7 Steps to Learn Funk Piano
How Practice & Learn Funk Piano Funk piano! – when we hear it done well you might find yourself saying: “Wow! I really wish I could do that.” When you hear the pros effortlessly playing funk with a great rhythmic feel and continual variation they sound awesome. Since it can seem intimidating trying to […]
Altered Dominant Theory
Altered Dominants for Guitar: Part 1 – Altered Dominant Theory I want to do a short series on using altered dominants chords since they seem to be particularly intimidating from a theoretical point of view. This is largely because of the descriptive notation which generates length chord names. Indeed it is often a lot simpler to […]
“In France they Kiss on Main Street” (Jaco Pastorius)
This inspired piece of bassage from the febrile fingers of the late great Jaco Pastorius graced the smouldering live Joni Mitchel album, “Shadows & Light” and has long exerted a spell over me. I finally settled to transcribe the first verse and interlude and discovered a wealth of fascinating lines, infused with great rhythmic and […]
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 […]
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 […]
Ten Essential Principles of Productive Practice
Practice is the key to progress, but without effective tactics, you’re liable to get nowhere fast and give up in frustation. Here are ten red-hot tips for enhancing your practice sessions and making sure you get the most out of your precious practice time! 1 – “Break it up!” – the undeniable utility of “Small-Chunking” […]
▶ ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ – Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer – YouTube
The inimitable Mr B playing his unique take on the George Formby classic… Originally posted 2015-06-19 23:00:39.
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 […]
5 Perfect Practice Points to Picking Perfection
(or “What to should I be practicing on the guitar???”) So you’ve finally decided to take learning the guitar seriously? Good for you! You love the music, you’re enthusiastic and you’re raring to go… Or maybe you find yourself longing to play well but daunted amount of information about how to play….we are living […]
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 […]
