Theory & Playing Technique

While it is possible, playing Rolling Stones classics like Brown Sugar and Start Me Up in standard tuning will most likely leave you utterly disappointed and forced into impossible finger positions. Granted, the rhythm parts can be played using simplified power chords, but that still won’t get you that signature Stones sound. So how does Keith Richards pull it off? Well, as someone who knows how not to take things too seriously, Richards is probably the first to admit he really isn’t the best guitarist ever to have roamed the stage. The trick here, is open G tuning.

When playing the guitar without a plectrum, you use your fingers. This playing style is also known as ‘fingerstyle’ or ‘fingerpicking’. A great advantage of playing in this way is that you can play multiple strings with more precision (plucking is the better word for it). Also, you get a much warmer sound out of your guitar. In this blog, I’ll take you through the basics of fingerpicking: which fingers to use and the best playing position, and whether you need to play with your nails or with your fingertips. If you’d prefer to just play with a plectrum, then check out our purpose-made plectrum blog.

In this blog, I’ll be taking a look at the four most important drum rudiments you need to raise your drumming game. Rudiments are short drum pattern made up of a small number of strokes. Drill these rudiments every day, and you’ll not only watch yourself grow as a drummer, but you’re likely to find that playing your drum kit becomes much easier. This is simply because the most complex of rhythms is actually made up of rudiments. In this blog, we’ll talk about the four most common patterns, and since they’re the most-used, they’ll stay with you for the rest of your drumming life.

It’d be a shame if you avoided sharp (♯) and flat (♭) notes simply because you don’t know their exact meaning. However, this is important information to know if you want to play a wide variety of music using sheet music, chord progressions or another kind of music notation. As such, in this blog, I’m going to teach you the difference between sharp notes and flat notes, and how you should use them.

Since most composers don’t mind boasting their complex melodies, harmonies and use of keys, it can be a bit of a struggle for fledgling pianists to find a piano book with easy-to-play yet great-sounding pieces. Fortunately, composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart have also written beginner-friendly music that might even sound familiar to your ears.

Reading guitar tabs isn’t only easier than reading traditional notations, it’s also lot more intuitive. Tabs, short for tablature, show you exactly which string to play and which fret to press down on it at a single glance. It’s worth knowing how these work because they’re used all over the internet and in various guitar learning methods and songbooks. To learn everything you need to know about guitar tabs, simply sit back and enjoy this blog!

As a well seasoned online guitar teacher, Guest-blogger, Michel Penterman often gets asked the question: “Do I have to learn to read music to start playing the guitar, or can I use guitar tablature, or just learn all the chords?” In this blog, Michel sums up the pros and cons of each approach and offers a nice, simple conclusion!

“That’s major!” some might exclaim when hearing that one of their mates has had a day of it. But in terms of music, Major can refer to something that feels a lot more cheerful, while minor tends to have a more sad vibe. But is this always the case? And how does this difference actually happen? In this blog, I’m going to be saying a lot about how ‘Major’ and ‘Minor’ actually works in music so that you can not only hear the difference, but actually understand it and why it happens at all.

And so we come to the third edition of our blogs about reading music. In the last two, we covered the C-Major scale and the Minor scale, which hopefully gave you a better idea of how to read notes on a stave. We also showed you how to find all of these notes on a piano, keyboard, and guitar. If you’re a drummer, you can find some helpful tips for reading drum notation in our blog, Drum Notation 101. In this blog though, we’re going to cover the mystery surrounding rhythm, tempo, and measure. Of course, if you understand all of this already and want to dive a little deeper, then feel free to check out our written-for-purpose music books.

In this blog, you can learn how chords are built and how to read particular chord symbols and notation. Understanding this will only help you progress whether you’re playing a guitar, keyboard, piano, or in fact, most other musical instruments, or if you simply want to know what lies behind the magic of chords and how they actually work. You’ll also find a useful list of other blogs about chords and music theory, along with our collection of music books.

From newspapers and magazines to alternative-history science-fiction books, everything that originally came in a paper version can now be found online as well. The world of music is no exception. Paper is getting rapidly replaced by pixels and, while this is not always ideal, I’ve gone ahead and made a list of the pros and cons of digital sheet music and will tell you exactly where you can find online sheet music. After that, I’ll highlight various popular sheet music apps and their strengths, weaknesses and possible alternatives.

Singing while playing guitar or piano, or any other combination of vocals and an instrument for that matter, all comes down to high-level multitasking. While for some the thought alone can cause nightmares, anyone can learn to do it. Start by asking yourself two questions: 1) Can I sing? and 2) Can I play an instrument? If your answer to both questions is “yes”, then you can also do both at the same time. It’s a really just a matter of practice, practice and mostly, practicing both individually.