You have a busy life.
You can only fit 1 hour of guitar practice into each day.
How do you make the most of that time?
This is what a classical guitar hobbyist (let’s call him Joe) recently asked m...
When you shift from one chord to another, your left-hand fingers may get lost and cause unwanted interruptions in the rhythm.
How do you move each left-hand finger as efficiently as possible between ...
When you’re working on a difficult passage, it’s helpful to try various approaches to improve your playing.
One useful strategy that’s not discussed enough is to experiment with different rhythms.
R...
The hardest shifts on guitar involve moving the left hand a long distance between completely different chord shapes.
When you encounter a shift like this, it can totally disrupt the flow of the music...
One of the strengths of the guitar is variety of tone color.
But sometimes we fall into the habit of playing everything with the same tone.
How do we expand our tonal palette?
One approach is to th...
Playing guitar can be so much fun.
But pain in your fingertips can diminish the enjoyment.
Here are some ways to reduce that discomfort:
1. Positioning
Position each fingertip as close to the fret...
I frequently teach online guitar lessons.
An online lesson is simple.
Just have a video call with your teacher .
That’s it!
But to get more out of your online lesson, here are some tips:
1. It’s ...
There are many reasons.
But the easiest to solve is often overlooked.
Many players find guitar playing harder than it needs to be because their position with the guitar is uncomfortable.
If your bo...
One of my favorite arpeggio studies is Carcassi’s Etude in A major, op. 60, No. 3.
This piece sounds good and also challenges both hands, helping the guitarist to grow in technique.
Here are four pr...
When I was 12, my parents wanted me to take piano lessons.
They took me down to the local music school.
But the piano teacher’s schedule was full.
The guitar teacher, however, had openings immediat...
One of my students recently completed a Guitar Exam through the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM).
If you’re not familiar with it, RCM is a music school in Toronto, Canada.
RCM offers a highly struc...
While electronic tuners are easy to use, you may sometimes want to tune without one.
A common approach is to tune each string to the 5th fret on the adjacent string.
The problem here is compounding ...