Groovy Gabe's Guitar Academy

Just got a fancy new mic for a bunch of video content I'm looking to put together soon - no more trying to do everything with an old beat-up SM58 like a punk! Now I'm movin' up in the world to an SM7B.

These words may mean nothing to you, but know this: videos with much better sound are coming. Keep an eye out for them!

A lot of people I teach have trouble practicing, and the first thing I ask them is always, "where do you keep your instrument?" The answer is almost always, "in a case, away."

I am a huge proponent of leaving the guitar out, on a stand or on the wall, even plugged into an amp if necessary, because here are the steps for a guitar in a case:

1. Get the case from wherever it is.
2. Lay the case on the floor where you plan to practice.
3. Unzip the case (surprisingly hard for younger kids!)
4. Take the guitar out of the case, find a place to set it down.
5. Get the case out of your way.
6. Pick the guitar back up.
7. Play.

This whole process may have taken 5 minutes, which may seem small, but consider that the whole thing will be reversed at the end, maybe taking 10 full minutes of would-be practice time (which is enough to be a whole practice session!).

Here's what it looks like if the guitar is out:
1. Pick up the guitar.
2. Play.

Do yourself, or the budding guitarist in your house, a favor: leave the guitar out on a stand, so the only thing that needs to be done is pick up the instrument and play.

One of the things I get the most questions about in my business is the sliding scale payment model. The idea behind this is that I would like to offer my lessons to folks at a wide variety of income levels while still making enough to get by. My solution, which has always worked well, is to simply allow students to choose their payment level.

I hope this helps demystify this for folks! I'm always happy to re-explain, but since I get this question all the time I figured a post was in order 😄

A lot of folks aren't sure how to approach structuring a practice session, and one thing that can really super-charge your progress is to try layering your practice. This will force your brain to forget just a bit of each exercise by the time it comes around again, which will force you to actively figure it out every time you come to it.

The idea is that you break what you're working on into a small number of bite-sized exercises - 3 is a great number to shoot for! Instead of spending, say 20-minutes on one single task, see if you can spend between 2 and 5 minutes on 3 small exercises, practicing to a timer and moving on as soon as the timer goes off.

If you've not tried this before, see if you can design your own layered practice this weekend. Let me know how it goes!

I'm excited to start growing Groovy Gabe's in a new way, and I'm hoping to share all that with you soon, but one part I'll talk about today is that now I'm now offering my students custom backing tracks. No more struggling to keep up with the songs you want to play!

One thing people have trouble with early on in their musical journey is speed - you get to this point where you know exactly what you *want* to play, but your hands just cannot move quickly enough. You can slow down recordings a little, but if you go too far it starts to sound so strange and distorted that it's hard to hear as music. These custom backing tracks will help students build the finger dexterity they need in a musical way, with the sound of a band behind them moving forward at just the right speed for them to develop.

If you've got a song that you've been struggling to keep up with, let me know in the comments - I'll be happy to take some community suggestions and make a few available for free! Tell me what song you're struggling with and what instrument you wanna play along with it, I'll make sure it's a good fit for you 😁

Summer is on its way out and is coming on strong. Watermelons traded for apples, humidity traded for a cool breeze carrying the faint smell of pumpkin spice, and our thoughts slowly but surely turn - the perfect time to pick up a guitar! The change of the seasons is also a change in my schedule, and I've got openings for new students where before there were none. Book an intro lesson in , or today!

My fall schedule’s filling up fast, but I’ve still got room for a few new students for the guitar, bass and ukulele. Learning a new instrument is a great way to build confidence, express yourself creatively, and have a whole lot of fun! Reach out today for a free one-on-one intro lesson.

Groovy Gabe's is now closed until June 19th - I'm off to Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario for my first vacation in years! I might be real slow to respond to things until I'm back. See you all in a bit over a week!