(Welling. Kent)
07919 356980
Any questions - just ask
Lesson Guides
These ‘Lesson Guides’ are not lessons in
themselves they are to remind you how the tunes
are played according to how you’ve been taught in
your ‘one to one’ session. Feel free to experiment
and be creative, and if it works make sure to play it
to me. That’s what ‘making music’ is all about!
Please remember, these tunes/exercises are
especially selected and
arranged to introduce
specific techniques that
will add greatly to your
guitar playing ‘tool box’.
There are so many
lessons so I’ll upload more
when I get round to
recording them or when
you ask me to upload the
lesson/exercise you are working on.
I create a backing track on my Keyboard to
accompany some of the video’s. This is so you
can practice your ‘timing’ and get a real sense of
playing ‘live’ in front of people or in a band. Also,
its much more interesting than practicing with a
‘tick tock’ metronome!
If the video’s differ from what you have been
taught in your ‘one to one’ lesson this is normal.
‘One to one’ lessons are tailored to your abilities.
Finally, try to play back the MP3 backing tracks
through a HiFi, or if using a P.C through decent
speakers.
Lesson Guides
Where are the notes?
Understanding how notes, scales, and
chords are positioned on the guitar! A MUST
KNOW short theory lesson.
Todays Thought
“Sometimes ‘natural talent’ is really someone spending
more time on something than others do”.
All you need to know about scales and
chords! Please print and keep with your
guitar documents.
This will probably put me out of work!!
….check it out.
The dreaded Barre Chords explained!
Barre chords, though difficult to master
when starting out are really worth the effort
to learn. They open up so many ways of
playing different chords using the same
‘shape’ up and down the Fret board. Just
playing basic ‘open string’ chords within
the first 3 Frets limits what you can play -
so persevere with Barre chords and you
won’t look back!
Soloing Techniques - Bends
One of the great benefits of the guitar is it’s
ability (in the right hands) to imitate the
human singing voice!
This technique is a ‘must have’ for your guitar
techniques tool box.
The power of the Triads
How to use Triads to accompany your
melodic solo’s! Video
THE ‘MUST KNOW’ chords.
Just starting on your guitar journey? Thats
great, your heading for a life time of pleasure.
Check out these ‘MUST KNOW’ chords,
you’ll be using them all the time no matter
what style of music you play.
If you want a video of the lesson you are working on
let me know.
Improvising over chord changes.
How is it done? Find out here. Video
How to practice..
Some students like to learn all the notes and THEN later
learn to play them all musically. Logically, I can see why.
It’s nice and sequential and most guitarists are taught this
way.…Yet this usually leads to many frustrating months
trying to undo mistakes or bad habits formed during the
learning experience. Especially when working on
challenging arrangements.
Instead, when learning a tune, in my experience, it’s far
better to learn one phrase at a time and then get to work
on perfecting it before learning the next part or phrase.
Spending time working on smaller sections, perfecting
and refining them, going deep on the details, the
movements, the subtle elements that make up musicality,
etc is more efficient. It will help you sound more musical,
it helps to prevent bad habits, and makes the parts easier
to remember (as you are not trying to cram in as many
notes into your brain at once).
This is why I like to teach a tune a ‘phrase’ at a time
rather than the complete piece from start to finish as in
traditional methods.
There are teachers that will disagree, but my own
experience over many years has reinforced my believe
that students learn a tune a lot quicker when confronted
with only a few notes at a time, and asked to get it as
good as they can before moving on.
020 8304 3500
The TWO most common Major scale
Patterns Guitarist use.
The ‘Nashville system’.
Check it out here - it’s so simple!
There are many students practicing the
project “Improvising over chord changes”.
Here is the backing track, and PDF to help
you.
D-G-A backing
Example Solo guitar
improvising over chord changes.