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How do you improvise over chord progressions
The Guitar Blog
How do you improvise over chord progressions: 6+ ways to success

“How do you improvise over chord progressions?” is a common question I hear often from guitar players.

Have you wondered about this too?

In this video lesson, I explain one of my simple methods step by step to answer this question.

Many guitarists think knowing a scale or a few to improvise is enough. While only using guitar scales might work, there are a few problems:

  • Your improvisation might sound too scaley and mechanical.
  • You may hit the right spots but without knowing why they work.
  • You’re limiting yourself
  • Most importantly, you miss the main point.

Hint: the answer is already in the question…

That’s right – chords! Or, more specifically, chord tones (the notes that construct the chord).

How do you improvise over chord progressions? Answer: chord tones awareness

In this video, “How do you improvise over chord progressions”, I discuss what I call “chord tones awareness.”

Simply put, when you’re aware of the chord tones, your improvisation will match the chords in the background if you’re playing to a backing track.

The result will make you sound like you confidently know exactly what you’re doing.

You can use this to improvise over a backing track, but I demonstrated it using just a solo guitar in the video.

As I shared in a previous video, backing tracks have their own limitations. But with the “chord tones awareness” approach, you can learn better and create using just one guitar!

Yes, you can even compose your own solo guitar piece by combining two of the main elements of music: harmony (chords) and melody (scales).

I quickly reviewed the fundamental scales in the video, such as the major and minor pentatonic scales, before moving on to more complex concepts.

So, if you feel this is advanced, you should probably spend more time mastering these scales first. If you need any help with that – email me,

Oh, and if you’d like the PDF I show there with the diagrams – email me, and I’ll send it over!

You can watch the video here below. I’d love to know what you think – it would mean the world to me if you could leave your comments:​

To your success!
– Udi

PS
Ready to make fast progress with your guitar and music? Book a guitar chat with me here.

March 21, 2025

guitar composition FAQ - a person holding a pencil and writing on a notebook
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog
Unlock the Secrets of Emotional Guitar Composition: Essential FAQs

“Guitar composition”, “guitar composing”, “composing on guitar” – you’re probably here because you searched these terms and want to learn more about them. You’ve come to the right place! In this FAQ, I’ll try to answer everything I can based on my experience as a guitar composer and guitar composition teacher. If you have any more questions – comment below, and I’ll update this article with my answers!

What is guitar composition?

Guitar composition is the art and process of creating original music on the guitar. The term can mean composing music for the guitar or using the guitar as the primary instrument for composition. The term composition suggests that it’s mainly for classical guitar and classical music. But in modern times, it doesn’t have to be restricted and can apply to any type of guitar and in any genre.

Do compositions must be notated with software or written on paper?

While you can notate your music, it’s not a must. Moreover, you don’t even have to read music to compose! Some guitar composers don’t know which notes they are playing, especially when using alternate tunings, where every tuning is like re-learning the fretboard. In this guitar composition approach, you let your ear and intuition guide you instead.

Do you have to learn music theory to compose on the guitar?

Learning music theory helps you understand what you play and how to take it further. But it’s not a must! Sometimes, focusing on theory can even slow the creative process by letting our logical and rational minds take the lead. The result might be too structured and predictable music based on formulas. If you agree that creating music is about conveying emotions and feelings, then leading with that can bring more exciting results.

In addition, music theory is usually used to analyse and explain passively. However, “music composition theory” is a more fitting term that focuses on the creative application of theory. This includes uncovering how to use composition tools created by great composers and guitarists, such as permutations, as well as showing how any theoretical concept, like intervals, can be used to create guitar pieces.

Can anybody learn how to compose guitar music?

Absolutely! It doesn’t matter what level, age, and style you’re into or what you believe or think – you can learn how to compose guitar music! There’s a misconception that some people are born with a natural talent to compose or as creatives. Some are indeed born with perfect pitch (not me…), which definitely helps with anything to do with music, including composing. But even Beethoven and the great classical composers learned how to compose!

There are mainly two ways to learn guitar composition:

  1. Self study: researching the right resources, like YouTube videos, online courses and books.
  2. Working with a mentor: getting professional help and a structured plan to overcome mental, emotional, technical, musical and creative challenges.

When I first picked up the guitar, I immediately composed music on it. Yes, it was mainly based on open strings and probably wasn’t very interesting to listen to, but the act of composing the guitar is that easy and simple. It’s like giving your child a pen and a piece of paper, and you’ll get a piece of art that you’ll hang on the wall with pride.

Even guitar composition students with a strong disbelief manage to do so. Here’s an example:

Where and how to learn guitar composition?

Quite a few teachers and educational institutions teach “guitar” and “composition” as the main subjects, mainly by learning other people’s music and methods.

According to my research, there are very few programmes that teach the guitar as the main compositional instrument that’s not restricted to a specific genre (classical or jazz). Berklee College of Music, for example, offers a course titled “Guitar Composition Techniques for Performers/Composers” (here’s the link), which is part of a wider composition programme.

This gap is the reason for opening my only guitar composition academy, which focuses on artistry more than the techniques, for example, by showing how to be in tune with the guitar and transform emotions into music through it.

What’s the difference between guitar composition and improvisation?

Composition and improvisation are two approaches to creating music on the guitar. A common difference people think is that composition is planned and pre-written, and improvisation is created spontaneously at the moment.

