Hello Explorers,
Welcome back inside The Weekly Learning Vault for another week of discovery. I’m Philippa,
and once again, I’ll be guiding you round the mysteries and hidden wonders that we keep
down here. This week, we’ll be digging out something for the body, something for the mind,
and something for the bank account. Remember to be careful as you look around our
exhibits – we disturbed a colony of bats last week who left a mess on the Gary Numan
collection – but do enjoy them.
Justin’s 10 Tips on How to Play Guitar Standing Up
This is a good one for anybody thinking about performing. It’s also a beneficial one to get
into your practice routine, because playing standing up feels totally different to sitting
down. Unless you are a stubborn Classical-only guitarist who baulks at the sight of an
electric, then chances are your band or classmates are going to want you to stand up at
some point. Only the drummer is enough of a liability to have to sit down for the whole
performance. Justin offers some helpful tips here, including whether it looks cooler to have
your guitar hanging down at your knees so you can barely reach it (a la Johnny Depp), or
whether you should wear it so high up (like The Beatles) that it becomes a strangulation risk.
Check out his tips here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjuF-sIK248
Guitar Moves with Keith Richards (Part 2)
A fascinating interview with Keith Richards (of Dartford, Kent, England), in which, for
reasons known only to him, he chooses to speak in a convincingly American drawl for the
entire quarter of an hour. If anyone has an explanation for this, please write in to let us
know. Here, Richards talks about his early days of guitar playing, as well as musing on the
things that inspired the cat that inspired the cat that inspired him. The first half of this
interview is also excellent but seems to have vanished from the YouTube ether.
Delve into it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4BH_F4zgtA
How to Change Your Acoustic Guitar Strings by Fender
Something practical! If you have been practicing hard, bashing away at those strings, and
your fifty fifth rendition of ‘Tambourine Man’ is beginning to sound a bit dull and less than
tuneful, you may want to consider changing your guitar strings. You could also try cleaning
them using a guitar-safe product such as a specialist lubricant, but they will eventually need
changing. Some guitar shops do offer this service, but you can save yourself money and skill-
up like a pro by following this YouTube tutorial. I actually followed this one myself and I’m
pretty sure nothing went wrong…
Watch Fender’s helpful demonstration here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xxeRFEP1Y4
We hope you enjoy exploring these exhibits. We’ll be back again next Thursday for another
dig around in the vault.
Happy learning,
