Guitar Nine Columns

Play great songs such as “Landslide”, "Dust In The Wind" and "The Boxer".

Tommaso delves into guitar solo harmonies - they are not as hard as they look.

Guitar Nine's February-March 2018 newsletter.

A visual look back at Guitar Nine pick promos and signature picks.

Plans for the future? Play more gigs in front of larger audiences! Playing live is the greatest thing to do as a guitar player.

Take you guitar playing to the next level with Tommaso's best advice for the intermediate player.

In order to increase your visibility and gain a position in the mind of your listener or target audience, I feel it's important to invest in a public relations firm that specializes in the entertainment industry.

Tips on how to ready yourself for your next burst of songwriting inspiration.

Slide guitar offers a very cool and unique sound that cannot be emulated any other way.

Anyone (including yourself) can learn to develop creativity by using the proven methods and strategies for reaching this goal.

Nothing beats being in a recording studio with professionals. It’s one of those moments you dream about as a kid learning to play.

Mark covers the essential picking styles new guitarists need to learn (or at least be familiar with).

Mike shows you several ways to spice up your riffs, lines and solos with some chromatic passing tones.

Guitar Nine's December-January 2017 newsletter.

A technique that allows you to play both the melody and accompaniment parts of a blues tune at the same time.

Online streaming is a good way of adding a new revenue channel to your live shows.

In my opinion, having a booking agent is more important than any other traditional aspect. Independent artists need to take their music to the people and having more opportunities to perform live is paramount.

Mike teaches you scale sequences (in the Hanon style, adapted from piano) that are great for your dexterity and precision.

These exercises will help you to focus on string crossing with alternate picking, and also to help you develop left/right hand synchronization, speed and stamina.

Melodies are what stick in the listeners mind and convey passion and emotion: creating coherence in your solos.

There's a chance you have too many unfinished songs sitting on your computer, or maybe even on your bookshelf - let's finish them.

Anyone (including yourself) can learn to develop creativity by using the proven methods and strategies for reaching this goal.

Not quite ready to release that record yet? You may be underestimating yourself.

Call-and-response practicing to enhance your phrasing and composing.

An article designed to help you on the road to achieving your dream of completing your first CD release.

Did you ever wonder where confidence comes from? How is it possible to have confidence at times, and suddenly lose confidence at critical moments?

Javascript-powered calculator automatically gives you the proper delay times to match the tempo of your music.

Self-assessement time. Can you go it alone? You might need the synergy of two people working together to kick start your label.

Are you a half-finisher? Always eighty percent complete? How you can finish what ya started.

Don't fall into the same old trap of convincing yourself that now is not the time.

Completely subjective, straightforward tips in the areas of promotion, publicity and your career.

My long-term goals are simple, continue improving and have fun! I don`t care really if I don`t become a `rock star` or a `guitar hero`, as long as I`m happy with my music and maybe someone else likes it too.

I`ve sold thousands of copies of the "Dreamscapes" CD. You have to realize that 95% of all my sales come from traditional print advertising. Reviews don`t sell your product. Marketing and advertising do! I`m amazed at the amounts of money bands and artists put into the recording and manufacturing of their product and then have no idea on how to sell it. Marketing and promotion go hand in hand; you need to do both.

I was offered a couple of small record deals, but the contracts were ridiculous so I invested my own money, and it`s starting to pay off. At least this way you own your product.

We all write together at rehearsal. We never set out to write something new, it always happens that one of us will be tuning up with an idea or just jamming on something, and the other two will jump on it. By the time we realize it, half the song is already written. We look at each other and say, `I guess we`re gonna` write today!`

I`ve mostly been motivated by wanting to hear something that`s already in my head. For the classical tunes, I always thought Paganini`s Caprice No. 5 would sound amazing on an electric guitar and just really wanted to hear it. If someone else had a recording out first, I probably would have bought it and then just listened to it instead of playing it.

Many of the first seeds of a song come to me when I`m mountain biking or jogging. It is at that time when my head gets totally clear and the creative juices start to flow. The tricky part is to remember your ideas until you get somewhere that you can write them down! Then it`s just a matter of developing the songs.

Get on the Internet!! It`s the best way to get your music heard by millions of people all over the world. Get someone in the music industry to help you (if you`re lucky). Get a web-site and push your music and never stop. If you have a dream go for it and don`t let anything stop you! Get out there and perform your music live as much as possible.

I record at home in my 16 track (analog) studio. It took me lots of time, energy and money but I`m glad that I`ve got one. Nothing can beat a home studio. You can go there anytime you want and not be bothered by anyone other than yourself. You don`t have to book time, and pay by the hour. Unless you`re a lunatic, that is.

You have to have a good promotion budget and don`t skimp corners when it comes to this. You can have the greatest album and if no one knows that you have one out and available, it really is no good. Utilize all that you can with local publications and national ones as well. Always think of the nation as your market and not just your town. You can be the biggest thing in your hometown and unless they know you around, it really is not going to help you.

Even though these days it takes a lot of idealism to produce an instrumental record, I strongly encourage everybody who`s playing around with the idea to do so. Just don`t expect to get any money out of it, regardless of the quality of your product. It might happen, but it`s very likely that it won`t. But you will have the best musical business card there is and a unique document of your own creativity.

The one thing I always try to do is be in a creative state of mind when I compose. It seems that the ideas flow better if you are working on it on an ongoing basis. For a lot of my instrumental tunes, I sometimes get a mental picture of something in my head, and then ask myself what music goes with this scene. This is much like scoring for film--except the film is in my head!