But the lines can be blurry. For example, you can compose on the fly by playing and recording random notes on the guitar. Similarly, you can base your improvised music on musical ideas you have already practised and played in the past. Additionally, sometimes aimlessly improvising music on the guitar (known as “noodling”) can lead to structured compositions at any stage of the creative process.

One more approach is to enable moments of improvisation within a composition. This way, there is a general structure with flexible, non-definitive parts. Here’s an example for a guitar composition with improvised bits:

How to compose music on the guitar?

There are many ways to compose music on the guitar, from how to get inspiration to finding the right structure for your music. A simple way of looking at the creative process is to break it down into 3 steps.

  1. Inspiration and ideation: getting inspired and creating a musical idea.
  2. Development: expanding and enriching that musical idea.
  3. Completion: adding related parts if needed and deciding on the final structure.

Of course, this is a general overview of the process of guitar composition, and each step includes multiple mini-steps.

How to start and get better as a guitar composer?

Like anything in life, to start and get better at guitar composition, you also need to:

  1. Learn what to practise.
  2. Practise what you learned.

Imagine guitar composition as a muscle you need to train and make it stronger. It can be difficult to compose something instantly as a beginner composer, but the more you hone your compositional skills, the better you’ll be able to compose on the spot!

Nothing should stop you from picking up the guitar right now and creating something new that you never played before. For more inspiration and guidance – check out these guitar composition lessons.

Isn’t it better to compose on a piano?

For many composers, the piano and keyboards are the main instruments for creating music. They have a wider range of octaves (7 plus a few keys), and you can play 10 notes at the same time. The guitar is more limited in that respect, about 3-4 octaves and mostly 6 notes at the same time. But the guitar has other advantages. Here are some of them:

  1. If you’re a guitarist, you can compose straight away on your instrument.
  2. The guitar has a few positions for the same pitch, giving it richer tone and colour options.
  3. The open strings enable diverse and unique combinations of notes, for example Campanelle.
  4. The guitar can be very expressive with, for example, string bends, slides, and other creative manipulations.

Is composing music hard?

Composing music can be an easy or hard task, depending on where you are in the creative process. Some guitarists have a lot of self-doubt, so it’s hard for them to begin. Others start but are overwhelmed with too many options to develop their ideas. There are also guitar players who find it easy to create and develop their ideas but struggle with finishing them.

Do you have any more questions? Comment below, and I’ll update this article with my answers!

January 26, 2025

Guitar composition and musical creativity - are we creative by nature.
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog
Are we creative by nature?

Guitar composition is something anyone can (and should) create. But some think they don’t “have it” or lack imagination and can’t compose guitar music.

In this post, I’d like to show you that you are already creative and can easily compose original music on the guitar.

When you do simple things in your everyday life, you create. For example, let’s say you commented on this post: “Thank you! I feel more confident in my creativity and can compose original music without the guitar”.

No one has put together this string of words in that specific way. Don’t believe me? Try to google my comment example with quotation marks. It’s original! The result says: “Your search did not match any documents.” (Although, when this post is published, it might lead to this page…).

However, I’m sure your comment will be much more interesting than my example, and you can then Google your comment and test your originality yourself.

Like writing, communicating with others using language is also based on your creativity. You’re creating sequences of words in your unique way.

Even when you speak, you improvise in the moment, like improvising music on your guitar. Bassist and author Victor Wooten beautifully explained this point in his TED talk.

Guitar Creativity & the “Four C Model”

In psychology, the “Four C Model” differentiates between four levels of creativity. The first level, “mini-c,” concerns novel and personally meaningful interpretations of experiences, actions, and events. 

It means, for example, that when you played a few notes on the guitar as a beginner, you may have experienced a feeling you created something new and different to you. 

According to this concept, “mini-c” inherently exists in a learning process that we can foster and nurture to move on to the next level of creativity. 

Creativity from a biological perspective

But psychology can’t provide definitive proof for our creative nature. So perhaps we can get evidence from a biological perspective. This quote describes it nicely: 

“One of the defining features of humanity is the ability to be creative. This ability is exhibited throughout human society and is a fundamental force in the development of humankind. However, the concept of creativity itself is shrouded in imprecision and subjectivity, making it difficult to address from a scientific perspective. One approach to the rational study of creativity in humans is to consider it from an evolutionary perspective, aiming to identify related behaviours in other species that can be studied without the cloud of human subjectivity that the word creativity entails.” (Wiggins, 2015; doi: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0099).

I’d add that it’s also very difficult to compare creativity levels between people. What are the parameters and who decides them? 

I’d add that it’s also challenging to compare creativity levels between people. What are the parameters, and who decides on them? 

That’s why the term creativity can be open to interpretation and tricky to measure scientifically, although there are efforts to research specific aspects of it.

My conclusion and guitar composition

We still need more research to understand creativity. But despite its subjectivity, there seems to be a broad agreement that being creative is an essential part of being human, even if it’s on a fundamental level. 

It happens when we learn something new and begin our learning process as babies and even in the womb.

The cool thing is that this long post results from a comment I received on a different post. It is a chain reaction of inspiration and creation; you can choose to be part of it. 

To be more creative is your choice, whether you believe it’s in your nature. How? Commenting on this post is a simple way! Learning guitar to enhance your creativity is another. 

