by Jay | Aug 16, 2022 | Blog, Front Page, Guitar Heroes, Videos
This is a famously beautiful arrangement of a Catalan folk song, by Romantic Era guitarist/composer Miguel Llobet. He wrote/arranged a set of 13 such songs, and this is probably the most famous one, frequently played as an encore. One of the most lovely special...
by Jay | Aug 12, 2022 | Blog, Front Page, Videos
If you want to be tunely, practice afternoonly. I have to admit something. I haven’t been practicing as much as I would like. I haven’t been practicing afternoonly. In fact, I haven’t been practicing regularly at all lately. I love practicing, and I...
by Jay | Aug 10, 2022 | Blog, Front Page, Guitar Lessons, Performances, Teaching Blog Post
There is a whole lot of music sitting around in my studio, and I love nothing more than to rifle through it, find something that suits my inclination for the day, and start reading it. Daily sight-reading is a great idea for developing your skills as a...
by Jay | Mar 15, 2022 | Front Page Slider
CD with original artwork available for streaming and purchase at Bandcamp: Music is everywhere these days, but listening to it is getting harder. Classical music– and all serious “listening” music—-hails from a time before app-driven dopamine hits ruled our...
by Jay | Mar 15, 2022 | Front Page Slider
This is my arrangement of the full finale (the famous part) of the William Tell Overture for solo classical guitar. Mauro Giuliani, the accomplished 19th century guitarist-composer wrote a number of “Rossinianes,” virtuosic potpourris into which he threw many of the...
by Jay | Mar 1, 2022 | Blog, Classical Guitar Technique, Guitar Lessons, Guitar Therapy, Teaching Blog Post
Guitar Therapy How To Practice Guitar: The Magic of Quality over Quantity At the core of learning to play the guitar well is the quality of time you spend with it. A lot has been said about quantity–about the 10,000 hours of practice you need in order to reach...
by Jay | Nov 13, 2021 | Blog, Classical Guitar Basics, Classical Guitar Technique, Teaching Blog Post
The Learning Zone I’m revisiting some of my best older posts on learning guitar. This was originally posted 10 years ago. Here’s a little piece for anyone who practices but doesn’t seem to improve much. I suggest you take a look at a book called...
by Jay | Nov 12, 2021 | Blog, Classical Guitar Technique, Guitar Heroes
The Classical Guitarist With No Bad Habits 10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! Have you heard the legend of the guitarist with no bad habits? It goes like this: “there was this guy, who my friend...
by Jay | Nov 11, 2021 | Classical Guitar Lessons, Classical Guitar Teachers, Teaching Blog Post
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! What should you look for when considering classical guitar lessons? What should you hope for? What might you have to settle for? Every teacher has something valuable...
by Jay | Nov 8, 2021 | Classical Guitar Basics, Classical Guitar Lessons, Classical Guitar Teachers, Classical Guitar Technique, Guitar Heroes, Teaching Blog Post
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! This is really a post about chasing windmills….and conquering the universe. I want to start of this post with a disclaimer. I have a theory about why...
by Jay | Nov 8, 2021 | Classical Guitar Basics, Classical Guitar Lessons, Classical Guitar Teachers, Classical Guitar Technique, Teaching Blog Post
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! If I could list the number of times I”ve crashed and burned on the guitar—gotten in front of an audience or a judge or masterclass teacher, or a group of...
by Jay | Nov 7, 2021 | Classical Guitar Basics, Teaching Blog Post
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! Although many things we do require skill, there’s really nothing in everyday life even remotely like learning, memorizing, and performing a piece of music....
by Jay | Nov 6, 2021 | Classical Guitar Basics, Teaching Blog Post
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! In this post, I’m elaborating on a useful metaphor I used in my last post. Simply put, it’s this: “Practicing is Editing” FIlm editors, as...
by Jay | Nov 5, 2021 | Classical Guitar Basics
10th Year Anniversary Edition: I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about some of my most recent discoveries in guitar playing and teaching. My work with polarities, going deeper into how they...
by Jay | Nov 5, 2021 | Classical Guitar Basics, Classical Guitar Lessons, Classical Guitar Methods, Classical Guitar Teachers, Classical Guitar Technique, Teaching Blog Post
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! There are thousands of ways to play guitar, and most of them aren’t “classical,” by any stretch of the imagination. Why would anyone choose to play...
by Jay | Nov 4, 2021 | Blog, Guitar Lessons, Teaching Blog Post
Music Theory? Why Should I Care? 10th Year Anniversary Edition:I’m revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I was never much of a music theory whiz. Music theory was required for music majors—lots of music theory—and it always...
