by Joseph Brenna | Aug 17, 2012 | Guitar Lessons, Learning |
When you begin guitar lessons and regularly throughout your life as a musician, it’s helpful to do a self-assessment, a personal inventory in which you write down your musical aspirations, goals, strengths, weaknesses, wants, needs, hopes, and fears. I ask every...
by Joseph Brenna | Jul 31, 2012 | Learning |
Gary Marcus has released a unique and insightful book about how we learn guitar, entitled Guitar Zero, The New Musician and the Science of Learning. Marcus is a cognitive psychologist and director of the NYU Center for Language and Music, and a lifelong guitarist...
by Joseph Brenna | Jul 22, 2012 | Learning, Practice Tools |
Since nearly everyone who comes to my studio for a guitar lesson carries a smartphone, we find ourselves using them more and more. Photos: We’ve finally got your left hand positioned on the A chord so that your thumb mutes the 6th string while your index...
by Joseph Brenna | Jul 20, 2008 | Guitar Lessons, Improvisation, Jamming, Learning |
So you’re new to guitar, or you’ve been playing awhile and want to improve your technique, or apply music theory to break out of your current confines, or become a more expressive soloist, or a better rhythm guitarist. One of the most valuable steps you...
by Joseph Brenna | Feb 19, 2008 | Guitar Lessons, Learning, Practice |
bIn the September 14, 2007 issue of the New Yorker, the eminent neurologist and author Oliver Saks published an article entitled “The Abyss”, about the English musicologist Clive Wearing. (This article also appears as a chapter in Saks’ new book...