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The UGtrA Zone

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Theodore Kalantzakos

Basic Fretting Hand Guitar Technique

Basic Fretting Hand Guitar Technique: Building a Solid Foundation for Speed and Precision

[This piece comes from my Guitar Technique Booster Course. It’s focused on the basic fretting hand guitar technique and has been lightly adapted for this article.] As I wrote in my article The Fundamental Picking-Hand Mechanics of Alternate Picking: Imagine walking into a gym, grabbing the heaviest weights, and lifting with poor posture. Does adding […]

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Basic Picking Hand Technique

Before Practicing Exercises: The Fundamental Picking-Hand Mechanics of Alternate Picking

  The Secret Fix for Sloppy Alternate Picking: Master the Right-Hand Motion First [This piece comes from my Guitar Technique Booster Course. It’s focused on the fundamental picking-hand mechanics and has been lightly adapted for this article.] Imagine walking into a gym, grabbing the heaviest weights, and lifting with poor posture. Does adding more weight

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Speedy Chord Changes Course

How to Change Chords Quickly. A strategic Approach to Tackle the Most Common Problem among Guitar Players

  [This is an excerpt from my Speedy Chord Changes Course, which is available exclusively as a bonus with the Rhythm Laced Column Course. It might be edited for the purpose of this article.] Learning to change guitar chords quickly and smoothly is a must-have skill for any guitarist, whether you are a beginner or

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The Rhythm Laced Column Course

Mastering Open Chords: Your Essential Guide to Cowboy Chords for Beginner Guitarists

  One of the first things you encounter when learning to play the guitar is mastering open chords, often called cowboy chords or first-position chords. These basic chords form the foundation for countless songs, and knowing how to play them is a must-have skill for any beginner guitarist. They are like the basic Lego bricks,

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Alternate Picking vs Economy Picking

Alternate Picking vs Economy picking. Which Guitar Picking Technique Suits Your Playing Style Best?

  Before we’ll delve into the alternate picking vs economy picking battle, let me ask you a question: Do painters use the same direction of brush strokes when painting, or do they alternate between up and downstrokes? The correct answer is… It depends. On what? On the texture, they want to achieve. This is the

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How To Improve Your Alternate Picking. A Strategic Approach to Master the most Common Guitar Technique.

You know that you need to improve your alternate picking. But searching for random exercises online is not what it make this happen. In this article, I’ll be showing you a strategic point of view on what categories of alternate picking there are and thus what kind of exercises you should practice. After reading this,

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The 6 Essential Electric Guitar Techniques

The 6 Essential & Advanced Electric Guitar Techniques You Must Know

[The 6 Essential & Advanced Electric Guitar Techniques is the Part II of an article series regarding guitar techniques in detail. If you haven’t read Part I yet, click the link, it’s a must-read: The 8 Most Important (And Easy) Guitar Techniques.]  If you’ve already read my story, you probably know that I took my first lesson

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The 8 Most Important Guitar Techniques

How to Quickly Transform Your Guitar Playing and Sound Like a Pro. The 8 (Easy) Electric Guitar Techniques that will give Emotions & Colors to Your Lines.

Summer 2021. I was invited to compose music for a radio-theatrical project for a popular FM Radio in Greece. It was a challenging project as each character’s emotions should be projected only via speaking and not by any movements or facial expressions. So, before starting composing, I arranged to attend a rehearsal. The director would

How to Quickly Transform Your Guitar Playing and Sound Like a Pro. The 8 (Easy) Electric Guitar Techniques that will give Emotions & Colors to Your Lines. Read More »

Breaking the CAGED System without Using Music Theory. How to Design Scales for Fast, Intervallic and Creative Playing with the 3nps Concept

[This is part 2 of a two-part training series. Find part 1 here.] Hurdling is one of the most impressive sports. Athletes running looks like dancing. There is symmetry in their moves, momentum, synchronization, speed, and power. And all these are due to a single constant. The “dancefloor’s” specifications. The symmetrically, precisely measured and equally

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Breaking the CAGED System for the Contemporary Guitarist. Improve Your Guitar Playing by Redesigning the Scales

[the is an excerpt from my free UGAR (Underground Guitar Artists Runbook) training series via email. If you are not a member yet and want to get access click here. Modifications have occurred for this online reprint.] Do you struggle with awkward scale shapes that make impossible to play fast passages and sequences? In today’s email

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