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40 Day Guitar Practice Challenge

In Guitar Blog, Interviews and Insights, Music, Practice and Technique by Craig Smith

Are you ready to take your guitar playing to the next level in 2020? Let’s do it together! New Years resolutions can be cliche but what’s wrong with trying to better yourself, whether it’s a hobby, your health or the desire to become a better guitarist? For beginning guitarists, improvement can be a measured by leaps and bounds almost daily. For intermediate and advanced guitarists those jumps in technique and musicality can be few and …

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5 Ways Guitarists Develop A Better Ear

In Guitar Blog, Interviews and Insights, Music by Craig Smith

One of the most important skills you can develop as a musician is a “good ear”. The ability to match pitch and audiate on the guitar is fundamentally important in all aspects of your playing. Developing your ear will make your improvisation more creative and melodic, as well as improve your composition and make learning and accurately playing any piece of music easier. While some musicians are lucky enough to be born with perfect pitch, …

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HX Stomp Review – Guitar Gear Gift Ideas

In Guitar Blog, Interviews and Insights, Music, Reviews and Gear by Craig Smith

As Thanksgiving and Black Friday approach, we’re all getting ready for our holiday gear shopping, whether for ourselves or the guitarist in your life. If you’re like me, you do most of this shopping online. At this point in my guitar playing career, I really don’t feel the need to go to a big chain music store and listen to some kid (who let’s face it, doesn’t know as much as I do) demo and …

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What You Should Look for in a Guitar App

In Guitar Blog, Music, Reviews and Gear by Craig SmithLeave a Comment

What Should You Look for in a Guitar App? Using apps is one of the ways beginners can learn to play acoustic, electric or bass guitar. It’s convenient and allows you to practice and review lessons even when you’re on the go and even when you don’t have your beginner electric guitar around (here’s a good spot to find one). But with the number of guitar apps out there, how do you know which one …

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Picking Exercises, Guitar Practice, Shred Guitar and Live Gear

In Arpeggios, Chords, Guitar Blog, Practice and Technique, Scales by Craig SmithLeave a Comment

Guitarists have been emailing me… asking where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to. The short answer is, practicing. Practicing a lot. While my writing has a suffered a bit, my guitar chops are making a serious comeback. Most of my friends, family and readers know I do a ton of acoustic guitar gigs. I’m still doing 4-5 per week. Thats just how I pay the bills here! Recently I got the call to …

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Game of Thrones Series Finale – How it Could Have ended

In Lifestyle, Reviews, Uncategorized by Craig SmithLeave a Comment

Sunday night’s Game of Thrones Series finale left millions of fans gasping a collective “what the actual F$*K?”… this fan included. I’m not ready to sign a petition for a Game of Thrones Season 8 do-over like many millions of fans have today, yet I can’t escape the feeling that the entire episode, perhaps even the entire season was half-baked. I’m not alone. Every news outlet from The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Washington …

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Guitarist Bobby Koelble – Interview and Lesson

In Guitar Blog, Interviews and Insights, Music, Practice and Technique by Craig SmithLeave a Comment

I want to start this article by saying, I’m just a big fan of Guitarist Bobby Koelble. He’s the type of Guitarist I want to be like “when I grow up”. I like to think of myself as a busy musician. I’m writing, teaching and performing 4-6 days a week, 52 weeks a year. But… theres busy… and there’s Bobby Koelble busy. I like to think I’m fairly versatile on the guitar. I’ve done my …

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Alternate Picking – 20 Essential Picking Exercises For Guitarists

In Guitar Blog, Practice and Technique, Scales by Craig SmithLeave a Comment

Alternate picking for guitarists may seem like something we all take for granted. Most guitarists, even complete beginners alternate some down and up strokes whether they are consciously doing it or not. As we develop our picking hand, alternate picking can open a whole new world of techniques and music not obtainable otherwise. Even if you’re familiar with alternate picking, it can often be helpful to go back and work on the basics. Sometimes I …

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90 Page Guitar Practice Routine Ebook Sale

In Guitar Blog, Music by Craig SmithLeave a Comment

Today April 30th is the last day of Sale! You asked for it… you got it.. 33% until May 1st. Enter code “Easter19” to get The 7 Day Practice Routine For Guitarists for only $9.99! What you get… Over 90 Pages of Chords, Scales, Arpeggios and Music Theory for Guitarists. Printable Chord, Scale and Arpeggio Charts. A comprehensive 7 Day Practice Guide for Guitarists of any Skill Level. Printable Musical Examples in TAB & Standard …