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Guitar Effect Pedals – Looper Pedals

Looper pedals are some of the best tools or effects pedals available for guitarists as they can play many different roles. The most obvious use is to record and loop...
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With or Without You Solo Guitar Arrangement

In the first two lessons, we have covered the basis of C major in the first position. All the songs we will learn in the course will stay in this...
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An Introduction to Cha-cha-chá Drumming: Rhythms and Applications

Now that we have a basic understanding of the history of cha-cha-chá music we will take a more practical approach to how it is played. We will assess the percussion...
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Practising Music Away from Your Instrument

It should go without saying that as music students, a sizeable amount of the time we spend thinking about and, well, practising music will be done at or with our...
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Solo Guitar: Combining Scales with Chords

The biggest challenge of playing unaccompanied guitar is supporting your melodies with the much needed harmony, to do this well we need to carefully arrange our melody to ergonomically fit...
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Understanding C Major: First Position, Chords, and Scale

We hear music in keys. Each piece of Western music can be transposed into 12 different keys, so it makes sense to learn each key centre thoroughly. C major is...
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Great Solo Guitarists and Solo Guitar’s Use in the Musical World

Why Solo Guitar? To play the guitar--or any instrument--unaccompanied opens up a world of opportunities from gigs and concerts to simply being able to satisfy one’s own need to play...
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The Women of Classical Piano: A Brief History and Overview

As musicians, our preoccupations in study and performance trend towards the compositional side of notoriety. When we think of the 'greatest' musicians, the names we tend to utter first are...
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A practice regimen that will get you sounding like John Mayer

John Mayer is arguably one of the most influential guitarists of our time and has shown this through his technical ability, songwriting skills, and paying homage to the great blues...
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Discovering Keys: From Then to Now

It’s easy to get caught up in the nuts and bolts of studying music. Intervals, scales, chords, key signatures, chord progressions…once we dive into the deep pool of musical fundamentals,...
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Discovering Keys: Minor Keys

We’ve already covered a lot of ground in this article series on keys, however there is one important area that we’ve largely avoided in our studies thus far: minor keys....
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John Mayer’s Commonly Used Techniques

One of the best ways to improve your guitar playing is to imitate your favorite guitarists, and without a doubt, one of the most influential guitarists of our generation is...
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Discovering Keys: Part 2

Applying Scales and Chords to the Study of Keys Part II In Part I of this article series, we illustrated how some of the most basic tools in our musical...
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Discovering Keys: Part 1

Applying Scales and Chords to the Study of Keys From the beginning of this series, we set out to achieve a succinct but comprehensive understanding of what keys are and...
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John Mayer’s Influences: How They Shaped His Playing Style, and How They May Shape Yours Too

Every guitarist experiences a common barrier at a certain point in their musical journey -- we get paralyzed by the sheer number of things there are to learn on the...
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No Need to Give Up! Special Tips for Small-Handed Pianists [Part I]

“How can you play the piano with such tiny hands?!” I have been asked this many times in my life. Yes, I do have small hands; my maximum reach is...
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An Introduction to Latin Music: Cha-cha-chá History

Its slow tempo and steady 4/4 metre mean that cha-cha-chá is often the logical first step not only for drummers looking to adapt Latin rhythms to the drum kit, but...
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Guitar Chords: How to Progress from Beginner to Advanced Chord Shapes

Guitar beginners are frequently overwhelmed by the number of chords there are to learn. Many will attempt to learn as many chords as possible without trying to master or memorize...
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The Guitar Pedals Behind John Mayer’s Tone

Guitarists, whether playing for fun or headlining a major festival, are known for amassing sizable collections of pedals. If you don't have one yet, you're probably working your way towards...
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What are Keys: Learning About Chords

What are Chords and How Can They Help Us Learn About Keys? Chords have been a staple device in the music of the Western world for, well, a long time....
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The Guitars and Amplifiers Behind John Mayer’s Legendary Tone

John Mayer is arguably one of the most influential guitarists of our generation. While he has mentioned that he doesn’t believe that he is as impactful or creative as someone...
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What are Keys: Learning about Scales

What are Scales and How Can They Help Us Learn About Keys? Have you ever had conversation with someone about their bygone days of learning a musical instrument? Often the...
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John Mayer: How a Pop Icon Can Help You Improve Your Guitar Skills

You may know John Mayer for some of his 7 Grammy Award winning (and 19 Grammy nominated) pop and rock music, but did you know that he is one of...
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What are Keys and Why Should We Know About Them?

