Rhythm Playing – Sus Chord Workout in D

A great acoustic workout today which will be a continuation from my post on intermediate guitar chords a while ago. For most of the piece you will be using a plectrum until the music modulate to F major when a fingerstyle or hybrid picking approach would be more appropriate. Have fun strumming this one out [...]

Cascading Arpeggio 12 Bar Blues (a two part exercise)

Following on from yesterday’s exploration of arpeggios, here is a fun practice that sounds cool too. Part one starts with a (sort of) 12 bar blues chord progression formed around the A Minor Pentatonic Scale. The exercise is in triple time so make sure to count, tap or say – 1,2,3 | 1,2,3 –  whilst [...]

Chords – Minor Sixth and Major Sixth Progression

At the bottom of this post, is a nice jazzy chord progression that would be perfect for someone preparing for a Grade 5 RGT Exam. It uses major and minor sixth chord, syncopated rhythms and musical directions. The minor sixth chord is similar to the major sixth chord we analysed in yesterday’s post on intermediate level chords. Theoretically [...]

Technical Exercises – Finger Stretching and Motor Memory (part three)

Last month I posted a cool warm exercise that will help your finger muscles to recall certain shapes more easily. Today I am going to expand this with an exercise focussed on legato technique: Technical Exercises – Finger Stretching and Motor Memory (part three). Exercise one is focussed around what I call the 1, 2, 4 finger [...]

“Farewell My Lover You Do Me Wrong”

Okay, this song has been played, covered and sung in England for so long (since 1580 be precise) that’s it’s become a bit of a cliché. Still, Greensleeves remains a great tune and one that is perfect to arrange for acoustic guitar. My arrangement has two voices which work independently from one another in triple time. [...]

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. [...]

Major Scales – G Major harmonised in 10ths (part one)

Here is a scale and some exercises I find incredibly helpful and use regularly as a bridge to many creative ideas. First of all, you will playing the G major scale harmonised in 1oths and affectively playing two scales simultaneously (the second scale being ten steps of the major scale apart from the first scale). Learning [...]

Little Spanish Tune (accompanying video)

After yesterday’s post including a guitar tab of the little Spanish tune Spagnoletta, I decided to quickly record a video for my demonstration and your delight. If you like this piece then you might want to browse to my previous renaissance guitar lessons. I do so enjoy sharing such tunes!

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 [...]