It’s better to practice 30 minutes a day than 10 hours once a week. Take frequent breaks, distract your mind to then go back and give full attention to what you are doing. Usually 45 minutes practice followed by15 minutes break works for me. Always warm up and stretch before playing for hours. Start slow… Continue reading 10 tips on Practising Guitar
Tag: Practicing
Funk Guitar Comping Tips Pt2 Ghost Notes and Muted Notes
We have seen how in the previous ‘Funk Tips’ video we can build a simple line and make it Funky…here I show example using muted notes and ghost notes. Simple but effective, and it’s all about the feel, so listening to the masters is a must.
Factorial Thinking (Combinations applied to music)
Today’s’ tip has to do with mathematics applied to music…we have already seen how in the finger combinations exercises we have used all the possible combinations of 2,3 and 4 fingers of our left hand to make sure we cover every possible motion. This is not only a great warm up and technical exercise, but also a way… Continue reading Factorial Thinking (Combinations applied to music)
A list of the most popular jazz standards
This post if for the jazz guys, and possibly those that want to venture into jazz territory. I talked about repertoire yesterday, and today I was asked by a friend to put together a list of the most popular jazz standards that might be called at a jam session…this is what I came up with,… Continue reading A list of the most popular jazz standards
The Importance of Repertoire
In this short post I want to spend a few words on the importance of knowing tunes, either written by other musicians or by yourself. ‘Repertoire’ is often a fancy word we use to identify ‘all the tunes we know’. In my experience as teacher I have found to be a divide between the guitarist… Continue reading The Importance of Repertoire
Triads Pt 2 Spread Voicings
We have seen in the previous lesson al the major triads in close (or closed) position. As already stated if these notes of the triad (or ‘voices’) are contained within an octave we call it in ‘close’ or ‘closed’ position, as opposite as ‘spread’ position (more than an octave). Just watch the video where I… Continue reading Triads Pt 2 Spread Voicings
Triads
In this lesson I go through all inversions for the most popular major triad ‘shapes’ on guitar. The theory behind triads is quite simple: a major triad is basically the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of a major scale. If analysed in intervals: from the root I will have a first note that is a… Continue reading Triads
The Guitar Kit Pro – Blank Music Templates and Guitar Templates
If you enjoyed the free version of ‘The guitar kit’, ‘THE GUITAR KIT PRO’ is an even bigger collection of music and guitar templates, that I personally use to teach, now available in a consistent and professional look. Over 70 pages of print quality templates in both JPG and PDF format, customizable and brand-able (step… Continue reading The Guitar Kit Pro – Blank Music Templates and Guitar Templates
Playing in Fourths
I really like this style of phrasing, take some great examples like McCoy Tyner, and a lot of the ‘hard bop’ jazz cats. The basic idea is this: take a scale, in this example I will use a C major scale. Now play all the diatonic fourths contained in C major: In the video I am playing… Continue reading Playing in Fourths
Guitar Great Vic Juris: A couple of great video lessons.
I was lucky enough to study with Vic Juris in the early 90’s. Today I stumbled into a couple of great lessons on youtube and I wanted to share them with you. He is a great jazz guitarist, if you don’t know about him, check out his music: http://www.myspace.com/vicjuris In this lesson he talks about… Continue reading Guitar Great Vic Juris: A couple of great video lessons.