Acoustic Guitar Exercise. How to stretch your left hand Fingers

Nov 28, 2017

Acoustic Guitar Exercise

How to stretch your left-hand fingers

Beginner lesson.

Hey guys, today I will show you this acoustic guitar exercise that you can use to stretch your left-hand fingers. Guitar players with a developed left-hand fingers stretch can easily play chords and melodies without struggling. Also, fingers stretch allows you to learn more things easily, creating positive momentum and drive.

Overall left-hand stretch is one of the most important aspects you want to develop when it comes to acoustic guitar and fingerstyle guitar.

How stretchy are your fingers? Let’s find out!

The video lesson

Stretchy Chops

First thing first, I will show you the video lesson so that you can have an idea of what the exercise looks like. There are a ton of different variations of it. This is the acoustic guitar exercise using all the fingers, which allows you to stretch your left-hand fingers consistently. However, if you find yourself struggling, you can always decide to simplify it. I am going to show you how later on in this post.

The exercise and its structure

What to expect for Stretchy Chops

This acoustic guitar exercise is based on the famous symmetrical combination that all guitar players refer to as the 1234 exercises. This exercise is pretty common, especially for beginners. It is basically a straightforward and symmetrical way to start “moving” your fingers on the guitar neck by playing a sequence of notes going from the first finger (labeled as number 1) to the fourth finger (labeled as number 2).

This picture shows you the fingers stretch you can obtain by using the sequence. Notice how each finger sits on one fret.

If you start the sequence on fret one with the finger one, then the second fret will have the second finger, the third fret the third finger, and the fourth fret the fourth finger.

Pretty easy, no?!

How to perform the exercise

Fingerstyle guitar tips

Once you understand the symmetrical 1234 finger concept, we can then move on to the acoustic guitar exercise we are about to learn. This exercise guy is pretty straightforward; however, it can be quite challenging to play.

I am going to post the first part of the guitar tab. You can also get the detailed PDF tab plus an introduction to the exercise by creating your BlitzGuitar account and instantly access a ton of free fingerstyle guitar lessons. By the way, this is a lesson from my free ebook, Fingerstyle Engine. 100% free!

This is the tab

As you notice, the finger sequence is played on the second string, and you will be performing a 1234 pattern where each finger sits on a fret. You can start this exercise by playing the second string only before you add the first open.

Once you familiarize yourself with finger stretch on the second string, you can then add the first open string that will be alternated with the second string.

We add the first open string because we want to make sure that your left hand is positioned correctly. If you have to play the first open string, you are forced to lower the left-hand thumb and stretch your fingers to the maximum. Your hand will also be in line with the strings.

If your left hand isn’t positioned correctly, the first string doesn’t ring, so you’ll know that your left-hand position needs to be adjusted.

The worst left-hand position

How to kill your stretch for good!

In this picture, I will show you the WORST position you can apply to guaranteed failure.

Notice how the fingers are “rolling” on the side, and the thumb is sitting on the top neck.

This position kills your finger stretch and reduces the agility and fluidity of your fingers. If you ever find yourself playing using this posture, make sure you spend some time to fix that.

With this position, you will never be able to correctly perform Stretchy Chops as the first string will never ring out properly.

Final Thoughts

How much do you need to practice?

One of the questions I get asked the most is, “For how long should I practice this exercise?”

This is a fundamental question because, as with any acoustic guitar exercise, you want to make sure to allocate the right amount of time for it. Overdoing it will kill your improvement. Playing it for too little will not give you the results you are probably looking for.

I recommend that you practice this exercise for between 8 and 25 minutes. This is the right amount of time for you to fully engage with the exercise and maintain a high focus level. Before you heat 8 minutes, your brain is still “figure things out.” Once you cross the 25 minutes, the autopilot kicks in, so your fingers move, but your mind is somewhere else hence no improvement.

Practice this finger stretch exercise until you feel you are 100% focused on your fingers and feel the stretch and fluidity getting better.

Good luck with this exercise, guys, and please, make sure you take it step by step, practice slowly and enjoy the process.

Fingerstyle Spanish Guitar Lesson. Chords and Arpeggios for Intermediate

Nov 26, 2017

Spanish guitar arpeggio

Super guitar lesson about Spanish guitar arpeggio for intermediate guitar players. If you are searching for an awesome guitar lesson that can help you improve your fingerstyle technique and control, and fluidity, you better check this out!

This Spanish guitar arpeggio is marked as “intermediate,” so if you have been playing guitar for you days, you probably want to come back in few months or when you feel ready!

Also, guys, I recommend you practice guitar slowly and step by step. In this guitar exercise, you will find some difficult chord shape and rhythmic challenges that can really stress you out a little bit.

Practice the guitar with consistency and momentum, and make sure you don’t give up. Usually, the moment you are about to give up on an exercise is also the moment you are about to overcome a plateau and push forward. Good luck!

The Video Tutorial

Below you will find the full guitar lesson of this awesome exercise. You can also get the guitar tab at blitzguitar.com once you create your free account. Here’s the video lesson!

The Chord Progression

Let’s have a look at the chord progression you’ll find in this Spanish guitar arpeggio. Analyzing the chord progression will help you understanding and memorizing the exercise easily. You can also learn the correlation between the chords, so it will be easier in the future to learn a similar exercise.

Chord progression Em – Am – B – Em – Am – B – Em

As you notice in the picture above, each bar contains an arpeggio or chord. The difference between the two is that a chord has all the notes played simultaneously; with the arpeggio, we play the chord individually. Let me explain to you what that means by analyzing the E minor chord.

The E minor chord is composed of three notes: E – G – B. When you strum an E minor chord, you are playing these three notes simultaneously.
The E minor arpeggio contains the same three notes, but they will be played individually.

In this example, you can clearly see the three notes that compose the E minor chord played with the thumb at the bottom of the guitar Tab.

The 4th string fret 2 is E.

The 4th string fret 5 is G.

The 3rd string fret 4 is B.

On top of the arpeggio, you will also play the first and second open strings, which can be considered accompaniment.

The fingerstyle pattern

Let’s talk about the fingerstyle guitar pattern that you will be learning with this Spanish guitar arpeggio. One of the most important things to do when learning a new fingerstyle pattern is to break it down into small patterns. Check the picture below to learn more about the fingerstyle pattern.

We can simplify this fingerstyle arpeggio in two different sections.

The yellow section is based on two identical patterns, with the only difference on the bass note, played on the 6th and 5th string.
The red section is based on two notes only, and it will be played with the bass note on the 4th string.

The fingerstyle pattern is the same throughout the exercise; therefore, you have basically learned the entire exercise pattern when you learn one bar.

Dynamics and Performance

We definitely want to spend a few words on the dynamics and performance of this exercise. This Spanish guitar arpeggio must be played following these two features:

The thumb needs to be louder than the accompaniment, so you must practice the arpeggio, pushing a little more with the thumb and keeping the index and middle finger quiet.
Fluidity is key to make this exercise sound awesomely beautiful.

Guys, this is an awesome lesson, and you are going to love it.

Let me know if you like it!

Simple Spanish Song for Beginners on Acoustic Guitar Tab Available

Nov 26, 2017

Beginners Acoustic Guitar Lesson

Hey, guys, today I am going to show you this awesome fingerstyle guitar lesson for beginners. I personally love this guitar lesson because it is simple but enjoyable to play!

It isn’t easy to find beginner acoustic guitar lessons that are easy and fun to play, so I am constantly trying to write new things to help you improve your guitar playing while having fun.

I called this lesson Spanish Dance and the melody would be played mainly on the first string of your acoustic/classical guitar. As always, make sure you take things to step by step and don’t forget to record yourself from day one so you know how much progress you’ve made over a week/month period.

