Stop The Room

I do not enjoy yardwork. I want that on the record. The raking... the mower acting up... bugs lighting me up like I'm the dinner buffet... No thanks. So here's what I do. I stare at the lawn for a week. It gets longer. I get mad at how long it's getting. Then I check the weather and find my excuse. "Looks like rain." (It does not look like rain.) I know it needs done. I know it will get done. Still, I put it off. Because I do not enjoy yardwork. Now the truth is this... When I'm done, I look...

Most of us practice at exactly one speed. The speed where it sounds okay. We park there like it's a free spot at the mall. Then we never leave. That's guessing at tempo. Today you stop guessing and start moving through it on purpose. Here's what you need. One pattern you already know. Could be a scale, could be that lick you've played since you were 17 (yes, that one). And a metronome (any free app is fine). Step one: Set it to 40 BPM. That's slow. Like, painfully slow. Like waiting for a...

Watch your picking hand next time you play something fast. If you're like most of us (me included), you're not picking. You're starting a lawnmower. Big pull. Full arm. A little grunt at the end. Then one riff later, your hand feels like it ran a marathon. In jeans. Uphill. Here's the thing... Speed doesn't come from moving harder. It comes from moving less. (Dramatic pause) Think about a basketball player bringing the ball up the court. The good ones keep the dribble low. Short bounce....

I have avoided learning Nickelback songs my whole life. That streak died Saturday night in Texas. I'm visiting my sister and her husband, Chris, for a few days. Yesterday was LSU versus Texas A&M. If you follow college football, you know this rivalry gets ugly. By kickoff, eleven people were packed into their living room. By the third quarter, LSU had the game locked up. That's when Chris walked in holding the house acoustic like a trophy. "You and Roosh need to jam out," he said. Some...

Train, Don't Practiceby Julio Rivera tinylesson How to tap into that Eric Johnson sound↓ You already know the G major triad. You've played it a thousand times. It's the plain bagel of chords. Nothing wrong with it. But nobody's ever gasped at a plain bagel. Here's the funny part. You don't need a new chord to sound new. You need the same chord in a different outfit. Eric Johnson does this all the time. He takes shapes you already know and moves one note. Suddenly the chord sounds wide and...

Last week I flew to Puerto Rico on a missions trip with my church. And listen — if we made a movie out of everything that happened, nobody would believe it. But that's a story for another day. Here's the one I want to tell you. It was night two. My BJJ professor (who also happens to be one of our pastors) walked up and asked if I'd lead worship. No warning. No warm-up. Just — hey, you want to do this? I said "sure. I just need the chords." That's it. No panic. No sweating through my shirt....

There's a quiet trap that catches almost every returning guitarist — and the frustrating part is that it feels like progress while it's happening. Here's how it goes. You learn a pentatonic shape. It sounds good. You use it everywhere. You get comfortable. Then one day you realize you've been playing the same box pattern over every chord change for two years and calling it improvising. The notes fit, but nothing is actually being said. The real blues players never thought that way. B.B. King...

Wayne and I just blew the back out of that band stand. He had just got back from Utah. Multi-instrumentalist. The real deal. I’ve only actually played with him twice. But we started talking after the closing out at a local open mic, and I had to ask him something. “How did you get your ears so big?” Now before you think I lost my mind — that’s a compliment. In music, big ears means you hear what everyone else misses. You catch the hidden stuff buried in the song. Then you play to that. It’s...

Scientists who study motor memory have been sitting on information......information that would make every returning guitarist feel genuinely foolish for believing the story they've been telling themselves.,And the story goes something like this: you stopped playing, so you basically started over.That is not how brains work. Not even close. Here is what actually happens. Procedural motor skills, the kind that live in your fingers when you play guitar, are stored in a completely different part...

Frank showed up with a guitar case and zero shame. He walked on stage like he owned the place. The crowd had no idea what was coming. I was hosting an open mic near Pittsburgh. It was a big Community Day. Bounce houses, fire trucks, food vendors, and even a magician. The Atlanta Rhythm Section was due to play on the other stage. There was a vibe in the air. Pine Community Day 2026Left to Right: Benny Davis (Drums), Zack Perkins (Acoustic), Myself We had great sound, a killer drummer, and an...