David Sinclair is one of Vancou
ver’s finest guitarists and has released a new book titled “Playing Guitar in Jazz Band”. While David is best know for his years with Sarah McLachlan he is also renowned as an educator, writer and soloist. The book is published by Alfred Music Publishing and will be of great help to guitarists everywhere wanting to play in “Jazz Band”. Check it out!
Johann Sebastian Bach
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Here is an excerpt from a Bach Invention arranged for guitar. It begins in the 2nd position and then moves to the 5th position for the remainder of the piece. J.S.Bach is famous for his improvisations and they sound great on guitar. – Michael
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Dire Straits Courtesy of Paul Natkin
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Here is a beautiful melody based on a very common chord progression, D minor, C major, B flat and A seventh. This familiar set of chords is used in many styles of music and is the chord pattern for Dire Straits “Sultans of Swing”, of course you need to speed it up and play with the rhythm! Take your time and try to let each note ring it’s full length. – Michael
Read More...Tablature and Chord Window Sheet PDF
If you are teaching guitar or learning how to write guitar arrangements there is nothing more useful than a good pencil and some well designed manuscript sheets. Over the years I have created (through necessity) many different sheets using different combinations of standard notation, tablature staves and chord windows. The one I am posting today is one of the most useful, let me know if you want more. – Michael
Read More...This example of a “classic” rock progression is taken from volume 2 of the “Recreational Guitarist” DVD set and sounds great. It uses a 3 chord progression (A, C, & D) with the A played with one finger and the C and D using the standard 3 note power chord. Start slowly and try to get all the notes sounding clearly without hitting any unwanted strings. – Michael
Read More...The Sailor’s Hornpipe is most often remembered as the theme from Popeye the Sailor. It is fun to play as well as a little challenging. The first part is played in the first position and poses no real problem except for down and up picking for the eight notes. The second part moves to the second position and is a little more challenging. Let me know what you think. Do you pick up and down? – Michael
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Edvard Grieg
Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s masterpiece “The Peer Gynt Suite” is his most famous composition and contains the rather spooky “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. This extremely recognizable melody has been used in countless movies, cartoons and TV shows and has been covered by high school bands and heavy metal groups alike. For us recreational guitarists it offers a great way to practice up and down picking, palm muting and finger stretches. The PDF sheet music is attached along with an audio example. Be careful to pick up and down on the eighth notes (the notes joined by a beam) and to use the little finger for the fourth fret. A slight palm mute works very well. Enjoy – Michael
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David Grohl, beatcrave.com
Every week students still ask to learn great “classic” pieces like Sweet Home Alabama, Crazy Train, Stairway to Heaven and Purple Haze but those songs were written 30 and 40 years ago. So I ask you, who are the new “classic” guitarists and what are their signature tunes? “Pretender” by the Foo Fighters is requested a lot and has a very nice opening riff but that’s just one song. So I am asking two questions 1) who is the best “new” guitarist (still writing and playing) and 2) which songs are destined to become “Classics” – Michael
Read More...This is one of my favorite studies for right and left hand development. For the right hand be sure to alternate your pick up and down, if you are a fingerstyle player alternate the thumb and first finger or any combination of the just the first, second or third fingers. For the left hand use only your first and fourth fingers (index and little finger). I hope you enjoy this little study – Michael
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Everyone has a different idea of how long you should practice on a daily basis. Usually we are told that 30 minutes is good for beginners and 60 minutes is good for more advanced players but I think that any fixed time period misses the point. When I sit down to practice I start with a quick warmup consisting of a chromatic scale followed by some chord scales. Once my mind is focused more on the music and less on the day’s events I begin to practice. And whatever I am working on I practice until I am making more mistakes than when I started. …
PDF included
One of the best ways to keep yourself on a practice schedule is to chart your daily practice and write down your study pieces. I have attached the practice record that I have been using for several years with students and find it to be very helpful. Much like dieting, if you have to write down your daily progress you will be more motivated to stay on track. Thirty minutes a day should be fine for most students with complete beginners practicing twice a day (fifteen minutes each) and more advanced students and hour. of course once you get the bug there is no limit to your practice time!
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I first heard this technique used by Stevie Ray Vaughn and thought it sounded great! Not really hard to play if you can hold a 3 string bar at the 5th fret while playing the blues scale. Let me know if you like the technique.
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Here is a simple but important scale that you can practice for speed, ear training and technique. The most important thing to watch for (after you learn the notes) is that when you move from the 2nd position to the 5th position you do so seamlessly so your audience cannot hear you change. This takes a fair amount of practice and attention to the fingering. I have not included a tab sheet to allow you to hone your musical ears and eyes! – Michael
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A little boy said to his father “dad, when I grow up I want to be a musician”.His father quickly replied “son, you can’t do both” !Okay, this finishes the series of “basic” technique posts designed to get you started on your guitar journey. I’m going to finish now with a boogie to help you put your tab reading to work. Remember that the numbers are always frets so all you have to do is determining which string the note is on and which finger of the left hand to use. I have made this a little more challenging by writing the chart in the “second position”. The second position simply means you use you first finger for the second fret not the first, and if you use the first finger for the second fret you use the second finger for the third fret the third finger for the fourth fret and the fourth finger for the fifth fret. It sounds a little complicated but it’s quite easy once you get the idea and will make some difficult fingerings easy. Enjoy and please send along a comment or suggestion for future posts. – Michael
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