Let’s get started, guys. Below you will find the video lesson and all the info you need to learn and understand this awesome beginner’s acoustic guitar lesson.

Spanish Dance video lesson

Watch the video lesson several times to learn how to play this beautiful fingerstyle guitar lesson. Below I will analyze the melody so that you can learn more about this beginner’s acoustic guitar lesson.

The melody

This small fingerstyle exercise is based on a straightforward melody that can be easily played on one string. It is pretty common for beginners to start learning a melody on one string as it comes pretty easy and fun to play. However, there are a few things you really have to consider when you start learning this Spanish melody.

We are in a key of E minor, and the chord progression is straightforward. As you notice, we only have one chord at the beginning of the song where you actually play four strings simultaneously. You will only play what we call the “bass and melody” guitar part, which is obviously the melody with one bass note at each bar’s beginning.

Red color: Guitar melody on mainly one string. You can practice that separately without the bass.
Yellow color: The bass note will be played at the beginning of each bar. The chord progression is Em, Am, Em, D, Em, D, and Em. Pretty simple, right!

The hand position

It is essential, guys, that you practice this short song using the correct hand position. I have other posts where I show you how to position your hands of the neck and pluck the strings, so make sure you go back and watch that so you don’t pick up bad habits.

The right-hand position should always pluck the strings following a 45 degree to achieve a beautiful tone and effective plucking articulation. Beginners acoustic guitar players need to learn this approach from day one so that you can get the most out of each single guitar session you’ll in the future.

Look at the picture to learn the correct right-hand position over the strings and follow the picture to readjust your right hand.

The left-hand position is also critical. There are three things you should do to position the left hand on the fret-board effectively.

Keep the thumb positioned straight behind the neck.
Keep the palm away from the bottom neck.
Stretch the left-hand fingers to avoid “buzzing.”

Follow these few tips, guys, and you will be able to play this awesome Spanish melody easily and quickly.

10 Awesome Acoustic Guitar Webpage you should Follow!

Nov 25, 2017

Acoustic Guitar Webpage

BlitzGuitar Marco Cirillo BlitzGuitar.com A simple guide to Acoustic Guitar Webpage

Hey guys, in this post, I will talk to you about Acoustic Guitar Blogs that you should follow.

As guitar players, we are fortunate to have access to so many webpages and social media to learn everything we want about the guitar.

Today I want to share what I think are the most awesome acoustic guitar blogs you should follow. Guys, this is my personal favorite list, and please, don’t hate if I don’t list your favorite. I honestly love everyone who’s holding a guitar!

I am posting the blogs in random order. They are all my top favorite guitar blogs, so there are all winners.

I wish he were my brother!

1. tonypolecastro.com

Tony Policastro is a really cool guy. Honestly, guys, I wish he was my brother! I bumped into one of his videos on YouTube a while ago, and I loved how he was delivering the lesson.

Tony is an awesome acoustic guitar teacher for beginners. His way of speaking and simple concept is pretty unique. He focuses on guitar playing and mentoring students on guitar routine, practical music theory, and fingerboard knowledge.

Mr. Polecastro is definitely a guitar teacher worth following. You definitely want to try Tony’s Acoustic Challenge, an online guitar method that can help you with your guitar playing.

With Tony’s Acoustic Challenge, you will receive one exercise every weekday. Each exercise takes about 10 minutes to be completed, so you should never get bored playing the same things. Because the exercises are concise, you should be able to practice even though you are busy. What an awesome acoustic guitar webpage!

This is a guitar program worth checking out. Well done bro!

A ton of value!

2. www.guitarlessons.com

This webpage is packed with awesome free guitar lessons. You will learn Acoustic Guitar Lessons as well as Electric Guitar tutorials. Nate Savage is clearly a quite skilled guitar player and guitar teacher. His lessons are always simple and really effective, and he also provides a ton of downloadable stuff.

Beginner videos
Rhythm videos
Lead Guitar
Blues Guitar
Acoustic Guitar
Electric Guitar

They also have life lessons, and this awesome feature called the “Free Guitar Toolbox,” which is a bunch of useful tools that you can use to really make your guitar playing better! I highly recommend you sign up for their newsletter as they run a lot of discounts and offers. Check it out!

If you are searching for an acoustic guitar webpage that can give you many awesome guitar lessons for beginners beautifully taught by one teacher, then guitarlesson.com is definitely the place for you.

Your best guitar buddy

3. JustinGuitar.com

Justin Guitar is the place where every beginner guitar player starts.

Guys, I have been teaching guitar for 15 years, and I can tell you one thing: Five out of 10 beginners know about JustinGuitar.com and start with the A major D major E major series lesson for beginners.

I actually found out about his webpage a long time ago when I learned about building my blog. Justin Sandercoe is a guitar player and guitar teacher from Australia. He was probably the first guy to start posting guitar lessons on YouTube and slowly build up a huge following on YouTube and JustinGuitar.com.

His acoustic guitar webpage is full of lessons—hundreds or even thousands of acoustic guitar lessons in fingerstyle and strumming.

There is a massive section full of Electric guitar lessons as well. Justin is well known for teaching songs most accurately. If you want to learn how to play the song exactly as recorded, you better check him out because this guy is super accurate.

He’s also the author of many guitar songbooks, which are really popular worldwide. You should definitely check out one of his best-selling at JustinGuitar.com. This guy has definitely earned his place in the top 10 guitar teacher on the web, and he’s still pretty consistent. Every time I go checking out his awesome webpage, I always found new lessons and tutorials available. Justin never got bored with teaching, hehehe! Well done!

Plenty of Guitar Lessons

4.GuitarTricks.com

This webpage has over 1.9 million members, guys.

On this webpage, you will learn thousands of acoustic guitar lessons in any style possible.

Fingerstyle guitar lessons
Country guitar lessons
Blues guitar lessons
Guitar fundamental
Guitar for beginners and intermediate

A ton of songs, A ton of guitar exercises. The difference between this webpage and Justin Guitar (which also has thousands of lessons) is that GuitarTricks.com also allows you to select which guitar teacher you want to learn from.

There are literally hundreds of guitar teachers you can learn from in one click, and the lessons are all HD and with downloadable tabs. There are also free guitar lessons you can get if you signup. Overall, an awesome resource for guitar lessons. If you are searching for a huge volume of lessons and a ton of guitar teachers to learn from, go for it!

I don’t know if I feel like recommending this webpage if you are totally beginner. Honestly, guys, you should never start learning guitar without a guitar teacher because you are more likely to pick up bad habits.

It doesn’t really matter which acoustic guitar webpage you feel like using; make sure you always take some private lessons with a guitar teacher!

The guitar player, “Who made it!”

5. www.goliathguitartutorials.com

Gareth Evans is quite popular on YouTube. He started posting fingerstyle guitar tutorials in 2001 and slowly became really popular in 2005. Gareth Evans is currently the solo guitar teacher on YouTube with the most subscribers.

His fingerstyle tutorials are always based on popular songs that he personally rearranges and transcribes on tabs. All the tabs are free to download at his webpage GoliathGuitar.com.

Over the past years, Gareth Evans uploaded some awesome guitar lessons that have reached millions of views and helped thousands of acoustic guitar players worldwide with an acoustic guitar. His video performance has improved and has become extremely entertaining to watch. If you love fingerstyle guitar songs and you want to learn full songs from him, make sure you check out GoliathGuitar.com to access a ton of free fingerstyle guitar lessons.

The British way of Teaching.

