Sight Reading Exercises For Guitar Players

Sight reading is synonymous with the world of classical music and often ignored by guitar players because it is deemed boring or not important to learn. However, the ability to read music and have a good grasp of standard notation should be valued by all musicians, including guitar players. If you are not familiar with sight reading, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

“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 [...]