Welcome to THE GUITAR PRACTICE
This channel is the work of Guy Pople, the proprietor of Lytham St Annes Guitar Shop.
It is not a course, but rather a handy resource full of useful tried & tested content that should suit a certain type of beginner and intermediate player who takes their hobby seriously, and who wants to develop into a creative player with a solid understanding of the rudiments of both technique and theory.
The material emerges from my years of teaching individuals and groups, plus my daily personal pursuit of efficient reliable technique and the clear comprehension and practical application of theory.
Many of the tutorials are also in response to common questions and obstacles faced by customers in my shop.
Substack is a subscription service. It is free to explore the archive and even try some of the content. If you pay to enrol for even a single month then you can access everything and can continue or cancel thereafter. There is a small discount for paying annually.
As you scroll back in time through the archive you’ll notice the material is arranged into topics and each video is numbered so you can follow each thread to the source.
Use the search function on the top of the Archive page to go to articles with numbers you know e.g. to do the first few articles on CHORDS, type in CHORDS 1 and the article will return amongst other suggestions.
Improvisation is woven into most of the activities, especially as you advance in each section.
There are natural overlaps between many topics and activities.
Here are the topics:
Practising
Learn how to optimise your time and methods.
Technique
Develop finger-independence, finger-picking, strumming, alternate-picking, hybrid-picking, sweep-picking, hammer/pulls, bends, slides, swells, tapping, harmonics & muting.
Theory
Grow your understanding and its application on the guitar from the basics through to advanced.
Learn how combine theory and technique for creative activities like improvisation.
Scales, Chords & Arpeggios
Playing, building and application from beginners shapes through to advanced voicing and concepts.
Gear
Discussing the tools
Tips for tone and maintenance
Miscellaneous
This and that
Music Production
Tips for new mixers and producers
Notation
Learn to read music
Cool Parts
Examples by influential creative players
7str & Bass
Occasional goodies for these extended range variants
Occasionally I refurbish and reissue old lessons if they needed updating.
Before you get going on your journey, here is a diagram which you should pin where you practise so that over time you will become familiar with the layout of your fretboard in standard tuning. Here are some observations you should make:
The notes follow the alphabet from A to G then return to A.
Some notes have two names so learn them both e.g. the note above A and below B is called A sharp or B flat.
The shaded notes are the same pitches on different strings. If you tuned the strings differently then this would change.
Please note that the shop does not collect any details that you provide to Substack.