Tips for guitarists / guitar students

guitarist playing guitar emotionally
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
How guitar music creation helps you with life’s hardships

Guitarists,

Whatever you’re going through, remember that music, especially music creation, is an incredible way to cope with life’s hardships.

It helps with:

– Dealing with your feelings and emotions by expressing them through the guitar and understand yourself better.

– Taking breaks from physical or mental struggles by immersing yourself in a world of sounds.

– Adding more meaning and a sense of purpose by connecting yourself to something bigger than the daily grind.

If you need any help with your guitar journey – I’m here for you. Message me; https://m.me/udiglaser.

Yours,
Udi

January 24, 2025

Guitar Practice
Guitar blog posts  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Guitar Practice: The Truth About Quality Guitar Time

This is for you if you’re into guitar practice! Every day, I post this on my guitar composition Facebook group: “Your daily reminder: Spend quality time with your guitar”.

Why do I do it?

I post it because we need daily reminders to do things we love beyond our routines, as life always gets in the way. Work, family, commitments…

If we don’t do it, one day will turn into a few days, and then after a few weeks, we’ll realise we haven’t touched the guitar at all!

If you don’t block time with yourself in your calendar titled “guitar practice” – it won’t happen.

Monks, for example, practice meditation daily. They remind themselves to be in the now and raise their awareness. Meditation is a skill and a state of mind.

The same is true of playing the guitar. It’s a skill we need to maintain and a state of mind we embrace. It can be a time to relax, escape the troubles around us, or deal with our emotions.

What do I mean by quality time with your guitar?

Like marriage, we must sustain relationships by making things more exciting and fun. If every day is the same, it becomes a boring routine.

Your relationship with the guitar is similar. In a way, it’s an indirect relationship with yourself.

So, if you play the same thing and don’t invest the time and effort to make it more exciting, your passion will eventually fade.

What are quality guitar activities?

Many things! For example:

The list is endless…

What are non-quality guitar activities?

Here are a few examples:

  • Aimlessly noodling using the same scale you already know.
  • Randomly watching YouTube videos.
  • Signing up for generic online courses because they’re cheap and trying to finish them because you already paid for them (most guitar players don’t).

If you haven’t joined the group yet – here’s the link so you’ll also get daily reminders: Solo Guitar Composition Artistry Group

January 7, 2025

guitar composition
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Guitar Composition: How to Create More Meaningful Music

Why would people be interested in the music you compose

Self-doubt is a very powerful thing. 

It’s there to protect us from doing foolish things, but at the same time, it prevents us from achieving more in life. And we deserve to achieve more in life!

This is the same with composing music, where you might ask: “Why would people be interested in the music I create and play?”

It can be a valid question that can lead to great answers – as long as it’s not asked with a tone of discouragement and self-doubt.

Here are 5 answers:

1. Use self-doubt as a motivator

You can use self-doubt as a motivator to create music that people would be interested in. 

How do we know if it’s interesting enough? If the music you create excites you or makes you feel something – it’s more likely that others will feel the same way. 

In addition, you’re more likely to present and perform the music in a way that invites people to get into your world and story, and to share the events and ideas that led to the creation of that music. 

2. Take yourself away from the equation

You can view it from another perspective that it’s less about you and more about the music itself. 

So you can take away the last part of the question “Why would people be interested in  music  I create and play?”

People are interested in hearing new music and want to connect with their own emotions by identifying with other people’s emotions. So why wouldn’t you share the gift of music with them? 

3. Disregard your self-doubt

You can answer with another question: “So what?”. 

You’d benefit more from dedicating and channelling your attention to create the best art you can than caring about what other people might think of it. 

We can’t predict and hear what exactly listeners hear and feel in response to your music. So what’s the point?

Once the music is out there in the world, it’s not ours anymore. 

People will interpret it in their own way, and usually in a way that has nothing to do with the actual music and with no regard to the process and efforts it took to bring it out to the world. 

4. You can’t please everyone

Some people may not be interested and not like the music. And that’s fine! 

We cannot (and should not) please everyone. I had strong positive responses to my music and even had some insults – and I’m totally fine with that. 

How come? Realistically, are there any musicians that 100% of the population like all of their music? 

We just need to find the people who appreciate and like our music.

5. Sometimes self-doubt is correct

There are cases when our music may need to be more interesting and original when we listen to it more objectively. 

Ed Sheeran confessed that the first songs he wrote were awful, and he concluded that we need to get rid of all the sludge before getting a flow of pure water. 