6. www.learnguitarinlondon.com

Drue James is a London based fingerstyle guitar player and guitar teacher. He’s becoming more and more popular on YouTube, and his webpage LearnGuitarInLondon (LGIN) currently has hundreds of free acoustic guitar lessons. I really like his approach. He’s a very consistent and dedicated guitar teacher for beginners.

As a beginner himself, he really understands how to teach simple songs to his audience, which has now reached over 150.000 subscribers. The guitar lessons are always well structured and easy to follow, and I love the fact that this guy improved so much over the past couple of years.

His YouTube channel has improved a lot, as well as his webpage. Over the past years, he has been focusing on teaching more fingerstyle guitar and classical guitar, and he’s also the author of a few guitar methods on chords, fingerstyle, classical guitar, and bar chords.

Drue James is an example of how you can become a better guitar player by helping others learning this awesome instrument. If you are just starting and need some easy to follow free guitar lessons and a dedicated teacher, make sure you check him out. His acoustic guitar webpage “LearnGuitarinLondon” is packed with guitar lessons and fingerstyle tutorials for beginners.

Detailed guitar lessons.

7. SwiftLesson.com

Rob Swift is an awesome guitar teacher, guys. I bumped into him a while ago when I was doing some research about Patreon. This webpage allows you to donate money to a creator in exchange for a product/video. Rob has probably the most guitar lessons patrons ever.

By the time I am writing this article, he has around 2478 people supporting and learning from him. He’s a very dedicated guitar teacher and also an excellent singer-songwriter. His ability to explain a song most simply and add his own feel to it really made him one of my favorite.

Teaching with clarity isn’t easy, guys, and Rob Swift does it perfectly. His guitar lessons are focused on songs and music theory, and practical guitar exercises to improve your technique. If you feel like supporting him and access hundreds of detailed guitar lessons, plus contributing and donating to his Patreon page, go ahead and click the link here to start learning.

This guy is definitely worth trying. Btw, you can have access to a ton of his tabs and sheets of music by donating just 1$ a month. Well done, Rob! His Patreon is a great acoustic guitar webpage packed with valuable lessons.

Really good looking acoustic guitar webpage!

8. Fender.com

Fender is usually always associated with guitar and bass guitar. They have been around since 1946, and they do represent the Electric guitar world! Recently they came up with this awesome new feature called Fender play. It is basically a membership site where you can have access to a ton of guitar lessons for just 19.99$/month

Awesome cameras and a tone of valuable songs. If you love to learn songs and only have a few minutes a day practicing your guitar, Fender Play is definitely worth trying.

They also offer 30 days free trial! You have: Personalized lesson plans Progress tracking Learn at your own pace Step by step lessons Professional guitar teachers.

All in, the Fender play is an awesome membership site for beginners and intermediate guitar players who want to have access to a ton of value at a low price.

A ton of guitar lessons!

9. JamPlay.com

Another awesome guitar place full of acoustic guitar lessons in any style and shape. Honestly, guys, this is a pretty awesome webpage. There are different sections where you can learn. The Lesson tab will take you to the page where you can learn.

Beginner guitar lesson
Style and Genre
Skills Builder
Learn Songs
Master Classes
Live lessons

There are also hundreds of guitar courses and workshops available for any level and style. You can have access to 86 di erent guitar teachers and over 5000 guitar lessons. Honestly, guys, I don’t really know if you really need all this stuff as I believe that nobody can ever play so many things and so many di erent styles of music simultaneously.

I think the way you should approach this type of webpages is to narrow it down to what you essentially need and really practice a few things at the time.

If you are a beginner, it is definitely an awesome way for you to access thousands of lessons, but at the same time, you also want to make sure you don’t spend too much time browsing.

Old style songs.

10. GuitarForBeginners.com

Guitar for beginners is an awesome webpage if you want to learn an easy song on acoustic guitar. Kirk Lorange did an excellent job compiling all these awesome songs together. The arrangements are pretty simple, and the tabs very accurate.

Kirk was probably one of the first guys to introduce the different camera angles on the top of the guitar rather than in front. I don’t know how effective that can be … it makes me dizzy. I think this is an awesome lesson to check if you like hits and old classical songs rearranged perfectly for acoustic and classical guitar.

The repertoire isn’t modern but definitely well organized.

Overall we can honestly say that guitarlessonforbeginner is an awesome acoustic guitar webpage full of great lessons and tools to really make your guitar playing better in a few weeks. You will also learn a ton of songs and have fun playing the guitar from the day you start.

As you notice, there is a lot of stuff out there. And if you think about it, I only mentioned 10 websites. How do you really figure out what do you need? Well, if I can give you a piece of advice, I would say, “PEOPLE DON’T BUY PRODUCTS, THEY BUY EMOTIONS,” and that means you should do a little bit of research and find a couple of guitar teacher that really inspire you.

Don’t just look at the number of lessons you will get at the lowest price. Instead, find an online teacher that really resonate with you. Someone that reflect your vision and teaches you with passion. Spend a little bit of time researching that then, start playing and stick to it. Don’t spend too much time browsing along and debating.

Stop pondering on who’s the best guitar teacher and start practicing and playing. Stick to it, and you will learn consistently. Keep changing things around, and you will get bored of your “never learning” guitar rot. Good luck with that, guys. Hey guys, I didn’t put myself on the list, but I also have fingerstyle guitar courses.

If you want to improve your fingerstyle guitar and make an awesome and positive change in your guitar playing, make sure you check out my guitar courses down here.

The Worst thing to Avoid when Practicing Guitar. Three killing Remedy!

Apr 12, 2016

Practicing Fingerstyle Guitar

What’s the worst thing you can do when practicing fingerstyle guitar. Knowing the difference between a good or bad can make a huge difference in your daily or weekly practice schedule. After years of teaching, I came up with the “Worst Thing to avoid when you practice Guitar.” These are the things you want to avoid 100%. Save time and improve faster! Keep making these mistakes, and you will be wasting time, lose confidence, and give up playing guitar.

How do you know you are practicing the right way? This is quite a difficult question to answer. When you practice at home, and your teacher isn’t around, you can easily practice songs, chords, scales, and techniques in the wrong way. Beginners and intermediate guitar players face the same problem all the time when practicing fingerstyle guitar. Most of the time, you practice for a week then realize the exercise isn’t right. In most cases, you can easily pick up the bad habit too. Let me show you what’s the worst thing to avoid when you practice or play guitar.

Posture

Why Bad Posture is Killing Your Playing!

Pianists, violinist, flutists, and drummers always have a nice, correct, and healthy posture. They look so relaxed and energetic.

On the other hand, guitar players always come up with new, interesting, and completely wrong ways to play guitar! Wrong posture, eh … too energetic, couch playing, and wrong size guitar.

The first thing you have to do if you want to improve faster and avoid bad habits is to practice using your hands’ right position. Sitting on a chair isn’t enough, though. You must follow three things if you want to as much benefit as possible from your daily practice.

Remember: Practicing the guitar is just like a workout routine. Try to lift iron using the wrong posture, and you will get injured.

Hand Position

There is a major rule you must follow when you are practicing fingerstyle guitar. Your hands must play and pluck correctly! It is quite easy to pick up bad habits such as wrong position, unusual plucking, and buzzing frets. I am going to give you all the info you need to use your hands correctly. Follow each rule and stick with the plan. You will improve faster!

Right Hand

When it comes to fingerstyle guitar, their right position looks like this one:

The thumb in front of the fingers, pluck downward (most of the time on the bass notes). The fingers pluck the strings smoothly. You can either use nails or just flesh. When plucking, the palm doesn’t move at all (or very little).

There is one major rule you want to follow when you pluck the string:

Make sure you use finger articulation only. No grabbing or pulling strings!

Fingerstyle mistake 1

The thumb is far too close to the index finger if you have this position; the thumb and index clash when plucking simultaneously.