Enhancing guitar players’ creativity is what I’m trying to promote through my guitar composition group, Solo Guitar Composition Artistry Group, where I share free resources and videos.

I also opened a new venture called The Art of Guitar Composition Academy. This programme gives a holistic overview of music as an art form. We explore there all the elements of music practically and experiment with compositional tools that will help you through every stage of the creative process.

To learn more about it and to see if it’s the right thing for you, schedule a guitar chat with me – https://udiguitar.com/contact-udiguitar/

May 22, 2023

Kirk Hammett guitar solo songwriting composition improvisation
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog
Guitarists criticise Kirk Hammett, but who needs fancy guitar solos?

I recently read an interview with Kirk Hammett in Total Guitar and discovered that there’s an ongoing online debate about his guitar solo in Lux Aeterna. 😮 I felt I needed to address it

As someone who grew up in the 80s, Metallica has been a significant influence on my musical upbringing. I learned a lot from their guitar transcription books before even knowing what I was playing.

I understand that there’s some expectation from guitarists to evolve artistically, and it’s safe to say that Hammett’s solos were more diverse in their earlier albums, which he admits in the interview. 

Nowadays, and from what I could hear in their latest album “72 Seasons”, their music still primarily relies on the minor pentatonic/Blues scale, and Hammett is content with mainly using the minor pentatonic scale for his guitar solos. So Lux Aeterna’s solo is a bit more interesting, as he uses some chromatic runs. 🙂

Personally, I love this guitar solo as it brings the energy the song requires. I listened to a few other guitarists’ alternate solos to the song, and I didn’t feel it at all. They might be excellent technically, but there wasn’t any musical connection to the song.

Some of the criticism regarding the solo is that it jumps from one idea to another with “no logic”. But doesn’t it create a sense of hastiness that’s related to the feel and meaning of the song?

In the creative process, it might be true that these bits were glued together from different takes. Hammett said he’s now very much into improvisation and left the editing stage to Lars Ulrich and the producer Greg Fidelman.

This leads to an interesting topic, what is the purpose of a guitar solo? 

Is it for lead guitarists to showcase their shredding skills, like in those alternate solos? Or is it for adding a part that melodically expresses the song’s feel, energy or meaning without lyrics?

There are other approaches to incorporating a guitar solo, like using it to tell a story. But in this case, it seems that those other two answers are the main schools of thought.

I support the latter. To me, if the song needs a guitar solo (which is not a must). It’s a break from the vocal parts into a more abstract expressionism that doesn’t have to follow any rules. It exists because it adds some value to the song.

Also, I think it’s essential to have a flow into the guitar solo, so it doesn’t feel like it was forced into the song. In Lux Aeterna, specifically, I love how the band clears the stage for it by literally stepping down (chromatically).

Personally, I’m more into solo guitar than guitar solo. 🙂 On my latest instrumental guitar album, I had only one “traditional” guitar solo that goes into a blurry cloud of sounds. In another track, I used sweep picking to add an extra layer behind eight other guitar layers. 😀

What are your thoughts on this? Where do you stand?

Read more articles about guitar composition on my guitar blog!

Photo of Kirk Hammett by Raph_PH.

​​

April 18, 2023

A robot AI is a guitarist - CREATIVE GUITAR PROMPTS for songwriting composition and improvisation
Creative Guitar Challenge  ·  Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
5 Creative Guitar Prompts to Improvise and Compose New Music

Looking for creative guitar prompts?

The word “prompts” became common these days because of chatGPT and other AI apps. But instead of outsourcing intelligence, how about using and upgrading NI? 

The good things about NI are that its creative capacity is unlimited, it can search for the most updated information on the web, and can even connect and have meaningful chats with humans. 🙃

NI can also create beautiful music by using the smart algorithms of MI and mainly because of its extraordinary emotional expression capabilities. 

So here are 5 creative guitar prompts you can challenge your mind with to improvise, write songs and compose new musical creations…

  1. Write the next release of your favourite musician.
  2. Your middle two strings broke. Use the other four to write a song.
  3. Compose a monophonic guitar piece.
  4. Write a soundtrack to the last video on your phone.
  5. Play a famous guitar riff but with different notes.
CREATIVE GUITAR PROMPTS for songwriting composition and improvisation
5 creative guitar prompts

It’d be great to hear your variations on these creative guitar prompts! Would you like to share your attempts on my Electric Fingerstyle Improvisation Guitar Group on Facebook?

Prompt the Promt

Then I thought, what if you write “creative guitar prompts” as a prompt into an AI app? I did, and chatGPT gave me these 10 ideas:

  1. Play a piece in a different time signature, such as 7/8 or 5/4.
  2. Write a song that tells a story, and create a guitar riff to go along with it.
  3. Try playing a piece of music in a different genre, such as rock music played with a classical fingerstyle approach.
  4. Use alternate tunings, such as Drop D or Open G, to create a unique sound.
  5. Incorporate percussive elements, such as slapping and tapping, into your playing.
  6. Create a medley of your favourite songs, blending them together into one piece.
  7. Write a piece using only one chord, exploring the different melody and rhythm possibilities.
  8. Play a piece in reverse, starting with the last chord and working your way backwards.
  9. Experiment with different guitar effects, such as reverb, delay, or distortion, to create new sounds.
  10. Improvise a piece based on a specific emotion, such as joy, sadness, or anger.

