Last time we looked at the big picture for planning our practice and then taking a action to get results by working on the most challenging parts apart from the rest of the piece and then later putting it all together. Today I just want to say that it takes practicing...
The way that notes are produced on the guitar is that pressure is applied to a string at a point near the frets,causing a shortening of the string length that vibrates and finally a change in pitch. On the simplest level you need only apply enough pressure to push...
The fret is the point that the string vibrates against to produce a note. If there is extra string between the fret and the point where your finger pushes down the string it is likely that the string between your finger and the fret can cause a “buzzy” or...
I still remember the feeling I had the first few times I ever jammed with my friend who was a drummer. Both of us were still learning to play. Neither of us was that good at our instrument. In fact I had never even taken a lesson and he only had only learned a...
If this situation applies to you these tips will help: You can play chords,. You can strum. But doing both at the same time isn’t quite working! Often I see students at this stage stop or slow their strumming, losing rhythm, when they make the chord change....
Often you can find habits and skills from other walks of life that will help you in your pursuit of musicianship. Some little known trivia about me is that as I was practicing to become a musician I was also an athlete. I wrestled, played tennis, studied Washin Ru,...
I recently re-learned a valuable lesson about practice that I have been telling my students about for years but not putting in to use myself. That is the importance of DAILY organized rehearsal of something you are working on. I had lost track of the importance of...
Alternate guitar tunings are both interesting and useful. You can create a whole different sound just by tuning the guitar Differently. Most often alternate tunings are used in folk, bluegrass, traditional blues and slide and sometimes rock guitar styles. To achieve...
Classical music and rock would seem to be worlds apart. After all they have different audiences, different histories and different overall sounds. It doesn’t take a trained ear to hear that classical music is much more complex. To some though, similarities can...
Learning chords from the most fundamental ones to advanced shapes can be challenging. These are some tips that can help players of any level practice chords more effectively. 1) Always play on the tips of your fingers. By playing on the tips of your fingers you it...
