Moving chord shapes and basic open chords have been easy for my students to understand over the years, but some seem to get stuck around there. After the 1, 3, 4, and 5th degrees of a scale, they sometimes want to throw in the towel. 9th chords are a great way to step just a … Read more
Boss has a lot of delay pedals. Since they are all named similarly and look nearly the same, it can be difficult to determine which to purchase. That’s where I come in. I’ve been a guitar enthusiast for nearly a decade now, and I’ve tried delay pedals from just about every major brand. While most … Read more
As a music teacher in my area for over a decade, I’m approached by people all the time asking me questions about everything under the sun. And one of the most common ones related to guitars is which are good ones to buy. It’s a tricky topic, but you can find an almost-guaranteed safe option … Read more
As a music teacher and private lessons teacher for over 10 years, I’ve had many new guitar students come up to me with beginner guitars they went out and bought themselves. And most of them turn out to be junk and a waste of money. When one of my new students came to me with … Read more
Are you looking for an entry-level guitar with a powerful and clean sound with easy playability? I know, it sounds like the dream guitar, but the Taylor Academy 10 dreadnought may be the exact right fit for you. In my over 10 years as a teacher and 20 as a musician, this guitar is one … Read more
A lot of guitar students spend time learning how to play individual chords and learn the chords of songs, but they often fail to understand why the songwriters chose the chords they did. As a music teacher and guitar player for many years, I’ve seen this lack of knowledge prove limiting to many of my … Read more
Electric Harmonix is very much in-tune with the people who buy their products. They always have been, and the existence of the Nano POG and Micro POG octave pedals are nothing if not evidence of this. The community, myself included, cried out for a smaller POG and they delivered the Micro POG. That wasn’t small … Read more
If I did a survey from all my students over the past 10+ years (literally thousands at this point), the majority would say learning the guitar is top on their list of musical desires. The guitar is one of the most idolized and loved instruments of the past 100 years. People love it! But for … Read more
Learning the guitar is easily the most sought after skill by the average person. Over 10 years of teaching, I’ve asked students from as young as 4 to as old as 70 what instrument they’d love to learn someday. Most of the time, the answer is the guitar. But private lessons get expensive, so many … Read more
After over 15 years of teaching hundreds of students how to play guitar and also playing guitar as a hobby, I’ve learned a lot about what makes a guitar pedal great. Multi-effect pedals are my go-to tool for playing around with sound, and Boss has always made great ones. You don’t want to spend hundreds … Read more