Robert Callus

Many guitarists use the terms improvising and composing as if they mean the same thing. While both involve creating melodies, they require different mindsets and different skills. Understanding the difference can help you make better musical decisions. What Is Improvisation? Improvisation is creating music in real time. You don’t have the luxury of stopping, thinking, […]

One of the strangest things about guitar education is that many players spend years practicing scales, techniques and songs without ever practicing creativity itself. They practice: But creativity? That is often treated as something mysterious. Either you “have it” or you don’t. And they assume they don’t. Some guitarists assume creativity is a gift that

An interesting thing happens when I get a new intermediate guitar student, some of whom still call themselves beginners. The first thing I ask them is:“What do you already know?” They’ll often start by showing me a riff, a song or even a solo. Then I ask:“Do you know scales, chords, techniques, arpeggios?” Usually the

Funk is a genre of music in which guitarists and other musicians can achieve extremely high levels of musicianship. I’ll be giving you a total of 30 funk guitar riffs divided into three lessons covering beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of funk guitar playing.  It is important to note, however, that the beginner level in

The metronome is a tool that guitar players and other musicians use primarily for these purposes: In this lesson, I’ll show you how to use this device step by step, as well as how to get the most out of it by only using it when necessary. What is a metronome A metronome is a

After learning to play “The Crying Machine” by Steve Vai, I arrogantly asked my teacher if I was almost as good as him.  My teacher smiled. A knowing smile that said “of course not”  I wanted to know why. If I can play one of Steve Vai’s songs, I can learn the rest and become

Though the terms guitar lick and guitar riff are frequently used interchangeably, there are differences between the two, and understanding them helps you to make better sense of the music you’re learning.  This lesson first explains the differences between these two terms before showing how riffs and licks are used in various musical genres.  Finally,

In addition to string bending, vibrato is a phrasing technique that can make your guitar sing. This technique provides a lovely, vocal sound to the notes it is applied to and is frequently used by other instruments, including the human voice.  In this lesson, we will cover all you need to know about vibrato on

Being an intermediate guitar player should be an exciting step toward becoming a proficient guitarist. However, I often encounter guitar players who still consider themselves to be at an intermediate level, despite having played the instrument for many years, even decades.  This is sometimes caused by shyness or imposter syndrome. That is, the player is

The primary goal of learning scales on guitar is not to increase your speed.  Rather, it is to have a toolbox of patterns, proven effective by countless great musicians before us, from which to create music. The guitar scale exercises in this lesson show how to do this: turn scales into melodies. That being said,