I bet you CAN’T play Smoke On The Water

Deep Purple Machine Head Smoke On The Water

Several years ago I started seeing this comment appear regularly under guitar videos on Youtube: “Nice, but can you play Smoke On The Water?” In case you haven’t seen the comment before, let me try to explain. It’s posted after someone has played something, usually something technical, and it’s an in-joke. It’s saying this: “Smoke […]

Those days when you just suck at guitar

Guitar off day suck day

Have you ever had one of those days when you pick up your guitar and for no apparent reason your playing feels WORSE than it was the day before? Suddenly you find yourself making mistakes left right and centre with things you thought you had down. Things aren’t happening, and your playing feels stale and […]

Why starting guitar with chords is the STUPIDEST idea ever

Spock Illogical Guitar

Start guitar lessons with a local guitar teacher and the chances are the very first thing they’ll show you is how to play chords. Did your first experience of guitar begin with chords? I know mine did. In fact, when I started out, I went through so many months of frustration and difficulty with chords that […]