Nailing It with the Hammer-on!

Yesterday, I was sitting with my guitar- going through all my usual warm-up exercises- you know the ones- chromatic “spider exercises” etc, (if you’re not familiar with how to play these, check out the “Exercises” section of the site).  Anyway, I realised something that’s very simple, but at the same time probably has the greatest [...]

June 29, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Guitar Lessons: Muscle Memory

Which is better: learning to play a song off by heart, or learning the chords that make up a song off by heart? Say you learnt Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heavens Door” note for note (a song that also been covered by Guns’n’Roses in case you haven’t heard the original). Now, all you’ve done is [...]

June 9, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, How to, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Grip Strengtheners and Finger Weights

OK, so this video is about those grip-strengthening devices you can buy that supposedly help your playing (you know the ones, where they offer resistance and you basically have to squeeze them). I also go on to talk about finger weights which you attach to your fingers when playing guitar to strengthen your finger muscles. [...]

June 2, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Music News and Opinions, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Guitar Finger Gym

If you’re like me, then you’ll constantly be sending yourself “back to basics” to perfect you guitar technique. Even though it’s challenging (not to mention: fun!) to play fast alternate picking, or six string sweeps every so often it’s helpful to go back and iron out any possible “bad habits” that you might have picked [...]

April 26, 2010 at 2:37 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Guitar Trainer

I posted a while ago about learning the notes of the fretboard, if you haven’t already read it I suggest you learn the notes on the guitar here. I also talk about the fretboard diagram accessible from the right sidebar (on the main site). Once you reckon you’ve got a pretty good grasp on the [...]

April 20, 2010 at 11:00 pm | How to, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Potential Energy…in Music

If you’re like most of my readers, then you’ll want to make sure your guitar technique is as effective as possible. This means ironing out all the tensions and extra movements and making sure we’re always moving efficiently. This applies whether you want to play solos at 200bpm, or if you just want to switch [...]

April 14, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, How to, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Memorising the Fretboard

While I don’t think that totally memorising the guitar fretboard from scratch is a useful thing to do (you’re much better off learning where to play chords and scales), it’s sometimes helpful to have a reference when working out the notes. This is why I’ve created this .pdf file and made it available on my [...]

April 12, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | 1 comment

That Annoying, Clicking Box…

Again, metronomes…are they important? I’m constantly trying to emphasise how vital these devices are when working on your timing, yet I still find people who refuse to use them! Are you one? Common complaints about metronomes include: “The constant clicking “throws me off” when I try to play in time!” “I have great timing when [...]

April 5, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Music News and Opinions, Practicing and Practice Routine | 2 comments

Why Playing Bass Helps My Guitar Playing…

At first, the title of this post might cause you some anger, depending on who you are. If you’re a stereotypical bassist, I bet you’re thinking “Oh, just another guitarist who thinks he can play the bass and has no real knowledge of how to construct basslines- he will probably just try to do a [...]

April 1, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Practicing and Practice Routine | 1 comment

How to Use a Metronome

If you haven’t already, I suggest you read my two part (yes, two part!) blog post on why you NEED to use a metronome. After posting that article, I realised that many people become confused by metronomes. There are so many different types with different (and sometimes crazy) functions that you may never even use! [...]

March 9, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, How to, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

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