Teaching Blog Posts
How to Play Classical Guitar without Dysfunctional Tension
——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 friggin’ go away — see an appropriate professional. ASAP!——Jay Excess Tension comes from Good...
Learning Music Theory on the Guitar is Just Crazy
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 scary that seemed and no matter how humiliating his previous attempts had been. He's someone...
How to Integrate Your Technique with Natural Musical Expressiveness: A Video Lesson on Villa-Lobos Etude 1
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 fully connected to yourself or to the music? How can you fully express yourself if everything is...
The True Instrument You Must Learn (according to Dr. Firgus-Fortuna Zelfrumzinger Bones)
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 fingers) with each other. Your fingering. Your sitting position. Your repertoire. Your...
Music Theory? Why Should I Care?
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 that my brain didn't quite see the need for----the tools were for fixing airplane engines and...
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...
Learning Classical Guitar: Why Do You Play Classical Guitar Anyways?
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 specific, when there are so many other options? I don't know about you; for me there's only one real...
Mini Classical Guitar Lesson: Finding the “seed” of your mistake
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 of careful work and thought into transitions and connections. Every moment needs to connect...
Memorizing Repertoire On the Classical Guitar: Method to the Madness?
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 your daily life do you do all the following: At the drop of a hat, repeat a lengthy, extremely...
Why are Classical Guitarists so OBSESSED with their Left Hand
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 guitarists are always watching their left hand, and it's just a theory. It may be true, it may be...
Knocking “eye-to-hand coordination” Off Its Pedestal.
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 something specific....how to play a bar chord, how to interpret a piece of music, how to finger...
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...
What’s holding you back as a guitarist?
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Breaking Through The Technical Obsession Barrier
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 tendency for many players—and for many teachers—is to focus on technique, and leave everything...
What Do Bedbugs Have to Do With How You Learn Classical Guitar?
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 distractions to us humans as we go through our day….a tiny bite, maybe on one’s ankle, or...
Is There One Absolute “Best-in-the-universe” Classical Guitar Method?
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 out, more revised and time-tested than others. But all of them have valuable points of view, and all...
Picking (or Picking On) Your Classical Guitar Teacher
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 teach, and no-one is perfect. But here are some possible teaching styles or situations that can...
The Learning Zone
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 "Talent is Overrated," by Geoff Colvin. The book is not written primarily to musicians but to a general audience of business, organizational and...