I asked it to regenerate and got 10 more creative guitar prompts, and some are quite similar and variations to the first 10.

  1. Write a song using only three chords
  2. Create a soundscape by playing with different textures and effects pedals
  3. Write a piece in a different time signature than you are used to
  4. Use a specific emotion as inspiration for your playing
  5. Write a piece in the style of a genre or artist you admire, but put your own spin on it
  6. Experiment with alternate tunings
  7. Write a song with a narrative structure, like a story
  8. Improvise a solo over a chord progression you’ve never played before
  9. Collaborate with another musician and write a piece together
  10. Create a medley of different songs, seamlessly blending them together.

But this time, it also added an important closing sentence. “Remember, these prompts are meant to inspire and challenge you, not limit you. Feel free to interpret them in your own way and let your creativity guide your playing.”

Conclusion

This was a great experiment, which I believe proves my initial point. AI is based on common knowledge and on the information we know so far. It cannot yet generate ideas that haven’t been thought of. When I thought of producing 5 prompts of my own, I wanted to come up with new ideas and skipped the ones the chatGPT suggested. I thought they were a bit obvious and predictable.

For example, writing the next release of your favourite musician is an idea I for from the visual arts, to draw the next painting by Picasso and so on.

The conclusion is: feel free to experiment with all of these 25 creative guitar prompts. And here’s another challenge: create your own prompts!

February 15, 2023

Musical expression on the guitar - Guitarist Gary Moore RIP
Creative Guitar Challenge  ·  Guitar blog posts  ·  Music  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
How to enhance musical expression in your guitar playing

For improvisation, songwriting, and composition on the guitar in particular, these five ideas can help you be more expressive

The idea for this “musical expression on the guitar” article began with an answer I gave to a question in a guitar Facebook group. The question was along the lines of “How do you improvise on the guitar in a more musical way?”

My reply was: “The key is to develop your inner voice and ear and make it a whole-body experience, which is more than just “thinking” with your fingers. It’s about connecting all the different elements and components of a musical experience.”

Then, as I gave the question some more thought (and discussed it in my group “Guitar Songwriting & Composition“) I became aware of its problematic wording. What does “more musical” mean? The intent behind the original question was probably “how to be more expressive on the guitar” or “how to play the guitar with more musical expression.”

So I thought I’d break down my answer into five effective concepts that help me and my guitar students. 

Five Ways to Improve Musical Expression on the Guitar

1) Get Up, Stand Up

Most of us sit while playing the guitar. But standing up can already make a big difference. You can then move more freely by, for example, swaying your hips and gesturing with your hands and head. This also helps with getting into the rhythm and immersing yourself in your playing. This is what I meant by making it a whole-body experience. It’s like the difference between practising and performing. When you stand up, it can feel like a live gig, even if the crowd is the furniture around you. Also, sitting too much is not very healthy.

  • If you play classical / flamenco guitar, you can still move while sitting. But you can also try to stand and rest your foot on a high stool.

2) Sing

Using your voice—either your inner or actual voice—can help a lot with being more expressive on the guitar. For example, when you “scat” (sing what you play at the same time), your playing can sound more human. In other words, you will use speech-like phrases. It’s because when we speak, we say a few words, pause or take a breath, and say a few more words, and so on. When you do that with the guitar, the result can be similar. You’ll play and sing a few notes on the guitar, breathe and rest, then play and sing a few more notes, and so on.

  • If that’s tricky, you can also play something and then sing it. The other way around can also work, sing something and then play it. 

Watch these two short videos about guitar scatting:

Guitar scatting part 1
Guitar scatting part 2

3) Listen to the Music

Playing the guitar expressively is not just about playing one phrase, the next one, and then another. Instead, think about it as a conversation between you and the guitar. It’s bi-directional. So after playing a phrase, listen to what you’ve just played before automatically playing the next one. Ask yourself, “Where does this phrase want to go?” This way, your phrases will stimulate you to respond and create other related phrases. 

  • This concept is particularly crucial when playing with other live musicians. The ability to listen to those around you is probably the most important aspect of music expression and creation. 

4) Surprise Yourself

If you “think” too much with your fingers, your playing might sound too mechanical. For example, it can happen when you play over a scale you know automatically, like the pentatonic minor scale. Especially when repeating previously practised exercises, like scale sequences. It can be much more exciting to improvise and come up with new note combinations you’ve never tried before. 

  • To break the patterns, pay attention to how you play. Are you mostly using the same order of fingers? Mix it up.

5) Silent Notes

We tend to focus too much on what notes to play. But it’s equally (or even more) important to focus on how we play these notes. For instance, adding interesting dynamics and tone can be much more expressive than a constant stream of notes. This way, you can repeat the same phrase while diversifying it by playing with other elements of music. 

  • Learning the power of the elements of music also helps with finding your sound and your own style on the guitar. It can make your music and your playing more unique and original. 

Musical Expression on the guitar – Summary

To sum up, to play the guitar with more musical expression, think about it as a whole-body experience by standing and moving your body, singing, listening to your playing, surprising yourself with new note combinations, and focusing on other elements of music.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article! Comment below. Also, if you’ve implemented these concepts, it’d be great to hear how they helped you!

