Things I Learned in the First Year of Grad School
Updates & Activities
I never really understood exactly what “guitar virtuoso” meant. Now I know. And it’s scary. I don’t know that I’ll ever get to that level, and it’s a good thing I have my entire life to do it. Analysis is about more than labeling chords and drawing nice diagrams. It’s about trying to make sense […]
Read MorePractice Log Experiment
Updates & Activities
I am terrible at keeping a practice log. But I realize how important it can be to track progress. Whenever I do use one it helps a lot. So I’m making an effort this summer to stick with it and make it a habit. So far I’ve taken the approach in my practice logs to […]
Read MoreGuest Post at Guitar Player Daily
Updates & Activities
I wrote a guest post for Guitar Player Daily about Giuliani’s 120 Right Hand studies. Check it out!
Read MoreLesson Length Follow Up
Ask the Readers
Last week, I asked a question to the reader about a good length for guitar lessons. Several people weighed in. The majority of answers were for one hour lessons. Cameron Mizell brought home the teacher’s perspective: some students really can’t do hour lessons. I’ve found this to be true as well. It can be a […]
Read MoreThe Naxos Guitar Heroes Collection
Guitar Related Links
Amazon has Guitar Heroes, a collection of 47 classical guitar mp3s from the Naxos guitar library, on sale for 99 cents now $2.49 USD. Not a bad deal! The last track in the collection is a thirty minute interview with the artistic director of the Naxos guitar collection, Norbert Kraft.
Read MoreMonday Motivation: Dylla is Scary Edition
Monday Motivation
“Music is much too important to be left entirely in the hands of professionals.” –Robert Fulghum Let’s face it, Marcin Dylla is scary good. Today we feature him in a recording session for his Naxos CD. I’d not heard Rodrigo’s Junto al Generalife before, great piece.
Read MoreLinkage: 5/8/09
Guitar Related Links
Ever wanted to publish a magazine? It seems like it just got easier with online service MagCloud. MagCloud offers the convenience of doing everything–you just have to send in a PDF. Anyone want to start a classical guitar magazine? Candace Shaw lists ten things musicians should know. Emon at Guitarkadia found that the BBC series […]
Read MorePractice is Conditioning
Classical Guitar Practice Tips
To go along with yesterday’s post, here’s another thing to consider. Much like technique is never really perfect, it just develops, a difficult section of a piece grows over time. You cannot fix everything in one day. It’s about shaping your playing of a section, slowly, and deliberately avoiding mistakes, into what the end result […]
Read MorePerfect Technique
Classical Guitar Technique
Many guitarists, especially adult students, get really caught up in doing everything technically perfect. They try to do each movement precisely as it can be done, and buy books and books on technique and exercises. I know this because that was me during undergrad. I read a lot of books on technique, and learned a […]
Read MoreHow Long Should a Lesson Be?
Ask the Readers
On the request of a reader, here’s another poll for you. How long should a guitar lesson be? My lessons are one hour, which seems like it’s enough time to get things done. I’d be especially interested in hearing if anyone takes multiple lessons each week, and how each lesson is organized. [poll id=”4″]
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