Welcome to a new Monday email with 3 random thoughts on all things guitar, music, and life, including ear training fun, cassettes, and more…
I hope you had a great Easter. It is not exactly an Easter special, but in the spirit of the holiday, it is slightly retrospective.
Here it goes…
Below is an article I recently wrote on the topic of aural training for Guitar Tutor magazine, published and released by RGT – the Registry of Guitar Tutors. I’m a member of the RGT and love getting this magazine in the post every 3 months as it features some wonderful insights, tips and tricks for teaching and playing the guitar.
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A short while back I mentioned that I have two pretty awesome announcements coming up soon. Well, here is the first one; it is my brand new guitar podcast.
Music theory is a touchy subject for a lot of guitarists. Most of them don’t believe in it and others just hate it. On the other hand, some guitarists who struggle to knock out a decent tune, spend too much time reading up on advanced intricate theory when they should be practising their guitar skills and learning how to play the songs they love. [Read more…]
Out of all the things I have written about here on my blog, one thing I haven’t given you much of so far is ear training and specifically, ways to test your ‘ear’. Well, in this post that’s about to change. Ear training is so important for your overall musicianship and is often neglected by a lot of guitarists.
Paul, George & John by Omroepvereniging VARA, licensed under (CC BY-SA 3.0 NL)
Recently, I was thinking about an old friend I had back when I was a kid. His name was Ian. Although he wasn’t a formally taught musician, he used to play this game that at the time I thought was a bit silly but, as a full-time musician nowadays, I know now is incredibly useful.
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I get asked a lot by students exactly how I work songs out for myself. That is, by not using any sort of tab, chord chart or YouTube video—nothing but my own hands and ears.
Often a student is really keen to learn this skill but they cannot believe it is something they can acquire. They see working songs out by ear as a mystical skill that only wizards such as Gandalf and Merlin could acquire (just imagine those two rocking the guitar!)
