Blog

Do you feel you're as good as you should be for the time you've been playing?⁠When Chris came to me he'd been playing for 5 years.⁠He felt he should be a lot better for the amount of practice he'd done over that time.⁠Though Chris had put in a good amount of practice...

Do you feel you're stuck within the minor pentatonic?⁠You're not alone.⁠First of all, let me make something perfectly clear - the minor pentatonic is an AWESOME scale!⁠The vast majority of blues and rock solos are based within the minor pentatonic so there's no shame...

Want to know one of my favourite sayings?⁠"The harder I work, the luckier I get."⁠I love this saying because it means hard work creates luck, or good opportunities.⁠Obviously luck is a real thing, and if you experience it you should be happy and grateful for it.⁠But...

Want to know what can make your minor pentatonic playing sound less like scales and more like music?⁠Bends!⁠Bends are a great way to make your minor pentatonic playing sound a lot more musical.⁠The most common forms of bends used by the guitar greats in the minor...

If you want to get into soloing but have never tried it before, let me tell you where you should start.First of all, you're going to have to learn some scales.Solos are all based within scales that are relevant to the key of the song the guitarist is soloing over.⁠For...

Want to know how to make your playing sound a lot more bluesy?⁠Add the flat 5!⁠The flat 5 (also known as a sharp 4) is a note in-between the 4th and 5th scale degrees of the minor pentatonic.⁠Playing the minor pentatonic with the added flat 5 is commonly referred to...

Do your hands and fingers feel weak when playing barre chords and scales?Having your thumb in the upper, middle back of the neck when playing scales, barre chords and power chords can help a lot with feeling you've got a better, more powerful grip on the notes you're...

Let's talk about increasing guitar speed. This is something I'm asked about a lot by students.⁠Increasing speed requires 3 important elements;⁠ Technique.⁠Practice.⁠Time.⁠ Let's start with technique. Technique is likely going to have the biggest impact on speed. If...

Want to know how to tame a messy fretting hand.I've had my share of students come to me with fretting hands that seemed to have a mind of their own.Their fingers flail all over the place, their intonation is out, their legato is really messy and they don't seem to...

Have you ever felt disenchanted with guitar playing?Have you ever felt you're getting no results or are improving really slowly?If so, you're not alone.Just to make things clear - you might not be experiencing significant results because you're attempting to teach...

Want to know a cool scale that I'm asked a lot about by students?⁠The harmonic minor scale!⁠The harmonic minor scale is used by a lot of different guitarists who play a lot of different styles, but it's most commonly associated with neoclassical rock and...

I talk a lot about technique and the importance of good technique. But how can you tell if your technique is bad and causing problems?⁠ Well, here are a couple of things to look out for: Your fretting is messy. Messy fretting is something all guitarists experience...