Quite often, when I’m teaching a beginner or intermediate student and bends come up in lessons for the first time, I find that many students have instincts on how to do a bend that are pretty far off from what they should be. They’ll go in for their first attempt at a bend, and land...
This is the 8th part in my “Breaking Down the Blues” series. You can see a rundown of all the parts in this series here. It’s also a follow up on my previous post, where I went through some of the theory behind the Dorian Mode, and went over some concepts that I like to...
This is the 7th installment in my ‘Breaking Down the Blues’ series of posts. You can find the other posts here. If you’ve arrived at a point in your journey in learning to play blues on the guitar where you’re comfortable with the minor and major pentatonic scales, as well as the blues scale, and...
If you are a guitarist who has trouble with the following: Memorizing scales or theory Applying scales or theory creatively Getting yourself to practice/study fundamental things like scales and theory Playing expressively Understanding how scales and theory concepts connect with one another Then, I would bet that a couple of things could be said about...
Ah the F chord, the bane of every beginner guitarist’s existence. Mastering the F chord is one of the greatest challenges in learning to strum basic guitar chords. However, much like bar chords, the key to mastering the F chord is finding the right position for your hand. No superhuman strength is needed. Let’s take...
This is the sixth part in my Breaking Down the Blues series. It’s a follow up to my last post, Breaking Down the Blues, pt 5: The Major Pentatonic Scale. I’ll be referencing that article a lot, as well as ideas from part 1. In this post, I’m going to demonstrate a blues solo that...
This is the fifth part in my series on the system behind playing the blues on the guitar. In this part, I’ll talk about the role that the major pentatonic and major blues scales play when soloing over a blues progression. The other parts in the Breaking Down the Blues series are: Part 1: The...
When I’m practicing something on the guitar, I often like to think of myself as a scientist doing lab work. I experiment with things, observe what happens, modify the experiment, and eventually zero in on what needs to be done. Mistakes are one of the main forms of feedback I receive during this practicing process....
Being a guitarist is a lot like being an athlete. A certain amount of practice has to go toward general maintenance of your playing on both a physical and mental level. You have to do exercises that will keep your skills in a state of readiness, so that when the time comes to go out...
One thing I emphasize with all of my guitar students is the importance of using a metronome when practicing. Most of my students are initially resistant to the idea of using one. Some remain resistant to it, while others eventually embrace the metronome as a practice tool. I can usually see a clear distinction in...