The Guitar Players Club

I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't thought about posting about PG Music as of yet. I can't remember where I first ran across PG Music and their fantastic products. I guess it was probably in the early 1990s that I first found out about Band In a Box and Power Tracks Pro.

I was looking, I believe, for a program that would provide some backing tracks so I could click the mouse and have a rhythm track to jam with. Well, I got more, much more!!

I don't get any kind of commission on any sales from PG Music, but I still want to let you know, if you don't already, about the products that they have available. I won't try and go into detail about the products, I'll let their Website do that. I still want to let you know that I've used literally all of their software products (I bought the Omni Pak last time, that's everything!!), and I can tell you that anything you buy from PG Music will be a purchase you won't regret.

As I mentioned, I first wanted nothing more that a program that could provide 'backing tracks' to jam with. Band In a Box will do that...and so much more. You wanna play gigs, but don't want the headaches of dealing with the temperament of several other musicians ? No problem, get Band In a Box, install it on your notebook, and you've got your entire group right there. No lame excuses for missing practice or being late for the gig. No more heated discussions instead of getting practice in. Nothing but a great, in-tune, always on time group that you don't have to pay or feed, and that NEVER TALKS BACK. There is a heaven.

Think that's enough ? It could be, but there's more. A little program called Power Tracks Pro Audio. You wanna talk digital audio sequencer ? Here's a complete multi-track workstation program that you have to try.

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I thought I'd write a quick post on an online guitar tuner. I recently installed a widget from Widgetbox.com on another site and thought I'd mention it here. In case you haven't ran across Widgetbox, you should check it out if you ever need (or want) a widget. At last look they have over 66,000 widgets available for WordPress, Blogger, Facebook and many other formats. There's music related, as well as just about any other topic you can think of. There's some really cool stuff there.

A hardware tuner is also a must-have item for any guitar player. Zzounds has a great collection of guitar tuners as well as anything else you could want or need relating to playing guitar.

New for 2008 is the Ibanez Jam Tuner, a chromatic tuner that comes with the works, jammed right in. The Jam Tuner features a Hi-Spec wide LCD display, 20 rhythm patterns for practice and jamming, a distortion effect, an AUX input for CD or MP3 players and a built-in metronome.

Ibanez RU10 Chromatic Guitar and Bass Jam Tuner

Caring for your guitar is easy and involves nothing more than common sense. Just because there's nothing much to do in order to care for your guitar, it's something that shouldn't be avoided. Just a little regular maintenance and cleaning will keep your guitar playing and sounding good for many, many years to come.

Environment

Since guitars are constructed from wood, one should pay attention to the environment in which the instrument is stored and played. Strong direct sunlight can cause the guitar to get excessively hot, and in at least a hollow-body guitar, can actually cause the wood to crack. Also, a guitar should never, EVER be stored

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