Guitar Lessons & …

Saturdays start early for me and I usually stay up too late the night before, so after my morning and afternoon lessons, I’m ready for a nap. Last night, I took that nap during the World Series around 8:30pm. I set my timer for 10 minutes and let the words of Joe Buck lull me [...]

I was cleaning out some files this weekend and found an old page from my website back in the day (2001). It’s a bunch of quotes from Phillip Tosido‘s book: Zen Guitar, Mick Goodrick‘s: The Advancing Guitarist & other miscellaneous sources: “Combat discouragement with your desire to learn.” Poetic imperfection A bird does not ask, [...]

As I mentioned in my last post on this subject, I think my arm injury is on it’s way out. My Occupational Therapist recommended a wrist brace for me when using the computer mouse and it’s been a phenomenal help. My fingers haven’t gone numb all week, and my hand doesn’t feel fatigued all the [...]

I made a big breakthrough last week by obsering that I was leaning on my ulnar nerve while using the mouse. Since discovering that, I’ve been using a pillow to protect my precious ulnar nerve and have been using the computer in moderation to give my arm some time to heal. Over the past 8 [...]

I’ve been enjoying my Rhapsody subscription for almost a month now. I’ve been able to get back in touch with a lot of music that I forgot I loved. I was going through a Wayne Shorter phase when I stumbled upon Ponta De Areia from his Native Dancer album. It was one of those tunes [...]

As I continue down the road of Physical Therapy I’m getting better at managing my injury. Because of my exercises, stretches and a restructuring of my computer setup (including a new keyboard, mouse, touch-pad, office chair & lumbar support), my hand only acts up when I do too much computer work. My Occupational Therapist says [...]

A tune snapped into place this weekend. Well, at least some of it did.  It’s a simple progression that came out of my “spread-voiced” triads practice, and resides in sort of a big “4″ groove with atypical rhythmic hits. Now comes the hard part: development. I don’t have a melody yet and I don’t have [...]

I’ve been looking at Spread-Voiced Triads for the past couple weeks. They are a little trickier than regular triad inversions, but they have such a delightful sound that the extra work is worth it. Right now, I feel comfortable with root & 1st inversion voicings based off the E, A & D strings. I know [...]

As some of you know, I’ve been working through an arm/hand injury this summer. At the beginning of May, I took two weeks off from regular guitar duties and immersed myself in a computer project: the redesign of this site. The unrelenting attention I gave to the project and my overall of out-of-shapeness led to [...]

Get ‘em while you can. OLGA‘s been down since July and the NMPA & MPA are going after the rest. it’s beginning to look like the days of Free Online Tabs is behind us. Here’s a link to the New York Times article. The publishing industry seems to have a sound legal argument. Personally, I’m [...]