Newcastle Guitar Lessons

One of the biggest fears many people have can be when they have to stand up in front of an audience and say or do something. I have many students who come to me in a lesson and are unable to play what they were able to do perfectly at home. At first they think […]

What do kittens and children have in common? Watch the way the kitten sees the little piece of string. Its tail begins to swing back and forth in excitement. It crouches, ready to pounce. Pow!! – got the string. It seems to never tire of the game. One day, that kitten will be a great […]

Karl Marx (1819-83) said “Practice without Theory is blind, Theory without practice is sterile.” So what does that have to do with guitar? In a sense: everything; that is, if you are serious about becoming a better guitarist and musician. Although I am taking Marx a little out of context, this is a great philosophy […]

There was a joke that used to go around (and probably still does) that went like this: Q. How do you know when a drummer is knocking at the door? A. The knocking gets faster the longer it goes on. The reality is, however, that it is not just a phenomenon that happens to drummers […]

I cannot overemphasise the importance of learning and practicing a piece slowly. Although it is very tempting to try and get the piece up to a higher speed, don’t do it! If you keep practicing the mistakes, you will get good at them (the mistakes that is). If you practice something slowly and get it […]

There are primarily two modes of guitar practice, and both of them are vital. The first involves learning of new skills and requires a lot of “thinking.” Remember when you first learned to drive a manual car? You had to think about which gear you need to be in for the speed you were going, […]