Playing With Great Tone

I was once told, “what gets your attention will get your action.” In other words you will eventually get what you’re looking for. The problem is, most students are looking to find all the right notes, and play in time, but not thinking about playing with good tone. The result? Songs learned through hard work and repetition that really don’t sound that good.

Tone is basically musical color. This is how I explain it to students. Imagine you have a box of crayons and a picture to color. Won’t we all take a moment to think of which colors to pick to color our picture? It is the same with music.

Richard HawthorneJuly 19, 2018Lessons, Guitar, Bass, Piano, Technique

Get to know: Bobby Medcalf!

Here's a transcript from a recent interview with one of our fantastic instructors, Bobby Medcalf!

Where are you from? Beech Grove, Indiana. So, I'm from the midwest.

And how long did you live in the midwest before you moved to CA? Until I was 12. My dad is a pastor and he was called to lead a church in CA when I was 12 years old; so we drove out to the Bay Area (Redwood City, CA) and I've lived here ever since.

When did you become interested in the drums? ...

Richard HawthorneMarch 22, 2018Instructors, Bobby Medcalf, Lessons, Drums, Guitar, Interviews

We Sell Guitars!

When The Guitarist opened for business about 25 years ago, we quickly realized that we needed to stock and have guitar available for sale to our students. The main reason being that most students do not know what to look for in an instrument. As a guitarist and instructor, I do know what to look for and can really help make the buying decision simple for my students. Here are a few thing to keep in mind when purchasing a guitar...

Richard HawthorneDecember 28, 2017Studio, Online Store, Guitar