Last weekend I accompanied my wife on an acoustic guitar while she thumbed through a few children’s songbook, singing to my tired-and-needed-to-wind-down children. And this little family event reminded me of the importance of doing the simple things well. Finding the Challenge in Simple Things From a guitar player’s point of view, it can seem…
Well, thank you for asking. 🙂 What follows is my own theory about why single-coil pickups have a greater dynamics range and thus forces you to develop better control over your dynamics. I’m not an expert on electric engineering — so correct me if I’m wrong anywhere. Traditional single-coil pickups have weaker outputs, probably weaker…
I recently checked out a bunch of guitar instruction books from the library. This book, by Renard D. Hoover, was one of them. I’m not a jazz guitarist, but this book is really for any and all guitarist devoted to develop their lead playing. Make that seriously devoted. This is a thin book but densely…
Is to be able to express oneself through your playing. Now, if you are a true master, then perhaps the ideal is to be able to play anything and everything you hear in your head. Wow! Can you imagine the freedom you’d feel, if you actually had such a capacity? Most of us don’t even…
All right, here is a rant, more than anything: Vibrato is the most important technique for all soloing guitarists, except classical. (Well, it’s important in classical, too, though perhaps not the most important) By that, I mean finger vibrato, not the kind you do with your tremolo. Why? It’s because vibrato is the single…