Online Guitar, Bass & Ukulele Lessons
Teaching Diaries
22nd to 26th of April 2024
Ronaldo (London, UK) 🇬🇧
Ronaldo is interested in composing his own music, and in the recent classes, we've been transcribing and analyzing some of the pieces he likes. This way, he's learning how to create chord progressions, how they relate to scales, and understanding the role of the guitar as an arranging instrument.
Hugh (Bath, UK) 🇬🇧
In recent classes, we've been playing great guitar solos from iconic songs like "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Queen), "Hotel California" (The Eagles), and "More than a feeling" (Boston), and now it's Pink Floyd's turn with the equally legendary solo from "Time."
Martín (Alicante, Spain) 🇪🇸
With Martín, I've been doing a variety of things with the goal of giving him a solid foundation for music studies when he starts university. The last song we've worked on was "Lithium" by Nirvana, which, according to my adaptation, can be played perfectly without the tuning change it has in the original.
Felipe (Madrid, Spain) 🇪🇸
In recent classes, we've been focusing on the Blues, and in this last session, I've adapted some of the musical motifs played by the brass section in this video, to play them on the guitar and create a more interesting sound while playing accompaniment.
Javier(Madrid, Spain) 🇪🇸
In the past, we looked at some Technique exercises with irregular rhythmic groups. In this class, we've focused on them, emphasizing on the triplet eighth notes and quintuplets. We didn't use a song as a reference, so I'm sharing a video of mine from a few years ago where I addressed this topic.
Mark (London, UK) 🇬🇧
This is our second session learning all the guitar parts in great detail and creating a very detailed score with all the sections and arrangements. In previous sessions, we learned "Night Comes Down" by Judas Priest, and soon we hope to upload a duet to YouTube playing the main guitar solo.
Ismael (Madrid, Spain) 🇪🇸
In the past, we transcribed the chords and rhythm of this song, but today we adapted and transcribed the vocal melody to play it on the guitar as well, as we did in the past with "Bones" also by Imagine Dragons, "Happy" (Pharrell Williams), and "Old Town Road" (Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus).
Adrián (Madrid, Spain) 🇪🇸
Transcribing and learning both guitar solos by Mark Knopfler, phrase by phrase, noting the fingering and all the scales and arpeggios used.
Dan (London, UK) 🇬🇧
We're emphasizing the ability to play solos and improvisations while interspersing chords to accompany ourselves. We worked on "So What" by Miles Davis previously, and in this class, we learn to do it with a 12-bar blues, which is simpler and will help Dan reinforce this concept.
Tasha (London, UK) 🇬🇧
We created an arrangement to accompany the song that not only involves playing the chords but also includes some percussion and a bassline.
Jacobo (Trento, Italy) 🇮🇹
Finalizing details of the complete transcription of this piece by the Gutiérrez Brothers and preparing for the recording of our third duet playing their music.
Strawbs (London, UK) 🇬🇧
Transcription of the chords and rhythm so Strawbs can accompany herself singing this song.
Pedro (Madrid, Spain) 🇪🇸
We completed the full transcription of this famous Bossanova song, including all the chords, rhythmic pattern, and the main melody.
David (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) 🇦🇪
Practicing for the Grade 2 Classical Guitar exam with Trinity College. We played all the scales required for the exam, which need to be memorized, and practiced one of the 3 required pieces.
Simon (London, UK) 🇬🇧
Finalizing the transcription details and practicing all the sections of this new song by The K's, an emerging British indie band.
Olga (London, UK) 🇬🇧
Finalizing details for a remote duet recording. Olga, originally from Russia, is going to cover this song for a great friend's birthday. I'll take care of the bass, guitar solo, and audio mixing.
Jorge (Madrid, Spain) 🇪🇸
Jorge has already learned several solos from David Hamburguer's book "Beguinnin Blues Guitar," which is part of the "Complete Blues Guitar Method," along with authors Matt Smith and Wayne River. Now, we're learning to connect them one after another to create a longer solo. This was something my student Felipe proposed, and it has become an interesting exercise with other students.
Quique (San Francisco, USA) 🇺🇸
In this class, we did several things. We practiced "Hobnail Blues," which is part of the Grade 4 Acoustic Guitar repertoire of the London College of Music. Quique has already successfully passed Grade 2 and 3 under my guidance, and he's also learning to read music with the initial grades of Classical Guitar from Trinity College. In the last class, we also learned to harmonize a melody (or how to create a chord progression for a melody).
Ahmad (London, UK) 🇬🇧
Practicing this piece a lot today, which may be one of the most difficult ones in the Grade 8 Acoustic Guitar exam with the London College of Music. When I started teaching Ahmad a few years ago, I helped him with his Grade 3 Classical Guitar exam with ABRSM, and we continued with Grades 4, 5, 6, and 7. For Grade 7, we switched from classical to acoustic guitar, and in his last exam, he achieved a Distinction.