After Note

While working on demonstrating these ideas in a video, a new guitar tune came out. So instead of a video that explains and shows these concepts, here’s that tune that I came up with. I thought it was important because ultimately, the idea of musical expression on the guitar is about creating new music that excites you. Need help applying these principles to your music? Let’s have a guitar chat!

https://youtu.be/O_oVVk7Fp60

Photo of Gary Moore: Jan Reif

Did you like this article about musical expression on the guitar? Comment below

January 24, 2023

creative guitar mindset for guitarists
Creative Guitar Challenge  ·  Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
5 easy ways to adopt a creative guitar mindset

Why guitarists focus more on the technical side of guitar playing while struggling with the creative aspect + 5 easy and proven ways to enhance your creativity on the guitar

Creative guitar mindset: why do we need it? It may be trivial, but I think it’s important to stress the impact that our mindset has on our guitar playing and music creation. Out of the different types, I’m going to focus here on the creative mindset, which is fundamental for music as a creative art form.

Although this is quite a simple concept, I don’t think that many guitarists think this way. But I can understand why. One of the reasons is related to the way we begin learning guitar. The first thing we do is treat guitar playing as a physical activity. It’s understandable because controlling our fingers to do something they’ve never done before is a challenge. We weren’t born to play the guitar. 

So our initial focus is to see the guitar as a tool for finger exercises. This way, we might get the wrong impression that this is what the guitar is about. We may adopt a sports-like mindset, believing that we should focus primarily on techniques. This is heightened when we want to sound like the great, technically incredible shred guitarists.

Guitarist’s creative mindset

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against honing our technical skills on the guitar. But my guitar philosophy is that music is about conveying emotions, and the guitar is the best tool to achieve that. So in a creative mindset, guitar skills are meant to help us express the music we hear in our heads to create meaningful songs and compositions. This is my definition of a creative mindset in this context. A more general definition can be “think like an artist”. 

“Arts and crafts” is a good analogy for these two types of mindsets (sports and creative). “Arts” represents the artistic and creative side of music, and “crafts” is the technical and craftsmanship part of playing music. Each one relies on the other and complements it. To convey our emotions on the guitar, we need to be able to execute them well. To give meaning to our finger movements and guitar skills, we need emotional content. So there’s some balance we can maintain between the “arts and crafts”. 

There’s no shortage of resources for improving technical guitar skills, but it seems that guitar lessons on creativity are scarce. I can understand why. It’s much more difficult to teach guitar creativity! But because this is my true passion and purpose in life, I’ve spent a lot of time, effort, and energy finding ways to teach guitarists to be more creative and expressive. I’ve learned it from my guitar teachers, researched it academically, and tested it in the real world on myself, my fellow musicians, and my guitar students. 

After discussing the importance of adopting a creative mindset on the guitar, let’s go over ways of achieving it.

5 tips on adopting a creative mindset on the guitar

1) Embrace this daily habit

Enhancing a creative mindset is like adopting a good habit. Like any habit, daily repetition is the key to success. So you can simply allocate time every day to practising it. This kind of practice is about picking up the guitar and playing something you’ve never played before. You can improvise, jam, noodle, and explore the guitar from a new angle. Allow yourself to experiment with it. This can be even just 10 minutes a day, and you can treat it like your daily meditation or your “me time.” 

  • Choosing the right time of day and place can help with incorporating it into your routine and life. For example, I practice mainly at night time when the house is quiet while laying on the living room couch. 

2) Don’t think too much

When you practice the above daily exercise (or when playing anything on the guitar), try not to think too much or at all. Mainly, don’t judge and critique yourself by thinking “it’s not good enough”, “it’s not original enough”, or “I don’t know what I’m playing”. We are our worst critics. Being critical is a great type of thinking for other tasks, like making progress and improving our guitar skills. But from an artistic point of view, it adds an unnecessary roadblock to the creative process. So decide that you’re going to clear your mind and enter a state of flow. The great drummer Vinnie Colaiut summarised it well with his mantra: “Thought is the enemy of flow”. 

  • If you ever tried meditation, you probably know that it’s hard to stop our brain from thinking. How can you stop its main function…? But you can enter a mind-wandering state, or daydream. Anything is fine as long as you allow yourself to explore the guitar with no judgment. 

3) Shut your eyes

What can help you with the previous tips is to shut your eyes while playing. This simple act can block some distractions and disruptions in your environment. Because music is mainly an auditory experience, shutting down one of your most active senses, sight, can help. You can then focus more on the most important skill for a guitarist or musician: the ability to listen. This type of listening skill allows you to hear the potential of what you’re trying to create and immerse yourself in this creative activity. Besides, playing without looking at your fingers is a great exercise that builds trust with your fingers and the sense of touch. 

  • Other ways to decrease your sight are by playing in a dark room (I even played in caves), or covering your eyes with a blindfold (maybe you have a travel eye mask from your latest flight…).

4) Do a warm-up

It can take some time to leave your thoughts behind, find something that excites you, or enter a flow state. So when practising the daily 10 minutes, it might take five minutes or even more to get into “the zone”. The zone is that state of mind where you feel comfortable and curious to explore new things after letting go of any annoying thoughts. This way, creativity is like a muscle that you need to stretch and warm up to exploit its full potential. So be patient with yourself and allow time for things to happen (and they will happen!).

