I was recently invited to write up a blog post by Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters, plus some cool solo stuff), who has a cool podcast called Shred With Shifty. He basically interviews guitarists and goes into the nerd-y side of their style, influences and technique. One of his episodes interviewed Lindsay Ell about her solo on Hits Me (here’s the song link - the solo drops in at about 2:09), which is a minor pentatonic-y, modern country solo. It sounds simple, fits the song really well, but so many guitarists hear solos like that and think “I could never write something like that! How does she co ..read more

For a lot of instruments, it’s common to measure the skill of a player based on their “Grade”. “She’s done AMEB grade 8 piano!” for example, as a measure of a skilled pianist. Unfortunately, outside of the classical world, most guitarists don’t undertake formal exams or qualifications. It’s just not the common route we take! Worried you’re missing out? Then this article is for you! We’ll run through some common guitar exams, qualifications and courses, like AMEB, Trinity, Year 12/High School, Bachelors of Music and everything in between, so you can find out what’s involved and whether it’s som ..read more

Once you’ve been playing guitar for a while, you’ve probably thought about upgrading to something a little more professional than a beginner guitar, either for a better sound, additional features or maybe just for better comfort of playing. If you’ve looked at reviews or forums online, you’ll see a lot of big, conflicting opinions, which can make it pretty tough to know which brands to go for and what the tangible differences are. Here’s a guide to buying that intermediate or advanced guitar you’re after, with some budget, brand and shopping tips to help you find the right guitar for you! (If ..read more

For most guitarists, the process for learning to solo and improvise involves a mix of learning guitar scales and solos written by other guitarists. If you do this enough, your ears will help you fill in the rest, like timing and choosing which notes to play when. But what if your notes are sounding too random? What if they don’t feel like they fit the chords you’re soloing over? Fear not, for music theory is once again here to the rescue! In this article we’re going to look at using chord tones, which are the notes that a chord is made up of, to make your solos sound more cohesive with the cho ..read more

I’m a big advocate for buying guitars in person. Nothing quite beats playing your guitar and “feeling” if it is the right one for you. But what if you don’t have a local music shop nearby? Or want a model that no one stocks? Or want to buy second-hand? Or are a beginner and don’t know which guitars “feel” good or bad? If any of these describe you, read on to learn a few tips for shopping for guitars online! Buying a guitar from an online store Buying guitars online is generally pretty easy now, but there are a few things to check when choosing WHERE to buy from: Make sure they have stock i ..read more

When I was first introduced to a looper pedal many years ago, I couldn’t see the purpose of them. After all, why would I need a little box that can temporarily record low-fi guitar riffs when I could just use recording software instead? But, just like many other pieces of digital music technology, the glorious engineers have continued to improve the humble looper into an extremely powerful tool for practice, live use and songwriting. In this article, I’m going to show what guitar looper pedals do, how to use them and how they differ from recording gear and software (to help you determine if ei ..read more

One of the biggest questions new guitarists have is “what’s the best way to learn the guitar?” Spoiler - the short answer is that there is no ‘best’ way for everyone. BUT - there is a best way to learn guitar for you, at your current skill level, with your current goals, and that is what this guide is here to help you with. To get started, let’s have a look at your goals for learning to play the guitar. Why do you want to learn to play the guitar? There’s so many great reasons to learn to play (not to mention a few not so great ones) but until you understand your motivation, you’re going to ..read more

Recently we set a challenge for students to play a short musical idea (30 - 60 seconds) every day for 21 days and film their progress. Depending on the student, this involved things like: Chord changes Sweep picking A solo or part of a song Scales The result? As you’d no doubt expect, everyone improved significantly over those 21 days: you can see the first and last day of their performances below (great effort, guys). Now, if that’s not enough of a motivator for you to set your own 21 day challenge, let me run through a few little practice secrets that explain WHY it works so well ..read more

The thrill of finishing a song is made all the more exciting by what follows next - choosing a new one to learn! Of course, in reality, I’m well aware that you, like ALL musicians, are probably more likely to start a song, get it sort-of going, then feel the need move onto something else once you’re bored. This is totally fine, and can be one of the most efficient ways to build your skills. However, both of these situations often leave you with a difficult choice to make - what song is the best one for me to work on now? Your options are typically: Revisit an existing song Learn to play a ..read more

A big part of playing guitar (or any instrument) is being able to play songs. Whilst it’s great to read a song and play it, or to play parts of songs, ultimately you’re going to want to have songs that you can: a) play from memory, in their entirety and b) play reasonably well in the future. I’m going to take you through some processes that will help you learn guitar songs faster and more efficiently. Learning to play the song For those who have memorised entire songs in the past, you probably already know what it takes: persistence bordering on obsession. If you have never learnt a song full ..read more