So you’re ready to start learning guitar (or maybe it’s your kid or another family member). Now you’ve got to buy one, and you have no idea what to look for. Fear not! This guide will help you find exactly …
How to Embellish Guitar Chords
Have you ever heard a guitarist take a song with otherwise plain vanilla open chords and squeeze new life out of them with subtle embellishments? In this article (and video series), I’ll show you how to spice up the same …
This Should Be Easy, But It’s Not
Have you ever tried doing something new on the guitar, and it was far trickier than you anticipated? “This should be easy! Why can’t my fingers just do it?” Frustration aside, these are big moments in your musical development. Any …
Mistakes Are Good for You
Huh? Read that title again. Mistakes really are good for you. Every mistake you make is a little red flag saying, “Want to become a better guitarist? Spend some time right here! Fix me!” Check out this now-famous video of …
The Guitarist’s Essentials
I don’t like rules. These are not rules. These are my top pieces of advice for guitar students of all ages and skill levels. I use these strategies relentlessly in my own playing. Use a Tuner Keep your guitar as …
Fretboard Twister
Here’s an awesome little finger exercise for guitar. I call it “Fretboard Twister,” because it works just like the popular Twister game. Instead of moving your hands and feet to different spots on a floor mat, you’ll be moving your …
How to Practice Chords: Hit the Bullseye
Practicing guitar chords is very much like practicing darts. When playing through songs, you often need to strum a chord the instant your fingers land on the strings. There’s no extra time to make adjustments and get the chord re-fingered …
The Mother of All Major Scale Exercises – Part 4 of 4
The final episode in the “Mother of All Major Scale Exercises” series is here. (Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 first.) Part 4 combines parts 2 and 3, moving through the Cycle of Fourths with every position …
The Mother of All Major Scale Exercises – Part 3 of 4
The “Mother of All Major Scale Exercises” series gets even tougher with Part 3. (Check out Part 1 and Part 2 first.) This new iteration of the exercise takes the zig-zagging up and down the fretboard from Part 1 and …
How to Memorize and Use the Cycle of Fourths
The Cycle of Fourths (a.k.a. “Circle of Fifths” or “Cycle of Fifths” or “Circle of Fourths”) is a representation of all 12 notes in the chromatic scale, arranged into a circle. It’s most commonly used to easily find the notes …