How to level up your music composition

These answers, and especially the last one, bring us to another question: how to level up your music composition and ensure that it’s meaningful?

The simple answer is – you learn it! 

Two common solutions are to learn it by:

  1. spending lots of time teaching yourself, thinking no one else can teach you.
  1. spending lots of time and money studying in college/university.

The problem with these two solutions is that it takes valuable resources from us, and there’s no direct application to what we want to create. 

When you learn on your own, it’s usually by “trial and error” and with no sense of direction. 

Also, without an understanding of the foundations of music and music composition, it’s pretty hard to know how to turn your ideas into complete pieces of music. 

When you decide to learn music composition in an academic environment, the focus is usually limited to a specific genre (classical music or jazz), and the main instrument is usually a piano.

Also, your compositions may feel like doing an assignment and there’s some bias because you probably want to get good grades. 

My conclusion

I realised two things:

  1. There are plenty of guitar teachers and guitar courses that teach technical skills and are based on copying other people’s music. 
  1. There’s a lack of guitar composition courses that specifically teach how to compose original music on the guitar with no limitation on the genre.

So I decided to create a new guitar composition programme that addresses these needs. 

I set a goal – to show guitarists they can start composing meaningful music on the guitar in one week. 

My teaching method is largely based on principles from classical guitar music, but it’s not limited to a specific genre. 

If you’d like to know more about how all this is possible, I’ve created a 20-minute overview of a new guitar composition programme. 

Comment #overview and I’ll send you the link.

Btw, I’m not sharing the link with everyone, because I only want to show it to guitarists who are really serious about creating meaningful music and levelling up their skills. 

October 31, 2023

10+ Ways to Break Out of the Guitar Rut
Guitar blog posts  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Guitarist rut: How to get out?

Do you feel like you’re playing the same thing over and over again on the guitar, a lack of motivation or stuck in a rut? Here are my top 10+ tips for you!

Before we begin, let’s talk about what a guitar rut is. A guitarist’s rut is similar to a writer’s block. Ideas don’t seem to flow out and what you play reminds you of something you either played before or heard it somewhere else. 

It means you’ve hit a plateau in your playing, feel like you’re losing interest and excitement, and lack of progress.

But the good news is that you are aware of that. That’s a good sign! It means you’re ready to do something about it and make a change. 

Because I’ve experienced it myself as a guitarist and composer, and I know of many other musicians who have been through this themselves, I’ve compiled a list of tips that work. 

You don’t have to try all of them. Begin with one that stands out for you, try it and see if it makes any change. There’s no one solution, you’d need to find your unique way out.

1. Remind yourself the “why” 

What made you pick up the guitar in the first place? Go back to that special time and place and relive it. Try to remember what made you want to have one and learn it? 

This can rekindle your passion and connect you to your younger self and follow that old dream that’s probably burning inside. Then, define your ultimate goal and build the small steps you need to get there!

  • The reason why I decided to learn the guitar is because I wanted to create my own music with it. I never lost touch with this goal and every time I feel in a rut I remind myself what my true passion and goal are, and it still drives me to this day. 

What is your “why”?

2. Broaden your horizons

If you’re playing the same things, it means that you probably need to gain new perspectives on what music can be. Open up to other types of music in different genres, and listen to various styles and artists to gain new approaches to creating music.

  • If you never listened to Flamenco, put on some Paco De Lucia or Vicente Amigo (my personal favourites). It can be the same with other styles. How about classical music? I remember listening to Vivaldi’s guitar concerto in D and found it very inspiring. Or maybe free improvisation by guitarist Derek Bailey that will show you unorthodox ways to play the guitar.

The list can go on and on… Can you pick something that is not in your usual playlist?

3. Dive into a piece of music

Once you find a guitarist or composition that excites you, dive into it. Transcribe it by ear, get the official TAB and sheet music, memorise it, analyse it from every possible angle, and try to identify what is unique about this music and then model it.

To really understand a piece of music on a deeper level, you need to get into the mind of the guitarist/composer and then to be able to teach it. 

  • I remember preparing one of my students for a diploma in guitar performance. I suggested a piece by guitarist Alan Gogoll’s pieces because I thought it was unique and doable (compared to his more challenging pieces). Only when I had to transcribe in order to teach it, I understood more about the nuances and complexities of that specific piece. 

Have you ever taken a deep dive into this kind of learning experience? 

4. Recharge your battery

As guitarists, I think it’s easy to forget what music is about because there’s a lot of focus on the actual instrument and the various techniques of playing it. 

