Review: The Iris Guitar Company MS-00 Is a Custom-Made Boutique Flattop with Vintage Flair and High-End Tonewoods
The MS-00 is a guitar that’s straightforward, well-balanced, and built to be played, not pampered
Greg Ruby
Greg Ruby is the director of Guitar Week for the Swannanoa Gathering and has taught extensively. He is the author of the Oscar Alemán Play-Along Songbook.
Six Ways to Master the Musical Alphabet and Build a Deeper Understanding of Your Fretboard
Learning the fretboard builds confidence and freedom on the instrument.
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Feel the Swing—Unlock the Secrets to This Essential Rhythmic Technique
Whether you’re into jazz, blues, R&B, funk, or even bluegrass, this lesson will get you on the right track to developing a swing feel in both your soloing and strumming accompaniment.
Review: The Takamine FT340 BS—a Quality Modern Dreadnought Primed for the Stage or Studio
The Takamine FT340 BS is a versatile axe for the gigging acoustic guitarist who needs a consistent sound at a variety of volumes in a variety of venues.
Review: Collings Debuts New Series with the Striking OM1A Hill Country
Designed to be "just a guitar—simply in its purest form, open and woody,” every inch of the OM1A HC speaks to lutherie at its finest.
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Sharpen Your Rhythm Guitar Skills by Learning to Read Rhythmic Notation
Practicing rhythmic fundamentals can show immediate results and also gives you a structure to internalize new rhythmic patterns.
Review: The Martin GPCE Inception Maple Looks to the Future of Tonewoods and Guitar Design
Using sustainable domestic tonewoods paired with an innovative bracing design, the Inception is a great-sounding instrument that is easy to play.
Review: Preston Thompson’s PKT D-EIS Is a Flatpicker’s Dream and More
This visually stunning, well-rounded flattop is ideal for a variety of musical styles and contexts.
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Expand Your Harmonic Vocabulary Using Django Chord Voicings
In this lesson, we’ll dive into some chordal innovations you can use to get a Django Reinhardt sound or to simply explore new ways of approaching chords.
Review: The Córdoba Stage Is a Gig-Ready Nylon-String that Plays Like an Electric Guitar
With its C-shaped mahogany neck and radiused fretboard, the Stage handles more like a semi-hollow electric than a traditional classical or flamenco guitar.
How to Use Rest Strokes to Improve Your Flatpicking Technique—and Your Guitar Sound
The rest stroke—similar to the fingerstyle approach used by classical guitarists—is a plectrum technique in which each downstroke lands on an adjacent string rather than passing over it.
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Video Lesson: How to Visualize and Play Chords Up the Neck
In this guitar lesson we will focus on how to play chords “up the neck” in order to learn to play a chord-melody.
Video Lesson: Turn Any Song into a Chord-Melody Solo
Try this approach to make a chord-melody version of Django Reinhardt’s iconic interpretation of “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
Learn Chord-Melody Techniques from Jazz Guitarist Eddie Lang
Here are some ideas from jazz great Eddie Lang for some new chord melody techniques and textures on guitar, applied to the verse of the old standard “After You’ve Gone.”
How to Hold Down the Harmony on Guitar in Tricky Chord-Melody Arrangements
When playing chord-melody style guitar, sometimes you're not sure which chord to use when the melody isn’t a chord tone or moves too quickly. Here's the solution.
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Video Lesson: Learn to Fill the Gaps in Any Chord-Melody Guitar Arrangement
Learn to use tremolo picking on long notes and passing chords over multiple measures of rest to fill space in any chord-melody guitar arrangement.
Video Lesson: Chord-Melody Made Easy(ish) on Acoustic Guitar
Knowing inversions is essential to understanding chord-melody, as it assures that you will have an appropriate voicing to place below the melody.
Woodshed: Learn Oscar Alemán’s ‘You Made Me Love You’
Oscar Alemán had an impeccable sense of swing and played with exciting rhythmic punctuations, a horn-like attack, and sharp attention to detail.