  • You can also do “normal” warm-up exercises before your 10 minutes begin. These can even lead you to a great creative session. For instance, did you know that Guns N’ Roses’ hit “Sweet Child O’ Mine” began as an exercise that Slash practised on his guitar?

5) Create a safe space

If you still struggle to get into a creative mood, it might be related to your surroundings. A safe space is a time and place where you feel secure enough to explore the unknown. It’s like the “sandbox” concept in the software development world, where you can try things out, test them, and make mistakes. So finding or creating your own safe space in an encouraging environment can help.

  • I’ve found that these safe places can occur in the context of a lesson with my guitar students. Magic happens when you have trust and are encouraged to get your creative juices flowing. I’ve witnessed many a time students creating amazing music in front of my eyes and ears

Want to get more creative guitar mindset tips?

These five creative guitar mindset tips are just a few out of many! I write about them in more depth in my guitar book.

If you’d like to know what they are and can’t wait for the book, I can show you what they are and, more importantly, how to implement them. Contact me here.

I’m a guitar teacher in north London who mainly teaches online using a unique music education platform. If you’re looking into improving your guitar songwriting and composing skills – I’d love to hear from you. Use the link above or comment below to schedule a guitar chat with me.

January 20, 2023

Music theory for guitar songwriting
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Unlock Guitar Songwriting Secrets with Easy Music Theory Methods

Music theory is a great tool for writing songs on the guitar. In this article, I’ll show 5 ways to create music that will sound good and also give tips to make your songs less common and more original

Before getting into guitar songwriting tips, I need to mention an important idea. Although music theory provides effective songwriting tools, you can ignore them all. It’s because being creative usually entails breaking the rules and finding a unique way of creating music. There’s a great quote accredited to the guitar legend Jeff Beck (RIP), who left us this week:

Guitar legend Jeff Beck -

“If I don’t break the rules at least 10 times in every song, then I’m not doing my job properly.”

— Jeff Beck

Photo: Simon Fernandez Music Photographer

Let’s first begin by defining what music theory and guitar songwriting are.

What is music theory?

Music theory is a… theory. As such, it’s open to interpretation. So I’ll propose a working definition for this article. Music theory is a compilation of methods and ideas to organise sound and explore and understand its various possibilities to create music.

What is guitar songwriting?

This is another blurry term, and I’ll define guitar songwriting as the process of creating popular music on the guitar. I also like to use the term “guitar composing.” Composing is more related to classical music, but guitar music can be instrumental, whereas songs are usually associated with lyrics.

Here are the 5 simple methods and at the end of each method, there’s a guitar songwriting tip.

1) Diatonic Harmony

The term “diatonic” in music theory is such a great tool for songwriting. It allows you to turn the seven notes of a scale into music that will most likely sound great. It’s because these seven notes are connected by strong bonds.

You can think of it as a family. Yes, there are sometimes disagreements and tensions, but “blood is thicker than water” and there is natural love. So the seven notes are like seven family members.

One of the basic interpretations of diatonic in songwriting is “diatonic harmony,” which means chords and chord progressions based on the seven chords of a scale or key.

Let’s start with the key of C major. There are 7 notes in C major: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. From each note (also called a “degree”), we construct a related chord: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and B-.

If you choose a combination of some of these chords, you will create a chord progression, and it will likely sound good. For example, C, G, F, and Am.

Guitar songwriting tip #1:

These four chords are frequently used. So to create a less common chord progression, include some or all of the other three chords. For instance, C, B-, F, and Dm.

2) Time Symmetry

Music theory brought us the term “time signature” (also “metre”). It’s an effective way to organise beats. The most common time signature is 4/4, and because it’s so common, its synonym is a capital C. It means that music is divided into 4 beats, and these 4 beats are grouped in a block called a “bar” (or “measure”).

So if you want your chord progression to sound good, you can use symmetry. If you look around, you’ll probably notice many symmetrical items, like furniture. We humans are very much into symmetrical shapes, and the same thing applies to music.

You can create symmetry in music by allocating each chord to a 4-beat bar. For example:

| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |

Guitar songwriting tip #2:

To make your chord progression more original, break the pattern or stretch the symmetry. For example, you can create a chord progression with an odd number of bars, like:
| C / / / | G / / / | Dm / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |

3) Melodic Tones

The next music theory concept is called “chord tones”, which are simply the notes of each chord. These are great for creating melodies around a chord progression. Every basic chord consists of 3 notes (a triad), and to add a melody that sounds good, you can sing (or play with another guitar) a note or more from the same chord.

For example, chord C consists of the notes c, e, and g. If you sing or play one of these notes with the chord C, they will sound harmonious together. It’s a very simple idea… Let’s see it in action.

Chords:
| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |
Melody:
| e | d | c | c |

Guitar songwriting tip #3:

To make it more original and interesting, use non-chord tones as well. Non-chord tones can be notes from the same scale that are not part of the chord. For example:
Chords:
| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | Am / / / |
Melody:
| d | e | d | c |

4) Functional Harmony

Functional harmony is a music theory concept that presumes that each chord in a scale or key has a specific function. For example, the first chord is called the “tonic”. If all the chords are a family, then the tonic is considered the head of the family. It’s the first and main chord of the scale.

