admin

Here I quickly talk about my story about playing fast guitar during my studies at Swiss music University and how 2 live performances which changed my direction completly in my perception of playing fast and music.

Timing is 50% of music and in slow blues it's probably rated even higher. So here you can learn how to get an organic timing and how to build great timing automatisms that you can play freely on any slow blues and sound great because your timing works. Here you can download the files associated to this tutorial :

In fact that's one of the big tasks to work with modes and make it sound organic and not like switching from one mode to the next. I'll do a tutorial about this in the near future. That can be a very useful add in the playing. I also do that on chords with are only possible to play when you use your thumb that way. Thats great - the familly band

Thats in fact the question - what is music all about ? Can not one note played at the right spot with the right emotion have a bigger value then meaningless runs and chops ? I personally found out the hard way after years of extrem practicing where I suddenly got cut off music standing on the big stages and could not play at all anymore. The way to music has to be the opposite - start with one perfect note at the perfect spot. And that's what I try to teach my students - thats the way to music and happiness in music and maybe one day such fast runs come but then they fit perfect in the moment they are played. In fact music is more then just playing notes - it's a way of life. Maybe for some guys it's the right thing to do to play always as fast as possible and for others not - it's a personal choice and a personal way of living.

Yes what I learned over the years is, that life balance is more important. I can tell because I also went the other way with extrem practicing.

Here's another guy - Greg Howe He has amazing and similar skills like Max Ostro and Matteo Mancuso ... but not so overwhelming perfection like the young players. Well it's still great and professional ... but the difference is what I was just talking about in the post before. Well maybe to compare that with 100m sprint - the winner makes it in 9.76 and the 4th one in 9.85 ....

in fact this was hard work... of all those guys. We will see how it develops - I remember Frank Gambale. In his really crazy times he was absolutly amazing and precise and fast but there was a lot of hard work behind it - later in his career he did not work so much anymore and the small little mistakes came which " normal " pro's have came back but you hardly hear them. You really need to practice like 8 hours daily to play on such a level... I can tell I practiced up to 16 hours daily during my studies - but later I could not keep this high level up - just because I needed to make some money and had other things to do as well but also because the motivation for such extrem practicing times is hard to keep up permanently. The worst what can happen is when you have a girlfriend - then one is not so driven anymore to practice non-stop. I can tell - the past years I put my relation first for once in my life. Now I want to get back to higher practicing levels but still having a life beside music.

and just discovered an other guy - Max Ostro

I have been overworking my entire playing with the new guitar. The general idea to get a new concert guitar was that my old guitar the GODIN LGX did not match my expections of the sound of the guitar itself anymore with new playing technique. I have the new guitar since July and in fact it took me till now to really get used to it and to adapt the great features of this new guitar in my playing. Now with the last concert on Dec 27th and played all tasks also life on a concert so that I can say that I am on a new spot in my guitar journey and it's great to continue from there : and this leads to the 2nd part. I did not check the guitar scene so much in the last 3 years and I did not notice what kind of incredible young and new players are out there and these guys really redefine the art of guitar playing a amazing and modern way. I will name 3 of them which really caught my attention : Ichita Niko - he has a really amazing way of creating sound with a lot of harmonics, tapping additions in chords. Tim Henson - I would say he was influenced by Ichita Niko or opposite. A similar way of playing rhythmics, chords and breaking songs appart in different rhythm patterns. But he is more the metal and metal core guy with his band Polyphia : and last but not least the really outstanding new guitar star on the stage of guitar players. Matteo Mancuso - well you find so many video's of him, or reaction videos. And all pro players give this guy a big " WOW " - me too. This guy is really on a new level of gutiar playing and in fact he is encouraging me to work more on my finger picking stuff. This guy gave me some really serious thoughts which direction I want to go next - and I came to the finding that the individual music and composing makes every artist unique and special - so I continue my path with the Farbmusik Concerts. But you check Matteo Mancuso - this guy really plays the biggest technical difficulties total effortless and perfect.

Hey Jim, thanks for your nice feedback. That's exactly what is the idea behind this community. I would wish that more students would take the opportunity to communicate with eachother - for the benefit of the students. But that is the only thing where I don't have an influence here.

Here I give you the main tips you need to know if you want to be successful throughout your entire learning guitar journey. If you want a review on your personal practice plan please open up your own blog :

yes I understand your confusion. In fact you use the so called " options " when you work with 7th chords. In the case of dorian it's like this : Without 7th chords you see the intervals like this : 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 - 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 - 1 If you take 7th chords you go over the octave to find out the options so then it's like this : 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 - 8 9 b10 11 12 13 b14 The reason why you do that is the principle how you create chords in a mode. You use the method of stacking up triads. If you want to find out the options to continue stacking triads after the 7th you continue counting even you go over the octave. Without the 7th chord you just start from the beginning once you get to the octave. 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 - 8 9 b10 11 12 13 b14 I hope this helped. I don't say it's logical but's the way it is done.

In fact - most guitar players don't count and they don't know rhythm - but it's an important thing to be able to know what you are doing. That's why I created this program, were students learn to know rhythm in order to improve there playing level dramaticly. But I know if you never done that before it's quit hard at the beginning. Just keep on working on it guys - it will come....

This tutorial is for all intermediate rock guitar players who want to work on their timing and precision in playing. This is a " MUST HAVE " for all rock guitar players. Here you can download the files associated to this tutorial :

Here I give you some cool ideas to play a really cool ueber blues rock guitar riff with a drop D tuning + give you some ideas how to play a wild solo by using the phrygian nat. 3 scale. Here you can download the files associated to this tutorial :

It's not needed but it can help a lot because most players really know the shapes of the pentatonics well. ... just take it step by step with the modes. As I already said it's a longer process till the puzzle reveals the full picture.

That's a hard topic of course - and it takes time. The best way is to learn the modes ( including the intervals ) and start to work with them. It's a longer process till you can play freely on the fretboard. The pentatonics can be a already know grid - if you know the intervals of the pentatonics.

Here I teach you the theory of the " secondary dominants " in major and minor chord progressions. If you are into jazz guitar this tutorial is a " Must Have " even it might seem to be hard to understand at the start. Once you got the trick is really easy - like riding a bike. Here you can download the files associated to this tutorial :

View File Secondary Dominants Here you find the available secondary dominants in major and minor. What is a secondary dominant ? This is a dominant which you find on any levels of the diatonic chord progression either in major or minor which resolves on a level of the major or minor diatonic chord progression. That's the basic rule - if you have any other dominant chord somewhere which does not fullfil this rule it is treated differently. The available modes of any secondary dominant relays to the original mode of the level you find the secondary placed on. As an example : V7 / IV in major : The original mode is ionian. The nearest available dominant mode is mixolydian V7 / VI in major : The original mode is phyrgian. The nearest available dominant mode is phyrgian nat. 3 Submitter admin Submitted 12/12/2023 Category Theory & Exercises  

A great move - knowing the intervals is the key to play over the entire fretboard in any key, any mode and any situation. It takes a while but once the roadmap is set you can start to move freely on the fretboard. I am playing 10's since a long time. Those ones don't break and keep the sound for a while once you put them up. 09's or even08's can also sound great but they loose the sound faster and have to be replaced faster.... at least that is my personal experience back there .... many years ago where I decided to switch to 10's.