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Buying a guitar for kids — Which size is the right one?
At the beginning of each new semester, many children start taking guitar lessons again. But which guitar should you buy …
Songwriting — From Idea to Riff
I “force” every student in their career to write their own song. The most common sentence I hear is: “I can’t do that.”
C, B♭, or E♭ instrument — How do they differ?”
Perhaps you’ve wanted to buy a songbook and saw “For Eb Instruments” on the cover.
How do I learn to improvise on the guitar (beginner)?
I think we all agree that improvisation is not the same as scales. On the one hand, you need the scale as a kind of “gui…
Applying Power Chords (Beginner)
Power Chords — or simply “5” chords (e.g., C5) — are great. We don’t care if it’s a major, minor, sus or whatever else, …
Stuck Despite Practicing a Lot — What Should I Change?
A question that I get asked really often.
Simplify and Shorten Barre Chords (Bar Chords)
Barre chords are very difficult to play in many ways. Especially for beginners, these chords are always a major challeng…
Playing with a Metronome — Important or useless?
Practicing or playing with a metronome is a whole different ballgame than just playing “into the void.”
What is a sus chord?
A sus (suspended) chord, like all other chord names, describes the content of a chord.
![[Songwriting] Which Chords go together?](../assets/blog/3e574786_0_C81w-AMKh-h4BRNX.png)
[Songwriting] Which Chords go together?
I am very often asked in my lessons which chords go together and which do not.
Triad VS Seventh Chord
As is well known, a chord consists of three or more notes played simultaneously. Only a single note would simply be “a n…
What is a Chord made of?
Chord Construction: Unveiling the Building Blocks
What is a time signature and how do they differ?
There are many (almost cryptic) messages on a sheet of music. One of them is the time signature.
How do I learn the Notes on the Guitar Fretboard?
The mystery of the “fretboard” probably accompanies a guitarist throughout their life. That’s why I’ve written about it …
Downstrokes and Upstrokes on the Guitar — When do you use which?
The question of when to use a downstroke and when to play an upstroke remains a great mystery of many guitarists. But ac…
Reharmonization of a Simple Melody
“Reharmonization” refers to the process of changing a melody or its chords. This can be done with any melody or accompan…
Simple Jazz Chords for Guitar
To explore the vast world of a different musical style, you always need a good starting point.
What is the Right Guitar String Action for Me?
The String Action on Guitars: A Crucial Factor for Playability and Sound
Recording: Recording an Electric Guitar in a Home Studio
Once you reach a certain level on the guitar, the next logical step is: recording a song. But what do you need for that,…
The Relative Key
The relative key is the major or minor key that has the same key signature as a given key.
Outside Improvisation — Four Ways to Play Outside
Outside improvisation has fascinated us for quite a while now. That’s why it’s becoming more and more widespread. While …
Octave Displacement
Octave displacement (or Oktavenverschiebung in German) describes a technique in which we — as the name suggests — play n…
The Complementary Interval
By complementary interval, we mean the inversion of an interval. Simply take the upper note and move it down an octave.
Voice Leading
Voice leading refers to the technique of moving as few notes as possible when transitioning between chords.
Chromatic Approaches on Guitar
I don’t want to go too deep into the topic of “chromatics” here, but rather concentrate on “chromatic approaches”.
How to write your own guitar solo (a guide)?
Writing Your Own Guitar Solo
A Guitarist’s Guide to Lick Creation
Guitar licks are a great way to improve your technique, gather inspiration and get to know new musical styles. But a gui…
EarTraining for Guitarists
Of course, a musician is not only good because he/she can shred up and down a scale. There are many more factors that ma…
Playing Sheet Music — Finding Notes on the Guitar
One of the top questions I get asked again and again is: “Do I actually have to be able to read music?”. My answer to th…
Intervals Cheat Sheet: Associating Songs with Intervals
Learning to recognize intervals is one thing. But recognizing them quickly — even while a song is playing and you’re act…
Improvisation Guitar — Dominant 7 Chord — Part I
The Dominant 7 chord (e.g., C7) is comparable to a shaky skyscraper. 🙂 Going from the third to the seventh forms a trito…
PowerChords on Guitar
What Are Power Chords and How Do I Play Them on the Guitar?
Download Guitar Sheet Music
Nowadays, it is not difficult at all to download sheet music for guitar and other instruments.
Palm Mutes
What are Palm Mutes and how do you play this technique on the guitar?
The Guitar Fretboard
The fretboard is one of the many mysteries of the guitar. At first, it makes no sense, but once you understand how it wo…
Shifting Basic Guitar Chords
When we talk about shifting guitar chords, we all mean the same thing, namely barre or CAGED chords. This is not wrong, …
The Melodic minor Key
The Melodic Minor scale is a blend of major and minor. Of course, it’s primarily minor, as it includes the minor third (…
The Harmonic minor Key
Harmonic minor occurs more often than you think. Even if it doesn’t initially sound like a harmonic minor song, it may b…
The minor Key
Just like the major key, the minor key has its chords, scales, and modes. But what exactly changes in the minor key comp…
The Major Key
The foundation of every key always consists of a major scale.
