As a music teacher and performer for many years, I have seen a lot of guitarists and songwriters hold themselves back by not learning more advanced chord progressions. Chord progressions provide harmonic movement to a song, so there’s no denying that the right chord progression will make your music stand out. The basic progressions we … Read more
Boss’s TU-2 chromatic tuner pedal set the industry standard for years. If you were using a tuning pedal, the TU-2 was the best choice, hands down. Now, Boss has added additional features and exciting functionality, reworking its original features into the TU-3 pedal. There’s a difference, and you don’t have to be an audiophile like … Read more
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
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
When students approach me for lessons, they’ve often tried guitar at some point. Usually, they try to learn it on their own which results in frustration. They ask me for lessons on guitar, but at some point early on, they ask me some variation of this question: Guitar is too hard. Should I try to … Read more
As a guitar teacher, I always get asked questions about songwriting and the general idea of “putting it all together” by guitar players. Many guitars players’ ultimate goal is to be able to freely play and move around the guitar in whatever key they want. Part of achieving this goal is understanding all the different … Read more
Jazz can be a really daunting area for guitar players to move into. It seems on the surface like a vastly complex network of crazy chord changes and mind-bending, but believe it or not, you can start from an easier place. As a guitar teacher, I have helped many students get into jazz playing from … Read more