Gibson guitar exhibition in Singapore.

You’ve been cutting album tracks in the studio and the band members have played like gods. Finally the last overdubs have been put down for the lead guitar and vocals and everybody’s feeling great about the project. It’s time to kick back and…

For beginners, learning to play guitar is an adventure, a journey filled with discovery, excitement and experimentation. The ways in which a new player sets out on that path are infinite, but it’s always instructive to heed the experiences of those who’ve gone before. Below, five legendary players talk about how they first went about learning to play.

One of the great mysteries of the electric guitar universe is the interchangeable use of the terms “vibrato” and “tremolo.” Misuse is actually more accurate.

Christmas shopping is in full swing, and if you’re anything like me, that means it’s time to buy some music. On Black Friday, I stopped by a local record store and picked up some goodies available via Record Store Day’s “Back to Black Friday” initiative. Among my prized positions: the 20th anniversary edition of Nirvana’s Incesticide on 12” vinyl and the limited-edition, 10” vinyl of Mad Season’s famed single, “River of Deceit.”

After 20 years as a creative linchpin in the hit-making culture of the American music industry — living a creative arc from sideman to superstar — Les Paul went into semi-retirement in 1965. By then, Les had seen and done it all. Too much for Mary Ford, who divorced Paul in 1962 after she reportedly tired of the traveling musicians’ lifestyle.

The 1970s boasted many famed live albums, but one of the ones was Frampton Comes Alive! by Peter Frampton. It made the Englishman – a pop pin-up, yet also a mercurial guitarist – a huge star, selling 17 million copies.

The quintessential heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne turns 64 on Monday, December 3. Starting in 1969 he’s cut seven albums with Black Sabbath that helped define the genre and 15 more solo discs that did the same for a second generation of fans. It’s safe to say he’s toured the world’s stages more often than he can remember.

Ensemble playing is nearly a lost art in rock. It’s different than playing parts in well-defined arrangements and it’s different than jamming. It’s also different than passing around solos. But it actually involves all three.

I have a few favorite scales. Hirajoshi is a pretty great one because it allows you to tap into those Japanese-inspired Jason Becker licks, and it's full of really wide intervallic leaps as well as close clusters of notes. The Minor Blues scale is also a lot of fun because it allows you to blues-up your rock licks, rock up your blues licks and even evil up your metal riffs, since it contains the famous ‘Diabolas In Musica' interval.