19
FEB
2018
FEB
2018
0
Unless you play nothing but straight-ahead jazz guitar, vibrato is important.
Good well-defined vibrato brings life to a guitar solo and is a significant part of what gives a guitarist their ‘voice’.
Weak vibrato, or no vibrato at all, can leave a solo wanting.
Listen to a guitar solo by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck and Mark Knopfler and you’ll hear three very different vibratos.
So what makes one guitarist’s vibrato different to another? There are three ...
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9
APR
2014
APR
2014
So you’ve learned lots of chords and scales, you’ve developed a decent sense of time, and you have a nice armoury of phrases to use in improvisation.
But how does all of this actually sound when you play?
Fret-buzz and guitar playing
Try recording yourself playing a familiar chord-based tune and listen back with a critical ear. Are the notes clean and pure or are you getting ...
23
MAR
2014
MAR
2014
Why mistakes are you friends
If you are not making any mistakes on the guitar, either you are amazing or, more likely, you are playing material that is well within your current level of ability. Playing well within our abilities is desirable when performing live or recording. These situations require good performances that are free from mistakes for obvious reasons.
The practice room however is where we should strive to improve our abilities. This could mean developing ...
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12
APR
2013
APR
2013
A scenario
Young, keen guitarist gets a guitar. He spends time diligently figuring parts out, learning from recordings and magazines. He starts to feel quietly pleased with his progress and looks for ways to improve further. He hears that it’s a good idea to get a metronome so he keenly buys one and heads home to give it a try.
“Hmm… this isn’t very much fun at all… I know how to play this tune ...
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5
APR
2013
APR
2013
