This is my first installment in what I hope is a long and successful series on this site… stupid guitar rules, and I’m going to start with the biggest whopper of them all: one finger per fret. This is the dumbest guitar “rule” there is. Here are just a few reasons why this is stupid:… Continue Reading »
If you’re going to become a proficient guitarist, left hand finger independence is a must. Finger independence means that whatever one finger is doing doesn’t adversely affect what your other fingers are doing. Holding down a note with your first finger while reaching for another note with your third finger? Changing from one chord shape… Continue Reading »
When I was studying music in college, my favorite class was harmony (also known as music theory). Learning the “rules” of classical harmonic voice leading was a complete revelation. Here was the entire foundation for Western music, all wrapped up in a couple of textbooks. Unbelievable. Then one day my world got turned inside out…. Continue Reading »
I’ve written other articles on the need to be the owner of your guitar improvement as opposed to seeing yourself as a piece of clay being molded by a teacher or some set of instructional materials. Thus far I’ve been writing conceptually about owning your improvement, but today I’m going to give you solid evidence… Continue Reading »
One of the first things that a brand new aspiring guitarist will do is learn some basic chords. We all know the chords I’m talking about: C Major, D Major, G Major, A Major, A minor and E minor. The idea behind learning to strum some chords is sound. It very quickly gives the new… Continue Reading »
Out of all the things I’ve ever learned about playing the guitar, the most important is that fear will kill you. Fear causes hesitation. Fear causes tension. Fear causes performance anxiety. Fear causes more fear, and the cycle repeats. Fear, then, is the enemy and must therefore be confronted, beaten senseless and left lying in… Continue Reading »
If you want to learn how to read guitar tablature (also known as guitar tab) I’ve got good news for you. It’s incredibly easy. All you really need to know is how the tablature lines and numbers match up with the strings and frets on your guitar. There are some advanced notations, such as legato… Continue Reading »
I spent decades (seriously, decades) following the conventional wisdom out there in guitarland about how to build speed, and after wasting countless hours of practice time, I have this to report: most of the conventional wisdom is b******t. I’m tired of bad information being passed along to unwitting guitarists (are you listening, Guitar World, Guitar… Continue Reading »
Now that you’re comfortable with some basic open position chords, it’s time to learn how to play bar chords. Bar chords involve taking your index finger and using it to fret (or bar) more than one string. This creates movable chords that can be used all over the neck in any key. We’ll look at… Continue Reading »
Want to play faster? Build speed? Want to shred your guitar? Are you getting frustrated because nothing seems to work? I spent decades (no… seriously… decades) trying to figure out how to build speed without sacrificing accuracy, without hurting myself and without hating the process. I read every guitar magazine and watched every instructional video… Continue Reading »