Writing

Guitar School | Music Theory | General Musical Topics | The Novel

Guitar School

My Guitar School is intended for the intermediate player with limited knowledge of theory. This is not the place to look if you want to look up a G major chord. I assume that you are a relatively accomplished lead guitar player who wants to add some new tricks to your repertoire.

How to Practice
Hard-earned advice for the player who is starting or is stuck.

Articulation
How to join notes together.

Tablature
An explanation of how I write tablature.

Chord Boxes
How to read chord (and scale) boxes.

Warmup Exercises
How to get the blood flowing.

Nonlegato Exercises
These exercises strengthen your left hand and get to work on that picking technique.

Legato Exercises
For when you have dropped your plectrum somewhere.

Diatonic Scale Patterns
Boxes and fingerings for the seven diatonic scales.

Non-diatonic Scale Patterns
Boxes and fingerings for various non-diatonic seven-note scales.

Penta-, Hexa- and Octatonic Scale Patterns
Mostly pentatonic, but some other stuff as well, including the chromatic scale.

Breaking Out of the Box
Some hopefully helpful tricks on how to open up your range and stray from your favorite position.

Arpeggios
A little essay on the basics of arpeggios and how to locate them on the guitar neck.

Classical Music as Guitar Exercise
How to adapt certain figurations and techniques used in classical music and use them as guitar exercises.

Two-handed Tapping
Some variations on a clichéd technique.

Repetition
Play it again, Sam.

Power Chords
A few words on the tools of my trade.

Music Theory

In contrast to the Guitar School, my articles on music theory are written with the complete novice in mind. Since I am a guitar player, and this suite of articles is a complement to the Guitar School, the brand of music theory I teach is very guitar-centric.

Notes
The building blocks of music.

Intervals
Basic introduction to musical intervals.

Scale Theory
Some basic principles behind scales.

Chord Theory
How chords are constructed.

Key
An intro to tonality.

Chord Symbols
How to decipher the chord symbols that are used in pop and jazz.

Chord Voicings
How to put chord theory into practice.

Overtones
What are overtones and how do they affect you?

Tunings
The history of out-of-tune guitars and pianos.

Transposing Instruments
When what you see isn't what you get.

Musical Notation
A beginner's guide to traditional staff notation.

General Musical Topics

Album of the Week
Albums that have been influential on my musical development.

The Novel

My second novel
An explanation why it is not here.