A Matter of Scale – Part 3

In the beginning, there was scale pattern fingering. And we all lived our lives by such fingering. And everything was good. But then we tried to make art in an artistic manner using these scales with these fingerings. And then said fingering turned on us. “Oh, why do I keep playing the same boring un-artistic…

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Take Stock!

Every good business does a thorough inventory on a regular basis. They have to know how much of the product they have on the shelves & in the warehouse in order to run the business in a productive manner. You, as a well-rounded guitarist, want to do the same in order to assess your own…

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Renard! Are you out there?

I have a whole book of 279 picking exercises for the right hand only… all open strings. It’s called, “Right Hand Development for Jazz Guitar”, by Renard D. Hoover.                         It appears to be out of print & I cannot find any reference to…

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Put on your lab coat & play some guitar…

… and you might want to put on some safety goggles, too. Ready? Let’s get into some straight-up warm-up exercises for guitar. Now, I feel that warming-up has tremendous value to the player in regards to getting their  technique up to their own personal optimal level. However, warming up takes time away from playing actual…

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Confessions of an Autodidactic.

I read lots of articles & watch lots of documentaries on science, psychology, and music. And I especially enjoy it when the subject matter is a combination of all three. I am fascinated with how the mind & body work together (or not) to achieve results in any kind of goal-oriented task. Although sometimes there doesn’t appear to…

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