Welcome to another Improve Your Music Podcast. In this installment I’m going to be talking with Peter Pik, Sydney based solo guitarist who specialises in the finger-picking style of guitar playing. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Peter personally for a number of years now, but due to both our busy schedules, it’s often a [...]
Update: Welcome one and all to our very first podcast. At the end of this article you will find a link to hear Mark Johnson explaining and demonstrating some of the techniques discussed in this series of articles on soloing. Mark has worked hard on getting this series and its’ accompanying podcast out and I [...]
So you’ve looked at the basic Pentatonic scale and now you want to liven it up a bit.Excellent Grasshopper.As I mentioned before, the Pentatonic scale is the basis of my soloing Kung Fu, and my Kung Fu is strong. I assume if you’ve grasped the principles of part one, then yours too is becoming somewhat [...]
I want to address in this installment the almost lost art of soloing. Why? Because it’s what I get asked about the most.I may have to spread this across a couple of installments, but let’s see how we go.
In years gone by, I was a total guitar meglomaniac and everything had to have a screaming [...]
Ask anybody who the greatest guitar players in the history of rock music are, and you’ll likely get the standard answers. The big three, Clapton, Beck and Page; certainly Eddie Van Halen; maybe Stevie Ray Vaughn. The metal-heads will cite Randy Rhodes and George Lynch. These are all valid answers, but if you would put [...]
Hi all. Been a bit slow getting new articles in here as I’ve been flat out getting a new project together. Check out my web site, blah, blah, blah. OK…down to business. I’ve been frequenting my local guitar shop a fair bit of late. I won’t name it because they don’t give [...]
The first time I picked up a guitar and started learning guitar playing techniques my whole life changed. I think I slept with it the night I brought my first new guitar home. Its a bit embarrassing to admit, but it is true. I remember the feel of the guitar in my hands and the [...]
Many great articles have been written on the subject of practice. This is my tilt on practice as it’s something I get asked about quite frequently.
I’m one of those musicians that other musicians often love to hate. Why? because I’m what has been termed as “a natural musician”. It is a real term. Look it [...]
Talking to students about scales puts about as big an enthusiastic smile on their faces as the prospect of going to the dentist for root canal therapy. In other words, enthusiasm levels = zero.
I must confess that I too find them as boring as watching paint dry, but this doesn’t negate their importance in [...]
Yes, that is indeed the question in this article.
If I had a dollar for every time I’d been asked that question after a gig.I thought I’d have a little squiz at some of the basic, more common guitar effects in use these days in this installment.
What I will make abundantly clear before I get [...]