I talked, not long ago, about the process of strumming chords on a guitar. That post focused on what the right hand does while playing the instrument (presuming the player is right handed.) Let’s consider the what the left hand does while fretting different chord shapes. We’ll focus on what are called open chords. Open…… Continue reading Learning chord shapes on the guitar
I’m pretty impressed with the web site fingerstofrets.com which generates visual diagrams for fretting most of the essential open chords. It shows both the notes to fret and fingers that should be used to fret those notes. I’ve been using it to create charts I print out for students. I’d love to see them add more…… Continue reading Handy online chord chart generator
I recently noticed that someone had come to this site via a search for the term “circle picking.” Circle picking is a technique I’ve heard of but it’s been something of a mystery for me. I set out to find out more and am glad I did. It’s a cool little technique I want to play…… Continue reading Two types of circle picking
I thought I’d throw together a list of blues tunes I consider classics. These are as much fun to play over as to listen to so I offer some tips on what part of the neck you can play the first position blues scale for each song. Here’s a diagram of the first position blues…… Continue reading Blues classics to play over
My mom got me Jake Shimabukuro’s new album for Christmas and I listened to it last night. On this album he does a lot of something I’ve heard him do in other places, a kind of single string tremolo picking that sounds like a mandolin being picked fast. I’ve been curious as to how to best…… Continue reading Ukulele tremolo picking Jake Shimabukuro style
I recently watched an interview with guitarist Al Di Meola as part of a Google video program called Talks at Google. Al, a noted speed picker, plays a few tunes during the show and I noticed something relevant to my recent article, “A Survey of Guitar Picking, pt 2.” In that post I mentioned the idea…… Continue reading Observing Al Di Meola’s edge picking (with video)
Whenever we attempt to learn something—an instrument, a language, a piece of software, skateboarding, whatever—it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You see what the greats of the discipline do and think, “How can I ever get to be that good?” You pick up a book on the topic and it’s 400 pages long, written in some…… Continue reading The secret to learning
<<<Part 1 Edge Picking How we position the pick in relation to the strings can have a big effect on how fluidly we can play. One option has the pick parallel to the guitar string, as seen here. (Note: In the above photo I don’t mean to imply that you move you pick in the…… Continue reading A Survey of Guitar Picking, part 2
Having to quickly learn a bunch of tunes is a challenge that often pops up in the life of a musician. It has, once again, for me and I thought I would write out a post on the topic (partly to clarify my own process.) Truthfully, I’ve got a fairly light task right now; I…… Continue reading How to learn a lot of songs fast
I’ve been working on ukulele strums and decided to write up a blog post on the topic. While this post is uke focused, much of it can be applied to guitar or any “strummable” instrument. How to Strum A key question arises quickly: how does one strum a ukulele? I have a preferred technique but…… Continue reading Strumming a Ukulele (or guitar)
Wil Forbis Music 