Chris Borland Guitar Tuition

Lovely post from Gear Gods about Shattered Skies' new video. Have a look to see me on bass duties!

"The concept is simple: form exercises from licks out of your favorite songs or solos, and incorporate them in place of the dull exercises that are eroding your soul."
Any method that gets you practising is the right one!

After an extremely busy few weeks and many discussions about practice regimes, frustrations with the instrument, and how to measure progress, I thought it would be a good idea to provide some surprisingly good advice given by Jake the Dog

A lot of people are put off the idea of grades because of the theory or fretboard knowledge required to pass them. To counter this, performance awards have been introduced which focus solely on the performance aspects and remove those common bugbears!
As many of you will know, I don't tend to recommend grades, but they are undeniably a good motivator and a good goal system. If you're interested in looking into these then get in touch!

After the third conversation in a week about plectrums, it's probably worth my putting a post together with a few links!
The plectrum I use is The Hufschmid Guitars Drop plectrum made from his proprietary material "HUFTRON": http://plectrum.ch/product/one-huftron-dr op
... I found for a long time that my right hand was the weak link in my playing, often tensing up and stopping me from progressing. After lots of hunting through various brands, shapes and sizes, I found that thick plectrums which tapered to a point helped me to keep a relaxed grip. More research and frustration at how long plectrums lasted (or didn't last) lead me to Patrick Hufschmid's products and I've not looked back. They're not the cheapest, but you quite genuinely do pay for quality - the tone, ergonomy and lifespan of this material and product is insane!
Other plectrum brands to check out: - https://www.winspearinstrumental.com (I used Winspear picks for a long time. A great, GREAT product. His shop's closed for a month to clear out a huge backlog of orders!)
- https://www.purpleplectrums.com/ (I and a few of my students have tried a few of these - great plectrums. Rob Scallon has a signature range with them, I believe!).
- https://www.redbeartrading.com/ (Last time I checked, Andy Wood used these... they'll be pretty good with that accolade!)
- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jim-Dunlop-412P- 73-To…/…/B000P5OTAC (Dunlop aren't exactly an unknown brand, but too few people try out their Sharp range!)
Feel free to drop me a message to chat about plectrums! I'm one of those losers that enjoys talking about them!
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Always worth listening to words on practice from the man famous for his insane practice regime.
A great video on practising rhythm from Steve Vai and Guitar World, with some solid expectation setting (something often missing from instructional videos!).

A fantastic review from ace student Alfie! Congratulations on your recent acceptance to ACM!

Today's admin is sponsored by absurd guitar and violin playing. Oh Paganini, you daft chap.
If anyone has any listening recommendations or any suggestions on making admin more exciting, chuck them my way!
https://open.spotify.com/album/4DqlDuV4aW KZf5js7PN4DW…

As I've been asked fairly regularly about bands I'm in, it's only fair that I post this here:
This is my band Shattered Skies' new release, debuted exclusively on Prog's website. Let me know what you guys think!

If anyone's looking for a really high end 8-string, for an absolute bargain... well, here:

I apologise to all students for how excitedly I'm talking about theory today - caffeine is a pretty serious thing.

This is a GREAT resource for guitarists and bassists. Apply it to plectrum techniques, fingerstyle, bass fingerstyle, pop 'n' slap, hybrid picking, and whatever else you can think of!

It was great to welcome two new students into the fold today. Both totally different lessons involving anything from how to bring out the sound of modes, to where to place the thumb when playing a C major chord.
Absolutely love this stuff!

If anyone's looking for some extra learning resources for some between-lesson-learning, then check this link out!
Some great deals going on for many different instruments!

A handy reminder - get your repertoire up; you never know when having learnt a song'll come in handy!

Can't say enough good stuff about this app. I downloaded it to have a go through and check over last week and it's top notch. Really useful functionality and a very clear learning path!

Interestingly, I've spent a lot of time in lessons over the last few weeks chatting to you lovely people about different methods of picking.
Here's a great video talking about the different places you can create the picking motion from!

You know it's a great Friday when you're referencing power metal in a lesson!

Where do I start! Chris is fantastic teacher, down to earth, easy going, understanding and genuinely wants you to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve.



If you want to really be pushed to your maximum ability he will get you there! If you are looking for some light extra practice he can also help you.



Chris will adapt to what you want to learn not the other way around, which has happened to me in the past!



Get in touch with him and I'm sure he'll be able to help!

I'm a relatively new student, but my lessons so far have been excellent. The lessons are tailored for the end goals I want to achieve with useful learning resources and printouts. Chris explains everything in a straightforward way and manages to keep up with my continuous questioning so that I learn and understand each objective thoroughly. I can also email Chris when I have questions during the week and he's always quick to respond.

I thought to do this review justice I would wait until I had a few lessons under my belt.



5 lessons later and here we are.



The first thing I was immediately impressed with was the training material you are provided with by Chris.

It's excellent quality, thorough and set out in such a logical away, which really appeals to my slightly OCD mind.



Chris appears to be a really adaptable teacher, often switching things around and changing teaching methods to ensure I get the most out of my lessons and practice/homework.



He is really patient which is good because I am naturally cack-handed which I can imagine is musically challenging!



And to top it off his knowledge of the guitar and the theory behind it is second to none.



I look forward to continuing on my learning journey with Chris.



P.s he also likes board games so win win.

I knew Chris for while before he became a guitar teacher and was always impressed by just how good he was. When Chris first posted about guitar tuition on Facebook, I knew I wanted him to be my teacher and even tried to bribe him with beer, which I later found out I didn't need to do.



Chris is flexible (with his teaching style) and allows me to choose the direction that I would like to take my playing and in doing so helps me to improve and develop my skills and techniques against music that I like to play.



He doesn't stress me out or make me feel inferior and is always happy to provide feedback when he feels I want/need it. I would recommend him to anyone who has never played guitar but even to those who have played for many years but want a tune up.



Without Chris, I'd still be a useless drummer...