The tonic functions like “home”, which means that it’s the chord you usually start and end with. It’s like starting the day at home, going to work, and then coming back home to your family. This means that you can think of the other chords as “outdoors”.

In practical terms, it means that if you want to create a “homey feel”, you’re going to base a chord progression around C. For example:

| C / / / | G / / / | F / / / | C / / / |

Guitar songwriting tip #4:

You can also create a chord progression that feels like the outdoors. For example:
| Dm / / / | B- / / / | Em / / / | Em / / / |

5) Final Form

What you can do with the chord progressions and melodies is arrange them in a form. We sometimes take it for granted, but various forms have been developed for centuries. In popular music, there are a few common forms.

For example, a popular form begins with two verses, a chorus, one verse, and then two choruses. In short, we can write it as AABABB. The A part is the verse, which can be one chord progression with one melody. The B part can be the chorus with different chord progressions and melodies:

A: | C | G | F | C |
A: | C | G | F | C |
B: | Dm | B- | Em | Em |
A: | C | G | F | C |
B: | Dm | B- | Em | Em |
B: | Dm | B- | Em | Em |

Guitar songwriting tip #5:

To make your song more complex and interesting, add more sections, like a C-part, which can be another chord progression and melody. For instance: | G | Dm | B- | Am |
For guitarists, this can be our cue for the guitar solo.

  • Last tip: Even better, create your form and organise your music in a way that feels right to you.

What did you think about these guitar songwriting tips and methods? Comment Below.

If you’d like to advance your guitar songwriting skills – get in touch! I am a guitar teacher in north London and also have an online guitar school.

January 13, 2023

achieve your guitar goals this year 2023
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog
How to achieve your guitar goals in 2023 confidently

Have you thought about your guitar goals this year? It’s a new year, and like any beginning, you now have a great excuse to define and plan what you’d like to achieve in 2023. Here are 7 steps to do it right.

guitar goals - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

— accredited to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

1) Define your Guitar Goals

That might be an obvious one. But choosing and writing your guitar goals clearly and concisely, instead of just thinking about them, makes them more tangible. Make a list of all your goals and then prioritise them and focus on the main one. It should be the goal you feel most passionate about. You can also write it down and place it where you play the guitar as a daily reminder.

For example: compose and release a guitar album.

(I used these steps to compose and release my latest guitar album – Love Blue Electric).

Tip: Write down as many goals as you want, but be realistic and focus on the most significant ones.

2) Write the “Why”

Motivation is the key to everything. So writing down all the reasons why you want to achieve your goals can help when motivation and energy levels are low. Again, that’s a reminder that can give you that push when you need it. Understing why can also help clarify and decide which goals are closest to your heart. 

For example: I want to release a guitar album because I want to contribute something new to the guitar world. I want to turn these ideas into completed songs. I want to finally have a decent artist profile on Spotify.

Tip: Don’t just write something generic like “I want to get better at guitar playing.” Dig deeper. Get in touch with your younger self, and remember why you wanted to learn guitar in the first place. 

3) Break your Guitar Goal into Mini-goals

Pursuing a big project takes time and time management. So it’s best to break down your goal into mini-goals and related tasks that will make you feel like you’re steadily progressing towards the finish line.

For example: I want to have 12 songs in my guitar album, so I’ll dedicate a whole month to every song. Each month, I will spend the first week composing, the second week recording a demo, the third week improving, and the fourth week arranging, editing, and mixing each song.

Tip: Using a mind map can help with outlining all of the steps you need to take and then organising them in an order that makes sense and fits your schedule.

4) Set a Deadline

Deciding on mini-goals and tasks is great, but it’s not enough because life always gets in the way. So assigning specific deadlines to each task is one of the best ways to ensure you complete them on time. Even if you don’t meet the deadline, at least you’ll be much closer to completing it as opposed to having no deadline.

For example: 

  • 9 January 2023: finish composing my first song
  • 16 January 2023: record the demo of my first song
  • 23 January 2023: listen to my first song and improve it
  • 30 January 2023: arrange, edit and mix my first song

Tip: If self-discipline is not your forte, ask a friend or a family member to be your accountability buddy.  

5) Use a Calendar

Deadlines are significant, but to increase the likelihood of meeting them, add them to your calendar as a specific block of time dedicated to a single task. If you treat it like a business meeting with yourself, you’ll feel more serious about it and more committed to it.

For example: 3 January 2023, 09:30-11:30 am: listen to 10 ideas from my voice memos app. Then choose the best one, learn it, and turn it into a 1-minute piece of music.

Tip: If you know what time of day you’re more creative and energetic, set the right time block for the right task.

6) Be Flexible and Adjustable

The great plans we have on paper don’t always match up with reality. And again, life always gets in the way. Unexpected events might occur this year, the goals can be diverted in ways you can’t anticipate in advance, and there’s a good chance that the deadlines are not realistic. So being flexible and being able to adjust is important. Allow yourself to rethink and readjust your goal, no matter what comes your way and without losing your momentum.  

For example: I didn’t finish my first song in January as expected. So in February, I’ll use the first week to do so and also try a different process of dividing it into four stages, and each stage will last three months. 1) Decide and compose at least 12 songs. 2) Record demos for all songs. 3) Improve all songs and get rid of the ones you don’t like. 4) Arrange, edit, and mix my 12 songs. 

