Teaching Blog Posts
The Learning Zone
!0th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! 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...
Picking (or Picking On) Your Classical Guitar Teacher
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 to...
Why are Classical Guitarists so OBSESSED with their Left Hand
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 classical...
What’s holding you back as a guitarist?
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Memorizing Repertoire On the Classical Guitar: Method to the Madness?
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. Where else in...
Mini Classical Guitar Lesson: Finding the “seed” of your mistake
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 far as I can surmise, put a lot...
Learning Classical Guitar: Why Do You Play Classical Guitar Anyways?
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 classical guitar in...
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 felt like I was cramming a toolkit into my brain...
The True Instrument You Must Learn (according to Dr. Firgus-Fortuna Zelfrumzinger Bones)
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! When you learn to play an instrument like the classical guitar there's plenty to worry about. Your hand position.Your other hand position.Coordinating your hands (and your...
Learning Music Theory on the Guitar is Just Crazy
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I'm reading a book called Guitar Zero, by Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist who decided he was going to fulfill his dream of playing guitar at the age of 40, no matter...
How to Play Classical Guitar without Dysfunctional Tension
10th Year Anniversary Edition: I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! ——Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor! I’m not a tendinitis expert! If you have lingering pain or some other issue with your hands that really concerns you , and just doesn’t...
How to Integrate Your Technique with Natural Musical Expressiveness: A Video Lesson on Villa-Lobos Etude 1
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! If you really want others to enjoy what you play, you need to be enjoying yourself. They call it self-expression, but how can you fully express yourself if you aren't...
Is There One Absolute “Best-in-the-universe” Classical Guitar Method?
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! Yes. And no. It really depends on how you are asking this question. Some of the Classical Guitar Methods out there are definitely more comprehensive, more well thought...
What Do Bedbugs Have to Do With How You Learn Classical Guitar?
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! Summer has just ended here in New York city but the mosquitoes are still around, along with plenty of other critters whose natural inclination it is to deliver little...
Breaking Through The Technical Obsession Barrier
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! Playing classical guitar is technically demanding. There are a lot of hurdles even if you want to play a relatively simple piece well enough for it to be satisfying. The...
Knocking “eye-to-hand coordination” Off Its Pedestal.
10th Year Anniversary Edition:I'm revisiting some of my best old posts on playing guitar. Enjoy! I've been thinking about about the difference between what I say here on this blog, and how I actually teach most of the time. In a guitar lesson, we're working on...
Mini Classical Guitar Lesson: Right Hand Technique
I have been getting some really interesting questions in response to my poll from those who've joined my list recently. Right now I'm in Amish Country for my Kauffman family reunion, driving past quilt shops and horse-and-buggies, but wanted to answer a question or...
One of the Worst Mistakes that Guitarists Make (and how to start fixing it yourself)
I my last post I sort of left you hanging: Here's how it ended: There’s one basic polarity that seems to yield such a huge effect and has so many repercussions that one of my students sent me a long email about how much her experience of practicing had changed after...