Category Archives: The Player’s Room

Guitarists today age are lucky. We have the world in our back pocket.

Perhaps Robert Tepper said it best in his song for the film Rocky IV: “There’s no easy way out/There’s no short cut home” For guitar players, most of the time, this is most definitely true.

Practice makes perfect. Unless you’re doing it all wrong.

Scales are strange beasts. History shows us that the practicing of scales consists of playing the same notes in the same order while a ruler-armed teacher barks “Faster! FASTER!” at us all the while assuring ourselves that the study of scales builds character, and one day it will all be worth it

It is always cold somewhere. Well, unless it’s spring or fall, but it can still be cold. As they say, the show must go on. But how are we supposed to rock (or pretend to) if we are freezing our butts off? If you are a performing player (or soon hope to be), you will…

Advancing as a guitar player is never seen as a slow and steady climb. It is more like a series of steps with pretty long spaces in between. While it might seem like you don’t get better for weeks or months at a time, one breakthrough can lead to months of inspiration.

I doubt there’s a guitarist in this world who doesn’t owe Brian May a debt of gratitude in one form of another.

Here is what to expect (and how to act) when you show up in an unfamiliar place, playing unfamiliar songs with musicians you have (likely) never met.

If you’ve overheard your special someone talking about a specific pickup set they’d like, or your spouse has left a print-out of one of the Seymour Duncan web pages with the words “I want this!” written all over it, please do yourself – and that special someone – a favor and get them a set of the best pickups around. For everyone else, here is the official Seymour Duncan Holiday Gift Guide.

This article explains some of the work required to becoming a working professional, and to continually improve our aptitude on guitar, learn about gear, and optimize our tone. Who knew it was going to be this hard?