When we explain this to parents, another concern usually arises – “How can I help encourage my child to practice and stay engaged in lessons?” The good news is that there are many ways parents can help keep their children excited about their lessons. We asked some of our talented TakeLessons music teachers to share how they encourage parents to get involved and got some really great feedback.  Check out this piece written by one of our Dallas guitar teachers, Jerry W. Jerry lists some interesting ideas for parents to make the musical learning process more enjoyable for their kids. Once the kids are engaged and practicing regularly, they are more likely to see their results faster!

Jerry writes:

Tips for Music Teachers: Young Guitar Students, Parents & Practice

Each year, I am approached by parents who request that I teach guitar lessons to their children.  I am always flattered that they would choose me to teach their child.  The child is usually enthusiastic as they begin their musical journey.  After about a month, the student’s attitude begins to shift from enthusiasm to the realization that they have undertaken a lifelong journey of learning.  Based on my experience, I have observed a number of ways parents can help keep their kids engaged in the process.

1. Stay informed about the lessons.  Parental involvement in the learning process is essential.  Students, oftentimes, get caught up in the details of the lesson that they are learning.  In this situation, they tend to lose sight of the long term goals.  Parents can lend a “big picture” perspective to the child.  Parental involvement can be anything from visiting with the teacher after each lesson to view the material that has been assigned to actually taking lessons with the student.  Taking lessons together is a great way for parent and child to foster a common interest.  Oftentimes, the parent can actually assist the student at home and can even practice together.

2.  The importance of the teacher’s attitude toward each student, and their progress, cannot be overstated.  The teacher must communicate with the parents each little “victory” in the learning process.  Honest communication to the parents of the areas which are going well, as well as areas which need improvement is very helpful in keeping the student engaged in the process.

3.  Parents, just like teachers, can develop creative ways to keep students practicing.  These strategies can include:  seeing that the student use play-a-long Cds, recording practice time, practicing with the student, and taking the student to performances of great artists.  Parental involvement in this way can be very effective in helping the student achieve both short term and long term goals.

Learning is, quite simply, not a “one size fits all” process.  A Harvard education professor once stated that “you cannot make some learn something.  You can only create circumstances under which they want to learn the subject.”  Therein lies the great challenge for any teacher.  Common sense parental involvement can go a long way toward creating such an environment.

-Jerry W.

So…for the first time EVER, we are offering new students 40% off on your first month of voice or music lessons* when you purchase your lessons on Friday, November 27, 2009.

If you were thinking about getting started with music lessons or singing lessons, now is your chance. If lessons are not your thing, lesson packages make fun and unique holiday gifts for family members and friends. We have never offered a deal this great – and it’s for ONE DAY ONLY. You will not be able to get this deal at anywhere else.

We know that signing up for lessons is a big step. You are committing to something new and must find time in your schedule and room in your budget to get started. It’s a very involved decision and we definitely recognize that. But, that is also why we are really excited to offer our 40% off Black Friday sale to all new customers. With savings like these, you don’t really have an excuse to not pick up that guitar, tune up that piano or flip on the karaoke machine and get started with lessons.

You only have one day to take advantage of this offer. So once the tryptophan-induced sleepiness  from your Thanksgiving Turkey dinner wears off, pick up the phone and give us a call at 877-231-8505 on Friday to book your lessons. We will be looking forward to your call!

*For more information, click here or visit http://takelessons.com/black-friday-music-lessons. Customers must call in and mention the Black Friday 2009 offer to receive the discount. The offer is not currently available for online booking.

We hear it all. Well almost…

One thing we don’t really hear is, “I want to increase my child’s mental ability and therefore, I would like to get him/her set up with guitar lessons.”

With all of the articles published that show the importance of music on brain development, it’s actually amazing that we don’t hear this kind of request more often. Is it because people focus on the entertainment value of music while the developmental component is secondary?  Are they even aware of the added benefits of musical education? Does the parent that hopes her daughter becomes the next big pop star realize that while this may not occur, her daughter’s singing lessons are actually helping to enhance her small motor skills, auditory senses and ability to communicate?

Regardless of the reasons our students start taking music lessons, we are happy to have them on board and encourage them throughout their journey. With our S.T.A.R. Program™ and our Lesson Success Journals™, we keep our students motivated and excited to take their next lesson. If one of our students actually becomes the next big pop star, we will be their #1 fan; but we’ll be just as supportive when another aces their upcoming algebra or language test. We are proud of them not only for their musical accomplishments, but for whatever else they set out to do and achieve.

