by Lloyd English | May 29, 2016 | Beginner Guitar, Front Page 3
You have decided to learn to play and are now looking for the best beginner guitar but it seems there are thousands of choices and where do you start? As you probably know by now guitars come in all colours, shapes and sizes so we will begin by separating them into...
by Myles English | May 19, 2016 | Articles, Theory and Harmony
Before we get quite in depth, the notes in the key of C are C D E F G A B. You may be wondering what exactly this means though and where these notes come from. To really understand where the notes in the key of C come from, you need to begin with acoustical physics....
by Ray Hickey | May 9, 2016 | Theory and Harmony
In this lesson on the order of sharps and flats, we will be looking at how to reduce the complexity of the circle of fifths to a few simple and easily memorized concepts. In order to make memorization of the order of sharps and flats easier, we’re going to apply a...
by Lloyd English | May 8, 2016 | Beginner Guitar, Front Page 2
In this post we’re going to look at how to choose acoustic guitar strings. The fundamentals of sounding a note on a guitar are about the striking of and consequent vibration of a string. When the string is attacked it vibrates at a specific number of vibrations...
by Lloyd English | Dec 1, 2014 | Articles, Theory and Harmony
The Guitar Sounds One Octave Lower than Written. Pitches translate to vibrations per second known as hertz, one hertz equals one cycle per second. When we use the piano as our frame of reference for frequency and pitches we can see that A 440 known as A4 or the 49th...
by Lloyd English | Dec 1, 2014 | Articles, Theory and Harmony
There was a time not long ago when in order to get a fake book full of great standard tunes you had to go to your local music store and ask for an illegal copy. The history of the Real Fake Book began as a 4 or 500 page handwritten and then mechanically copied book...
by Lloyd English | Dec 1, 2014 | Articles
The Rhythm chord or “Jazz” rhythm chords have strong musical characteristics as well as a rather colorful history. The Guitar has always had an intimate relationship with dance and thus rhythm and accompaniment in a host of different styles. The Flamenco...
by Lloyd English | Jul 29, 2014 | Beginner Guitar, Guitar Lessons
In this post we will look at how to play chords on the guitar as well as several tips, tricks and techniques which will make playing chords on the guitar much easier. Have you ever heard someone playing some chords before and every time they switch chords everything...
by Myles English | Jun 26, 2014 | Uncategorized
I’ve scoured the web and have found 10 ultra weird guitars. Not only weird guitars, but pretty awesome as well. #1 – Molten Lava Guitar Not only is this a weird guitar, but it’s pretty cool too (or hot?). I haven’t come across many builders...
by Myles English | Jun 23, 2014 | Beginner Guitar, Guitar Lessons, Theory and Harmony
Before reading this blog it is necessary that you understand the construction of major scales. Luckily we have a blog post on major scales if you are unfamiliar with major scales. Major pentatonic scales are used by guitar players and other instrumentalists in all...
by Myles English | May 24, 2014 | Beginner Guitar, Guitar Lessons
Hopefully you’ve carefully gone through the previous lesson Beginner Guitar Scales and you have that C major scale right underneath your fingers. I would strongly suggest not moving forward until you do as we’re building a foundation that we can continue...
by Myles English | May 21, 2014 | Beginner Guitar
So you want to know how to read notes for guitar? It’s actually surprising simple, but like many things it requires consistent practice! It’s a good idea to start with the natural notes (the white keys on the piano) on each string in open position, then...
by Myles English | May 21, 2014 | Beginner Guitar, Guitar Lessons
There are a few scales which could be considered beginner guitar scales, but today we’re going to learn the most commonly used beginner guitar scale, C Major in open position. As a beginning guitar player, sometimes it’s difficult to figure out where to...
by Lloyd English | Mar 20, 2014 | Articles, Uncategorized
Electric guitars are found in bedrooms and rehearsal garages and performance venues all across the continent and beyond. Every day tens of thousands of people engage with a guitar in one way or another, whether music lessons or a garage band or as a pro player or...
by Myles English | Mar 5, 2014 | Articles, Front Page, Guitar Lessons, Theory and Harmony
The Nashville number system for guitar or any instrument is a quick way to communicate and name chords within a song or chord progression. It may take you a while to wrap your head around the whole idea of the Nashville Number System, but when you get it, you’ll...