Fingerstyle mistake 2

– Leaning the fingers on the body as support. This is a technique that Mark Knopfler uses. Although guitar players are using this approach, I highly recommend using the standard or “Classical” posture. With this technique, you are sacrificing the ring finger. Also, it doesn’t really help you playing a fast arpeggio.

Fingerstyle mistake 3

Grabbing and pulling strings. This is something kids do quite a lot. The sound is usually sloppy and buzzing. Make sure you pluck the string gently with flesh or nails.

Left Hand

The left hand is probably the most difficult thing to get right, especially if you are self-taught. The problem here is that it is quite simple to get it wrong. Thumb and fingers must work together in harmony. Misuse the thumb, and you will compromise the quality of your playing.

Mistake 1 – Left Hand Thumb

Most of the time, especially if you are self-taught, the thumb position guitar players use is completely wrong. The thumb should always be placed STRAIGHT BEHIND THE NECK. I have seen all kinds of weird approaches: horizontal thumb, the Hook thumb, and the Upside-down thumb. If you currently use one of these three weird approaches, you probably struggle with bar chords, stretch, intermediate chords, and fluidity. Chords change quite difficult and sloppy, and you are wondering why it sounds so bad.

By using the right position, you will gain more control and accuracy. You will be able to hold the chords down for longer. The bar chords will sound much better. The stretch will improve. Practicing fingerstyle guitar can be quite frustrating if you don’t follow these few rules.

Let me show you a quick exercise you can do every day to fix the thumb problem. It is an asymmetrical exercise up and down the fret-board that forces you to keep the thumb straight. Do this simple exercise every day for five minutes. I can guarantee you will improve the position of your thumb quickly and with no pain. But remember: You have to do it every day for at least a couple of months. Are you up for the challenge?

In “Fix the Thumb, you will be work on your thumb and finger positions. Follow these three rules if you want to gain more control and fix your fingers.

Keep the thumb straight behind the neck. It should be placed between the 1st and 3rd fingers. Bring the thumb with you when sliding up and down the neck. Your thumb’s fingertip should be below the neck edge so, no thumb sitting on the top neck. This is the classical guitar posture! Get this position, and your playing will improve drastically.
Hold the fingers down at all times. Notice that the left-hand finger pattern is always the same 1-3 repeated on different positions. Make sure that when you play with the 3rd finger, the 1st finger is still down. Check the pic down below.
Always alternate index and middle finger with the right hand. Don’t double pluck with the same finger. By using alternating fingering, the exercise will sound smooth and fluent.

Work hard to improve your thumb position. It will change your playing!

Mistake 2 – Left Hand Fingers.

Fingers are another painful thing to fix. Most of the time, if you are lucky, you will naturally use the left-hand fingers correctly. It is quite straightforward. You press down the string with the fingertip. However, there are people you would struggle to figure out how to play the notes correctly and come up with something like that:

Now, this stuff is hard to fix. If you got used to playing that way, I could guarantee you that:

You can’t stretch your fingers at all.
When you play a melody, you can’t hold the note down for long.
Speed is impossible.
Hammer on and pull off just doesn’t work.
Bar chords … forger about it.
You probably also have sore fingers all the time.

How do you fix that?

The first thing you have to do when practicing fingerstyle guitar is to make an effort and commit every day (or every time you practice). The good news is, you know what to fix. I see many guitar players getting frustrated because they can’t play certain things yet; they don’t ask the “Why” and “How” questions.

“Why I can’t play it” and “How do I fix that.”

Fix the left hand’s fingers with this simple exercise. Make sure that:

The thumb is straight behind the neck.
Press the fret with the fingertip and not the phalanges.
Stretch the fingers as much as you can.
Place the fingertip close to the fret-wire.

Mistake 3 – The Left-Hand Position.

Another important thing you must get right is the left-hand position—the angle.

Notice how important it is to have the palm and wrist in line. The fingers are perfectly placed, and the thumb is straight behind the neck. This is the right position to use. I highly recommend you work hard to get the left-hand position right. You will gain:

Stretch.
Control.
Speed.
Accuracy.

The only thing you can do to have a perfect left-hand position is to make sure you follow the roles you have learned about thumb and fingers.

The worst left-hand position on the guitar.

Pic 1: The palm touches the bottom neck. This is a horrible way of playing guitar as it reduces the ability to stretch the fingers. Chords, even the basic ones, are difficult. Lower the thumb and always make sure you have space between neck and palm.

Pic 2: Weak fingers. In this position, your fingers “bend” downward. This position is quite annoying because it makes your playing flaky and weak. It would help if you always kept the fingers strong with the joints going upward.

If you struggle with your technique and you are willing to make an effort and improve it, make sure you work on one thing at a time. There is no point trying to fix everything in one go. It takes time to fix a bad habit. Don’t get frustrated. Try every single day. You will be surprised to see how you can improve your technique by working on it even just a few minutes a day.

Good luck!

Fingerstyle Secret! Improve your Fingerstyle Technique in three steps.

Apr 9, 2016

Fingerstyle Guitar Tips

Hey, what’s up, guys. Today I feel I want to share with you a fingerstyle secret. This is a lesson that my old teacher gave me when I was a kid. I struggled a lot with fingerstyle guitar, so he gave me these three exercises that changed my life. Today I am going to share them with you. Just a couple of things before we start.

1 – Make sure you play “Safe”: I say that all the time, please, make sure you stop immediately if you feel pain or a burning feeling in your wrist, fingers, or forearm.

There is a pattern you can follow that will undoubtedly improve your fingerstyle guitar technique. I have been there! I was struggling a lot with this technique. Today I am going to give three killing exercises that are going to improve your fingerstyle technique instantly. Your right hand will improve faster, gain accuracy, and feel more natural than ever. You have to commit, though. You can’t improve your technique if you don’t practice hard.

The right hand’s thumb is the first thing you need to improve if you want to become great with fingerstyle. I am going to give you one exercise you must practice every day for five minutes. It is essential, though, you follow the rules and use the same fingerings and plucking pattern.

In this first exercise, you are going to change the position of your right-hand thumb. This little change will give you more control, almost straightaway. You might need a little bit of time to adjust to the new position, but I can guarantee you that your control and accuracy will improve instantly once you nailed this approach.

In this exercise, you are going to play a melody on the 2nd and 3rd strings. For each fretted note of the melody, we are going to alternate the first open string. The exercise looks like that.

The secret here is to keep the thumb on the adjacent string at all times. From bar 1 to 5, lean the thumb on the third string. On bar 6, move the thumb on the fourth string.

By changing this simple thing in your playing, you will reduce the movement of your right hand. You will gain more control, accuracy, and volume. Notice how I always alternate index – middle finger using a broad movement. This is voluntary. I highly recommend you overemphasize the movement (at least when you start) develop muscle memory faster.

If it’s easy, you don’t want it. If you’re going to improve your fingerstyle guitar, you need intricate patterns. By practicing the exercise I am about to show you, you will enhance your finger-style technique, speed, and accuracy. This exercise was given to me by my old teacher, and it is quite similar to a Villa Lobos Classical Piece.

The right-hand arpeggio is quite complex, so you want to make sure you practice one bar at a time. Speed isn’t important at that stage so, take it slow and focus on getting the right pattern.

The right hand should always follow the strings as you go up and down with the arpeggio.
Keep the thumb in front of the fingers.

Practice one bar at a time. Speed isn’t important at that stage.

Make sure you follow the right-hand fingerstyle pattern on the Tab. Notice that the thumb pluck quite a lot of strings. It takes time to get used to using the thumb like that. If you feel pain or a burning feeling, stop immediately, rest for a couple of minutes, and then try again.

