Scales
What you need: A guitar and 30 minutes of your time.Keep away from children (or anyone else) demanding your attention. Take your phone off the hook, turn off your mobile. Don't let your spouse vacuum around your feet. Wire a shotgun to the doorbell.
Scope: This will teach the fundaments of melody & harmony using a guitar. At the end of this tutorial, you will understand how to go about playing a major scale in any key. You will know how to form chords by extracting notes from a scale. You will understand enough...
Buying A Guitar
Buying a guitar is an important decision that my students have often asked me about. They want to know what they should be looking for. This is an important question because no two are ever exactly alike. There is a wide variety of types, styles, colors, makes, and models to choose from. The question is, which one is right for you? If you don't know what to look for when you're buying a guitar, you could end up spending a lot more money than you really need to. On the other hand, getting a "deal" may also get you a lemon....What Should I Practice?
Here is a very common question I received recently:What specifically should I practice, chords, scales or songs?
I am feeling overwhelmed with lessons, books, methods, skills, & principles of practice.
This is a common feeling that troubles many beginning guitar students, and can rear its head from time to time with advanced players as well. It is a paralyzing, immobilizing feeling, and so it very dangerous for our progress, and must be dealt with. If you are feeling this, it is a warning sign that you are NOT proceeding properly with your efforts...
Aggressive Practicing
I have a student, who shall remain nameless but not blameless, who has often illustrated very nicely how NOT to go about learning the guitar. She will come in for her lesson, and in a helpless little voice, ask me something like "Oh Jamey, I need your help with this, I don’t understand what to do here. How do I play this chord. It’s so HAAARD!I will then do a couple of things. First, I calm her down, and have her collect herself, and focus. Then, I ask her to take a hard look at the "problem". I...
Touch and Feel
As you're probably aware, I like to rely on some imagery in titles that have double meanings, whether I'm writing an original composition or an article. I want to spend some time discussing the value of "touch and feel" in your music, from two distinctly different angles. We'll start with the more obvious issue and, contrary to the subtitle, the word "intangible" might be more appropriate.In my book, when a musician is performing, the most important ingredient is their touch and feel, and those essential qualities outweigh any others by a mile. What others, you say? Well, mental stimulation...
Memorizing Your Music
Several years ago, I can recall reading a column by classical guitar virtuoso Michael Lorimer. The subject was "performance anxiety," and he made two points that I've never forgotten. The first was that nervousness is simply a culmination of energy, an energy that, if properly channeled, can lead to a much higher level of musical performance. The second point made was that the only real reason to be nervous about playing was if you were truly "unprepared" to perform. The obvious remedy, of course, is to be prepared. And that all starts with an issue that I continually harp on. Memorize...Easy Bar Chords!
In this essay, I am going to apply a number of the Principles of Correct Practice to a technical area that is of major concern to players. For beginners, it poses one of the most challenging difficulties, and an incomplete appreciation of it’s difficulties dogs many an advanced player ( sometimes without them being aware of it).Bar chords are what I am referring to, those nasty, difficult guitar chords that we run into sooner or later as we try to play our favorite songs. I am going to address the physical, technical aspects of learning these...
Don't Be Afraid To Sing
Don't be afraid of singing, and know the importance of having a repertoire. Well, in fact I'm not the best guitar player since I've played for about 5 month now only, but I think I can tell you something about singing. Many people I know started learning guitar because they wanted to sing with their friends. But they still are afraid of singing alone. You may like to play a piece - a classical tune for example - for people's listening enjoyment, but if they ask you to sing a song, you'll feel very bad. Your hands start trembling, and cold sweat...Les Paul, Living Legend of the Electric Guitar
The date of June 9, 1915 was a special day in the lives of George and Evelyn Polfuss, as a baby boy was born to them. They named him Lester William. Little did they realize the impact this child would have on the world of twentieth century popular music. Lester was born to sturdy German stock and would learn the value of motivation and dedication to hard work from his mother. From early on, she was the driving force to propel him forward to excel at everything he did, especially his music. As a young child, Lester taught himself the harmonica...Finding Yourself as a Musician
We've all started out somewhere as musicians. I started learning guitar by playing old Metallica songs. I had never taken a lesson in my entire life so I had no one really to guide me. Now, six years later, the style of music I have played has become drastically different. This is because I let myself go. Letting yourself go requires an kind of detachment from what you are used to playing. Now you may say to me, "Well you've only been playing for six years, what gives you the right to tell me how to find my style?" You're right, I...
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