Tip: It’s difficult and almost impossible to do everything on your own, so finding the right people that can help you is essential. For example, the right guitar teacher can help you decide the best songs and ways to improve them.

7) Enjoy the Joyride

Taking on big projects, like recording a guitar album, can be overwhelming and stressful. So it’s important to find joy in every step of your journey. If you focus on the daily and weekly tasks, you’ll get the most out of them and hone your skills, like songwriting and composing. This way, you might realise that your real goal is to bring more meaning and music into your life. It’ll be more than just the finished product. 

Tip: It’s perfectly fine (and even recommended) to take breaks from the guitar and the process, and to live life to the fullest.

I’d love to hear what your guitar goals this year are! Comment below.

My guitar goals this year include:

I’ve also made this tutorial about this article:

January 3, 2023

Make Meaningful Music on Your Guitar: the Book
Make Meaningful Music on your Guitar
Working title and book cover (illustration)

When I turned 13, I was thrilled to begin learning guitar, but my first guitar teacher was a local guy who taught me by the book (literally). The exercises and music in those books felt so uninspiring, and soon enough, I lost my motivation, didn’t practise, and came to the weekly lessons with no energy.

Luckily, a few months later, I found another guitar teacher whose approach was completely different. His lessons were inspiring, imaginative, and very practical. With him, I felt I’d made massive progress in just a few weeks and came eager to every lesson wanting to learn more and more. The core of his approach was based on enhancing and encouraging my creativity and expressivity as a student.

For example, I remember one time when he left me in his studio to record my first guitar solo. His comments were so encouraging: “wow, how did you come up with that? That’s so great!”. He gave me such a confidence boost that I still carry it to this day.

A Different Kind of Guitar Book

Years later, when I began teaching guitar, I naturally wanted to follow in my second teacher’s footsteps. After over 20 years of teaching and over 30 years of guitar playing, I realised I needed to finally share the insights I gathered over the years and publish a book.

It’s a different kind of book. Not another instructional blues guitar book or a music theory book. Instead, it’s a guide that empowers you to create music you love, with practical ideas, examples, and demonstrations that incorporate music theory and non-musical concepts. It simplifies these complicated concepts and inspires and boosts your confidence that you are ready to create meaningful music.

I’ve already started this exciting project, which I’m most passionate about, and decided to set an ambitious deadline and finish it by the end of 2022.

Section 1: Adopting a Creative Mindset

No matter how you perceive your guitar and composition skills, I know you’re better than you think. Also, there’s a lot of potential inside you that waits to be uncovered, and you can achieve amazing things if you wish. To get there, I believe you first need to adopt the right mind frame for it, and that’s why the first section in the book is about the creative mindset.

Music composition (or any creativity) is like planting a tree. If you’d like to grow a large and prosperous tree, you need to give it a solid head start. For example, a tree needs space: distance from other trees and room for the roots to grow deep. To create music, we also need to clear space in our minds so seeds can grow to their full potential.

Section 2: From Theory to Practice

When the mind is ready, we can plant musical seeds, and the book’s second section shows practical ways to get them: from scales, modes, and chords, through the great composers’ secret tricks, to inspiration from non-musical ideas. These and more are methods to create original music on the guitar, and they are easy to apply.

For example, I recently released a Musical Haiku. This short piece is based on the idea that a seed can blend a few elements together: Japanese poetry and musical miniatures in the style of Chopin. I’ve almost completed this chapter that goes in-depth about Musical Haiku, with more examples and TAB.

Who is this Book for?

If you are a guitar player – this book is for you! Especially if you feel that:

  • You’re hitting a wall.
  • Stuck in a rut.
  • Tired of playing pentatonic scales and other people’s music.
  • Would like to broaden your knowledge of guitar and music.
  • Aspire to express yourself through the guitar and create meaningful music to be proud of.

You can also benefit from this book if you’re a songwriter or play a different instrument. It provides practical tools and unique approaches to writing songs, which are more than the standard pop forms and formulas. Although the examples are based on guitar playing, the principles apply to any instrument, and there’s standard notation.

Why eBook?

An eBook is the best option because you can get it instantly, have links and embedded multimedia, and take it anywhere. So this would be the first format.

But I also know the great feeling of holding a physical book and spending time with it. So I’d like to be able to offer that in the future, depending on demand and funding.

How can you Help?

If you feel related to what you’ve read above, then this book is for you! So you can help by simply pre-ordering the book! By pre-ordering, you’ll be the first to get the book, and I’d love you to be part of this exciting journey and hear your opinions on the text as it is written. I’ll also add your name to the book’s Acknowledgements Section (unless you prefer not to, of course).

You can also help by sharing this page with your family and friends who might be interested in this and on social media platforms! That can be amazing, as I want to help as many guitar players as possible.

Writing a book takes a lot of time: writing, rewriting, editing, proofreading, recording… So by pre-ordering and spreading the word, I’d be able to complete it sooner. Really appreciate your support!

Would you like to contribute more?

Thanks!!! You can donate as much as you want on my gofundme page.

Want to Hear more about this Guitar Book?

I’d love to tell you more! Just send me an email and we’ll find a suitable time to have a chat about it. Also, If you have any comments or questions – I’d love to hear them!

September 27, 2022

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