Guitar

The following blog comes from someone taking online guitar lessons at ArtistWorks. He's a teacher at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute in Buffalo, NY - but when it comes to learning guitar, he's still a student. 

Can You Play “Far, Far Away?”  by Marcus D

It’s time for a reality check.  I didn’t grow up with a guitar in my hand.  I’m not one of those people who is fortunate enough to see the guitar as another limb, a natural extension of my body that will obey my every thought and sing out my ideas as easily as if I were tying my shoe.  Right here, right now, I’m going to make the confession that terrifies guitar players everywhere: this thing doesn’t come easy to me.

We've just added 2 new guitar lessons in the form of Guided Arrangements.  For anyone who's new here, "Guided Arrangements" are lessons designed by Martin to help inspire you to create your own version of the tune. Click on the images below to jump right in! 

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One of Martin's student sent us this nice testimonial speaking on Martin's fingerstyle guitar lessons. He talks about some important concepts he's taken away from Martin's online guitar lessons, and extends his personal thanks for making this available to students throughout the world. 

"It's really the best format I've run across…anywhere. It's the next best thing as sitting in the same room with [Martin]." - Kent Gunderson 

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This online guitar lesson by Bryan Sutton introduces a clever crosspicking arrangement of the traditional Christmas classic, “Silent Night.” Crosspicking refers to flatpicking (playing with a pick instead of your fingers) across different strings. In the video you'll see Bryan introduce the arrangement by playing it through and then break it down into pieces. This is just one of the hundreds of flat pick acoustic guitar lessons that Bryan teaches at his online guitar school. 

The whole "Silent Night" arrangement is based around a crosspicking style and is played in the key of C,  one of the easier hand positions for beginners.

In this video Jason Vieaux identifies some common trouble spots when learning how to play the famous Spanish guitar song "Leyenda". Many people often get confused by the distinction between classical guitar and Spanish guitar.  Since Jason is an expert, we had him explain the difference: 

I find that my travels now are great opportunities to tell people I meet in airports, planes and hotels about my online classical guitar lessons at ArtistWorks. Whenever I'm asked, "do you play in a band?" whilst on the road, I often respond that I play "Spanish Guitar", only because it's an easy answer in a busy world.  Even though "Classical Guitarist" is a better umbrella description of what I do, "Spanish Guitar" puts the image into most people's minds of a guy or gal sitting, unamplified playing Spanish guitar songs or Latin American music - alone.  And yes, I do that… kinda. 

What I really do is play music by "Classical" composers from Spain and Latin America, with the requisite classical technique and musical study that is required to play it.  I also play Bach, modern, pop and jazz arrangements, 19th century, lots of concertos with orchestra and chamber music, but that's not the point.

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 Online lessons are changing the way people learn music, including how to play jazz guitar. Martin Taylor, the world's most popular online solo jazz guitar teacher, is joining in that disruption by offering a free jazz guitar course. Over 1,000 guitarists signed up to this free course within the first three days. Though Martin Taylor's course is introductory, it offers guitarists a chance to check out some of the online lessons from his online guitar school that covers concepts including:

"You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail." -  (Charlie Parker)

If someone could devise a one size fits all practice routine for learning guitar, they would be making a lot of money. The truth is that what works for one musician simply won’t necessarily work for the next musician.

We all have varying amounts of time we can commit to practice and also varying responsibilities that get in the way of time with our instruments. The advice from Charlier Parker to just practice, practice and practice is obvious, but what constitutes effective practice? In this blog, jazz guitar student Andrew Bowen outlines several approaches to effective practicing - because time playing guitar doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re learning guitar.

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Learning how to tune a guitar can be tricky. We all know that the Ancient Greeks were smart, what with creating democracy, philosophy, and all. What most people don't know however is that their discoveries also helped us to figure how to tune a guitar.

In this video online guitar teacher Martin Taylor talks about what the Ancient Greeks can teach us about how to keep your guitar in tune:

Tuning the guitar is made a lot easier these days with guitar tuners but there are some other things you need to know because you can't always rely on them.  

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Happy Friday everyone! Wanted to let you all know - we got all kinds of rock guitar stuff up in the +Music area, including interviews with Guthrie Govan, Sam Coulson, and Tony MacAlpine. Also, there's a 13-part interview with the man first responsible for motivating Paul to rock - his uncle Jimi Kidd! Check it all out by clicking on the +Music tab up top! 

Happy Friday everyone! Wanted to let you all know - we got all kinds of rock guitar stuff up in the +Music area, including interviews with Guthrie Govan, Sam Coulson, and Tony MacAlpine. Also, there's a 13-part interview with the man first responsible for motivating Paul to rock - his uncle Jimi Kidd! Check it all out by clicking on the +Music tab up top! 

We send our congratulations to our fingerstyle guitar teacher Martin Taylor, who has been awarded ‘Guitarist of the Year’ at the British Jazz Awards in a ceremony that honors the United Kingdom’s top jazz musicians and jazz educators.

“I'm very honored to receive this award. I've spent the past 39 years as a professional jazz guitarist and I thank everyone that continues to support me by coming to my concerts, and everyone that has voted for me for this award. I’d also like to also thank all the students at my online guitar school who continue the tradition of jazz guitar playing around the world.” - Martin Taylor

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