If you follow my blog, you may have noticed that I don’t post an article every day. That’s because I’ve been trying to get back to focus on why I created this website in the first place- why I do what I do, and why it can help you.

Guitar Tuition

So, I’m a guitar teacher, and I want to help you to get the same enjoyment of playing guitar that I do. That’s right, I said “enjoyment”; I really enjoy playing my guitar, and I wish everyone could. That’s why I created this site, to help you.

Teaching private guitar lessons is how I started out, and it’s how I earn my money. Of course, the money has never been my main concern (otherwise I wouldn’t be offering all the free advice on this site); my main concern has always been the music- and teaching others to enjoy that music!

The advantages of private tuition are clear: I can see you in person, face to face. I will be able to talk with you about the music you love, and teach you how to play it. Overall, you will benefit from having someone there who can guide you through exactly what you need to know to be the guitarist you want to be.

If you like the sound of this (and live nearby) then please, don’t hesitate to contact me and we’ll arrange something . I’m based in Hampshire, England (near Berkshire and Surrey), so I appreciate there are many of you who visit my site who aren’t within reach. If you don’t happen to live within traveling distance, then I want this website to help you too!

Technical Exercises

If you take a look around this site, it shouldn’t take you long to find the exercises section. These exercises have been selected by me to be most helpful in your progression as a guitarist. If you would like to read about my ideas on guitar technique, you can either click on “Guitar Technique and Exercises” under the heading “Blog Categories” (currently on the left), or read about my ideas on the workings of the hand and the prevention of injury when playing guitar.

I plan to continue updating this section, and as I add each exercise I explain how it is useful and why it’s good for your guitar technique (as well as hints on how to play it effectively).

Lessons Section

The lessons section is the most recent section of my site. At the moment it is a collection of all the pages of my site that will teach you about technique or music, but I hope to extend it into something more.

You see, my ultimate aim with all this is to help as many people as possible, and I feel I can best do that by teaching. I could write all the articles I want and give you lots of useful tips that could help your playing, but the best way I can help you is by giving you lessons.

Of course, -this being my job- I couldn’t offer these lessons for free (sorry!), but this is what it comes down to: I want to help you, as a guitarist and as a musician- in any way I can. I have been working on, and will continue to work on ways in which I can achieve this. Any suggestions or comments on how I can do this for you are welcome

Rob.

Yes, I play the bass aswell…although I had to use a pick for some sections because it was too fast for my fingers…

Click here if you can’t see the video

You should notice that this is a “Rock Version” and not a “Metal Version”. I’ve been getting alot of comments about my other tunes not being “metal enough”. Some have been telling me metal has to be fast; some that it has to be slow; some think that metal has to be played on electric guitars with distortion (…and just about every other variation!).

What makes something “Metal”? Please read “How to Play ‘Metal’ Guitar” where I attempt to answer this question (I said “attempt”!).

If you like my blog, please don’t forget to subscribe
Rob.

Click here if you can’t see the video

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Until then, I thought I would at least say “Merry Christmas” to everyone, and I hope to be back to my regular blog posts before the new year starts

If you want to keep up to date with all that’s going on here at Chainsaw Guitar Tuition, please don’t forget to subscribe!

This is why you might be interested in the story of Staff Benda Bilili, an African band from Kinshasa who caught my attention for exactly that reason. From the starting point of playing outside in their home town, they’re currently doing a tour of England. So why is this so interesting, other than being just another band success story? Why should you care?

Well, the thing about this band is: they are all disabled, most of them from polio. They have been refused jobs in their hometown and have been making a living playing the streets. Some of their instruments are made from tin cans and string! Now, these guys can go from losing their jobs and playing on the streets with bits of wood, tin cans, and string, to touring an entire country. What are you capable of doing when you really set your mind to it?

Here they are performing their song “Polio”:

Read the Full story here.

Method 1- Guitar Books

Reading instructional guitar books can be a great way to improve your theory knowledge, as they can go into great depth and you can opt to read only the chapters that you want to learn about. Another great advantage of guitar books is its easy for them to provide guitar TAB and diagrams for you to study over and over again (turning to a page being much easier than hitting “pause” and rewinding/fast forwarding to the right part!).

