Practice lessons
Each of my YouTube lessons, written up so you can read it, skim it or come back to it while you practise. Every post has the video and links to the free tools that go with it.
November 2026
5:30October 2026
14:31How to Make Guitar Practice as Addictive as Social Media
Borrow the tricks apps and slot machines use to keep you hooked: remove friction, near misses, no cue to stop, streaks, cliffhangers and more, applied to guitar practice.
13:02A Guide to My Free Guitar Practice Tools: Fretboard, Exercises, Backing Tracks and Tab
A walk through my four free guitar tools: the Fretboard Navigator, Exercise Generator, Backing Track Creator and Tab Creator, what each does and how to use it.
4:43Play the Uncomfortable Notes: A Simple Prompt for More Interesting Solos
If your solos just run the scale up and down, practise picking the awkward, out-of-the-way note. A two-phase exercise in E minor that gets you out of scale habits.
8:15The 30-Day Guitar Practice Challenge (and Why It's Not Just "Practise More")
A 30-day guitar challenge: an hour a day, or double your usual practice. Why it works, what to practise, what to do on days away, and the rule for missed days.
3:54Watched Loads of Guitar Lessons and Still Stuck? The Problem Might Be Application
If you keep finishing guitar lessons with no idea what to do next, the lessons may not be the problem. Here's why applying an idea far more widely is what makes it click.
8:53How to Teach Yourself Guitar: Change One Variable at a Time
A simple way to fix your own playing: change one variable, measure it, keep or bin it. How to split your practice, find things to test, and a list of ideas to try.
5:11Stop Waiting Until You're Ready to Learn That Song
Putting off a song or writing music until you've learnt other skills first kills motivation and feeds procrastination. Here's why, and how to start in small bites.
27:00How to Pick Faster on Guitar Without Losing Accuracy
Practical ways to pick faster and cleaner: visualisation, metronome settings, perfect vs push-the-pace practice, string changes from the arm, and quick self-checks.
2:56A Chord Change Exercise: Keep Every Finger Touching a String
A simple silent exercise for faster chord changes: move between two chords without your fingers ever leaving the strings, so you learn the route between shapes.
24:00Learn the Guitar Fretboard: 5 Exercises for Fretboard Fluency
Five practical exercises for learning the fretboard in A minor: linking scale shapes, crossing the neck, free play, random positions, octave patterns and ear work.
19:00How to Train Your Ears on Guitar: Intervals, Chords and Singing
A step-by-step ear training framework for guitarists: learn intervals with song references, then chord types, then find, sing and play what you hear on the guitar.
10:25Stuck on a Guitar Plateau? You're Actually at a Crossroads
Why you can't know what will fix your guitar plateau until you've done it, and how undistracted practice time plus about 20% experimentation gets you moving again.
12:13Why You Should Be Sceptical of Online Guitar Teachers (And How to Learn Independently)
Why online guitar lessons that promise a missing piece deserve some scepticism, and five practical ways to test new ideas and take charge of your own progress.
1:04:00What a Realistic Hour of Guitar Practice Looks Like
A real hour of practice, split into six 10-minute blocks of pentatonic and sweep picking work, with what I noticed and changed as I went. Copy the structure.
18:00Beginner vs Intermediate Guitarist: 10 Key Differences and How to Practise Them
From fretting pressure and tab reading to muting, timing and recovering from mistakes, here are the skills that separate beginners from intermediates, and how to practise each.
September 2026
7:53The Simple Reason Your Metal Rhythm Playing Feels Slow: You're Not Warmed Up
A before and after test on Metallica's Battery shows what a 10-minute warm-up of downpicking, gallops and alternate picking does for speed and endurance.
7:29How to Make Real Progress With Only 15 Minutes of Guitar Practice
Fifteen minutes is enough to get better at guitar if you spend it on a tiny piece of music. Here's what to practise for scales, riffs, chord changes and improv.
33:00100 Guitar Tips for Beginner and Intermediate Players, Sorted by Topic
Practice, mindset, fretting and strumming technique, bends and vibrato, improvising, theory, songwriting and tone: my 100 guitar tips, grouped so you can find what you need.
5:56The Continuous Playing Exercise for Improvising More Freely
A simple exercise for any level: play a scale you know nonstop at a set tempo, then vary it. It trains you to keep moving and link your licks and phrases together.
24:00A Step-by-Step System for Learning Guitar Rhythm From Scratch
Go from no understanding of rhythm to playing quarter, eighth and 16th notes and triplets with a metronome, then turn them into strumming patterns and songs.
4:19Why Learning a New Song Feels So Frustrating (and How to Fix It)
If a riff you should be able to play keeps tripping you up, you probably haven't learned it yet. Here's a simple test, and how to split memorising from speed.
11:03How to Fit Guitar Practice Into a Busy Life
Mindset and practical tips for making guitar part of a busy life: drop all-or-nothing thinking, the 60 second rule, splitting practice and play, and cutting friction.
5:06Explore the Extremes: A Practice Principle That Works at Every Level
Instead of aiming straight for the perfect version, push a technique to both ends. How exploring extremes helps barre chords, pick attack, vibrato and riff writing.
4:13How to Approach Online Guitar Lessons Without Getting Lost in Quick Fixes
Online guitar advice is a mix of great and bad. Here's how I'd treat any lesson or "one trick" tip: as an experiment, given a proper go, backed by focused hours.
August 2026
5:33Slow to Learn, Fast to Develop: Avoid the Medium Practice Speed Trap
You need two practice speeds, not one. Here's how slow learning practice should be, how fast development practice should be, and why medium speed is a dead zone.
4:39Pressing Too Hard With Your Fretting Hand? Try This Reset Exercise
Most guitarists press the strings harder than they need to. Here's a simple exercise to reset your fretting-hand pressure, and why it helps your speed and feel.
7:44Why Getting Better at Guitar Won't Make You Happy, and What Will
Hitting your next guitar goal won't make you happy for long. Why that happens (the hedonic treadmill), and why playing more, not chasing goals, is the answer.
8:01How to Sound Fast When You Improvise: Build Speed in Two or Three Ideas
Most fast players only have a few ideas they can play at speed. Here's how to choose two or three of your own, mix them with normal phrasing and build overall speed.
5:25Hand Synchronisation Might Not Be Why You Can't Play Faster
Before you blame hand synchronisation for messy fast playing, test your left and right hands on their own. Here's a simple metronome test to find the real problem.
6:34Little Finger Exercises to Build Pinky Strength and Control on Guitar
Two simple exercises to make your little finger stronger and more usable on guitar, a hammer-on workout and a silent hovering drill, plus the one finger per fret rule.
6:41Can't Play a Whole Song Start to Finish? You Might Not Need To
Struggling to play a whole song start to finish? Here's why most players don't, why it's fine to learn just the parts you love, and when learning the full song does matter.
5:49Your Chord Changes Are Slow Because You Practise Them Too Carefully
If you can already play your chords cleanly, slow and perfect practice won't make your changes faster. Here's how to practise at speed, how many mistakes are fine, and two tricks that help.
4:38Aim for Snap, Not Flow - A Simple Exercise for Speed and Synchronisation
Fast players look smooth, but slowed down they're making quick, precise movements. Here's a simple scale exercise to train that snap in both hands, slowly then to a metronome.
7:33How I Got Into Music School After a Few Months of Focused Guitar Practice
How I got my playing up to music school standard in a few months: stop chasing perfect technique, simplify to a few exercises and build strength and coordination.
April 2026
7:34Nothing matches that yet. Try another word, or ask me and it might be the next lesson.
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