Double down the speed for few seconds will help you to improve your fingerstyle technique faster. The third secret, the sprint, is a great technique. It’s usually used on electric guitar when you want to build speed. I have used the same concept on the acoustic guitar (you can apply it everywhere) for my fingerstyle technique, and the results are astounding. I am going to give you an example of the “Sprinting” approach with the next exercise.

Double down the speed for few seconds will improve your fingerstyle technique faster!

Eight Killing things you need if you want to became a great Guitar Player.

Apr 4, 2016

In today’s post, I want to show you eight things you need to become a great guitar player and make money with music. This is a simple path that everyone can follow. It doesn’t matter if you want to be a music teacher or a successful songwriter. There is a blueprint to success, and believe it or not, you have it. Learn how to use it, and you will be successful!

You want something, train. Kobe Bryant trained. He shoots 800 shots a day before practice, takes four hours a day. That’s training. He didn’t need pride in himself because, as Pooh Richardson said, your competence will become your confidence. You will begin to have pride and confidence once you’re a master. Until then, you’re a student. Students got to act like students. If you are Pablo Picasso, if you are John Malkovich, if you are Mark Cuban, then puff up the pride and be like, I’m a badass. Until then, tone it down, man.

Training is what makes us unique. Forget about talent! There are tones of books on this myth. At the end of the day, the person who trains the most will succeed. Talent is a tiny ingredient. You want to be successful; you have to train hard. I am not just talking about grabbing your guitar and playing or practice. I am talking about purposeful practice.

Practice what you are good at. Work on your strength. Stop wasting time trying to get all the gigs they offer you. There is no point! You might have a little bit more money in your pocket, but at the end of the day, you lose. You must train and get the gigs you are good at. Same thing with studio sessions or teaching. People going like ” I can play everything” or “I teach all style and age” are going to lose. There are few exceptions, but … do you want to base your life upon exceptions? I don’t think so.

I talk to people all the time, and they are like, “I trained a lot when I went to Uni two years ago, now I just play gigs, “and I say, “Well, you’re going to lose,” and the answer is always “But no, no, I believe in myself.” Well, the music director doesn’t believe in you. The musicians (the good ones) don’t believe in you. Your mum might believe in you. She ain’t here! Hundred people are standing behind you that put in the work! If you don’t train, you will be left behind, my friend.

Let’s talk about something important for a second. Let’s talk about pride; being proud of your own work. Now I can bullshit you right now and tell you it’s all about self-belief, but I will tell you something real.

“Unless you’ve got thirty years in and you’re the damn Picasso of what you’ve done of your industry, give it a break. The second you’re proud is the day you stop working, trust me, and people are going to bullshit and say, “You need all this.” You need to be proud to energize yourself, so you’re going to look in the mirror and say, “I am doing great.” Your mum wants you to do that, but again, your mum ain’t here!

Musicians have quite a lot of pride. We are going around saying, “I am a full-time musician,” when we know that actually, all we do is playing some worthless gigs. If all you do is gigs you don’t want to do, you have to do something to change that. Don’t get stuck in that situation for too long. If you want to be successful, learn to say NO to some worthless stuff—the same thing with teaching and recording.

I met some good guitar players who are massively successful because they dropped all these worthless gigs and focused on becoming better players. They focused on promoting, networking, and training.

Most of the gigs we do (or we used to do) are worthless and tiring. The last function I did was years ago. I came back from Manchester at 5 am, tired, upset, and depressed. I had 350£ in my pocket that didn’t make me happy at all, and I had a moment of revelation. I said to myself: “I don’t have to do that crap,” and so I stopped!

But yet you see around all these dudes going like, “I am fully booked. I am going to Leeds tomorrow, then Manchester and New Castle, it’s 800£ in one week, not bed!” … If all you do is playing functions for drunk people who don’t give a damn about what you are playing, you will never become great. Money isn’t worth the time and self-confidence you lose by doing this crappy stuff.

You should set higher standards. Start by getting better gigs. Do it steps by step. Commit each day to try to promote yourself so that you can improve your standard. Remember, you can always improve your standard, but you have to work really hard selling yourself to the better manager and music director. Make videos and blog a lot. Send all the material to music agencies and music directors.

When you decide to spend your time working on something, you are inevitably saying no to other things. This is great if you make the right choice. Pick the wrong thing, and you are literally wasting your time. Unfortunately, most of the musicians I know focus on too many things. Some of them play different instruments, so they have even more choices. When it comes to choices, you should always ask yourself:

The moment I asked myself, “Will this choice help or hurt my confidence” was the moment my life changed. It would help if you were extremely picky about what you choose. I went from running like crazy doing four gigs a week (making other people wealthy) and teaching at the lowest rate possible to gigging four/five times a month doing MY gigs and MY lessons (all the money in my pocket).

You must be able to say, “No.” I know it is challenging because we are always scared to miss an opportunity. I strongly believe that we can create our own opportunities. We don’t have to wait for someone or something extraordinary to happen. Day by day, focus on your choices, and make your own investments. Say no to unimportant things and focus on what you really want to do.

I love challenges. I am Italian. When I was at school, I didn’t study English, but I am writing this post myself. I am sure there are a lot of mistakes, but I don’t really care. I like the challenge, and I am actually happy I can do it. My writing might be sloppy and “weird,” but that doesn’t stop me because I know that I am improving. In music, it is the same thing. Challenge yourself with something difficult. The bigger the goal, the bigger the challenge. Back in 2013, I said to myself I wanted to teach forty people a week. I took the challenge and worked really hard. I got there in twelve months!

If your challenge is too simple, it will be easy to attain, but it won’t change your life, and it will probably be not very helpful. Most musicians approach challenges from the wrong perspective. Most of the time, if the challenge is too difficult, they easily give up, lowering expectations and motivations. The better-paid gigs become impossible to achieve, the studio sessions are in a close circle, and the tuition fee they get is too low. I have been there! I challenged myself and changed my life. Don’t wait for life to challenge you. Start challenging yourself today. Make things happen. Do you want better gigs? Promote yourself better. Do you want to make more money teaching? Record more video lessons. Challenge yourself every day… it will change your life, I promise!

If you want to be successful as a guitar player and musician, you have to stop thinking you can please everyone. Give up the need to be liked by everybody.

I know we do that all the time. I was the best at doing that. Always trying to please everybody. Saying yes, all the time. Guess what? Most of the people I was trying to please didn’t give a shit about me. They replaced me without notice, and I got depressed.

As Bill Cosby said: You can’t please everybody, so don’t even try, in fact, when you try, the one person you absolutely won’t please is yourself”. People who don’t care about you won’t make you wealthier. They will steal your good energy for their purpose, and then, once you are done, ciao ciao. Don’t let that happen. Carefully choose the good people you need in your life and eliminate the rest.

If you hang around 5 confident people, you will be the 6th.
If you hang around 5 intelligent people, you will be the 6th.
If you hang around 5 successful guitar players, you will be the 6th.
If you hang around 5 successful music teachers, you will be the 6th.

You must shift your circle of influence and be around smart musicians. You must spend time with the people above you. People who motivate you and make you feel like everything is possible.

How your life would change if you could hang around with people like Eric Clapton, Santana, John Williams, Nathan East, and all these amazing players. I am not just talking about improving your playing. Hanging around with these people would definitely teach you how to manage yourself. How to sell yourself. How to be confident. How to be consistent.

Find a good mentor is one of the quickest ways to become successful. Remember: You don’t have to learn everything from your own experience. You can learn from people who made it! It would help if you reversed engineer their path. How did they get there? What did they do? How they did it? Once you figure this out, do it yourself! Find mentors to speed up the process of learning and achieving. You should have at least five successful mentors. Trust me … it works.

