Blog
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Should I Practice Guitar on Vacation?
In my book, vacations are ways to get out of our daily grind so that we can relax and bring more enjoyment into our lives. So I say “play if you want to, but be sure to play for fun”. We often spend more time with family and friends on vacation, which can be great…
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How Do I Help My Kid Play Guitar?
Best school? Best guitar? Practice every day? All helpful. But not if your kid doesn’t want to play. Kids who do well are in families that place a value on playing music: The instrument is easy to get to and in good condition No one is nagging them to practice No one is saying “Stop…
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Don’t MAKE Your Kids Practice Guitar 30 Minutes a Day
But do have them play something every day. It’s the “every day” part that does the trick. Kids get discouraged when they have to do stuff that’s hard. If they only play every 3 days it’s always hard. Playing London Bridge once a day starts as a small challenge. By the end of the week…
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Guitar Pull-offs Were Named Wrong
They should have been called “pop-offs”. I don’t mean any disrespect to the great Pete Seeger who brought us modern tablature and named the pull-off, it’s just that if you only pull your finger off of the string, it may not ring. If you pop the string with the edge of your fingertip, you’ll hear…
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We Don’t Really Play Guitar With Our Fingers
We play with our finger TIPS. I know that seems obvious, but we often don’t do it. If we spend some time getting used to this weird use of our hand, playing guitar becomes easier. The reason is this: The bone does 70% of the work. When the finger gradually curves to come straight down…
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Guitar Game: Improvise With Your Name
Bored with playing the same predictable rhythms when you’re improvising? Break it up using the rhythms in names. Say these names aloud and feel the rhythmic pulses in them, especially where the stressed syllables are: Jimi Hendrix Nirvana Elliot Easton John Lee Hooker Bohemian Rhapsody The Grateful Dead Queens Of The Stone Age Florence And…
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Practice Guitar Every Day? Yes. And no.
A player asked me yesterday if he could postpone his lesson a week because he didn’t get to play much that week. Of course, that’s fine with me, but I thought I’d share a little of what I’ve learned regarding this, both as a student and a teacher. Consistent practice is very important but we…
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Why Practice Guitar Slow?
Well, you may have heard several reasons, but this is my favorite: To witness what you actually do instead of what you think you should be doing. We are usually so caught up in trying to match some ideal in our head that we can’t hear what we actually sound like. Play slowly so…
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What is a Guitar Chord, Anyway?
In the beginning there was cacophony, and it was good. But not everybody thought so. Several hundred years ago, Christian monks discovered how to play several notes simultaneously in a way that, to them, sounded like Heaven. Hark! Choose a scale and select every other note of it until you have 3 notes (notes 1,3,5)…
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Playing Tough Chord Changes on Guitar, Method 2
Yeah, it’s a killer. Try this: Don’t strum all the way to the moment that the tough chord should be played and then changing chords (that’s like pressing pause while you’re playing, and even the tone-deaf know that ain’t right). When you’re headed straight for a tough chord, say Q#minor14 (see pic), only play on…
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