Have you ever worked on a strumming pattern where the count was right, posture was fine, you were holding the guitar properly, had the right pick and strings . . .but it still didn't sound right?!
I hate to break the news. . you might be a robot!
Don't fear. . .there is an easy solution!
Have you ever been given a track or a series of chords and someone said
"Hey, write a guitar hook to this"
And you thought. . .
"How the &!*@ do I do that?!"
I'm gonna give you some simple questions you can ask yourself to make that process a little bit easier, not so stressful, and actually...
Have you ever had a melody in your head, sing into your voice memo, and come back a few days later with your instrument and then you struggle to find the chords?
You're not alone, so many songwriting guitarists get stuck when it comes to this.
I'm gonna walk you through some simple steps...
Let's be honest, $h!t is crazy right now. We never experienced anything like this. We're all searching for a little bit of normalcy and trying our best to be creative.
During these times we can feel a little helpless and wonder . .
"What should I work on???"
I want to give you 5 things you can...
I want to talk about the #1 thing songwriting guitarists need but lack . . confidence.
So many people talk about exercises, techniques, and things we can be doing to improve our playing. Now, don't get me wrong all those things are great but we need to talk more about confidence when...
Hi Everyone,
Hope you had a fantastic holiday, this week we're gonna talk about mayo chords!
Now here's why I call them "Mayo chords". If we were to eat a jar of mayonnaise it'd be nasty (that's disgusting and nobody should ever do that!) But when paired with the right thing (like a...
What’s up everyone, it’s Mike here with a Songwriting For Guitar Tip! This week is a follow-up to a video I posted a while ago on the metronome. I received a bunch of emails from people saying . . . .
"I understand the importance of a metronome. I'd love to...
This week we're gonna talk about making your guitar line feel like a sample. I know what you're thinking. . .
"Mike why do we want our guitar to sound like a sample? Why can't we pull something from Splice, Arcade or Apple loops!?"
You could do that and that's completely fine, if...
Today, let's talk about dexterity and stamina in guitar playing! When you're playing a series of chord progressions and shapes for a long period of time in a write, ever notice the quality just dip down?
How do we fix that what? Any steps we can take right this very second?...
What's up everyone it's Tuesday and it's time for a "Songwriting For Guitar" tip. This week we're gonna talk about the metronome.
Now, many songwriting guitarists don't realize the importance of playing with a metronome consistently. You may not be recording the final product (the final version...
This week, let's talk about grooves!
To me, a groove adds energy. It keeps the song moving forward but at the same time it doesn't distract from the melody. A groove is really gonna happen in the right hand, it's a mixture of openness and palm muting. The position of the hand matters, somewhere...
This week we're gonna talk about the three boxes you should be thinking about when you're leading with your guitar in a co-write!
1) VOICING
These are the type of shapes that we're using to play our chords (open chords, barre chords, power chords, roots and 3rds
2) STRUMMING
What's...
Happy Tuesday Everyone,
Today we're going to take clunky chords and we're gonna turn it into a loop/guitar hook.
I've noticed with a lot of songs, they're not using massive guitar chords. Instead of using chords they have a hooky guitar that starts off the song. So that means, it's strong enough...
Time for a "Songwriting for Guitar Tip". . . this week we're gonna talk about the capo! For me as a songwriter, the capo is an awesome tool to use. This gives me the ability to write in different voicings.
If you're not sure what a voicing is, to put it simply, we can play the same chord but...