The downside to this method of study is that you can often spend a long time reading, and not so much time actually playing your guitar! This will impact on your actual playing ability. Although, now you’ve read that, you’re probably thinking “Ok, so I’ll sit there with the book open and my guitar in my hands!”- this can be done, however it’s a lot easier with the next method…

Method 2- Instructional
Guitar DVDs

I, personally, find these great, especially for learning a specific style. Guitar DVDs also have the added advantage of you being able to sit infront of the TV with your guitar and play along. Sometimes it’s alot easier to listen to someone speak while playing rather than trying to read when you’re supposed to be concentrating on looking at what you’re playing!

Ok, so what’s the catch? Well what happens when you have a question, or if you don’t understand, or what if you want more information on a specific thing? You can’t ask your TV! This same rule applies for online guitar videos, although with these, you sometimes have the chance to email the teacher yourself. Really, this type of guitar tuition is just getting close to emulating real, professional, one on one tuition!

Method 3- Private Guitar
Tuition

This way of learning the guitar is the best, in my opinion, if you want to learn how to play guitar. It covers all the shortfallings of the previous methods: you’re able to play your guitar when taking in the information; you can always ask the teacher to stop and go over something again (like pausing a video, but better); and you can ALWAYS ask questions from your teacher, and get a direct answer!  Hmm ok, but I can’t spend hours with my teacher going over the things I need to practice or need more work on! No, but if you have a good teacher he will be giving you materials to learn from, any guitar lick you want, any scale you want to learn, any song…

I’m sure you get my point: Getting a guitar teacher is, by far, the best method for learning the guitar. Think about it, you’re sitting there, being taught all the things you want to learn by someone who has been in the same position as you are. You can also ask him questions on anything you don’t understand, and he should pick you up on any mistakes that you are not even aware of!

Just think, with a guitar book or a guitar DVD, you might think you know exactly what you’re being taught, but a professional

tutor would let you KNOW that you’re doing it right. Instead of practicing hours of something that could be wrong, and then later spending more time just correcting your mistakes and “re-learning” the same things over and over, you can spend a few hours practicing something perfect first time!

I had guitar lessons myself, and I’m a much better player from it. I didn’t just benefit from interacting with another guitarist, or musician- I actually learnt how to practice, how to think about the guitar, and I learnt what things I should know and learn to do with guitars. This direction to my playing was accompanied by inspiration, and a constant “reminder” every week that I needed to practice! So, in conclusion, every method should be used, each has its own benefits, but having your own “guitar tutorial” every week is, in my opinion, the best method, and a must for any aspiring guitarist!

For private tuition, please contact me for one to one lessons!

The Video is of their own cover version of “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple, done as an instrumental, and although I helped them with learning the parts, they arranged the order of the riffs themselves. I think they’ve really made it their own!

If you would like one-to-one tuition for guitar, please get in contact, or email
me at this address:

Chainsawmaniak@googlemail.com

Below are some pictures Newlands School Rock Band rehearsing.

Rhythm Guitarist Matt practicing, and Tim on bass in the background.

Mitchell Jazzing it up on Keys!

Sam, rocking out, as always!

Former Band Member Molly, who has since moved on to other things in her musical career.

Cameron, and others, in discussion about the set.

Tim and Matt, grooving to the beat.

If you would like to stay updated on my blog, please don’t forget to subscribe.
Rob.

And before you say it, yes I have an english accent!

Last week I started a series of videos to accompany the technical exercises on my website, this week I uploaded the second video in that series. Hopefully, I will upload one video each week- at least!- each concentrating on a different technique.
If this sounds like the sort of thing that you’d like to be updated on, please subscribe to my youtube channel and you will be informed of the updates as they come.

If, however, you think there is something that I’m missing, or if you have any questions about the videos, just send me a message via my youtube channel and I would gladly take -serious- suggestions or video requests on board.

There are a few things I wont do, and they are: I will not do a video on how to learn a song, not only is there a minefield of copyright issues there, but also, if you want that kind of in depth tuition, you need to book lessons (see my website ); Secondly, similar to the above, I will not teach chords or scales- again, if you want that you’ll have to contact me to book a lesson (see the website again).

So what sort of things will I do? I can do more general stuff, such as: Alternate picking, Sweep picking, Tuning the guitar, Legato, Finger stretches, hand position, picking speed etc…

Although, having said that, send in any requests that wont blatently cause me to rip off a song and I’ll see what I can do to help!

Thanks