Getting Your Guitar Sound

Learn to use your ears, hands, and the tools of the trade to play jazz, rock, blues, country and other genres, with a hi-quality, authentic and persuasive guitar tone.

Having a command of scales, chords, styles and techniques is fundamental for any guitar player who wants to play better. Getting Your Guitar Sound provides you with the skills to actually sound better by teaching you to use your ears, hands, and the tools of the trade to play jazz, rock, blues, country and other genres, with a hi-quality, authentic and persuasive tone. In Getting Your Guitar Sound, you'll examine how a guitar's individual components and overall construction determine it's sound characteristics, so you can maximize the strengths as well as work around the limitations of any particular instrument. You'll learn about amplifiers, speakers and cabinets, and gain expertise using the amazing modeling software, AmpliTube 2. By working closely with individual amp models (including emulations of Fender, Marshall and Mesa), as well an array of virtual stompbox and rack effects, you'll learn to configure the right setups and to properly work the controls to get the tones you'll need for class projects, as well as real-world performances. The course covers a wide range of musical styles, teaching you to sound convincing when playing inside, and outside your comfort zones. You'll build customized rigs and recreate the exact guitar parts from a wide range of landmark recordings by artists including, (Blues) Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, (Jazz) Kenny Burrell, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, (Country) Brent Mason, (Rock) Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Carlos Santana, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Robin Trower, Andy Summers, U2, Joe Satriani, Soundgarden and Pantera. Hi-quality play-along tracks are provided for inspiration as you prepare your assignments. By the end of the course, you will have gained the ability to best utilize your guitar, amps, effect pedals and rack gear to zero in on the tones you'll need for the music you'll play for years to come. By successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

• Play music in a wide range of styles with an authentic and convincing guitar tone.
• Understand the factors that determine a guitar and amplifier's tone characteristics.
• Work the controls of leading amplifiers, effect pedals and rack effects by using the amp modeling plug-in, AmpliTube 2.
• Identify how effects are categorized, combined and how each pedal and rack module works to change your sound.
• Develop your own personal setups for recording and live performance.

For more course information visit Berklee Music