Piano Practice Tip of the day #1
Practice for pristine fast passages: Raised Fingers Raised fingers in slow scale practice. If you’ve ever listened to the great pianists play, it’s dazzling how pristine their single line fast passages are. Magical and pearl like evenness. The solution to this is the raised fingers approach in scale practice. When practicing scales and arpeggios slowly (and you should be practicing them slowly), raise each […]
Ukulele Chords in C major, Part II: Secondary Triads
In this pair of video tutorials, I introduce the 7 essential chords belonging to the key of C major. This will give you the chord vocab to play a wide range of songs on the Ukulele, in C major. Part II focuses on the so called Secondary triads – the minor chords built on the […]
Rockabilly Swing Rhythm Guitar
Hey folks…here’s a little Rockabilly / Swing to wet your appetite, inspired by messing around with “Stray Cat Strut” by The Stray Cats (doh!). What’s interesting to me is how you can combine a variety of subtle techniques to add depth to a simple chord progression…welcome to the lost art of rhythm guitar! Here’s the […]
Troubleshooting Chord Strumming On the Guitar
Strumming chords is essential “bread & butter” technique for accompanying songs with the guitar, and yet it is suprisingly hard to do well. Here’s a short checklist you can run through each time you practice to ensure that you’re getting the best possible sound. Fretting Hand Are all the desired the notes ringing […]
Edelweiss
This haunting version of Rodger’s & Hammerstein’s Sound of Music classic Edelweiss captured my attention when it was re-purposed as the eerie introduction for the televesion adaptation of Phillip K Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle” I was so impressed that I decided to learn it, but I noticed that all the version I […]
Improvising Blues Basslines
A Short Guide to Improvising Blues Basslines Improvising Blues basslines is a very important skill for all backing players. This is the ability improvise variations on a basic bassline while playing. In this lesson I’ve chose a very basic stock groove that you’ll have no doubt heard before and then demonstrate various ways you can create […]
Using the Guitar Pickup Selector
The Gentle Art of Using the Guitar Pickup Selector (or how to make your bassplayer happy!) This is a slightly tongue-in-cheek post, but I thought it might be informative. As resident bassist in New River I am constantly engaged in the bitterest acrimony with our guitarist (in my capacity as musical advisor) regarding the gentle […]
Transferable Skills on the Guitar, Part I
(or how to own on the guitar in record time) Hey folks…it’s me again…time to settle down guitar in time with a nice cup of tea and a biccy and listen to my words of wisdom… No but seriously… today I want to have a chat with you all about the usefulness of transferable […]
Essential Ukulele Strumming Patterns, Part I
In this Ukulele video tutorial, I introduce 9 essential ukulele strumming patterns for beginners to learn. These patterns can be used when you play songs. Generally you can mix and match patterns, so you have the choice. You can: stick to a single 1-bar pattern create variations on that pattern combine two 1-bar patterns to […]
7th Chords for Guitar – Part 1
Drop-3 Seventh Chords for Guitar Howdy there you plunkers! It’s time to dust off the old Jazz box and prepare to launch yourself upon that excruciating voyage of musical discovery par excellence – that’s right, it’s time to learn your Jazz chords in all inversions! Specifically, we’re going to be focusing on Drop-3 7th Chords […]
