Here are 30 songs that you can tackle as a beginner. They sequence up from very simple to slightly more complicated. They cover a variety of genres and styles. Most importantly, you’ll be playing real music within a very short period of time. And I have to come clean: I didn’t come up with this […]
The Best Way To String A Guitar, According To Tommy Emmanuel (AKA: An Unorthodox Theory on String Brands)
Last week, Reverb.com put up a great video piece with Tommy Emmanuel, where he discusses how he changes strings on acoustic guitar. He also gets into a bit of a conspiracy theory about how the brand of strings you use influences your guitar. First, Tommy’s advice on changing strings: PRE-STEPS Tommy doesn’t really cover it, […]
Getting Started with Blues Turnarounds
GUEST POST – In this lesson we will be talking about turnarounds. Turn arounds are a staple in jazz and blues playing. Today we’ll be focused on blues turnarounds and how you can use these to enhance your blues playing today! A turnaround is typically the last two bars of a 12 bar blues chord […]
Fender Play Demo (& Why It’s a Great Online Learning System for Beginners)
PLAY is Fender Guitar’s new online platform for learning acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and ukelele. There are several things I love about Fender’s new system: It’s structured It keeps you engaged And the quality of the media is excellent. Watch this demo video to learn why Fender Play could be a great fit for […]
Two Flamenco Techniques to Enhance Your Right Hand
Do you dream of being faster and more graceful with your right hand? There is a counterintuitive shortcut to gaining more speed and sensitivity in your playing. Before we dive in, this can be implemented along with challenges such as the sweep picking challenge. When you play pop or blues music on a steel acoustic, […]
5 Things I Learned Doing a 30 Day Sweep Picking Challenge
I love the idea of 30 Day Challenges! They’re a great way to focus on a goal that is both a) short enough to be realistic, and b) long enough to see a big change. These types of challenges are popular in fitness, food, and other creative areas (for example, writing a novel). So I […]
