing Riffstation as a product in early 2011, so I guess you could say it was in commercial development for about a year but we had all been working on some of the technologies in Riffstation for several years before that. Our guitar isolation technology dates back to 2004 believe it or not!

2. The Riffstation development team also includes Mikel Gainza, Martin Gallagher, how did you guys first get together? And can you share a little bit about how this idea for this product came to be?
DB: Mikel and I founded the Audio research Group in a university in Dublin in 2006. Martin joined one of our projects in 2007. We all have an engineering/computing background and we are all guitar players so when we decided to form a company we know what our first product would be.

We specialized in developing algorithms for music and audio processing and we always had a slant on building tools which were useful for learning so Riffstation was a combination of all the things we do well. Riffstation is the kind of thing we wished we had when we were learning guitar, so figured we’d build it.

3. In my view, the coolest feature is being able to use your own music collection to learn songs and mix new jam tracks instead of midi files. Was this feature the critical to your vision for Riffstation?

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James Taylor On How to Play “Fire and Rain”

This song is forty plus years old, yet instantly recognizable. James Taylor shows you how to play “Fire and Rain” in this split screen video. It’s also recorded at 50% with close-ups of both hands.

Share this video with friends and be entered into a drawing to win an autographed and personalized vocal part to “Fire and Rain” from James’s personal library.

via PR Newswire

Q-Tuner Pickups Vow to Eliminate Bad Tones and Distortion

The the forthcoming launch of the new neodymium Q2.0 silver line has just been announced by Q-Tuner.com. These pickups are said to be the first to use neodymium magnets, “super-magnets” for their unique characteristics and high performance make them superior for sound reproduction applications.

“Playing aside, poor tonal character, or bad tone, is usually caused when pickups introduce intermodulation distortion, something Q-Tuners unique design virtually eliminates. They can’t help you with your chops, but when it comes to translating what you play to what is heard, Q-Tuners are the best of the best.”

Both coils are being wound using silver plated OFC magnet wire in a ratio of 30 gr. AG/1 Kg. CU. This wire is custom made in Switzerland and is especially designed for ultra-high frequency applications. A 3D drawing of the spectacular Q2.0 design is pictured above.

For more about Q-Tuner, visit Q-Tuner.com. Prices start at $134.

Develop Rhythm with A Tap of Your Foot

by John Maddox

Many beginner guitarists have problems with learning the more complex rhythms. Becoming good at playing rhythms is easy once you develop a good strumming technique and learn your open chords.

The way you pay chords in different rhythms to match a certain song’s melody is known as rhythm guitar. Basic strumming of the guitar is easy as long as you can count time. However, to start playing rhythms properly you need to hear and feel it.

Most beginner guitar players learning how to play rhythms make the mistake of attempting to visualize rhythm in terms of upstrokes and downstrokes. This is a bad habit you need to break yourself out of if you find yourself doing this because if you watch somebody play rhythm you’ll have a hard time matching their strumming motion. Your timing will be off and you’ll find yourself struggling to keep a steady tempo and remaining in tune with the person you’re watching play rhythm.

Fortunately, in this guitar lesson for beginners online, I’ll quickly go over an effective method you can use to help get better at playing in time and playing better rhythms.  One of the most effective methods to help you play in time easier is to use your foot.

Using your foot is a good tool for counting out beats because when you keep time with your foot your body will start counting for you and you will play in steady time with the song. Many experts will tell you that your feet have extremely great muscle memory for playing rhythm.

When you start tapping your foot while you are playing it will feel like your toe is directly connected to your strumming thumb. Visualize your thumb rising between one beat and then the next while you raise your toe from the floor between each beat.

Practicing this will make it easier for you to strum more evenly and steadily. If you feel a little awkward or uncomfortable tapping your toes while playing you could try tapping your heels or even rocking from side to side in your seat.

For more, visit YourBeginnerGuitarLesson.net

Remembering Guitarist Herbert Weedon


If you are looking for beginner guitar lessons one of the best men you could have learned from died on April 20th. His name was Herbert Weedon and he died at the age of 91. He was British born and gave guitar lessons to an entire generation of guitarists.

A few of his most noticeable apprentices included Paul McCartney, John Lenon, and Eric Clapton. As big as Bert was in the States he was even bigger in Britain. He started off training as a classical guitar player and made a name for himself as a soloist, tv personality and studio musician.

He was one of the first people to popularize the electric guitar even though he looked nothing like the rock stars of today. Back in the 1950s he popularized the electric guitar as a TV performer and when on air he would be dressed in a dark suit and white shirt instead of cut off sleeves, tattoos, and piercings. His hair would be groomed and many say he looked more like a bank manager than a flashy rock and roll guitarist.

He believed in keeping things as simple as possible would emphasize this in his teachings of how to hold the instrument and when he was introducing basic chords. His most successful book was “Play in a Day” which went on to sell two million copies across the world and has been translated into a number of various languages.

He really enjoyed the fact that many popular guitarists of this generation learned from his books but he didn’t support the extreme lack of care some of these guitarists showed for their fragile instrument. He stated once in an interview “I can’t understand why anybody would want to break a cup, let alone a guitar.” Bert was definitely cut from a different cloth and from a different time.

Bert was born on May 10th 1920 and his father was part of an amateur song and dance act, and when he was young Bert would tag along with his father to the clubs that he performed. Bert acquired his first guitar for about 75 pence at the tender age of 12.

Once Herbert turned 14 he was developing his guitar playing skills by taking guitar lessons for beginners from a local classical instructor. He also served as a rescue worker during World War II, and after his service in the army he was a regular in the BBC’s house band. His highest honor had to be in 2001 when Queen Elizabeth II awarded him with the Order of the British Empire.

Article contributed by YourBeginnerGuitarLessons.net