If you are interested in learning more about the effects of music on brain development, you should check out the article below titled “Music Lessons Boost Brain Power” found on Fox News last week. You can also read the full article located here -  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,572551,00.html

__________________________________

Music Lessons Boost Brain Power

Researchers found a correlation between early-childhood musical training and improvements to nonverbal reasoning, verbal ability and motor skills

WASHINGTON — For those who seriously practiced a musical instrument when they were young, the experience was more than just entertainment. Recent research shows a strong correlation between musical training for children and certain mental abilities.

The research was discussed at a session at a recent gathering of acoustics experts in Austin, Texas.

Laurel Trainor, director of the Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University in West Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues compared preschool children who had taken music lessons with those who did not. Those with some training showed larger brain responses on a number of sound recognition tests given to the children. Her research indicated that musical training appears to modify the brain’s auditory cortex.

Can larger claims be made for the influence on the brain of musical training? Does training change thinking or cognition in general?

Trainor again says yes. Even a year or two of music training leads to enhanced levels of memory and attention when measured by the same type of tests that monitor electrical and magnetic impulses in the brain.

We therefore hypothesize that musical training (but not necessarily passive listening to music) affects attention and memory, which provides a mechanism whereby musical training might lead to better learning across a number of domains,” Trainor said.

Trainor suggested that the reason for this is that the motor and listening skills needed to play an instrument in concert with other people appears to heavily involve attention, memory and the ability to inhibit actions. Merely listening passively to music to Mozart — or any other composer — does not produce the same changes in attention and memory.

Harvard University researcher Gottfried Schlaug has also studied the cognitive effects of musical training. Schlaug and his colleagues found a correlation between early-childhood training in music and enhanced motor and auditory skills as well as improvements in verbal ability and nonverbal reasoning.

The scientists also discovered that different instruments appear to cause a varying modification within the brain. Changes in the brains of singers occur in slightly different locations than those seen for keyboard or string players.

The correlation between music training and language development is even more striking for dyslexic children.

“[The findings] suggest that a music intervention that strengthens the basic auditory music perception skills of children with dyslexia may also remediate some of their language deficits.” Schlaug said.

Schlaug reports that tone-deaf individuals often have a reduced or absent arcuate fasciculus, a fiber tract connecting the frontal and temporal lobes in the brain. Reduced or damaged arcuate fasciculus has been associated with various acquired language problems like aphasia and also dyslexia in children.

Still more evidence that formal music training strengthens auditory cortex responses came in a study performed by Antoine Shahin, now at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Shahin believes that musical training gives an individual the acoustic responsiveness of a child some 2 – 3 years older. In talking about the affect of music on the brain, he said the studies do not necessarily show that musical training leads to enhanced IQ or creativity.

Shahin said that when a person listens to sounds over and over, especially for something as harmonic or meaningful as music and speech, the appropriate neurons get reinforced in responding preferentially to those sounds compared to other sounds. This neural behavior was examined in a study that looked at the degree of auditory cortex responsiveness to music and non-familiar sounds as a child ages.

Shahin’s main findings are that the changes triggered by listening to musical sound increases with age and the greatest increase occur between age 10 and 13. This most likely indicates this as being a sensitive period for music and speech acquisition.

Glenn Schellenberg from the University of Toronto directly addressed if musical ability makes a person smarter. Such assessments concerning children are always difficult because of the influence of other factors, such as parental income and education. Nevertheless, he found that passive listening to music seems to help a person perform certain cognitive tests, at least in the short run. Actual music lessons for kids, however, leads to a longer lasting cognitive success.

The effects of musical training on cognition for adults, Schellenberg said, are harder to pin down.

This article was provided by Inside Science News Service, which is supported by the American Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit publisher of scientific journals.

Chris writes:

Inspiration

When using Google to search for the term “inspiration,” 92,300,000 searches come up.  When I search oxygen, 70,700,000 results come up.  If these results were an indicator of importance, that means inspiration is more important to us than oxygen.  Obviously in the real world that is not true.  However, as humans we have a strong attraction to things that inspire us.

