Blowin’ In The Wind (for beginners)

This is a song that I would introduce to an adult student on perhaps their first or second guitar lesson. At this early stage, it will be difficult to press down the strings hard enough. Remember to press down as hard as you can, to use the tips of your fingers and to get  as [...]

Arpeggios – Ascending and Descending Triads In G

Today I present to you a classic exercise that I give to my grade 4 guitar students. It is a simple exercise that explores the D, A and Low E strings from the second fret right up to the seventeenth fret. It helps with your technique, engages your musical ear and can lead to some [...]

Intermediate Chords (part two)

Following on from my previous post for improving guitarists wishing to expand their chord vocabulary, I now present Intermediate Chords (part two). The chords presented here are all add9 and major 6th chords, both chord types are built upon a standard major triad. A Major Triad 1,  3,    5 A, C#, E A add9 1, [...]

Almost Like Christmas

The major key sounds very joyous, regal, almost like Christmas; when it’s harmonised in tenths the happy sound is emphasised in choral majesty. Continuing on from last weeks lesson on the G Major Scale harmonised in 10ths I now present to you a tab and lesson based around the C Major Scale harmonised in 10ths. Major Scales [...]

Friday Afternoon Scale Practice

Last month I showed you some modal scale exercises which are worth checking out as a pre-cursor to today’s further lesson on modal scales. The focus in the following exercise is on how the modes of the major scale relate to pentatonic scales and how this relationship can be used to create some interesting ideas. [...]

Little Spanish Tune

Spagnoletta is an anonymously written lute tune. It comprises of two separate lines or voices of music. The top melodic line should be heard clearly above the accompanying bass. The tune is based around dotted crotchets. The inclusion of a dotted crotchet at the start of a measure will ‘squeeze’ the second note shrinking it into [...]

Living On A Prayer (strum-along version)

Sometimes there’s nothing better than picking up an acoustic guitar and strumming along to a rock classic whilst singing at the top of your voice. At times like this, a simplified chord progression that allows the melody of the song to shine is required. Yesterday, I composed such a chord chart for the Bon Jovi [...]

12 Bar Blues Fun and Frolicks

Here’s a fun new page I added today for some open chord blues fun and frolicks. For your playing pleasure, I have composed and arranged a series of seven easy to jam with 12 bar blues chord progressions. Once you dive in and get used to swimming around the chords, it becomes highly enjoyable to [...]

Three Ways to Play Smoke on the Water Riff

This morning I have three cool ways to play the most popular guitar riff of all time. The first way is the beginners guitar riff and uses open strings and no percussive technique. The second intermediate players guitar riff and adds in a bit of percussive technique which you can create releasing tension from the [...]

Intermediate Guitar Chords (part one)

Today’s post is for players who are looking to expand their chord vocabulary to include suspended second (sus 2) chords and suspended forth chords (sus 4). I have called it Intermediate Chords (part one) but these chords are just as easy for beginners to learn on electric guitar or acoustic guitar. Here is a visualisation of what [...]