I know some of you don’t have a webpage. I have friends who don’t have a webpage. There are three kinds of musicians that really don’t get how important it is to have a webpage and use social medial.

The “I don’t know how to do it “guy: People who fear technology are going to lose. It takes a few minutes to set up a webpage, and it cost nothing. Also, the tutorials you find online on YouTube and Blogs are almost unlimited and constantly updated. Don’t fear technology. It would help if you had it. It is actually really cool to have your own webpage and social media channel. Start getting some subscribers will motivate you! You will be able to promote yourself better. YOU NEED A WEBPAGE!
The “I hate social media” guy: Once I spoke to this guy and he goes like “I am not on Facebook … short pause … Social media is full of crap. They made billions on you, and they keep all your private information and blablablablablabla” he kept ranting for 20 min. You don’t want to be like this guy, do you? Even if you don’t like the concept of social media, you should use it to promote yourself. Just use it to promote yourself. You don’t have to post your private life. Use social media purposefully. Don’t think black and white! Trust me.
The “We don’t need social media” guy: If you are a musician and you think social medial is worthless … you are going to lose. You need social media to promote your music, share your video, share your music, share your gigs, share your achievement. It’s true, they didn’t have social media in the 90s, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to use it today. Things are different now! Keep up with technology.

Use social media to promote yourself. Record video daily. Use YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook as your main social media. Build your webpage and blog a lot. People will watch your videos and read your blogs. I wouldn’t be writing this, I promise. I do what I do because my followers motivate me. It would help if you did the same. At least try …

The last tip I can give you is, “Set a specific goal and don’t stop until it’s done.” I usually have three months of goals. I wrote my last book in three months. I am recording a video course for the next three months. It doesn’t matter how difficult it is or how busy I am. Once I set my goal, I will work on it every day. You must be really specific and commit every single day. You must learn how to set up daily, weekly and monthly goals too. By setting up a specific goal and a deadline, you will push like crazy and achieve more.

If you want to record an album, do it in three months. Do you want to record videos for YouTube? Set up a three months goal where you record one or two videos a week for three months? Write five songs in three months. Or maybe ten songs. It is completely up to you that the reason it’s fun. Challenge yourself. Be specific with your dreams.

Three Killing exercises for Fingerstyle Beginner. How to start with Acoustic Guitar.

Jan 11, 2016

Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle for Beginners

I really like to help beginners with a fingerstyle technique. Playing the guitar is awesome, but it can also be frustrating. Beginners are more likely to struggle at some point, so with this lesson, I will do my best to give you the three killing exercises for fingerstyle beginners.

I hope you like it!

Is fingerstyle guitar difficult?

The truth about playing guitar.

For some reason, most people who start playing acoustic guitar think that fingerstyle is a complicated technique compared to strumming.

The truth is, fingerstyle can be beginner-friendly and really fun to start with. It can also be pretty simple as long as you know how to start.

80% of guitar players start with strumming. For this type of guitar player, fingerstyle looks really difficult. They are also quite surprised when you teach them fingerstyle as they realize how simple it can be. The other 20% of guitar players start instinctively with fingerstyle. I see that a lot of time, and it’s fascinating because they are kind of different. You give them a guitar, and they start plucking. For this type of guitarist, fingerstyle is easy. Bless them.

Today I am going to give you three killing exercises for beginners. If you are a complete beginner, these are the exercises you want to start with. You need to understand that the Fingerstyle technique is the Right-hand approach.

The exercises you are about to learn are specific technical exercises for the right hand. Because you are a beginner, I want to make sure you know the three main rules to prevent injuries when you start playing guitar.

Rule 1: Age doesn’t count! It doesn’t matter how old you are. A beginner is a beginner. Make sure you start slowly and practice the exercise step by step. I try to put all the information you need to be safe, but because I am not there watching you, you might practice the exercises wrong. Sit on a chair (no bed or sofa) and use a footstool if you can.
Rule 2: Does it hurt? Stop immediately! I can’t stress this enough. Pain is a warning signal. If you feel pain, whether the fingers, wrist, elbow, back or neck, stop immediately; you are doing something wrong! Also, make sure you practice the exercise for no more than 10 minutes. I would highly recommend practicing one exercise a week so that you give your fingers time to get used to the movement. Sore fingers are normal at the beginning after you play, but if you experience pain while you are playing, stop immediately and rest for a few minutes.
Rule 3: Don’t overdo it. Learn your limit! As I was saying, try the exercises for 10 minutes max for the first couple of weeks. Sometimes I see people going too hard at the beginning. They want to learn fast, so they start exercising for too long. When you are a beginner, you need to start slowly. Practicing guitar is just like going to the gym. Take it step by step, and don’t try to lift a hundred pounds on day one. You will hurt yourself.
Rule 4: Keep your back straight: Sometimes, we are so focused on hour fingers that we forget about an hour back. Remember to sit on a chair and use a foot-stool. I wouldn’t recommend sitting on the couch or bed.

Exercise n.1

We will start training i-m-a fingers (Index, middle, and ring fingers). When you read sheet music, the right hand is indicated with the letter P-i-m-a, which means Thumb, index, middle, and ring finger. We don’t use the little finger.

Now, I am assuming you are a beginner, so I want to keep the left hand really simple. Focus on the right-hand movement, articulation, and timing. In this exercise, we are going to start developing the index and middle finger articulation.

Tip 1: Lean the thumb on the 6th string. By doing that, you will reduce what I call “bouncing hand.”
Tip 2: Pluck the string gently with the left side of your fingertip. If you have nails, use both flesh and nail.
Tip 3: Focus on the rhythm. I don’t really recommend a metronome at that stage but make sure you keep the same timing.

If you are a beginner, you will probably feel a bit of pain when pressing the frets. Take a break every time you need it. It’s fine to set up short intervals when you first start.

Exercise n.2

In this exercise, we will use the ring finger (indicated with the letter “a”). The best way to start using this finger is to create a simple plucking pattern with thumb and ring finger playing simultaneously. This plucking patter will make the ring finger more “friendly” and keep the volume even.

Bad thing n.1: Most of the time, the ring finger feels quite unnatural. For that reason sounds either too loud or too quiet.
Bad thing n.2: For some reason, when you start using the ring finger, you are more likely to “grab and pull” rather than the “gently puck” type of movement.
Bad thing n.3: Most of the time, the ring finger sounds bad. Because it is the last finger, the plucking angle is slightly different. If you cannot adjust the angle, you will have a wonderful sound with the index and middle finger and a horrible sound with the ring finger.

Tip 1: You should grow a bit of nail (just a tiny bit) so that you can have better control and attack on the string.
Tip 2: With a bit of nail, you will also keep the volume even.
Tip 3: Use enough articulation so that the finger feels more agile.

Let’s go! Some chords might be too difficult for you. If this is the case, practice the arpeggio pattern on the chords you are comfortable with. Good luck!

Remember: Thumb and ring finger play together with the first two notes, then index and middle finger pluck 3rd and 4th string separately.

Exercise n.3

In exercise three, we are going to pluck the strings at the same time. This is an excellent exercise for beginners because it will improve your timing, control, and accuracy. Again, because I assume you are a beginner, I will keep the left hand really simple. I want you to focus 80% on the right hand and 20% on the left hand. Good luck.

When you pluck, the strings always use finger articulation. Avoid bouncing on the strings.
Keep the same volume. Usually, the ring finger is the one that sounds quieter.
Make sure that the chords sound good. The left-hand fingers should always be placed close to the fret-wire.

How much money can you make as guitarist. Three killing tips to make more money!