The first time I felt inspired to achieve success in life happened during my college years.  I was paying for my own school as a knife salesman.  My sales were not spectacular and I had not yet learned the art of selling.  I had a book suggested to me The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman that I think changed my perspective on life.  It drove me to look beyond my obstacles and to remain inspired even when faced with adversity.  To this day I continue to take this approach.

The reason why I am sharing this with you is because all of you have the opportunity and the responsibility to inspire others.  Recently I attended a Pearl Jam concert where Eddie Vedder invited his original music teacher on stage to jam with them.  I thought that was awesome of him to show appreciation for someone who influenced his life.  Most students will not make it to the level of success that Eddie Vedder has, but that does not make them any less important as students.  Dreams are important and I encourage all of you to remember back to when you were first introduced to music and what a profound impact it had on you.  Share that feeling with a new music student or friend and if you personally teach music, remind students at the beginning of a lesson why they are there.  Have the vision and the commitment that they maybe don’t have for themselves yet.

—————————————————-

See what we mean? We are so lucky to have someone like Chris on our team. Thanks to all of his encouraging words, it’s no wonder the TakeLessons team is so  happy, hardworking, driven, enthusiastic…we could go on for days!

Don’t you think we look inspired??

The following excerpt was taken from Westmont Magazine in an article titled “Better Minds Through Music” by Michael Shasberger.  You can read the entire article by clicking on the links following this excerpt.

In 2007, one of our violin students nearly died in a car accident and lay in a coma for several weeks. Doctors told the family there was little hope of recovery. He did regain consciousness, however, and while he had limited speech, he couldn’t form cogent thoughts or recognize simple objects. Case workers predicted months or years of therapy and doubted he’d recover his intellectual capabilities.

His violin professor visited him in the midst of these assessments. At the time, the student was doing tests that determined he couldn’t recognize or name simple objects such as a spoon. Then Dr. Phil Ficsor took out his violin and put it in the student’s hand. Perplexed, the student was unable to name the instrument and said he didn’t know what to do with it. Dr. Ficsor put the bow in his other hand and encouraged him to try. Moments later he was playing music from memory that he’d studied a few months earlier. Two months later he was back in school playing drums in the Chapel Band and violin in the orchestra and taking a full academic load. Music played a seemingly miraculous role in a recovery that exceeded the doctor’s wildest imagination. But it wasn’t miraculous. It was the result of violin studies this young man began at the age of 6. The musical resources of both his brain hemispheres were so strongly developed and linked that they could pull together when linguistic skills, which operate in only one lobe, couldn’t. His parents’ investment in musical studies —and the resources committed to his high school orchestra —made the difference. What happened to this student vividly illustrates the value of music education.

Wow! To read the entire article, visit http://blogs.westmont.edu/westmont_magazine/?p=1554

In a world of pointless status updates (”ahhh, cake”) and spammy get rich quick schemes (”learn about THIS teeth whitening secret!”), Twitter can actually be used for actual networking. It’s true. In fact, about a month ago, we were lucky to meet Jeremy Brieske, founder of gearpipe.org via Twitter. In a tweet, Jeremy proposed that “music education needs it’s own Twitter hashtag… #MusicEd” and we happily followed suit and started communicating back and forth.

Through communication and research, we learned that gearpipe.org’s mission is to “mobilize musicians and music lovers to donate to music education charities, thereby supporting and giving back to a new generation of musicians.”  As a music lessons provider, we strongly support this mission and wanted to give Jeremy props for creating such an awesome site with such a meaningful purpose.

Each month, gearpipe.org teams up with a musical instrument retailer and a musical education charity and donates a percentage of sales from gearpipe.org users to that month’s charity. They work with their retail partners to ensure the process is easy for the users and that all proceeds are donated to the correct charity.

This month, the featured charity is DonorsChoose.org and the retail partner is American Musical Supply. September’s charity was Little Kids Rock and the retail partner was Musician’s Friend.

You can find lots of other neat things on the site as well including Jeremy’s bio and a blog & podcast page which recently featured TakeLessons CEO Steven Cox (shameless plug).

Be sure to check out our music site of the week, gearpipe.org, to see what they are all about. And if you know of someone looking to purchase musical instruments or accessories, direct them there for their purchase so they can give back to music education while stocking on supplies.

