I do know about the guitarmakers' and patternmakers' vises which can be ordered from overseas, but I'm not convinced they are necessary - or even the best choice - for the usual run of guitar repair and maintenance work. ...more

This methodology was inspired by the late great drummer/teacher Alan Dawson who came up with about one hundred ways to play page thirty-seven of Ted Reed's text 'Progressive Steps to Syncopation For the Modern Drummer'. Play the exercises slowly and evenly to begin with and then try other tempos. ...more

This lesson is the second part to last month's Hammer Ons article. I mentioned then that all guitarists need a good legato (smooth) playing technique for single note lines and one of the ways you can gain a good legato technique is to be very good at pull offs. Pull offs and hammer ons are quite often played together within a lick, but need to be learnt separately first. Pull offs require a lot of practice to really make them flow so don't take this lesson too lightly. ...more