Jan 6, 2016

Hot topic. Let’s talk about money! How much money can you make as a guitarist? If you are thinking of becoming a guitar player, this is the post you want to read. How do you make money? Even better: How do you make more money? Why people think that musicians are broke and why you shouldn’t listen to them. Is there a formula that you can follow to increase your income? Why are musicians so freaking disorganized? There are so many things we can talk about … I will give you three killing tips on how to make more money. Let’s get started!

Why is money so important?

I don’t know if you have noticed, but life is getting really expensive. If you live in the countryside or in a small town, you might feel less stressed about bills, mortgage, gigs, and happiness. I am from a small town, but I moved to London five years ago. In such a big city, things are tough. The rent is really expensive, public transport constantly increasing and quality food … scarce.

In a place like London, if you make less than 2000£ a moth, you live in scarcity.

How guitar players make money in London?

There are though many different things that a guitar player can do to make money in a city like London. Let me list them all:

Gigs – Pubs, Clubs, Function, and private events.
Touring.
Musicals.
Busking.
Studio session.
Teaching.
Selling your music.
Composing.

Gigs – How much money –

Let’s have a look at how much money a guitar player can make with gigs. For me, gigs are different from touring and play in a musical. Let’s get into details:

Pub Gigs – 125£ with a duo –

Pub gigs usually pay between 50 and 250£. If you play and sing, you could think about playing alone and keep the fee. If you are a singer, one thing that really works in a pub is a duo guitar and voice. I use to do many gigs in pubs when I started playing guitar here in London, and the max I got for a pub gig was 125£, which is not bad. It was a duo guitar and voice. I also had some gigs with the band (4 pieces), so we had to split the fee 50£ each, which for me it’s not worth the trouble.

Pub Gigs are good but try to reach better venues like music clubs or musicals/theater gigs.

Club Gig – 150£ average –

For me, clubs are slightly bit more exciting than pubs. Sometimes I have a chance to play at the Ronnie Scott or Pizza Express jazz club in Soho, which are amazing music clubs. They pay much more than pubs. You can get 150£ each with a full band (5 pieces), so you get good fees plus you get to play in a nice club with people listening to your music, eating good food and drinks.

Clubs are good and pay more. You are more likely to get long contracts.

Musicals – 125£ a day –

For me, musicals are a nightmare! You get to play the same songs eight times a week for months and months. Money is really good, but I think after a year playing Thriller or We Will Rock You, you probably just want to kill yourself! I have friends who played in musicals, and they were really happy with the salary but quite frustrated after six months. I think is a great way to push perfection to the limit because you play the pieces every day and you must keep a high level of energy, but on the other hand, can be quite degrading playing the same stuff over and over.

Really good money but quite frustrating after months of playing the same things every day!

Functions – 200£ average –

Gigs like weddings and private events are really good for the money. The minimum fee is usually around 150£ if you don’t travel, but it could go up to 350 if you go outside London. It really depends. I used to do a lot of functions before, but in 2014, I decided to quit this industry for good. I don’t like the idea of driving for five hours, play, and then drive for another five hours to go back home. The whole day is wasted!

Good money but a lot of travelling and a drunk audience. There is always someone stepping on your gear. Upsetting!

Touring – Not sure –

I never really had a chance of touring with a major or minor artist, so I don’t think I can help you with that.

Touring is great but make sure you don’t get underpaid.

Busking – 50£ a day average –

In London, you can sell your talent playing in the street. There are buskers in the Tube station and also in some of the most crowded streets in the center. Some areas like Piccadilly and Covent Garden became the showcase of many street acts. You will find dancers, musicians, and entertainers. How much money can you make with basking? It really depends. I have a friend who makes between 50 and 100 pounds every time he busks. Sometimes I ask him, “Why you can’t find a better gig ?” and he goes like, “I don’t care, mate! I play when I want, and I don’t have a responsibility”. I make a bit of money here and there, and that’s fine for me! I find the whole thing about busking too flaky and depressing. I never did it! What do you think? Would you do it?

Do busk if you are just starting out or you really need money.

Session Player – 150£ a day.

If you like recording things you want to try be a session musician. I think is a great job and can also be well paid. I use to record for some minor artists back in 2013. I spent six months in a studio three times a week recording different stuff from electric to acoustic and classical guitar. 150£ a day (6 hours slot). I guess if you do it full-time, you might be able to make decent money. I really like the fact that you never know what’s coming. One day is a reggae track, the next day a pop tune with acoustic guitar. You really have to be versatile and a focus person. They don’t like when you mess up too many times. If you are really good you could also make more money than that! The horrible thing is that most of the time you don’t really get to hear the final product. Sometimes I used to record on a drum and bass track with no vocals or piano.

Studio session are really good if you are creative and versatile.

Teaching – 30£x60min lesson.

Teaching is my field. This is when I feel really comfortable and motivated. I like playing but I like more teaching. I have always been quite generous with people and I like to help so I guess teaching kind of reflect my personality. With teaching you can make some decent money too. The average rate here in London is around 30£ per hour. Some charge less or more depending on the type of lesson, grade and location (if you do mobile lesson). Obviously 30£ per hour if you work on your own. If you teach for a school you could get as little as 18£ per hour. This is what I used to get that when I first started in 2012 here in London.

Don’t teach for money! It doesn’t work!

Teaching is also really difficult because students tent go come and go quite quickly. If you are a flaky teacher, you will probably fail to make money and you will see all your student join another school or private teacher. Don’t do it just for the money! Do it because you like to help people learning how to play guitar.

Selling your music – Not sure –

This is something I don’t really do but I have friends who make a lot of money selling songs or loops. Check out MELODY LOOPs web page. You can send them small loops that can be sold for publicity or movies as well as video games. You get money every time you sell a loop. I don’t really know the pricing here but if you really want to make good money you have to sell many loops a month. If you are good at recording short idea, this is definitely something you could do (not only in London). You could also sell your songs on Itunes or Spotifie and get royalty although it’s a quite saturated market. Let me know what do you think!

Selling your music is great and you can do it at your own pace.

Composing – 300£ average –

If you like to write songs and help singer/songwriters with arrangement you could make some decent money. I have friends who make between 100 and 500 pounds for an arrangement (This is for minor artists. I don’t know how much you would get by writing and arranging for a major artists). It sounds easy but it’s not. For this kind of job you really have to know the right people. Once you become part of the inner circle you can be ask to compose/arrange a lot of music each month. You could make really good money from home recording and selling your talent. I really like that job and I wish I could do more but sometimes I can’t really deal with the stress. Composing/arranging is like a ticking time-bomb. You need to do the a good job in a short amount of time. The artist will constantly call you for updates putting you even more under stress. If you can cope with that, this is the right job for you.

Composing and arranging is an amazing job. If you are creative and perform well under pressure this is the job for you!

Tip 1 – Focus on what you are good at – Don’t just follow your passion.

The first thing you want to do to make more money as a guitar player is to focus on your strength. You must find your greatest skill and work everyday trying to improve it.

How do I find my greatest skill?

Feedback analysis! Feedback analysis! Feedback analysis! I could copy that for pages and pages. You must be able to be honest with yourself and listen to what other people say. Let me give you an example:

Let’s say you are a great performer. When you are on stage you are really creative and your playing is always spot on. It doesn’t matter which kind of gig you do, you are always confident and comfortable on stage. You have really good feedback from everybody (crowd and fellow musicians) and your agenda is full of gigs. Based on all that good feedback you know that your best skill is performing.

