What to Practise on Guitar?

Have you been wondering what to practise on guitar? In the previous post in the series, I outlined how to not just blindly follow a set practice routine, but to create your own unique routine based on your specific goals. It’s really no good just saying “I’m going to practice alternate picking for 6 hours [...]

May 15, 2013 at 3:30 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Capo Chords

So you know all your major and minor open chords, and maybe you’ve looked a bit at playing barre chords too. What else is there? Capo Chords. …wait, what?! Well, what happens if you know a song on guitar in one key, but its too high or low for your (or your singer’s) voice. What [...]

May 8, 2013 at 1:20 pm | Guitar Chords, Rhythm Guitar | No comments

Setting Goals

When practising guitar, you might feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount there can be to learn. In fact, this problem can happen at any point in your guitar playing career. I’ve answered questions from many guitarists who just get to the point of asking themselves “OK, what do I learn next?”. If you’re facing a [...]

April 23, 2013 at 3:40 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | 2 comments

A Chart of Power Chords

Powerchords are one of the staple techniques of the rock guitarist’s repertoire. What is a powerchord? Well, in theory terms, it’s just a normal chord with the third removed. Therefore it is neither “major” nor “minor”, but simply “power”- which is why it’s so good for rock and metal music! This lesson will teach you [...]

April 5, 2013 at 11:10 am | Guitar Chords, Music Theory, Rhythm Guitar | No comments

Guitar Barre Chords and how They’re played

So, following on from the last post in this series on guitar chords, in which we’ve looked at major and minor open chords, we’ll now be looking at guitar barre (sometimes incorrectly called the “bar chords” of guitar) and the extra chords you can create with it. What is the Guitar Barre? Barre chords, sometimes [...]

March 5, 2013 at 3:30 pm | Guitar Chords, Guitar Technique and Exercises | 1 comment

Minor Guitar Chords Diagrams

If you’ve been reading the series on guitar chords so far, you should be getting to grips with the open major guitar chords diagrams from last week. However, you’ve probably also noticed that there were no minor chords for guitar, and the chords that were there were only C, A, G, E, and D major- [...]

February 28, 2013 at 3:15 pm | Guitar Chords, Guitar Technique and Exercises | 1 comment

Three Common Sweeping Shapes

In this video lesson, I demonstrate three of the most common sweep picking shapes that I use. These shapes are great (as are sweeping shapes in general) because once you can sweep through one at lightening speed, you only need to move it around the neck to play over different chords. Like many things with [...]

October 16, 2012 at 6:15 pm | Exercises | No comments

Michael Angelo Batio’s Picking Style

If you’re a regular here, you’ll already know what I think about picking technique (that article also explains “anchoring” that I talk about in the video). The problem is: there is at least this one guy who seems to break all the “rules” that I talk about. His name is Michael Angelo Batio, and he [...]

October 1, 2012 at 4:40 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, In the Style of... | No comments

5 Reasons why your Picking sucks (and what you can do about it…)

In this video lesson, I explain the 5 most common reasons why your picking sucks. Actually, some of these are so subtle that you could be completely destroying your chances of picking accurately (and with a great tone) without even realising! The video starts with rhythm techniques, and then moves on to discuss lead work- [...]

September 5, 2012 at 4:06 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises | No comments

Can You recognise the 15 Signs You’re trying to play too fast?

Here’s a response to a question that I get asked a lot by students- how do I know if I’m playing too fast? Actually, it usually comes in the form of “how long should I practise this exercise before speeding up?”. Of course, you could also be in the camp of people who are attempting [...]

August 16, 2012 at 2:52 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Next Page »