In the Key of... “In the key of…” -- we rarely get far into our musical endeavors before we find ourselves faced with this phrase. Minuets in the key of...
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Guitar Effect Pedals – Clean Boost Pedals

Clean boost pedals don’t usually get as much love as flashier effects like overdrives and delays, but they do find a place on the pedalboards of many professional musicians. They’re...
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Jazz Standards on Guitar: All of Me

As we learn to play in the various styles and genres of music, it is crucial to become familiar with the repertoire of that genre—and jazz is no different. The...
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Common Injuries Suffered by Drummers and how to Avoid Them

Learning a musical instrument is a physical activity that requires both physical and mental exertion. Different instruments utilise different limbs, muscle groups, and individual muscles, and it’s important to be...
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Guitar Effect Pedals – Chorus Pedals

Chorus effects pedals create another class of modulation effects that people often confuse with flangers and phasers. Technically, a chorus effect is very similar to a flanger, just with a...
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Ultimate Injury Prevention: How to Gain Body Awareness for Pianists

Piano playing requires extremely repetitive muscle movements. For example, if you play quarter notes consistently at 120BPM, after an hour, the repetition will require your muscles to contract and release...
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How to Practice Piano: A Beginner’s Practice Guide

Learning piano is a rewarding challenge, but where do you begin? And how do you practice? And why? This article provides a comprehensive practice guide to answer these questions and...
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Beginner Rock and Pop Drum Course Rationale

Designing the beginner rock and pop drum course was a task that required a lot of planning, as well as trial and error to create something that takes students through...
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Guitar Effect Pedals – Wah Pedals

One of the most musically expressive effects available in the guitarist’s toolbox is the Wah pedal. Musical legends across several genres have used this effect with great results for decades....
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Guitar Effect Pedals – Fuzz Pedals

Fuzz pedals are like the unnoticed middle child in the family of distortion-type effects. Their achievements are often overshadowed by their older sibling, Overdrive, and they don’t require as much...
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10 Most Influential Jazz Pianists You Should Listen to

The number of truly wonderful pianists is astounding. There are countless innovative and unique artists that have taken composition and performance to new heights. It can be easy to get...
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5 Common Mistakes Made by Beginner Drummers and How to Avoid Them

Throughout our lives as musicians, we learn from our mistakes, whether they be small simple errors when playing a certain piece, or a more deep routed weakness in a fundamental...
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Guitar Effect Pedals – Phaser Pedals

Phaser pedals allow you to get really unique sounds out of your guitar. If you’ve ever wondered how Van Halen got that slow, sweeping sound in his epic guitar solo...
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Great Jazz Licks over the I-iv-ii-V and ii-V-I

After learning how arpeggios are used to improvise and exploring the foundations of improvisation, it’s important to learn from the great improvisers and how they applied the theory so that...
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Monthly New Lessons – July 2018

The month of July has been an exciting month here at LPM. Here is a list of all the lessons & trailers, released in July. If you like what you...
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Understanding Time Signatures and Meters: A Musical Guide

At the beginning of practically any score of music you have ever looked at there are numbers and symbols that clarify how to interpret the music notation in the score....
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Bach’s Favorite Piano Practice Exercises

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is one of the most famous composers of all time, and since his death, nearly all serious pianists have studied his works, which are seminal examples...
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Guitar Effect Pedals – Distortion Pedals

Distortion pedals often can have an identity crisis of some sort; many of them can double as a fuzz or overdrive pedal, and some can even be tweaked to fill...
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7th Chords, Their Arpeggios, and Why We Use Them

Chords are something we deal with everyday in music. Written down on a page, they can be as simple as just ‘A,’ or a completely terrifying ‘Amaj7#11b9’! By discussing the...
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Monthly New Lessons – June 2018

The month of June has been an exciting month here at LPM. Here is a list of all the lessons & trailers, released in June. If you like what you...
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An Introduction to Salsa Drumming: Rhythms and Applications

Now that we have a basic understanding of the history of salsa music, we will take a more practical approach to how it is played. We will trace the roots...
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Getting Started with Bach – 6 Key Pieces for Beginner Pianists

Getting Started with Bach Few composers from history inspire awe and veneration quite like Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The ability to play Bach is a goal aspired to by players...
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