IntellectualMusician.com

When playing over a particular chord how many different arpeggios would you consider using? Over any chord you can superimpose a large number of different arpeggios which can give you greater harmonic choices. In this lesson I am going to look at one approach of doing this. By having a parent scale in mind (ie playing in a specific key) whether it’s for one chord, a chord sequence or for a whole piece of music, I’m going to show how to determine all the different arpeggios that are available to play over each chord in that key. Continue reading »

Let’s get one thing straight before I get loads of complaints. Singers ARE musicians. We do a very good job at being musicians. The title is a bit pedantic, but I am trying to make a point here. I think it is about time that those of you who are not singers, need to understand our “ways”. Yes I know some of us throw tantrums, lash expensive mic’s to the floor, kick speakers, and walk out of rehearsals in disgust-never to be seen again, or in the nearest bar drowning our sorrows and saluting Freddy Mecury, et al: “why can’t I sing like them?”. Continue reading »

As a guitar player and guitar teacher I meet a lot of people who always wanted to play jazz but thought it was too difficult so they never give it a go. This lesson is kind of aimed at those players who want to jazz up their blues playing without too much stress. It’s not designed as quick-fix but will get you sounding much more jazzy in just a few simple steps. Continue reading »

Well by the time you start reading this 2nd part you guys should be ‘purring’ freely in the vocal region to carry on with more basic vocal technique. Continue reading »

How many of you guitarists out there can play in any key, any scale in any position on the neck? I would lay a bet that there are more that can’t than can. This lesson will put you on the right path to breaking out of those comfortable boxes and shapes that you have probably become used to. Continue reading »

Hello there,
It’s Nick Andrew (the Mad Scotsman) here with the first in a series of lessons in cliché busting musical ideas for the bold axe men and axe women out there, looking for something more than the latest licks. Continue reading »

Whenever I’m learning a new lick, riff or scale, I always find it best to start off slowly then gradually get faster until I can play it faster than actually I need to, then it’s always a relief to play it at the correct speed 8). To help you do this, I’ve put together a range of drum backing tracks in various time signatures for you to practice your licks and riffs over.

Continue reading »

I’ve found that most guitarists underestimate the effect their right hand technique can have on their playing. When the average guitarist sits down for a couple of hours to practice, I imagine that he/she doesn’t spend 2 minutes thinking about what their right hand is doing. It just goes on auto-pilot. You hold the pick between your thumb and first finger, but what about those other three fingers on the right hand? They just sit there and don’t get to have any fun. The solution to this situation is “Hybrid Picking”. Continue reading »

‘You sound like a strangled cat!’

‘But Sir!’ replied Johnnie ‘That’s the way I normally sing…….’

‘Not in my school choir-not ever!’ replied the school master. Continue reading »

Have you ever wanted to go to a music store and get a book that had the best information on how to play guitar, explained in ways that were easy to understand and made sense, and not know which book to buy? Ever go out and get that book, only to discover that it had a bunch of information that you didn’t need and didn’t make a good deal of sense after all? Ever wonder whether the “get chops quick” guitar methods so prevalent on the Internet today are really ripoffs? Well, no need for further frustration, help is here. Continue reading »

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the fretboard nasty Uncle Richie adds another finger and brain twisting section to the hell that is the Exercise of Doom. Continue reading »

Exercise of Doom Part 1The exercise of Doom as I christened this 15 years ago. Is a way of practicing major scale fingerings. Continue reading »

These bits of advice that I’ve heard or read over the years have earned their weight in gold…. Continue reading »

As far as rock guitar lead is concerned, it is the scale of all scales, the mother lode so to speak, the scale used early and often by such lead guitar greats as Jimmy Page, Edward Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, and Neal Schon, to name a few. If indeed a rock n’ roll encyclopedia exists specifically for rock lead guitar (and who knows, there might be one floating out on the web somewhere), this scale would and should appear on the top, right up front. Continue reading »

This practice progression is meant to act as a companion to the many great lessons that include exercises but do not give any progression to practice them with. Continue reading »

In order for practicing to be efficient and productive, a degree of organisation should be installed.
You need to be clear as to what it is you are intending to practice/learn and how you are going to go about it. To make the best use of your precious time you need to divide your allocated practice time to cover the variety of areas you need to address. Continue reading »

‘Octave’ is the term used to describe the distance (or ‘interval’) from a one note to another, with half or double the frequency. Continue reading »

I found myself talking to a young woman last night who is learning the piano. She was taking a class at our local city college, but since she works full-time and sometimes had to work late and miss class, she started to fall behind and dropped the class. Continue reading »

Let’s face it, if learning was easy, we’d all be experts. But how does one balance the tears and apathy with the delayed joy and gratification that will undoubtedly come to one who devotes the time? Continue reading »

There are all kinds of ways to gain dexterity and technical facility on your instrument. A lot of students get books with etudes or exercises, but I’m a big proponent of making up my own exercises. Anyone can do it. Here’s how. Continue reading »

What’s the sound of one hand clapping? Probably not unlike the sound of one musician trying to improvise without accompaniment. But no one ever said there was room for friends out there in the old woodshed. Follow these steps to fight practice-room loneliness… Continue reading »

How many of us know a musician that practices for more than two hours daily? There’s no doubt that these obsessive types exist, but when you’re in the real world there’s always something there to curtail your ideal uninterrupted practice time (job, kids, American Idol…). Continue reading »

Many students ask me how they should go about preparing a piece of music for performance. The method I outline here is actually quite simple. By following each step to the word you should be able to prepare even the most complicated pieces without too much pain and suffering. Continue reading »