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. …
Beginner Guitar Lesson – Strumming and Accompaniment
Hey everyone! Today I’m doing a guest guitar lesson with Utah Guitarist, Jami Taylor. I met Jami recently on Pinterest and we became fast email guitar buddies. Jami has a wonderful gift for beautifully designed, easy to follow, visually appealing guitar lessons. I just love her website and her beautifully styled lessons are so different than mine, I just had to have her do a guest post here at Lifein12Keys.com. Hopefully it won’t be her …
10 Essential Guitar Scales for Beginners
If you’re a beginning guitar player, you’ve probably heard the word “scales” before but may not be sure where to start. If you’ve tried a few, you may be wondering what the point is to this often tedious guitar playing chore. There are a few reasons why adding scales to your practice routine is super important: Scales build technique, strength and coordination in both hands on the guitar. Scales are the basis for all melody, …
Guitar Lesson – 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 …
Guitar Practice – How To Create Your Own Chords
Creating Guitar Chords A few years back I had an adult student, far from a beginner mind you, but he was struggling with chords and some basic chord theory. He had this book called “10,000 chord shapes” (I swear that’s a real book!) and he was convinced that he had to learn all of those shapes to become the guitarist he wanted to be. Not only was the concept of a book containing 10,000 chord …
Guitar Practice – Melodic Minor Scale
Melodic Minor Scale & Harmony Oh scary isn’t it! The red-headed stepchild of minor scales.. unless you’re a Jazz or Classical player that is. If you’re a rock, metal, blues or country player you probably avoid this scale like the plague.. if you’ve ever even learned it at all. What is the big deal? Why is this scale so misunderstood (and avoided) outside of Jazz? I was warming up for my gig on a chilly …