Ukulele Chords in C major, Part I: Primary Triads

Posted by on Jul 24, 2023 in Music Theory, Ukulele | No Comments

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 I focuses on the so called Primary triads – the major chords built on the […]

Altered Dominants for Guitar, Part 2

Posted by on Jul 23, 2023 in Guitar, Guitar Chords, Jazz, Music Theory | One Comment

Shapes in the ‘E’ Position Hi Folks Welcome to the second installment in my series on altered dominant chords. Last lesson I introduced you to the basic theory of altered dominant chords. In this lesson I demonstrate the most common chord shapes for the guitar, limiting myself to the ‘E’ type CAGED position (where the […]

Altered Dominants for Guitar, Part 3

ii-V-Is using the ‘C’ & ‘E’ CAGED shapes Hi folks Welcome to the third lesson in my jazz guitar series on using altered dominant dominant chords. I’m getting down to business in this lesson and demonstrating how to apply the altered dominant chords in the keys of D minor and D major, using the ii-V-I […]

“In France they Kiss on Main Street” (Jaco Pastorius)

Posted by on Jul 21, 2023 in Basslines | 2 Comments

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 […]

7 Steps to Learn Funk Piano

Posted by on Jul 20, 2023 in Funk, How to Practice, Musicianship, Piano | No Comments
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 […]

Paul Barton Piano Tutorials

Posted by on Jul 19, 2023 in Classical Repertoire, Piano | No Comments

Hey folks, I just wanted to big up Paul Burton for making such great tutorials on youtube. He’s a fantastic pianist as you can hear on his channel here http://www.youtube.com/user/PaulBartonPiano , and he’s also done some fantastic tutorials on learning some wonderful but advanced pieces of the repertoire. His insights and ideas about practice methods […]

Altered Dominant Theory

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 […]

▶ ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’ – Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer – YouTube

Posted by on Jul 17, 2023 in Comedy, Pop Music, Ukulele | No Comments

The inimitable Mr B playing his unique take on the George Formby classic…

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” […]

5 Perfect Practice Points to Picking Perfection

Posted by on Jul 15, 2023 in Guitar, Practice Methods | No Comments

(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 […]