Guitar strings are an integral part of a guitar, but are often the last thing to get cleaned or replaced! After a while strings will dirty and begin to rust so changing them regularly is important.

Changing your strings correctly will ensure that the strings stay in tune much better and don’t break as easily. Just follow this simple guide for string changing bliss!

Every year, Yamaha Guitars sponsor a student on the 1 year diploma course at The Institute of Contemporary Music in London. This year's winner, James Lane, has just finished the first term and has written his first blog entry, just for InSession.
Watch this space for an exclusive interview with James, coming up very soon....

James Lane Diary

Hi, my name is James Lane and I was the lucky winner of the Yamaha Guitar scholarship on the Institute’s Higher Diploma course. This is my first blog entry (so bear with me!) but my aim is to share some of my thoughts on playing and learning, give you some ideas about what’s going on here, and share some of my personal highlights from the first term. So, here goes…

Photo: Getty Images/K Mazur

2 million people trying to get hold of 18,000 tickets. Tickets going on eBay for £1000. One fan paying £83,000 for a seat. No question - the 02 Arena on December 10th was the place to be. Why? The Ahmet Ertegun Tribute concert - mayber better known as the Led Zeppelin reunion.

But this was not a one-band show - probably the world's strongest support lineup ever also took to the stage including none other than Paulo Nutini, Billy Wyman's Rhythm Kings, Foreigner and Queen frontman, rock legend and Yamaha Endorsee Paul Rodgers.

For his blistering 2-song set, made up of the Free classic 'All Right Now' and Bad Company's 'Seagull', Rodgers rocked the 02 with something close to our hearts - his Yamaha Silent Guitar.
First playing Silent Guitar when he and Brian May used them for the last Queen World Tour, Paul's used both the nylon and steel versions as well as the ART-equipped CPX900 electro-acoustic.

Yamaha Guitar Artist Relations Manager Mark Kirkland was the man who set up the original deal for the Queen tour - 'both Paul and Brian needed something that would really perform onstage and Silent Guitar was by far the best bet. They used them all over the Queen show and have been using them on loads of stuff since. They're both getting into other models as well now though - Paul with his CPXs and Brian's just had a couple of custom 12-string CJ32s delivered, complete with the ART pickup system'.

On that subject, we pressed the venerable Mr Kirkland just a little further about a rumour we'd heard that a certain Mr Page had borrowed one of said 12-strings/ 'No comment' was the only answer coming back, although he did say that 'discussions had been held and a guitar was delivered to the Led Zeppelin rehearsals'. Nothing if not exciting this AR business!

Wolverhampton? On a Monday night? What, seriously?

You see, despite the rock & roll exterior, real-life sensibilities aren’t lost on us. Like the prospect of the M6 at 6pm on a Monday night. Nice.
‘Honestly’ we were told ‘it’ll be worth it. Just go, someone will phone and let you know where to meet’. Never willing to pass up a semi-clandestine mission to the West Midlands, we set off from Castle Yamaha, not really knowing why we were heading north. True to the promise, right about Spaghetti Junction the call came in - ‘7:30pm, North Street’. Suddenly it all started to make sense - North Street’s where the Wolverhampton Civic Hall is.

Pulling off the seemingly endless Wolverhampton Ring Road, it became clear – it wasn’t a secret backstreet meeting after all (hey, it could happen), we were in the wilds of the Black Country to see everyone’s favourite London-based Hollywood rockers and the hot ticket of the moment – Orson.

The packed Wulfrun Hall was pretty clear indication that the Monday night-ness of the whole affair hadn’t put anyone else off either and from the James Bond intro music (there was something of a theme running yesterday) the place was rocking all night. Despite being on just their second album, Culture Vultures (released October 15th 2007), the set was wall-to-wall singalong tunes all night and the finale - the band’s number 1 hit, No Tomorrow – was a predictably fabulous end to a great night.

So was that it? Not exactly – you see the mysterious phonecall earlier on had been from none other than Kevin Roentgen (pronounced rent-gehn, with a hard 'g', by the way), Orson’s guitarist and star of the latest Pacifica 112V advert. We’d been invited up there last night as his guest. Why? Because he plays his Yamaha AES1500 for basically the whole set and just thought we’d like to see what he’s doing with our guitars.
He was right. Last night’s exactly why we do this.

Orson official site

Orson's MySpace page

Kevin's MySpace page

The Yamaha AES1500 page

To go with the lovely yamahaacoustics.co.uk minisite, we've also built a couple of new minisites for the fabulous new Pacifica 112V and A2 guitars. Check them out here:

Pacifica 112V - play-harder.co.uk

A2 guitars & basses - yamahaa2guitars.co.uk

Yamaha Guitars have teamed up with Total Guitar, Europe's best selling guitar magazine, to bring you a very special offer this Christmas. If you buy the fabulous new Pacifica 112V any time up to December 31st, you can get a 3 month trial subscription to Total Guitar compeltely free. Packed with the hottest artists, the coolest gear and tons of tab and tutorials, Total Guitar is just the thing to inspire some real action with your new Pacifica.
To get your 3 free issues, just buy any Pacifica 112V and fill out the form that's on the outside of the box. Or, click here to sign up online and read the terms and conditions.
Alternatively, if you just can't wait for some Total Guitar action, check out their blog site here.

As part of the acoustic guitar happening next week (if you haven't got your tickets already, head to yamahaevents.co.uk) we're at The Cavern in Liverpool on Tuesday October 9th, none other than John Lennon's birthday.
To mark the occasion we're going on BBC Radio Merseyside (95.8FM) where Dave Goodman will debut a stunning new arrangement of 'Imagine'.
We'll be on at about 8:15am, having just driven down from Newcastle, so if you're in the area, tune in. Oh, and don't forget to come to the gig at The Cavern later that evening!

We're going out on the road again in October to promote the very best acoustic music.

Following the success of our Acoustic Guitar tour last year with Glenn Tilbrook, Antonio Forcione and Dave Goodman, we're back out - this year with Derrin Nauendorf, Dave Goodman (playing a full headline set) and Gaz Twist, winner of the Yamaha/Guitarist Magazine/Chappell of Bond Street competition to find the UK's hottest unsigned acoustic act.

We'll be up and down the country from 8th-13th October, and even playing the Cavern in Liverpool on John Lennon's birthday!

To find out more, book tickets and enter the fantastic competition to win an APX or CPX700 worth over £400, visit our tour minisite:
www.yamahaevents.co.uk

What happens when you cross Black Light Burns guitarist and ex-Limp Bizkit geezer Wes Borland, a Yamaha RGXA2 and freedom to do whatever he likes to the finish?
The answer - the Trashburst.

Nice, huh?
Well, there's only one in the world and it's going to be given away in an exclusive competition with Total Guitar magazine. If you fancy your chances of getting your hands on it, check out Total Guitar over the next couple of months!

Check out this video from NY-based Plain White T's - nice Yamaha FG acoustic!