The Mixolydian mode is a useful scale mainly for playing over blues and dominant 7th chords. It is similar to a major scale but has a flattened 7th degree. Let’s look at an example, you can improvise over a C7 chord using a C Mixolydian scale. The chord tones in C7 are C […]
Latin Jazz includes jazz music that is written in a Jazz style. These pieces usually take the form of Bossa Novas, Sambas, Cha-Chas, Mambos, and more. Here are some common jazz chords found in Latin Jazz Guitar Pieces. Minor 7 This minor 7 chord is part of the Minor Chord Family (there are 5 chord […]
These are the main differences between a classical and a flamenco guitars: Type of Wood Classical guitars are built to have a wide tonal and dynamic range. This is because classical guitar music requires lots of tonal variation like sweet, warm tones or harsher bright tones and it often requires very quiet dynamic or very explosive […]
Classical Gas is an iconic fingerstyle piece written and recorded by Mason Williams in 1968. It was originally called Classical Gasoline but due to a publishing error, it was shortened to Classical Gas. Interestingly Williams was not known as a musician, more so as a comedy writer for the show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour […]
Over the last few years, I have had the privilege of spending some time with legendary guitarist Tommy Emmanuel. In this interview, Tommy shares his love of classical guitar and some of the players that influenced him. Sergio: You have mentioned in other interviews that you took some interest in classical guitar in the past. […]
I am doing lots of online guitar lessons along with many other guitarists at the moment. Zoom is an easy to use web conferencing software that has become an industry standard and seems to have surpassed Skype as the go-to online teaching software. It’s easy to use, all you need is a link from your […]
Today I want to talk about improvising in a Latin Blues style. I’m going to be using the E minor pentatonic in various positions along the fretboard and showing you my approach to using the scale in my solos. We’ll also explore some extra notes and ideas you can use to help improve your solos […]
The pentatonic scale is a versatile and easy scale to practice. It’s a great scale for learning how to improvise and compose as well and for ‘jamming’. What is the Pentatonic Scale It is a five-note scale (in Greek Pente=five and Tonic=note). Though there are a number of different five-note (pentatonic) scales we will focus […]
The silent guitar is a great practice companion. It is 80% quieter than a traditional guitar and very portable. They come in steel string and nylon string and include a variety of pick up options. Yamaha has added a digital imaging option which uses sampled guitar sounds to try and capture and recreate an authentic […]
There are 4 famous waltzes by Venezuelan guitarist/composer Antonio Lauro. They were edited by Alirio Diaz who was an internationally renowned classical guitarist and former student of Andres Segovia. Antonio Lauro is known for his skill in composing waltzes in a Venezuelan national style drawing form its folk traditions. His friend and champion Alirio Diaz […]