• Acoustic versus classical guitar

    by  • February 7, 2011 • 2 Comments

    Almost every day I have to explain people what exactly is the difference between the classical and the acoustic guitar. The fact that I have touched the topic in every guitar book that I have written does not make it any easier. Let’s now try with a very compact video:

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    Guitar Music Styles are Different Languages

    by  • January 31, 2011 • 0 Comments

    Ok, everybody knows that guitar is by far the most popular music instrument in the Western world. Let’s face the numbers: 37 M searches per month in Google beats the next most popular instrument piano by 50%. The difference used to be even bigger but something has changed in the way how Google counts the [...]

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    Get Started With Arpeggio on the Guitar

    by  • January 24, 2011 • 0 Comments

    An arpeggio is a type of broken chord. It means that the sounds of a chord are not played simultaneously but in a sequence. Arpeggios are played on many instruments. In fact, the name ‘arpeggio’ comes from Italian ‘arpeggiare’ which means ‘to play on a harp’. But arpeggio is also a way how one can [...]

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    Playing the fifth chords. Powerchords I mean.

    by  • January 19, 2011 • 0 Comments

    I have been speaking of chords that were constantly getting more complex but now let’s take a step backwards and try a very simple way of accompanying songs – fifth chords. When I spoke of seventh chords you may have noticed that in addition to the bass, the third and the seventh there was another [...]

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    What is a Seventh Chord

    by  • January 12, 2011 • 1 Comment

    My last post about constructing the chords got positive feedback and seemed to help people. So I will continue. I was talking about the principles of chord construction and more specifically about triads. Triads are theoretically the simplest chords but it doesn’t mean that they are the most easy ones to play on the guitar. [...]

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    How to Construct the Chords

    by  • January 8, 2011 • 4 Comments

    The most common way to start off with the chords on guitar is to take a chord book or any simple online chord builder and just memorize them. I works well until the 3-chord songs are your ultimate goal. However, if you start wondering how to play a chord melody or how to find the [...]

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    Recording the Guitar at Home

    by  • January 4, 2011 • 0 Comments

    Some years ago you had to book a recording studio to record your music or try out an idea. Those days are over. There are numerous ways how you can do it at home. Here is a short list of my equipment and some sound examples. 1. Computer. Any up-to-date machine will do. I use [...]

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    Cold weather, humidity and the guitars

    by  • December 27, 2010 • 0 Comments

    The following goes mainly for the acoustic guitars but the electric guitar is made of wood, too. So changes in temperature and humidity have effect on all guitars. This topic is important both in summer and in winter but as it is winter now, I will talk about the specific problems of winter time. Ideally, [...]

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    Fingernails and the Guitar

    by  • December 13, 2010 • 0 Comments

    Those who play the classical guitar (nylon strings) probably are aware that the normal sound production is executed not only by the flesh of the fingertips but also the fingernails. It means that the nails should be long enough to be able to touch the strings. The oldest guitar tutor books don’t say much about [...]

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    One of the biggest road blocks of self learners

    by  • December 9, 2010 • 1 Comment

    Guitar is by far the most popular musical instrument in the Western world. Millions of people want to play it. And they do. There is no mystery – anyone can play it. However, the only way to get there is by learning. I have been talking about learning the guitar almost in every post. Recently [...]

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