When I started learning my first guitar phrasing techniques (vibrato, string bending, slides, hammer-ons and pull offs), the one that gave me most trouble was the pull off. It took me some time to get my vibrato to sound nice, or my string bends to accurately reach the target note, but during the process of […]

The intermediate level of guitar playing is a very exciting stage. It is the point at which you have a solid understanding of the fundamentals and can begin to apply them. If you don’t approach it with the right mindset, though, the intermediate stage can also be frustrating. Unlike at the beginner level, when everything

When I read the term “Imposter Syndrome” in Amanda Palmer’s book “The Art of Asking,” I knew exactly what it meant. Imposter syndrome was the name for having a voice in my head constantly telling me crazy things like: “You’re screwing your student” – simply because I realize I could have explained a guitar technique

This article explains how to use slide technique on an electric or acoustic guitar. If you want to learn how to play the guitar with a slide instead of your fingers, go here. Sliding is a phrasing technique that allows a guitarist to control the sound of a note after it has been played. It

As the saying goes, practice is the way to Carnegie Hall, and I have yet to meet a successful guitarist who claims he has acquired his abilities without putting in a lot of practice. However, practicing a lot alone does not guarantee access to Carnegie Hall or the achievement of any high-level musical goal. Quality is as

Though I was aware of the benefits of practicing the guitar with my eyes closed, I began doing so for about 10% of my practice time out of vanity.  See, I wear thick glasses, and when I remove them, the fretboard appears as a long, blurry fret.  This was not an issue until I started

The gallop is to heavy metal what the blues shuffle is to blues. In the same way that the blues shuffle can be found in genres other than blues, the heavy metal gallop can be found in genres other than metal. However, it is a staple of both traditional heavy metal and many of its

A sign that one is moving towards an advanced level of guitar playing is that wrong notes, mistakes and inaccuracies during practice do not bother him anymore. Rather, anything he does wrong is considered as an opportunity to learn and improve. What is a wrong note on guitar Because there is no universally accepted definition

When I first started writing guitar solos, they sounded more like extended guitar exercises or scale sequences than melodic music. So do my students’ first solos, and those of every beginner in guitar soloing. This is because we are too focused on finding the right notes and applying the right techniques to consider creating melody