An Easy Way To Understand Key Signatures

I was working with a student recently and got into the discussion of key signatures. The student was a beginner and had heard of key signature but didn’t really understand anything about them. So to help them out I told them this: You can think of key signatures as scales. In a way they are the same thing. By this I mean when we say that a song is in the key of “C Major” then the song is based on the C Major scale. If you have heard or seen my lesson on Harmonic Structure (it’s in the paid…

Paper Crumbling To Build Strength As A Guitar Player

Train Your Guitar-Playing Muscles To Work For You As you may have already figured out, playing the guitar requires synchronous movement/coordination between you finger, palm, wrist, forearm and shoulder muscles. My beginning students have described finger/wrist muscle movements as being unnatural or awkward when they are trying to make chords or notes. I assure you that motions that may seem awkward at first can become almost natural if rehearsed enough. So lets learn an exercise that demonstrates your ability to build muscle coordination today. It will seem pretty awkward when you first start it but as you go the movements…

Teaching Others To Play Guitar Make You A Better Player

One of the best ways that I have found to give thanks for something, especially a skill or talent, is to teach it to someone else. While there are many benefits in doing this, some very specific ones come to mind and they are: It makes you better at whatever your doing, It gives someone else the opportunity to learn what you know, and its a great way to show that you aren’t selfish and want to help others. So with this idea in mind, let me give you some in depth reasons why teaching other people guitar makes you…

The Importance Of Warming Up On Guitar

I chose to write about this topic because in the past I have sustained a pretty nasty injury. The actual injury was a result of a combination of things but it has given me a very good reason to remember the importance of warming up before playing and practicing because, due to my injury, I have not been able to play my guitar for over a month! Not cool to say the least. I’ll first give you a quick recap on what happened and then I talk about some exercises and warm up routines that you can do to prevent…

Giving Your Guitar A Routine Checkup

It’s currently the beginning of spring as I write this post and that prompted me to write about a really important topic and that is why it’s important to give your guitar a little checkup. So just like you would give your car an oil change every 3000 miles, It’s important to give your guitar some routine maintenance as well. This is important for both acoustic and electric guitars. Acoustic guitars will sometimes need it more though because they are effected more by climate change. Whenever a new season comes in, the climate and weather change. You also change the…

What Kind Of Guitar Should I Buy

This is certainly one of the most common questions that I hear from people who are interested in learning to play the guitar. My answer to this is simple but I will go into detail so that you can make a well-informed decision when it comes time to pick up your first axe. So the quick and easy answer is……. “Buy a guitar that is going to make you want to Play and Practice!” This sounds simple enough and to be honest, it is as easy as it sounds. Now let me elaborate on this idea and give you some…