Finger Dexterity Chord Dexterity Barre Chord

rest stroke alternate picking basic chords and chord formation

keys scales music theory

Left Hand

Efficient fretting technique (minimal pressure) Position shifts and sliding Hammer-ons, pull-offs Vibrato (classical and blues styles) Bends (quarter, half, whole-step) Muting unwanted strings

Right Hand

Strumming

• Downstrokes, upstrokes
• Syncopation
• Palm muting
• Dynamic strumming (soft to loud)
• Chord accent patterns

Plectrum / Pick

• Holding the pick
• Pick angle for tone
• Alternate picking
• Crosspicking
• Flatpicking solos

Finger picking

P-I-M-A arpeggios tremolo rasgueado fan strum Travis picking (folk, blues) Hybrid picking (pick + fingers) flatpicking

alternate tunings

Drop D, Double Drop D DADGAD Open G, Open D, Open C Modal tunings for world music

Harmonics

• Natural harmonics (5th, 7th, 12th fret)
• Artificial harmonics
• Pinch harmonics

Percussion

• Body taps
• Thumb slaps
• Percussive strums
• Flamenco golpe

Reading music

Sight-reading short pieces daily Note identification drills Reading rhythms without melody

Reading tab

Understanding fret and string notation Combining tab with rhythm notation

Play by ear - Hear / Play afterwards

Hear a melody → play it without notation Recreate chord progressions by ear Practice singing and matching pitch on guitar

Transcribing music by ear

Writing down music from recordings Converting music to standard notation or tab Changing key (with or without capo)

Transcribing music to another key

with or without capo

Music types

• Folk
• Blues
• Classical
• Flamenco / Spanish
• Italian
• Persian and Middle Eastern
• Jazz
• Fingerstyle

Exercise tips

• use metronome
• memorize pieces and keep a written repertoire
• practicing singing and playing
• Record video and audio regularly to self-critique, track progress
• Ear training: play melodies you hear without notation
• Play with others regularly
• Play daily (minimum 15 minutes, aim for 1+ hour)
• Practice sight-reading new music
• Keep repertoire fresh by rotating old pieces
• Learn one new skill per week (technique, chord, scale, etc.)

Guitar Heros -

• Paco de Lucía (flamenco)

• Tommy Emmanuel (fingerstyle acoustic)

• Pat Metheny (jazz)

• Wes Montgomery (jazz)

• Chet Atkins (fingerstyle country/jazz)

• Andrés Segovia (classical)

• John Williams (classical)

• Julian Bream (classical)

• Sungha Jung (modern fingerstyle)

• Rodrigo y Gabriela (percussive acoustic)

• Antoine Dufour (percussive / harmonic filled - lots of pop song covers)

• Estas Tonne ( reverbed, long meditative solos)

• Willy Porter

• Sufjan Stevens

• Charlie Cunningham

• Newton Faulkner

• Billy Raffoul

• Fink

• somebody that I used to know - Gotye (Monty Cotton & the basics version) (acoustic + eguitar with some distortion, clear male voice)

• On that Day - Asgeir (rich acoustic guitar, clear voice with reverb)

• I Gave You All My Love - Luke De-Sciscio (stunning voice with reverb, really simple melodic guitar)

• Follow the Sun - Xavier Rudd (uplifting vocals, simple guitar and harmonic background, )

• One Last Wedding - Thad Kopec (neutral male vocal / simple guitar)

• Himlen över City - Thomas Stenström (neutral male vocal in forefront, synthesizer filling rest)

• Dont Hold Back - Bob Moses (nice pop male vocal, synth and drum background)

• Harvest (Acoustic) - The Breath - (rich acoustic guitar with slide sounds, amazing female vocals)

• Follow My Voice - Julie Byrne (rich but simpler acoustic guitar with rich female vocals)

• Whispering Light (Undressed) - Jesca Hoop, Willy Mason - (female / male harmony, nice simple guitar)

• The Kingdom - Jesca Hoop (basic nice guitar)

• Final Trawl - Archie Fisher (folk type singing, acoustic guitar)

• Sitting Room - Beta Radio (blue grassy style guitar, authentic singing)

• A Prayer for the Sane - Danny Schmidt (melodic acoustic guitar, good lyrics, authentic singing)

• Girl from the North Country - Mendeleyev (Raw voice, strumming)

• I Will Possess your Heart - Death Cab for Cutie (simple pop e-guitar, )

• Wee Rosebud - Clarissa Connelly ( More classical singing)

• Ends of the Earth - Lord Huron (mood, neutral singing, basic guitar)