But it’s important to remember that music is more than playing chords and guitar solos. Music is an effective way to convey and express emotions. And these emotions come from our everyday life experiences. 

So when feeling empty, watch an exciting film, read a novel, meet friends… whatever excites you! Then, when you’re recharged, play and hear the difference. 

This might give your playing an added dimension, because even if you’re going to play the same things you already know, you’ll be able to use them to express what you feel. 

  • Personally, I love going for a walk in nature, or if possible, taking the guitar to nature and playing while resting on a tree. Taking a break from the guitar also works for me sometimes.

Which life experiences get you recharged? 

5. Get inspired from non-guitar instruments

The way we guitarists think is different from other instrumentalists. Other musicians have keys, valves, beaters to play with, and the way they hold and play their instruments means that the whole approach is different. 

So to get inspired by other instruments, you can:

  • Learn them. For example, learning piano helped me better understand harmony – we can play more than six notes at a time… learning drums helped me better understand rhythm. 
  • Play music that was originally written for other instruments. You can use existing arrangements, or better, create your own arrangement. For example, I’ve found that Gymnopédie No.1 by Erik Satie is a beautiful piece to play on the guitar that can also challenge your fingers.  
  • Borrow their tools. For example, you can use a bow, Jimmy Page style (or Jónsi from Sigur Rós). 

Which of these options excites you the most?

6. Experiment with new types of tunings

If you’re not experienced with alternate tunings yet, this is definitely a journey that you should explore. It usually gives instant gratifications, especially when the guitar is tuned to a chord, which means that it sounds good when playing open strings.

It can also feel like learning a completely new instrument! Then you either learn the various scales, keys and chords in the new tuning, or use your ears and free yourself from the need to know. 

  • There are music pieces I couldn’t have composed any other way without alternate tuning. For example, here’s an interesting one:
A short guitar piece that was created with alternate tuning

You can start with drop-D or DADGAD and experiment with less conventional tunings. Or better, can you create your own alternate tuning?

7. Play around with sound

Even if you play the same thing, you can hear it differently by implementing the other elements of music. For example, timbre (or sound/tone/colour) can make your music sound completely different. 

To explore it, you can play with pickups on electric guitar, move the position of your picking hand on acoustic guitars, try other types of guitars, effects, and experiment with guitar accessories like slides, capos, plectrums, and even unrelated objects. 

  • Sometimes just adding a reverb does the trick. That’s one of the main characteristics of my own sound on electric guitar. For acoustic guitars, you can go into a space with natural echo like a bathroom, a corridor, or a cave. I’ve tried and enjoyed them all!

Can you find your own sound?

8. Jam with others

When we practise guitar, we usually do it alone, and it can become a problem when it stays that way. It’s because music is about connecting people, so when we play on our own, we can definitely feel disconnected. 

The solution is therefore simple – play with other musicians. Even if you don’t know anyone who plays, it’s so easy these days to find online collaborations, like joining FB groups that were created for that purpose. 

  • There are also loads of opportunities to “remix” music that other players post on social media. For example, I really liked this drum track and it inspired me to create this music with it.

If you’ve already played with someone, did you also feel like you’re stuck in a rut or inspired? 

9. Use your voice

One of the reasons why we can feel stuck is because we tend to think too much with our fingers. When we learn patterns, like scales and chord shapes, we follow sequences and without noticing get stuck in a mindset of playing formulas that sound good. They trap us in boxes. 

So no wonder why we feel that we play mechanically while losing touch with the emotional side of music. How can we create something meaningful by just repeating motoric formulas? 

One of the solutions is to think less with our fingers and get inspiration from other sources, like using our voice. Playing and singing in unison with the guitar is called scatting.

Do you see how this can also help with finding your voice on the guitar?

10. Adopt an open and creative mindset 

By changing your perspective about the rut, you can see how it can become a great opportunity to learn something new and grow from it. This can work by allowing yourself to be open and connect to your natural curiosity. 

There’s always something you haven’t tried yet. A different technique, a style, a composition tool, a new scale, music theory concepts… it’s endless. And once you immerse yourself in it, it will inspire you.

  • After 31 years of playing the guitar and learning music from every possible angle, I always do my best to “stay hungry, stay foolish” and use creative challenges as an opening to new possibilities.

How would you describe your current mindset?

11. Commit to a learning process 

With all the endless youtube videos, online courses, guitar apps and vast amounts of resources, it can feel overwhelming. And we have too many choices to choose from, we usually get stuck.