No, we have not lost all ability to converse here at TakeLessons, we are trying out scat singing –and it’s tough! Check out an article one of our Berkeley voice teachers, Richard K., wrote on the Art of Scat Singing and see if you can whip up a scat solo up next time you hear your favorite song.

Richard K. writes…

Have you ever hear a band playing a familiar Rock & Roll or jazz standard and then the singer started singing a stream of new melodies that fit the music, yet was so different, that you strained to hear what they did to that old familiar standard?  And instead of singing the right words, which you know, he or she sang nonsense phrases like “da ba sheh-bop doo-wah” or “Doo-bee-bah-dip shwee-aah!!”  Chances are you just heard scat singing.  If you listen carefully, you might find it to be a real treat.

Scat singing is NOT what a vocalist does when they can’t remember the words to the song.  It is a singer’s act of creative expression; the time when he or she gets to “blow” out a solo just like all the instrumentalists do.  And this really is the point of scat singing: it is the singer’s way of showing artistry as a developed musician on a par with the instrumentalists.  Like instrumentalists, there are skills the scat singer must acquire. Practice time must be invested before the solo becomes really exciting and alive for other people to hear and enjoy.

Louis Armstrong

The moment a singer starts thinking of the voice as a vocal instrumentalist is when that singer begins to develop sensibility as a fully rounded musician.  This is when scat singing will begin to make sense as a part of your arsenal of musical soloing and group playing skills. And this is how singing as an art form for jazz singers developed.

Singers have taken lead lines throughout the history of both jazz and rhythm and blues.  The roots of scat are in the African-American traditions that gave birth to all of jazz; the field songs of early slavery days and the call and response patterns of African-American spiritual music.  Early on in the history of jazz singers, they knew that they would learn their music best by listening to what the instrumentalists—particularly the horn and woodwind players were playing.  Louis Armstrong was both a masterful scat singer and a great trumpet player, and he was scatting before the practice really took off as a popular form of vocal soloing.

During the big band era of the 1930’s and 1940’s, singers were generally limited to singing the lyrics at the start or “head” of a tune. Then, all the instrumentalists would take turns taking solos, and the tune would conclude with the singer coming back in and singing a repeated verse of the lyrics.  There were a few notable singers who broke the barrier and earned the right to take extended vocal solos: Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn were among the most accomplished early vocal soloists.

With the advent of Be-Bop music in the early 1940’s, singers were temporarily put out of business.  Pioneered by Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Kenny Clarke, and other instrumental luminaries working in mid-Manhattan in the early 40’s, bebop was fast and hard instrumental music.  It was angular and jagged—made more for listening than for dancing and left little room for languorous melodies and lyrics.

Nevertheless, vocalists began adapting to its demanding style. Dizzie Gillespie was a pioneer of what came to be called the “scat” language making up syllables that captured the sound of what he and his colleagues were playing on their instruments. Vocalists like Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter, Anita O’Day, Eddie Jefferson, and Joe Williams began emulating instrumentalists; developing a vocal language of scat that used horn-like syllables to capture the tone and licks of the players like ‘Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Clifford Brown, Lester Young, and many others.

Sarah Vaughan

Eddie Jefferson, Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross, and King Pleasure pioneered “vocalese”, the setting of lyrics to previously recorded horn solos during the 1950’s.  As a result, scat singing became a firm part of the jazz scene. Singers delighted audiences with their clever and often hilarious emulations of musical instruments.  Jon Hendricks is a giant among scat singers.  He can vocalize stand-up bass with the best of the bass players.  He wrote exceptional lyrics to be-bop standards and can scat licks that leave the tongues of lesser singers flailing and twisting in the breeze.

Many outstanding jazz vocalists made their mark as scat monsters in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Al Jarreau and Bobby McFerrin pioneered adding vocal percussive imitation to the language of scat.  Bobby McFerrin also incorporated the act of breathing into the rhythm and fabric of his music in and arresting and powerful way.

So how does a novice go about learning to scat sing?  Many singers are terrified of scat—that vast unknown territory where you have to (or get to) make up your own melodies, phrases, or rhythmic licks.  They would rather stick to the safety of the memorized lyrics and melody of a song.  But there is real freedom and excitement in creating your own melodic phrases, and great joy when your friends and audience claps or roars in enjoyment of what you have created!!

