Strumming for Spanish Guitar
If you're just starting with Spanish guitar, understanding the symbols and notations can be confusing. From chord grids to tablature, it's essential to interpret these symbols correctly and learn how to count properly. In this guide, we will delve into the...
The Importance of Riffs for Guitar Technique
A riif is simply a term for a memorable short musical theme, and as guitarists we have hundreds if not thousands of famous guitar riffs we can learn and play for fun but also for technique development. One of the most famous and recognizable...
Did you know that the song Roxanne from the Police is a tango? The Police were known for their reggae influences, and when we hear those opening chords of Roxanne we might think reggae is the groove we're hearing. However, those Roxanne chord "stabs" fall on the downbeat, and the hallmark of...
A Flamenco Technique Study
Let's use the introduction to "Punta y Tacon" - a flamenco composition using the form farruca by the great Sabicas - to work on some fundamental flamenco guitar techniques like arpeggio and rasgueo.
The Master Sabicas
Sabicas was a renowned Spanish flamenco...
As a musician, it's not uncommon to feel unmotivated to practice. As a guitarist, finding ways to trick yourself into practicing more can be a game-changer. In this blog post, I will explore four effective ways to do so that I use myself.
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Play guitar riffs
Playing guitar riffs is a great...
I was doing some Googling the other day about how to workout at the gym more efficiently. I came across the term "compound exercises" where, for example, you do squats while holding dumbbells and as you complete the squat motion you raise the dumbbells for a shoulder press.
Immediately I...
The bossa nova is one of the most captivating and sensuous rhythms to play on nylon string guitar. And the chords that typically are played in a bossa nova are tasty, beautiful jazz, voicings that really make things sound smooth. You've heard classic tunes from Antônio Carlos Jobim, Luiz,...
What sets fingerstyle guitar apart from other types of guitar playing is,of course, playing with the fingers of the right hand (rather than with a pick). Over the years. I've noticed that if you're likely to make a mistake with your fingers it's going to be that your thumb is in the way of your...
Having taught thousands of guitar students over the decades and used just about every book there is, I keep coming back to only a few rumbas when I teach how to play this fun Spanish guitar style.
The Rumba Basics
Rumbas can be counted in 4/4 or 2/4 time (I'm partial to counting in 4/4) and...
Introduction
Fingernails are an important part of your hands as a classical and nylon string guitarist. Not only do they help you to grip the guitar strings and provide volume and tone, but they also serve as a protective barrier between your skin and the strings. The fingernails are an integral...
The rumba is one of the most exciting rhythms to play on acoustic guitar. It's a rhythm that is pretty familiar to the "western ear" as opposed to many flamenco forms that follow a much more complicated rhythmic structure. In my decades of teaching guitar, I have composed many studies for...
Here's one of the exercises I do just about every day for my classical guitar technique: Allegro by Mauro Giuliani. This is not the more well known Allegro by Giuliani but rather a seldom-heard piece that is made up entirely of the double arpeggio technique where we play all fingers of the right...
