The Secret to Solo Guitar Playing (and making it sound smooth) classical guitar jared's top picks solo guitar / fingerstyle technique Jan 28, 2020

Playing "solo guitar” means that we’re playing multiple parts at once: melody, harmony, and bass. 
 
Sometimes even multiple melodies at once. 
 
But when we try to play solo guitar using old habits left over from strumming chords, it ends up sounding stiff and...
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How to Play Your Own Jazz Guitar Chord Melodies (this really works and it’s straight forward) jazz guitar Jan 21, 2020

In the world of jazz guitar there’s one thing that we can all agree on: chord melodies are hard! But also, that they sound so freaking cool that it’s worth it. 
 
A “chord melody” on the guitar is when a melody is played with nearly every note being harmonized...
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What does it take to get amazingly good at playing the guitar? micro-post question and answer text only Jan 14, 2020

To get good, really good, at ANYTHING, simply never stop practicing the fundamentals.

I'm grateful to have learned this many times over while teaching private guitar lessons.

Every time I simplify my approach to teaching or practicing, and go back to focusing on the fundamentals, that's...

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Melodies on guitar - writing melody over chords free download: chords with color jared's top picks music theory songwriting / composing Jan 14, 2020

When songwriting on the guitar it’s easy to get stuck on one idea that sounds good and not be able to break away from it. 
 
When we finally finish a song it might end up not feeling like it goes anywhere, or several of our songs might turn out sounding very similar to each...
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Important Ear Training Exercise for Guitarists (we need this!) ear training free download: chords with color Jan 07, 2020

Are you actually hearing everything you’re playing when you play the guitar? The truth is that many of us aren’t! 
 
We have to face the hard truth that, unless we do something about it, guitarists have bad ears. 
 
Playing a fretted instrument means that we...
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How Guitarists Should Learn Music Theory (so many people don’t do this!) free download: chords with color music theory practice strategy & outlook Dec 31, 2019

It’s hard to ignore the enormous benefits of understanding music theory.
 
Having knowledge of theory is like having a birds-eye-view map of how music works, and whatever you play shows up as a little “you are here” arrow. 
 
Every time I play anything on the...
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My Best Guitar Technique Advice After 15 Years of Teaching (this will change how you practice) free download: top 3 pentatonic patterns practice strategy & outlook technique Dec 24, 2019

Technique is standing between us and everything we ever want to play on the guitar. 
 
We should all be dedicating at least a small portion of our practice time to technique. If we improve our technical abilities then learning all the fun stuff gets WAY easier.
 
But what should...
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Welcome to Sound Guitar Lessons (A Grounded Approach to Learning Guitar) Dec 17, 2019

Welcome to Sound Guitar Lessons.

This is the place to get solid musicianship training on the guitar.

I’m here to not only help you improve immensely as a guitarist, but to guide you in becoming a proficient and well-rounded musician.

My lessons cover a wide range of topics but they're...

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