In teaching people strum patterns, the main obstacle I run across is to get out of what I call the “shopping list” mode. I’ll come back to that idea in a second. A lot of beginner books will show “down” and “up” strums for the basic patterns, but somehow manage not to communicate the rhythmic…

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I started playing guitar in 67, when I was 12. I was steeped in the styles of Clapton, Page, Hendrix, Farner, Blackmore… Later, during the 80s, another generation of guitarists emerged that took the guitar to another level. I was never really sold on the athletic aspect of those players as much as the “feel”…

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I just watched a video by Steve Vai, that took me on a trip down memory lane. Vai had gotten his first high profile gig with Zappa after he had successfully transcribed a bunch of Zappa’s twisted melody lines (or so goes the story I heard). In this video, you can see that Vai has…

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