Classical Guitar Review

For those of us who battle with the hectic modern lifestyle it can often be difficult to make time for practice. Families, work and life’s little surprises always have a habit of getting in the way of a good practice session! When we do make some time for practice it is important to make that [...]

It is important to consider carefully which works you choose to study because more often than not, they stay with us throughout our entire lives. Our repertoire can shape us and even define what type of musician we are. It has been said that “pieces choose us” and at times it does feel that way [...]

When I was in my teenage years I built up quite a large collection of metronomes. I was absolutely convinced that they kept breaking, one after another. I had tried new batteries, different settings, and even asked my friends if they could hear what I was hearing. To my, very self-assured ears, they were constantly [...]

In my lessons with the undergraduate students here at Yale I find myself repeating a few core ideas many times. Perhaps one of the most common suggestions I make to students is to… slow down. Guitarists seem to have a fascination with playing things fast. I must admit that I too went through my phase… [...]

Setting goals is a great way to make your practice sessions more productive and get you feeling positive about your playing. All too often we sit down to practice and work without any sense of direction or time frame. The progress of the practice session is dependant on what scores are at hand and what [...]

Recording yourself is one of the best ways to improve your abilities. We often have quite a different idea in our head of what our playing sounds like compared to the scathing honesty of a recording. If you record yourself and hear things that you want to improve then you have already learnt something and [...]

Its possible to forget sometimes just how easy it is to hold down a guitar string. When our left hand is required to do many complex movements and move rapidly in synchronization with the right hand we can forget to relax and end up using much more pressure than we need. That pressure builds up and can cause aches and pains in the palm and forearm. It also makes playing more difficult than it needs to be.