Articles

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, […]

Intermediate guitarists have a wide range of songs to learn from.  Instead of giving you a ton of intermediate guitar songs to learn, I’ve chosen seven songs that cover a significant amount of the theoretical and technical elements you’ll be using in your guitar playing as you advance further.  Among them, these songs should provide

Being able to play the guitar is just one of the many benefits of practicing the instrument. I started playing guitar with one main goal in mind: to become a rock star.  I was a shy 15-year-old who had been in love with Heavy Metal for a few years. Heavy metal was my escape, and

Do you think music theory for guitar can’t be fun, useful, or effective? I had similar beliefs for more than a decade. Then I realized I was approaching music theory in a way that was not only boring, but also ineffective for me as an aspiring rock guitarist.   While studying for my Grade 7 music

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