When most guitarists practice, they often focus on the “what” rather than the “how.” Scales, arpeggios, chords, and songs dominate their attention, but the finer details of tone, dynamics, and phrasing—the things that give your playing personality—are often overlooked. Yet, it’s these elements that turn ordinary notes into something extraordinary. Making every note you play […]
If you play classical guitar, your choice of strings is very important. The strings you use greatly affect the sound of your guitar. They affect your comfort while playing. And they even affect how long your guitar will last. This short article will help you choose the best nylon strings for you. Classical guitars use
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
10 Funk Guitar Riffs that Get Harder: Part 1 – Beginner Level Read More »
(Hint: It’s Not Just Guitar Skill) Let’s be real — being good at guitar doesn’t always mean you’re good at teaching it. Sure, your teacher might be able to shred like crazy or play the solo from “Hotel California” backwards, but does that help you when your fingers are cramping on your first F chord?
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
How to use a metronome correctly when practicing the guitar Read More »
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
5 Ways to Make Your Guitar Playing Stand Out (even if you can’t play fast) Read More »
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
17 Things You Need to Know Before Learning Vibrato on Guitar Read More »
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
5 Ways to Get Unstuck from Intermediate Guitar Level Read More »
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,
