I love lists! There are so many ‘greatest guitarist’ and ‘greatest guitar album’ lists out there, why should you care about mine? The biggest fault I see is in the lack of diversity found in most. When making a greatest guitar music album list, I think it’s essential to cross into different genres of music and cover as many techniques as possible. ….and why does the music all have to be from the 20th century …
Flamenco Guitar Lesson and Interview – Berto Boyd
I came across Flamenco and Classical Guitarist, Berto Boyd, on Facebook a while back through our mutual friend and guitarist, Ben Woods. I admire anyone who (like me) is able to make a living playing guitar at any level. I’m also just a huge fan and admirer of Flamenco guitar in general and it’s not something I’ve covered yet here on Life In 12 Keys. Berto has a passion, depth and sophistication in his playing …
7 Essential Jazz Guitar Chords and Scale Study – The Girl From Ipanema
7 Essential Jazz Chords and Scale Study – The Girl From Ipanema An analysis, lesson and study of a really classic Jazz / Pop tune, The Girl From Ipanema. In this Guitar lesson: Girl From Ipanema Chord Chart Chord Analysis Section A Chord Analysis Section B Soloing and Improvisation Ideas – The Essential Scales Practice Backing Track Every once in a while I need to write a lesson for myself as well as for my …
The 7 Day Guitar Practice Routine – 33% Off Valentines Week Sale
How was your weekend? I don’t know about you, but I’ve gotten a ton of emails for sales over the weekend for Presidents Day, Valentines Day, Lincolns birthday etc from just about everywhere… I’m just a guitar player like you. This is my first website and this is also my first book, so I’m kind of learning about this stuff as I go…. UPDATE: The Sale is over, but you can still get the book 25% …
Minor Pentatonic Shapes – Guitar Scale Overlapping
This week I’m going to revisit the Pentatonic Scale. Particularly the minor pentatonic scale and how it overlaps notes in it’s parent Major Key. In case you missed it, last week I did a lesson on guitar modal scales and how they overlap. One of my readers, Tim, sent me an email right after that lesson went live and asked about the same concept using minor Pentatonic scales.. so like I always say… I get …
Guitar Modes – A Practical Guide To Modal Shapes
Guitar Modes Whenever I see guitar modes explained in lessons and other guitar blogs, there always seems to be one key point missing. How they overlap each other. When discussing how to use guitar modes, it’s really important to understand how they fall across the fretboard in any given key. To further illustrate this point, I received an email from Randal, an email subscriber who had just purchased my book The 7 Day Practice Routine …
Lagrima – Complete Score and Classical Guitar Lesson
My first (online) Classical Guitar Lesson! I gotta say, I’m kinda stoked about it too. If you’ve read my 2019 Guitar Goals article, you know that classical guitar is a beloved hobby of mine and something I always strive to improve. In this Lesson: Intro Francisco Tarrega Intro to Classical Guitar Score Analysis Tips For Practicing Video Performance January for us working musicians in Florida can be the slowest time of year for live gigs. …
Pentatonic Scale Shapes, History and Use
Pentatonic Scales! These scales are simultaneously the most used and sometimes most purposely avoided of all scales on the guitar. In all of my years of teaching guitar lessons, I’ve found there are typically 2 kinds of guitarists: Those who avoid pentatonic scales because they believe they are overused or too simple. Those who use pentatonic scales because they are easy to get into and haven’t learned other scales yet. Many years ago at Lentines …
Guitar Goals 2019!
Happy New Year Guitarists! 🎸 Resolutions…. Yikes! I mean, I think the general population will roll their collective eyes .. I know I do. The fact remains, we make New Years Resolutions whether we admit it (publicly) or not right? Whether it’s a diet to take off some of that holiday weight or better Guitar Practice.. I mean myself personally.. I think I ate over 300 cookies bewteen Thanksgiving and Christmas! Who am I kidding? …
Guitar Practice – The Harmonic Minor Scale
I’ve been having a blast lately talking with so many guitarists about all of the things they practice and struggle with on a daily basis. When I built this website, I really wasn’t sure what it was I wanted to to do with it. I started with varying topics that inevitably would always come back around to guitar practice routines and practical, applicable music theory that seemed to be lacking in so many online lessons …