You are also really passionate about recording sessions. Although is your passion, you realize that the feedback is not as good as when you perform. Once you are in the studio, you start feeling under pressure. After 20 minutes of mistakes you are asked to take a break. You come back and record the song but you are not really happy with the result. It happens all the time that when you are in studio you don’t feel comfortable and your playing degrade. You keep saying to yourself “This is a waste of time”. Maybe you are not naturally good as a session player therefore there is no point in keep on trying. You are better off

Using this time to improve your skills as performer!

Be realistic and honest with yourself. Work on your strength and you will have amazing things happening in your life . Stop trying to do everything! Focus on one thing and start adding value to this one thing everyday. Reword will come!

Books related: These are some really good book that will help you figure out how to achieve more by doing less!

Tip 2 – Write down how much money you want to make then ask yourself ” Do I deserve it” and also “Why I didn’t get it yet”

We don’t like to talk about money. I know that because every time I bring up the topic people get easily fed up. People think money is the root of all evil yet they wish they had more. Even Madre Teresa di Calcutta needed money. Not for herself but for the community. Money is not always evil guys. The reason why you should write down how much money you want to make is because

You get paid in direct proportion to the amount of value you add to your job.

Look at people like Clapton, Page and B.B King. They became rich not because of luck but because they were able to add tremendous value to music . They changed people lives. They inspired generations. They deserve it all. Think also about the Google guys, Jeff Besos who started Amazon and Elon Musk with Paypal. They are billionaire because they worked on their strength to create something unique and cutting edge.

It’s not just about money!

Money is the most common way to evaluate ourselves but it is not the only way. For you it might be the number of people who watch your videos or buy your music.

It doesn’t matter which unit of measurement you use, the main thing is that you try to improve it.

Do you want more views on YouTube, write down how much more and how can you get there. Do you want to sell more music, write down how many units you want to sell and how can you promote yourself better in order to boost sales. Apply this concept and you will be successful because

A compelling vision (your goal) creates a clear picture of the future . Only after you have a clear vision, you can plan, measure and push forward.

Saying I want more gigs doesn’t mean anything. You should know which style you are the best at and focus on that. Be specific then ask yourself “Why I didn’t get it yet”. You will see that there is probably something you are doing wrong.

Once you know what’s the reason why you are not getting what you want, change it! Not tomorrow, not next week, but now!

Let me know what do you think. Leave a comment below.

Tip 3 – Own it –

If you always wait for someone to call you and offer you a gig, or a lesson or a paid studio session, you will always have to go through the middle man. I used to teach for 18£ an hour. Then I figure out that the school was charging 40£. I was making them rich while keep myself poor. Now I manage the lessons myself and you bet I make much more money. Same thing with gigs. Try to deal with the venue yourself. Be the one who pick up the phone and set the price. Be the one who call other musicians.

If you don’t build your dreams someone will hire you to build theirs! Manage yourself. You.Can.Freacking.Do.It!!

We all come from different backgrounds so your feedback is precious. Do you agree with what I say? Let me know. Leave a comment down below.

Finger Stretching Exercise for Acoustic Guitar. Three Killing Exercises!

Jan 3, 2016

Hey guys, today I will show you three killing exercises that will help you stretch your fingers. I think it’s essential to reach a good level of flexibility and stretch if you want to play chords and scales fluently. Also, with these exercises, you will be able to improve control and accuracy. As usual, make sure you are safe! Don’t compromise form and rest every time you need it. I am trying to help you, not ruin yourself, so please, follow these three rules and be safe.

Rule 1: Does it hurt? Stop immediately!
Rule 2: Does it burn? Stop immediately!
Rule 3: Do you have cramps? Freacking stop immediately!

Why do you need to stretch your fingers?

Stretching is really important for different reasons:

Prevent injuries.
Improve speed and control on a chord change.
Improve fluidity on scales.
Increase strength (you can play longer).
Give you a mental boost.

Prevent injuries.

For me playing guitar and workout are the same thing. When you go to the gym, you train different parts of your body to a better shape. You will notice, though, that when you start working out, the movement is stiff, and you get easily tired. It will take a couple of weeks to really start feeling you are doing the right movement. This is also the time when you can feel that your body is growing and improving.

When you play guitar, you go through the same process. You train your fingers several times during the week to get better. When you start, the fingers feel weird and stiff, and it takes time to really start feeling the improvement.

Go to the gym and start working out like a crazy man, and you end up hurting yourself. It’s the same thing when you play. Stretching your fingers will prevent things like sore fingers, tendons, and cysts. Trust me!

Improve speed and control on a chord change.

Flexible fingers will enable you to perform better chord change. When you play chords like C major, G major, or F major chord, you notice straight away how stretchy these chords are. By practicing these exercises, you will improve your chords as well as finger’s muscle.

Improve speed and control on Scales.

A lot of people think that speed and control are innate. What they fail to realize is that control, as well as speed, is something you develop with time and practice. The best friend of speed and control is flexibility and stretch. You will see that your fingers will naturally feel stronger once you start practicing these three killing exercises. Make sure you practice the exercises step by step and follow all the recommended fingers.

The mental boost.

Do you know a nice feeling after you work out? You feel your muscle are bigger, and your confidence grows. Practicing exercises like the one below, will help you improve your confidence and boost your self-esteem. We feel better when we know we are practicing the right things.

Let’s get started!

Exercise 1 – Stretch –

In this exercise, we are going to use asymmetrical pattern 134. That means you will always use the 1st, 3rd, and 4th fingers of your left hand. The right hand will be plucking the strings with an i-m (index-middle) pattern. Now, to stretch the fingers, you want to make sure you hold the fingers down! This is the only way you will be able to stretch the fingers. Check the pics below.

: Pic 1

: Pic 2 – Play with ring finger but keep index down.

: Pic 3 – Play with the little finger but keep index and ring finger down.

: Pic 4 – Change string and start again with the little finger.

: Pic 5 – Play with the ring finger but keep index down – 5th string.

: Pic 6 – Play with little finger but keep index and third finger down – 5th string.

Let’s get into details.

Pic 1: Start the exercise with the index finger. Relax the other fingers.
Pic 2: When you play the second note with the ring finger, hold down the index finger.
Pic 3: Play the last note with the little finger but remember to keep the index and middle finger down.
Pic 4-5-6: Do the same thing on the 5th string. Remember, fingers stay down.

The left-hand finger pattern is 1 3 4 on each string.

Exercise 2 – Control –

This exercise is a killer. You really want to learn it step by step and slowly. It’s based on two chords: E minor 9 and C major 9. Both chords have the same shape, so you start playing them the same way. Then, you have to shift the index finger from the 5th to the 2nd string. When you do that, make sure you hold the other fingers down to allow the stretch. I have recorded a quick video for this one. I was home, so it’s a bit noisy but definitely helpful! Good Luck! Stop immediately if you feel pain.

The right-hand pattern is P I m an m I (Thumb, index, middle, ring, middle, index). Group the notes in three. 123 123 123 123.

Finger stretching exercise for Fingerstyle Guitar by Marco Cirillo. BlitzGuitar.com from Marco Cirillo on Vimeo.

Exercise 3 – Stamina –

The last exercise is another symmetrical killer. This time we are working on a quite stretchy position so, please, make sure you practice slowly. If you think is too stretchy for you, come back in a couple of months and try again. Remember, if you damage your tendons, you could spend months before you can play again.

The exercise is based on a 124 finger pattern. The difficult thing here is that there is a fret between each finger, so the positions are quite stretchy. Have a look at the diagram.

Remember that the right hand will always pluck with the i-m (index-middle) pattern. Keep the fingers relaxed and play the exercise slowly. Remember this is a stretching exercise, so you shouldn’t play fast. The speed should be a maximum of 70bmp. Please focus on the movement, and make sure you hold the fingers down as we did for exercise 2.