Upper Structure - Superimposing - Chord on Chords
Upper Structure, Superimposing, Chord on Chords. This theory or “technique” has many names, but always means the same th…
How do I figure out the Chords or a Melody (in a Song)?
Figuring out and Transcribing Melodies
Improvising on the Guitar — With Arpeggios (and Pentatonic)
What is an arpeggio and how can you improvise with it?
Scales, Chords and Arpeggios for Guitar (Complete Guide)
I searched the internet for a long time for a comprehensive list, but unfortunately, I could never find everything in on…
Strumming Patterns for Guitar
A quick note beforehand; the strumming patterns are not 1:1 perfectly accurate to how they are played in the songs. Sinc…
Guitar Chords
They say there are infinite guitar chords. It’s kind of true, because you can never really know them all. But there’s a …
CAGED
Every guitarist has probably read or heard about CAGED somewhere. But what exactly is this CAGED?
Guitar Techniques
What guitar technique is shredding or “to shred”?
12 Notes on the Guitar
As most of you may already know, a “normal” scale, in contrast to the 12-tone scale, contains only 7 notes. There are al…
Chord Names and Their Meanings
Everyone knows it. The “D minor7 ^2 flat9 sharp11 divided by 13.” Of course, there is no chord with this name. But at f…
How do I transpose a song?
Transposing has nothing to do with transporting or transforming. It simply means changing the key.
Am I too old to learn to play the guitar?
I hear this question often. It’s even worse when someone doesn’t dare to learn guitar because they’re not sure if it’s e…
Add Note Exercise
One of the most efficient methods to quickly learn difficult licks/lines, solos or even accompaniments is the Add Note E…
How do I find the key of a song?
Finding out the key of a song is actually very simple. With a few tricks, you can even figure it out without 10 years of…
Freddy Green Chords
Who is Freddie Green?
Triads and inversions
What exactly are “chords” again?
Tapping Basics
First of all, there are two types of tapping. One is with the left hand, which is already playing all the notes anyway, …
Sweep Picking Basics
Sweep Picking is probably the most fascinating technique on the guitar ever. Never have I been asked so much about techn…
MelodyChords / ChordMelody / Fingerstyle
Whoever can play the guitar knows this all too well; you’re somewhere far from home, with only the foxes and hares sayin…
Harmonic Analysis
Do I need to know this?
Reading Sheet Music - Reading Notes on the Guitar
Notes don’t bite. I have to tell my students that over and over again. I don’t force anyone to read music, of course, bu…
Pentatonic Groupings
Why Groupings?
2–5–1 Cadence Voicings on Guitar
Anyone who starts playing jazz knows that 2–5–1 cadences are ubiquitous. The 2–5–1 cadence is the most commonly used cho…
Drop 2 Chords on Guitar
How do I write my own pop song?
What do I need to know?
Improvisation on Guitar — Part 1
Musical improvisation is similar to when you’ve made a mistake and then have to fix it -> You become creative! 🙂 However…
String Skipping Technique
One of the more challenging techniques on the guitar is the string skipping technique. String skipping means “skipping s…
Pentatonics on Guitar
The pentatonic scale is the most popular scale on the guitar. Probably not least because it is simpler and has “only” 5 …
Easy Twelve Bar Blues
We all know this; you’re sitting with other musicians in the practice room. Person 1 wants to play song 1, but you don’t…
Rhythm Exercise
In this lesson, the focus is on being able to play independently.
How Do I Read Guitar Tabs?
What are tabs / What is a tablature?
How to play the same chord in different ways on the guitar?
With my students, I always read sheet music. That means each of my students should be capable of looking at a sheet of m…
Simple Guitar Strumming and Fingerpicking Patterns
Who doesn’t know it? You’re playing your 200,000th song, but it sounds exactly like the other 199,999 songs before it. O…
How do I use ToneX as an interface (Mac)?
Press and hold the button in the top-left corner.
How do I play Barre Chords (Bar Chord) on the Guitar?
What are barre chords?
The Seven Modes In Major on Guitar
Modes
What are intervals?
In music, we have ONLY 12 tones, each of these tones has a name, and the distance from tone 1 to tone 2 (and so on) also…
What is an Arpeggio?
To be able to play arpeggios, one should first understand what arpeggios are.
Notes and Rest Values
Rhythms are naturally very important. Not only to play better solos, but also to be able to play better accompaniments.
How To Tune A Guitar
Often, tuning a guitar can be more challenging than initially thought. However, once you know how each string should be …
Melodic Rhythm (on Guitar)
A melodic rhythm is a term used to describe a rhythm that is achieved not through individual notes and rests, but throug…
How do I read chord diagrams on guitar?
What are chord diagrams?
(Most) chords on guitar
Here is a list of all (or most) guitar chords for the guitar. Of course, as always, there are many more Voicings that ca…
What is the difference between major and minor?
As we already know, (or not know) the difference between major and minor is the interval called “third” in a chord.
The fretboard is one of the many mysteries of the guitar.
As an example, let’s look at the keyboard.