But there’s no substitute for learning directly from humans (at least yet…). Experienced and accomplished guitar teachers and guitar coaches can help with identifying what’s holding you back and prescribing the best individual roadmap for you to overcome your rut. 

They can also give you the right tools for you (for example, with all of the above), so that when you feel stuck again, you’d know how to break out. 

  • I couldn’t get to where I am today without the help of all my teachers. From my first serious guitar teacher who’s now a renowned composer to my latest Flamenco guitar teacher who took me to play with his dance group after each lesson.

Learning is a never-ending process. Getting into a rut simply means that you’re ready to move on to your next adventure. Do you agree?

This is it, so far, my guitar friend!

I really do hope you enjoyed this post found it valuable! You can get more resources by following new posts in my solo guitar composition artistry group and feel free to invite others who might benefit from lessons, tutorials and inspirations as well!

If you need personal help, I’d like to invite you to have a guitar chat with me, where we can talk about your challenges and goals, and to see how I can help you.

You can book this free 1:1 session directly through my calendar using the following link: https://udiguitar.com/contact/.

Invest in yourself and create great music!

  • Would you like to add anything to the list? Comment below.
July 22, 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, “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 you get into the rhythm and immerse 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, or the other way around, such as singing something and then playing 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 automatically play over a scale you know, 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."

“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

How to write a song on guitar
Creative Guitar Challenge  ·  The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Free guitar lesson: shape-progressions that will inspire you

How to write a song on guitar that will sound more original and unique? Try the following approach!

When I learned how to play guitar, my teacher gave me many pages with diagrams of chords and scales that I was supposed to memorise. It’s interesting how learning music can be so visual, and at least some of these shapes had symmetry which was easier to remember. But I didn’t feel inspired, so I thought can I come up with my own shapes?

I started playing with triangles, squares, and other forms. Some sounded great and others were a bit weird and different. I liked the odd ones, which felt like exciting and unpredictable discoveries. Initially, I used it for creating interesting melodies, and then tried to create chord shapes as well.

My approach to shape progressions

The starting point is to simply place the fingers on the fretboard and to create a certain shape. It can be similar to a chord or it can be a more complicated shape. Now play it and try to hear where it wants to go, or where it can go. Then, move that shape right-left-up-down-diagonally, and listen to the interactions while disregarding any “normal” chord shapes you may want to play as a force of habit.

In standard tuning, playing on different strings results in different combinations of sounds. It’s like the shape is shifting although it remains the same. Once you find a reasonable shape progression, do more experimentation to explore what else you can do with it. For example:

  • Change the rhythm and picking pattern.
  • Apply dynamics and articulation.
  • Add melodic ideas and tensions.
how to write music on guitar that will sound more original - shape progressions on fretboard
The L shape I used (e and B strings, 3rd fret; and G and D strings, 5th fret)

Flip it

These are just a few common variations we can think of in music. But if you go back to thinking visually, any shape can also be flipped and rotated. So if we alter that shape in some way, it will sound completely different. However, since it originated from the same form, it will bear some relation to the first shape. So this can be a cool idea for a B part.

Again, it won’t sound the same on all strings, and surprises (nice or unpleasant) will occur. So if something sounds too weird, it’s okay to slightly adapt the shape. After all, it’s music, not graphic design… Although limiting ourselves can be more fun.

how to write a song on guitar that will sound more original - shape progressions on fretboard
The Flipped L shape I used (B and G strings, 5th fret; and D and A strings, 3rd fret)

Now it’s your turn to write a song on guitar

This is just one way to compose music through visual experimentation and improvisation. Can you use this approach to compose music? Can you think of more cool visual approaches to write music? I’ve just opened a safe space where you can share your thoughts and attempts with a mission to enhance creative thinking on the guitar and to inspire others and to get inspired. Sign up for FREE here: https://creativeguitar.college/unlock-your-guitar-creativity/ and share your attempt there!

Here’s my attempt:

Did this article helped you with how to write a song on guitar? Comment below and share it if you’ve found it useful.

September 30, 2021

guitar lessons for beginners
The Guitar Blog  ·  Tips for guitarists / guitar students
Guitar lessons for beginners FAQ
Got guitar questions? I’ve answered some of the most common ones below. If you’re still unsure or want personal guidance, email me or message me anytime here: https://m.me/udiglaser
Udi Glaser

Where do I start with the guitar?

  1. Buy a guitar! Any guitar will do. Don’t worry about getting a top-end guitar at this stage.
  2. Get lessons from a pro guitar teacher to learn the essentials to gain a solid foundation and avoid bad habits that can cause injuries.
  3. Continue your musical journey with more lessons and/or with self-exploration.