Learning to scat comes from getting a “feeling” for the music, so many folks start with the blues.  If you’ve ever listened to a song, and had the melody spark an alternative musical idea in your mind that you’ve wanted to sing, you’ve started the process of learning to scat.  Or, if you hear another melody that fits the one that you’re listening to, and you try singing it, you are already scatting!!

If nothing else, the way to start learning about scat singing is to listen to some great scat artists on records or CD’s or You Tube. Try to learn their solos and phrasing, try to capture their timing, and emulate the tonal qualities they utilize.  Imitate them when they sound like a bell, or like a horn, or like they are growling or groaning.  Listen to your favorite instrumental players—a lot—and learn their solos.  You do this by listening to the solo you like repeatedly until you memorize it and can sing along while they are playing it.  Try to make your voice sound like an instrument—whether it is a horn, a guitar, a bass, drums or even a piano, if you can!

Scat singing is not created in a void.  You must still follow the form of a song and all songs have a structure.  Usually there is an “A” section where the lead melody is declared, followed by a “B” section which introduces a bridge or a different melody, and then this is followed by a repeat or variation of the “A” section.  In each section, there is a chord pattern.  Creating new melodies to a given chord pattern is what an instrumental soloist or a scat singers does to express his or her creativity.

Listen to the chord patterns until you hear some musical ideals that might go with them.  Often it helps to sing parts of the melody, and if a related ideal pops into your head, follow it to see if it works!  It also helps to find the roots of the chords being played, and just sing them to the song until you get some new melodic ideal.  Learn the individual notes of the chords by having someone play them for you on the piano.  Then, sing these notes in as many variations as you can think of—while following the song, until you are inspired by a new musical idea.  Play around with the rhythm of the phrasing; start a melodic idea sooner than it is supposed to start, or wait to start it longer than you are supposed to; then rush the notes to catch up with the band while keeping time!!

Check out Ms. Ella scatting…amazing, huh?

The video clip is from the “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” event at the 2009 World Science Festival. It shows singer Bobby McFerrin (of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” fame) showing the audience the power of the pentatonic scale by getting them to respond musically to his actions. What is really unbelievable is that the audience sings notes that he has not even described to them yet. It really shows us how music truly is a universal language.

Thanks for the clip, Drina!

Bob C. writes:

Starting music lessons is a wonderful idea and can improve a person’s life.  It has been shown that students who seriously study music develop structures in their brain that MRI studies demonstrate are used for Math and Physics concepts.  In fact, Einstein credits his conceptual creativity on learning the violin at age four.  As you learn, your brain grows musically and you’ll enjoy music much more.

When my students start lessons, I am more than willing to help them obtain a reasonably priced, easy-to-play instrument.  Unfortunately students often show up with a guitar-shaped toy. Parents say “If he/she likes it, we’ll get a better one.”  Well, it rarely works like that. They are generally impossible to play; they hurt your fingers and the sound is not optimal. It might discourage the student to think they can’t play guitar when really it’s just the instrument.

My recommended starter guitar:

A steel string guitar has 220 pounds of pressure, and usually has a narrow neck.  It is much easier for the student to start on a nylon string, usually called a classical guitar. Nylon strings are much easier to play and there is more space between the strings making it easier to play chords.

Many children want to learn electric guitar.  However, electrics are a much more expensive proposition. You have to pay for a guitar, electronics, cables and an amp.

You also want to look for a solid top. Why a solid top?  That’s your speaker.  As it is played, it will quickly open up and sound better and better.  Plywood tops will never get the same sound, so look for tops made of quality woods.

I also recommend buying a tuner. Tuning is a fairly difficult task, and learning to tune a guitar with a tuner makes it much easier to do. Tuning is tricky since it involves listening and getting used to adjusting the pitch.   Tuning takes practice and is not easy to do, but an out of tune guitar can really sound terrible. Be sure to purchase a tuner that will let you set which string you are on.

If you go to a store to buy a guitar, there are a few basic things you can check.

1:  If you put a straight edge from the neck, it should hit the bridge, ideally, at the bottom of the saddle.  If not, the angle is off, and the guitar is not one you should buy.  A yardstick or ruler is ideal for this.  If the angle is wrong, the only repair is a neck reset which can cost about $150 or more.

2:  If you push the guitar string down on the top and bottom fret the string should come close to hitting every string, with no more than a 1/8th of an inch.  If not, it will be warped and difficult to play.  Sometimes you can adjust the truss rod and straighten the neck.

