No joke. Try it: Set the metronome to a slow, comfortable pace. Play just one note on each beat. Then speed up just a tiny bit WITHOUT CHANGING THE METRONOME…. […]
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Guitarists, Rather Than Going for What’s ‘Right’…
Music is so much more fluid than we often treat it. When we get caught up in whether we are playing it “right”, we run the risk of not hearing […]
Read moreDon’t Like Repetitive Guitar Practice?
Repetition is one of the most effective tools in learning music. Yes, it can be boring, but it helps you memorize the technical stuff so your mind can be free […]
Read moreWhy Use a Guitar Strap?
So you can bring the guitar into your comfort zone. We often approach the guitar as something we need to wrap ourselves around. We end up in awkward positions because […]
Read moreHow 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 […]
Read moreDon’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 […]
Read moreGuitar 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 […]
Read moreWe 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 […]
Read moreGuitar 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 […]
Read morePractice 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 […]
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