• Dreams - Piano Version - Lissie (authentic singing)

• Warped Window - Anna Mieke (acoustic guitar - lots of slides, nice authentic female voice )

• Halo - Jono McCleery - (acoustic guitar strumming - clear neutral male voice)

• Archie, Marry Me - Flyte (nice layered male harmonics)

• 9 Crimes - Damian Rice (nice male / female harmony with simple piano in background)

• Hugging You (Acoustic) - Tom Rosenthal & Billie Marten ( nice male / female contrasts and harmony)

• Shenandoah - Chanticlear (great choir version - but could be nice solo song)

• Murder of Birds (undressed) - Jesca Hoop & Guy Harvey (nice simple electric guitar with male / female contrasts and harmony)

• Be the Song - Foy Vance (nice mic’ed acoustic guitar, some synth/percussion, nice male voice)

• Upon These Stones - Tom Francis (nice mic’ed acoustic guitar, some synth/percusion, nice male voice)

• Younger (Acoustic Version) - Seinabo Sey (brilliant raw female voice, simple piano )

• Garden Song - Phoebe Bridges (guitar, male female harmonies )

• Spring Wind - Greg Brown (acoustic guitar, male female harmonies, deep male voice)

• High Tide - Brother Tiger (rich male voice and great simple synth)

• I Follow Rivers - Marika Hackman (rich female voice, distorted really simple synth background - almost voice solo)

• Spanish Moon - Alan Gogoll (really rich micd melodic spanish guitar)

• Those Who Wait - Tommy Emmanuel (richest of acoustic fingerstyle)

• A Smile Reflected - Alan Gogoll (rich simpler fingerstyle - slower - lots of hammer-ons,offs)

• Tree Circle - Isato Nakagawa (rich layering of classical / acoustic tones)

• And I Love Her - Pat Metheny (really rich miced acoustic - including solo type areas - with some reverb)

• Don’t Know Why - Pat Metheny (really rich miced acoustic - including solo type areas - with some reverb)

• Hold Heart - Emilíana Torrini

• Belle - Jack Johnson

• Waitin’ for a Superman - Iron & Wine

• It could happen to you - Herb Ellis (nice jazz guitar - relatively slow)

• Girl from Ipanema - Stan Getz (nice jazz guitar / samba, neutral voice, synth bass)

• San Luis - Gregory Alan Isakov (nice acoustic guitar, nice neutral male voice)

• Convention - Julia Jacklin ( nice acoustic guitar, nice rich female voice)

• Roundabout - Ryle Walker (rich layered acoustic guitar, rich male voice)

• Adore (Acoustic) - Amy Shark (simple distorted slidy acoustic guitar, emotional female voice)

• Cormorant Bird - Fionn Regen (loopy style acoustic guitar, male voice, lots of background but could be done without )

• Heavy Trouble - The Trouble with Templetons (loopy style acoustic guitar, faster male lyrics)

• Smoke Signals - No King. No Crown. - (loop style acoustic guitar, faster male lyrics)

• Beautiful Hell - Adna (loopy style acoustic guitar, female voice)

• Milk & Honey (alt) - Billie Marten (rich female acoustics, micd acoustic guitar)

• Mi Ciudad Natal - Eric Josef (rich melodic classical / jazz guitar - 2 guitars )

• Gravedigger (acoustic) - Dave Matthews (rich acoustic guitar, emotional male singing)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah0ooIwbkvY

• I need my girl - the national (loopy style acoustic guitar base, raw male voice)

• Bum Bum Bum - Cass McCombs (loopy poppy e-guitar, neutral male voice)

• Stable Song - Gregory Alan Isakov (blue grass style guitar, neutral male voice)

• Enough to Believe - Bob Moses (synth, great male voice)

• Bare - Rosie Carney (good acoustic guitar, great female voice)

• Milonga - Jorge Cardoso (nice melodic classical guitar)

Interesting Riffs

• Savant - ViVii (start)

• What I Am (spotify - Iron & Wine (interesting start)

• If Not For You (Demo) - Shakey Graves (bluegrassy acoustic)

• Leyendo en el Hospital - Gustavo Santaolalla, Don Markese (amazing slow melodic acoustic guitar)

Posture

Holding the Guitar

• Classical position with footstool
• Acoustic folk position with strap
• Standing posture

Hand Position

• Relaxed wrist, natural curve of fingers
• Thumb placement (classical vs. acoustic styles)

Understanding Flow on the Guitar

• Mapping the fretboard
• Connecting scale shapes
• Linking chords across the neck
• Building improvisations from melody fragments