The Guitar Journal
All about guitar.
One of the practical problems I've had with fingerstyle guitar is figuring out the best technique for practicing scales. And the problem really boils down to this: what exact type of fingerstyle picking are you using? The techniques for your …
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There's a fun thread on Reddit that got going when someone shared what they consider 'perfect albums', as in: ""Perfect" meaning you never skip any songs, the album flows seamlessly, and there's an overall theme." In an era of Spotify singles and …
Continue Reading about The 150 Top “Perfect” Albums (according to Reddit)
Tim Lerch is like a mash-up of Bob Ross and Jeff Bridges... if they could play guitar like Ted Greene. Here's the quick backstory before I dive into why you should be following and learning from Tim Lerch: I discovered Lerch as many of us …
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Frank Vignola's course, "Jazz Standard Learning System", provides an efficient and thorough methodology for learning a jazz 'standard' song on guitar. Frank Vignola is a long-time favorite educator in the jazz guitar space, with some amazing …
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Neff Irizarry's new instructional book, "Contemporary Latin Jazz Guitar", breaks open the history of Afro Cuban latin jazz rhythms and how they work for guitar. Neff Irizarry is a guitarist, composer, educator, and author specializing in Latin and …
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Learning fingerpicking guitar (or "fingerstyle guitar" as it's also called) can be overwhelming. You see YouTube's of people like Andy McKee or Tommy Emmanuel and you think, "not me". But playing this kind of music is like the …
Continue Reading about The 10 Best Easy Fingerpicking Songs for Beginners
Even if you haven't heard of Gary Burton, you've definitely heard the results of his teaching. Burton has been playing vibes (AKA the vibraphone) on jazz records for over 50 years, both as a side player and band leader, he's taught improvisation …
Continue Reading about The 10 Scales Used 99% Of The Time in Jazz Improv
'Mise en place' (French pronunciation: [mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "everything in its place". It's a good concept to apply to making music as well. The point of 'mise en place' in the culinary …
The String Sling was designed with one purpose: to extend the life and vibrancy of your guitar strings. But it didn't stop there. The String Sling's development grew to encompass a number of other handy features as well. Let's take a look. The …
Right before Christmas time, Furch updated their Yellow and Blue acoustic guitar series' with their Bevel Duo ergonomic feature. It's a welcome upgrade to these amazing guitars but... unfortunately it's too late for me since I bought my Furch Yellow …
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Blues songs are a mainstay of acoustic fingerstyle guitar, drawing on a rich tradition of acoustic blues players like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, and incorporating the contemporary sounds of players like Keb' Mo' or even John Mayer. …
Continue Reading about Top 10 Fingerstyle Blues Songs for Acoustic Guitar
I want to share with you something a friend recently shared with me: Spitfire LABS has free virtual instruments. And they're amazing. If you produce music, whether for yourself or for others, Spitfire's LABS series is an amazing set of free …
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Have you ever gone into a music store to try out a new guitar, and just felt nervous? Maybe you were trying out an amp, or some pedals, or just shopping aimlessly. Why is it, when we turn up that volume, we all (ok, well, some of us at least...) …
One of the few bright spots in 2020 was that I was able to test drive Furch Guitars' Yellow "Master's Choice" acoustic. Here's my conclusions (if it's too long, skip to the bottom for the big surprise...). About Furch Guitars Furch Guitars is …
Continue Reading about Review: Yellow (Master’s Choice) Acoustic from Furch Guitars
