The Guitar Blog

By the time you read this you should have read and worked through my first blog about relaxation as a way to improve your playing. In short we are applying deep breathing techniques such as those found in yoga and meditations to become better guitarists. Here's the...

First consider this: when you exhale, your body tends to relax. When you inhale, you tense up a bit. Unfortunately most of us have a natural tendency to inhale or, even worse, hold our breath when we are faced with something that challenges our motor skills. That’s when we get tense, too tense to pull off that passage you’ve been practicing. It’s even worse when you get in front of people and are nervous! It’s no wonder you screw it up

5) Now it’s time to see if the moveable chords are major or minor. Try both voicings. Keep in mind some common maj-minor chord progressions.

A) For example, if your bass notes are each 2 frets apart, chances are the highest one will be minor an the others major. “Stairway to Heaven,” “Dani California,” “All Along the Watchtower” are examples of this.

B) If one is 3 frets apart and another is two, chances are the lowest will be minor. “What it’s Like” or “Mr. Jones” are examples.

C) If you have 4 bass notes, two on each string, usually the highest will be minor and others major.

D) If you have 3 bass notes and two are on adjacent strings and one two frets below on the lowest string, the highest two will be minor.

We’ve all been there. Practicing a riff or chord change for weeks and still can’t play it at the speed our favorite artist plays it at. Practicing it slowly and deliberately, focusing on every note. This playing tip is about letting all that go.

Sometimes to increase your speed you need to push the limits of your playing. You can get really good at playing a riff by practicing it slowly, but slow practice can lead to slow playing. After all, how you practice is usually how you end up playing

Consider these 3 things:

1) It is easier to press the strings down more intently if you have some kind of “point” to your approach, as if you were pointing to the string you wanted to push.

2) The hardest part of your finger is the tip, where the bone is closest beneath the skin is on the tip of your finger. Using this surface you won’t need to press as hard as you would if you were trying to make firm contact with the “fleshy” part of your finger.

3) When playing chords it is easier to place your fingers between the strings if you are using the tips. In fact its not possible to squeeze them in between two strings if you don’t sometimes.