Is guitar easier than piano?

For beginners, piano is much easier than guitar. With the piano, you can easily press down on the keys with one hand to produce clear sounds. With the guitar, you need to immediately work on hand coordination, which takes more time at the beginning.

Is it too late to start learning guitar at my age?

Yes! 40 and above is actually a great age to start because you probably have more time or at least more control over your schedule. Also, it’s important to keep your brain active at this age, and learning a new skill that can enhance your creativity and well-being is a great idea! Any age between 8-108 is suitable for learning guitar!

How much should I practice each day as a beginner?

Before giving a number, it’s important to actually practice every day, even if it’s for 10 minutes. This is true for guitar beginners and more advanced players. 10 minutes a day is more effective than 70 minutes once a week. How come? Here are a few reasons:

  • Learning something new changes your brain, and when repeating it daily, you’re strengthening your neural connections.
  • You’re introducing a new good habit to your everyday life, and as a habit, you won’t have to ask how long, you just do it daily.
  • It’s likely that 10 minutes will become 20 minutes or more.
  • Often, it’s the quality more than the quantity that counts – read the answer below.

Now, I can give you a number: if you can do anything between 1/2 hour to a whole hour a day, that’ll be amazing for your progress!

How much time will it take to learn guitar?

Learning guitar is a never-ending and fun journey. After 30+ years of playing, I’m still learning new things! That’s why you’ll benefit from setting goals and having a step-by-step path to achieve them within the right timeframe.

For example, as a complete guitar beginner, you can learn so much in even just a 1/2 hour guitar lesson! As a guitar teacher, these are my learning goals for the first lesson:

  1. Know a few basic chords.
  2. Know how to transition between them effortlessly.
  3. Know a simple strumming pattern.
  4. Play a whole song with what you’ve just learned.

What guitar accessories do you need as a beginner?

None. As a beginner, you don’t need any accessories apart from having a guitar to practice on. Tuners and metronomes can be found online or as free apps. Picks (or plectrums) are not mandatory, and a strap is unnecessary at this stage. Later, as your guitar playing advances, you can purchase accessories depending on your genre and style.

Should I start with an acoustic or electric guitar if I want to eventually write songs?

You can start on any guitar! The main difference is the timbre – how the guitar sounds. For example, with an electric guitar, you can plug it into effects pedals, like delay and reverb. These will give you a different feel and ambience than unplugged acoustic guitars.

Because the sound is different, it will also affect how you play each guitar. For example, you can play more quietly on an electric guitar connected to an amp, which will sound louder than an unplugged acoustic guitar.

Should I learn chords or scales first?

It depends on what brings you more joy at this stage: playing songs (chords) or playing guitar solos and improvising (scales). If it’s both, it doesn’t matter which one you start with. As you progress, you will learn how chords and scales are closely connected. So I recommend learning both at the same time, step by step.

Why do I keep forgetting what I learn after I practice?

It’s probably because of the way you practice. Perhaps you jump from one topic to another and not focusing and repeating the same thing over and over again. An efficient way to practice the guitar is to focus on one thing only, start slowly, and repeat it many times from various perspectives.

Here’s an effective method:

  1. Choose one topic to learn, like the C major scale, 1st position (see image below).
  2. Play it up and down – slowly!
  3. Focus on your fretting hand to ensure you’re using the right technique.
  4. Focus on your picking hand to ensure you’re using the right technique.
  5. Say and sing the notes you play (important for ear training!).
  6. Play the notes in a random way (the foundation of improvisation).
  7. Increase the tempo gradually.
c major scale for guitar beginners

How do I know if I’m making progress?

That’s an important question! The honest answer is that you can’t know for sure if you’re making progress if you’re doing it all alone. Without having a pro guitar teacher reviewing your playing and progress, it’s almost impossible to know for certain. The fact is that you don’t know what you don’t know.

That’s exactly why I work closely with students to give them clarity, direction, and proof they’re improving. If you’re feeling unsure about your progress, let’s chat on Messenger: https://m.me/udiglaser or email me.

However, if you’re not able or refuse to learn with a guitar teacher, the next best thing you can do is film yourself from the first time you held a guitar. Then, you can compare the videos and see the progress you’ve made.

I hope you found this guitar beginners FAQ useful. Do you have more questions? Comment below!

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start playing confidently, I offer beginner-friendly lessons online, structured around your goals and creativity. Email me or message me to chat about it: https://m.me/udiglaser

February 24, 2021

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