The View from Conestogo

It’s pretty difficult to play the guitar if you can’t tell one note from another. This is what is called developing your “ear”. This skill helps you recognize when you are playing the correct note(s), when notes are higher or lower in pitch than others. And, of course, developing your ear helps you determine when

We all know that practicing is one of the most important ways to improve our guitar playing. But you may also know how easy it is to get side-tracked into spending time a lot of time doing unproductive things. Practice Routine 1 is a short series of exercises the beginning guitar player would do well

It is not uncommon these days to see people protesting the way authorities are “violating their freedom” by enforcing things like social distancing, encouraging the wearing of masks in public, or not allowing businesses like restaurants to openly conduct business. This type of protest is much more common in the United States than it is

Now you can become a member of practicetracks.org for just $10/year. PracticeTracks is a project of MuzicTrain.com, a non-profit organization in Waterloo, Ontario, dedicated to encouraging young musicians and making music resources and opportunities available to them. Practice Tracks are play along songs and exercises that give new and aspiring musicians practice resources. These are

The way corporate logos are designed has evolved a lot, especially since after WWII, the advent of television, the “visualization” of popular culture, and the explosion of consumerism that really took off in the 1950s and 60s. Here is a short video published in The Atlantic in August, 2018 featuring one of the firms involved

We spent a couple of days this week with Liam and Jack (two of our grandsons) golfing and visiting a few interesting spots down near Tillsonburg, Ontario. The highlight was a personal tour of the Alpacas B&B in Springford. Many thanks to Roelf and Francien owners of the Alpacas B&B for taking the time to

This is an interesting podcast of a conversation Sam Harris recently had with Dr. Nina Shapiro on the state of medicine in the U.S. and more generally. Insider’s View of Medicine Related Posts:No Related Posts

The evolution of the modern guitar is a complicated one. Stringed instruments with some of the features of modern guitars have been used for about 4,000 years, as can be attested by archaeological evidence from digs in Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere where organized human civilizations have been found. The guitar didn’t really start to

It may not make sense to you at first, and you might just never think of it. The guitar is tuned the way it is for good physical-mechanical reasons. You have four fingers on your fingering hand, so the guitar strings are tuned 5 frets apart (except for the B string). That means you can

Here’s another very popular song – Sign of the Times – by Harry Styles. The video is kind of ridiculous with styles doing his Mary Poppins imitation – flying through the air (What is that, anyway?) – but it’s a great song for newish guitar players – just three chords – I, vi, V –