Lesson: Keeping Swing Time with a Metronome
Learn how to practice jazz rhythms with a metronome.
Sean McGowan
Sean McGowan's work focuses on jazz, fingerstyle, composition, and injury prevention for musicians. He is a professor of music at the University of Colorado Denver and has authored several instructional books.
Learn to Play Hot Western Swing on Guitar
Bringing together elements of early popular and country music, swing jazz, blues, and rural dance hall traditions, Western swing is pure vintage American music.
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Improve Your Technique by Practicing Scales in Broken Thirds
This workout starts with a C-major scale played in broken thirds. This might be tricky at first, but take it slowly!
Jazz Guitar Tip: Improvise with a Familiar Chord Progression
When improvising, it is important to be able to outline the harmony of a song with single-note lines
Video Lesson: Dig into a Lute Work by the English Renaissance Composer John Dowland
As a fingerstyle steel-string guitarist, you might assume that your instrument precludes learning classical literature. But this isn’t actually the case.
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These Fundamental Guitar Techniques Can Help You Learn to Synchronize Your Hands
This Weekly Workout will show how to synchronize the hands through a variety of exercises, concepts, and articulations
How to Use Guide Tone Voicings on Your Acoustic Guitar to Emulate the Piano
Unlike piano, on guitar both hands must work in tandem, with a max of six notes sounding at any one moment
How to Build Four-Part Seventh Chord Voicings for the Acoustic Guitar
Because of the complexity of harmony in the standard repertoire and the freedom of expression inherent within the genre, jazz requires that guitarists develop a flexible and diverse chord vocabulary. In this lesson, I’ll look at strategies for building four-part seventh chord voicings, their inversions,…
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How to Strengthen Your Fretting Hand
good technique allows effortless channeling of music through the instrument.
Learn a Solo Guitar Arrangement of the Christmas Hymn “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
This solo-guitar arrangement moves twice through the song’s simple verse-chorus form, set in the key of E major.
A Guide to Guide-Tone Voicings on Guitar
Guide-tone voicings have long been popular with jazz musicians, including guitarists Grant Green, Jim Hall, and pianist Red Garland
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How to Harmonize a Melodic Line with Block Chords on Guitar
The technique of harmonizing a melodic line with full, dense chord voicings is sometimes referred to as using block chords
Learn a Solo-Guitar Arrangement of “Silent Night”
This fingerstyle arrangement is set in the key of A major.