3: Play every note on the guitar and make sure that all of them clear the next fret and don’t buzz.

4: It should be as easy to press down on the 12 fret as the first fret.  The notes are closer together up high on the fingerboard.

I recommend that you go to a store to purchase a guitar with someone that knows how to play, whether that is your teacher or someone that works there.

In summary, a playable guitar is a musical instrument, not a toy.   If you buy a toy it may be money wasted and lead to discouraging your child from really playing.  A good student guitar is not very expensive, usually between $100 to $200.   I personally try and keep a few that I sell at cost to students as I want my students to be successful and have a great time.  One last thing to note is that a good guitar will likely appreciate in value over time.   So a good, used, solid-top guitar that is well taken care of can actually be a better investment than the toy option.

And once you purchase your new guitar, remember to always wash your hands before playing.  The acids and dirt on your fingers may ruin the strings and even the guitar itself. Washing your hands will prolong the life of your new investment.

Bob C. TakeLessons Guitar Teacher

Here is the latest entry from our excellent San Diego guitar teacher Jason M

So how do you play a Washburn acoustic?  One of the least asked questions I get is that of knowing your tone.  I don't play a Washburn acoustic but I think that it's important to note the tonal qualities of the guitar you own.  The sound that comes out of your axe will shape and define your unique voice to the point that it will eventually become "you". 

I use an ESP KH2 "Skully" Kirk Hammett signature model guitar with dual EMG 81 pickups.  It has 24 frets, an original floyd rose locking tremelo set up with a Jackson reverse dinky headstock and a body that looks like an MII Deluxe.  The neck is a little bit wider than your average electric guitar and has an almost "classical" feel to it when you grip it.  Rather than an old "file down the fret" cliche that allows for optimal shredding, my guitar has jumbo "rounded" frets which if pressed down hard enough can actually make a string bending sound.  The floating bridge takes some getting used to and if you haven't used one before you can actually make the guitar sound out of tune by leaning on it too hard with your right hand palm mute.  It has a 3 way switch which unlike a strat and more like a Les Paul you can "cut" the sound immediatly and make a really nice Morello sounding percussive "on off" sound. 

I also use a Line 6 upgraded AXSYS212 ampliphier with a floorboard that carries both a volume and a wah pedal.  The Line 6 was the first digital amp to master the art of "tube tone" back in the mid-nineties.  I don't think I've ever thought of it as a solid-state amp to be honest.  With 32 presets and 32 user presets with 4 channels each, the options are pretty infinite.  This model can not only replicate the greatest artists of all time but holds

countless configurations of individual amp models/effect pedals/cabinet sizes/ and even offers a "noise gate" that you can open or close at will. 

Now that's not my only rig.  I also play a Zakk Wylde custom Epiphone "Les Paul" with 22 frets that I've tricked out with his custom ".60" string set up.  Getting used to a set of strings of that caliber requires a huge change in the amount of hand strength that you need.  It's also got a set of dual EMG pickups and the ability to "cut" the sound out immediately when you toggle between the rhythm and treble pickups (having one volume all the way down of course) like the KH2.

I play that one through a Scott Ian signature Randall ampliphier that has an EQ option of being able to shave your eyebrows off under the right amount of pressure.  It's got a much more pure clean tone than the Line 6 and ultimately I think the distortion channel is superior as well, but it lacks in the pedal effect options.  I like this amp because it has an L and R input in the back that I can hook my CD player or digital studio into and use as a monitor while I'm training. 

As the amp and the guitar make up your unique sound I have a digital studio that completly changes all that.  I record with a Boss BR-532 digital 4-track that has it's own effects that just don't match up to the tones that I can get live.  So technically I have a "recorded" voice and "live" voice.  There are a lot of subtle things that you have to pay attention to in the studio like thinking about "loop effects" and pre-post effects that you can alter during a mastering. 

I bring these things up because as you continue playing you may start to realize that you can't sound like Dragonforce on an acoustic.  Black Sabbath unplugged only works for "Planet Caravan"… and maybe some of their Dio stuff.  If you want to develop your own tone I believe it's important to understand how to control those factors. 

Breakdown your own rig and let me know if you have any questions that might help create your ideal sound.

Until next time, enjoy your tone!

Jason M