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How to Follow Through on a Fulfilled Practice Session Tomorrow!

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As much as I love playing guitar and making music, there are times that I have to pick myself up to start practicing again.

Although playing guitar and making music is the expression of your inspiration, it is guitar practice that contains the foundation and building blocks to those expressions.

Once I start practicing again every sinew of my anatomy tells me this is good for me. I get excited all over again, the train is moving, skills are improving and guitar vocabulary is expanding!

Here are some things you do can do to make sure you follow through on that fulfilled practice session tomorrow:

Plan and remind
Set a time and place to practice. Choose a convenient time and a quiet place. Set the alarm on your cellphone and write it down on your calendar. Put post-it reminders on stuff in places where you spend most of your time.

Visualize your day the night before
Before you’re off to sleep think about how you see your day tomorrow. What will your day be like? How do you feel? How will you start your morning and spend the afternoon? How will you interact with people? What will and won’t you do?Continue Reading

The Almighty 1 2 3 4 Combinations Workout

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The 1 2 3 4 exercise is a notorious warmup exercise that many skilled and famous guitar players have adopted in their regular workout.

It’s the perfect exercise to develop dexterity and increase your speed.

In the beginning it tends to be a little bit boring because of the monotonous movements, but after a while your fingers get accustomed to the stretch and finger placement and you’ll start feeling the rush of getting up to speed. You’ll notice your fingers become more flexible and capable and eventually you’ll get hooked on the exercise.

Also playing chords, fill ins, licks, arpeggios and everything else on the guitar becomes a lot easier, even effortless, depending on how much you practice.

This is the Almighty 1 2 3 4 Combinations Workout:Continue Reading

10 Important Reasons to Keep Exploring Music

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Photo by Pittaya Sroilong
Nowadays it’s a lot easier to explore and listen to new artists, bands and music styles because of Pandora, Spotify, Last.fm and Youtube.

I listened to Last.fm for some time and I really loved it. It made me familiar with a lot of singer song writers I’d never heard before.

I’ve always been curious for new musical styles. I still remember listening to my first Slayer album when I was about twelve.

I must confess it didn’t really strike me at first, nor did it the second and the third time, but I wanted to know why the other guys were digging it so much. Was it just attitude or was there something I did not yet hear or understand? I discovered the more I listened to it, the more I learned how to listen and that’s when the music opened up to me. Eventually I became addicted to the genre.

I bought “Chaos A.D.” from Sepultura and I was in love with it straight away. I loved the dark guitar riffs and the bombastic brazilian drum fills of Igor Cavalera. It was all about rhythm and then I went on to Obituary, Death, Pantera, Metallica and Megadeth. The music became more melodic. It’s funny I started off listening to the most loud album at that time and it got softer along the way.

My brothers introduced me toContinue Reading

Graceful 3 String One Octave Arpeggio Workout

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Photo by Ethan Prater
I like to incorporate one octave arpeggios into my improvisation solos, because of the way they sound and feel. I prefer them over 2 octave arpeggios.

When I play an occasional one octave arpeggio in my improvisation it just sounds nice and fresh and could be something I made up on the spot.

But when I play a 2 octave arpeggio (without reorganizing it in anyway) you can really hear that I copied that straight away. It sounds too pre manufactured. It’s like playing a complete major scale or blues scale in your solo. You don’t wanna hear that.

Don’t get me wrong there are guitar players who play amazingly beautiful solos with 2 or 3 octave arpeggios but they are often extended arpeggios with extra notes or re-organized arpeggios.

So I do recommend to practice 2 octave arpeggios to expand your guitar vocabulary, knowledge of music theory, improve your dexterity and gain new ideas.

But today is all about 3 string one octave arpeggios. These are my favorites. I already wrote a post on one octave arpeggios which is a much bigger workout, but I always practice and memorize things in different ways. And I really love this workout.

Here are some tips:Continue Reading