In this lesson, I synthesize ideas from: Tomo Fujita, Troy Grady, Tim Ferriss, Josh Waitzkin, & Eliyahu Goldratt… …to fix an invisible bottleneck that constrains our picking speed: hand sync. The Theory Of Constraints says that: a system can only have one bottleneck at any given time, and improving the system in an area that’s […]
Pros and badasses all do this. Do you?
Hands down, the best thing you can do for your guitar playing & musicianship is this: Stop looking up TABs. Stop searching YouTube for tutorials. Start learning songs BY EAR. But Josh! I’ve Never Transcribed Before! Where Do I Start? Photo by Josh Sorenson on Unsplash About ten years back, I switched from multi-blade Gillette razors to old […]
Learn Songs By Ear Faster & Easier Using ReWire
hate reading? skip ahead to the video For years now, I’ve been using (and recommending) the app Transcribe for people trying to learn songs by ear. It’s still a decent choice, but with each passing year, it gets a little further behind the times (and its interface has always struck me as unreasonably ugly). Lately […]
Labelling Parts Of Songs: The Most Basic (And Important) Music Theory
When we talk about music theory, we tend to get spun up in our minds. What notes are in a Bbm7b5? What scale can I use to solo over Fmaj7#11? But at its core, music theory is about giving names to commonly occurring things, and using those names to do two main things: communicate with […]
I Suck At Singing Harmony, But I’m Determined To Learn. This Is What I’m Doing.
photo by Daniel Chekalov I’m a guitarist for hire—a sideman. Many of the potential gigs I get calls for involve singing harmony. Sadly, I have to turn those down, because I am awful at singing harmony. Given a clearly defined part and ample time to practice it, I can manage some basic vocal harms. But […]