To my readers, the few I’ve had, as you know the Dojo has been silent for some number of months. Many of the readers I had I’m sure have decided to walk away from here, their confidence in the consistancy of this place faded. Read more »

When I created this site, I had one thing in mind: serve the online musician’s community. And although I commonly teach the technical aspects to guitar playing and the such to students in person, I actually wanted to create a concentrated channel somewhere to enlighten the musical public of the more psychological and emotional aspects to playing. Now mind you, there are many resources that give technical tips – tablature for guitar techniques, exercises, scales, chords, and even links to gear you can buy. But there are already so many of these resources online, they are not hard to find, and many of the sources do a great job at teaching these things. My intentions with this blog are to offer all beginning and intermediate guitar, bass, drum, piano, (etc) players my views on the psychological and emotional power that comes with creating music and what it takes to do it from the heart. After all, what good are the technical lessons if the student is not fully motivated and prepared to properly continue what they are learning? Read more »

Many of us long for the ability to sprint through those complex, intertwined pentatonic scales and arpeggio runs like we’re musical Olympian  finger acrobats. As awing as it sounds when you hear a pro execute such hypnotic maneuvers, it may surprise you to know that baring these skills does not necessarily mean you will be more musically attractive to an audience than someone who plays simple, emotional blues melodies. Unfortunately, this reality is sometimes ignored among certain groups of guitar players. Read more »

I always meet people who insist on isolating themselves to only one or two genres of music. Then they wonder why their playing is so bland.

What they don’t know is this: opening up to every genre of music possible is one of the most beneficial things you could ever do for yourself as a musician. Read more »

If you want to be an all around knowlegable musician, there are certain things that will accomplish this and more. One thing in particluar is music theory. For some of you, the term “music theory” can come off a bit intimidating. At one time, even I felt out of the loop when I heard somebody else mention it. But ask yourself this. What can learning music theory do for my playing? Read more »