Correct, but Empty. Have you ever felt that your playing sounds technically correct, yet emotionally empty? Frank Lloyd Wright believed a building should grow from its site. What if your guitar phrasing also needed to grow more naturally from the composition—the harmony, the form, the feel? In the fourth book of his autobiography, Wright described […]
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Out of Order. [Your playing sounds predictable.] But what if the real problem is not a lack of technique, scale shapes, or phrasing ideas, but cracks in the foundation beneath them? Mies van der Rohe wrote: “One can only order what is already ordered in itself”. This matters more to guitarists than most people realize.
More Notes, Less Music. [Playing technically correct, but emotionally empty] Coop Himmelb(l)au wanted architecture that bleeds, whirls, stings, and tears under stress—what if your guitar phrasing needed that same kind of life? In Architecture Must Blaze, Coop Himmelb(l)au rejects safe, complacent design and calls for something more alive, disquieting, and intense. This connects deeply with
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[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.] Have you ever attended a drawing lesson? One of the important concepts you learn is texture. Sometimes, you use dots, short lines, or brush strokes to create shading and
Sweep Picking Guitar Technique: Mastering the Art of Fluid Playing Read More »
In martial arts, throwing a punch with just your arm is weak and exhausting. But when you engage your entire body—rotating your hips, driving with your legs, and aligning your shoulders—the motion becomes powerful and efficient. The same principle applies to selective picking in guitar playing. By dividing the workload between your fretting and picking
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[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.] When exploring a foreign city, you can always stick to travel guides, visiting the recommended landmarks and following the standard tourist paths. But the real magic happens
Breaking Patterns: The Art of String Skipping Guitar Technique Read More »
[This piece comes from my Guitar Technique Booster Course. It’s focused on the legato guitar playing and has been lightly adapted for this article.] When I was preparing for my entrance exams to study architecture, one of the biggest challenges I faced was pencil drawing. The task was to observe a composition of two
The Architecture of Legato Guitar Playing: Designing Smooth Guitar Lines Read More »
[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
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
Before Practicing Exercises: The Fundamental Picking-Hand Mechanics of Alternate Picking Read More »
[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