I’ve taken a little, well, a long break from blogging and posting guitar lessons. I’m planning on getting things moving again in the near future, though. As I do that, I thought I’d see if anyone out there was interested in contributing. It could be anything related to the guitar or music in general. Lessons, stories, recommendations, reviews…whatever!
If you’re interested, get in touch (lessons ‘at’ villageguitarstudio.com) and we can go from there. I’d be more than happy (and even excited) to read potential posts, talk about ideas, etc.
Thanks for stopping by my guitar blog! My name is Roger Panella and I’m a professional guitarist and guitar teacher. I own and operate Village Guitar Studio, a private guitar lesson studio in Chicago.
I’m using this blog to write and publish guitar lessons. So, if you’d like to learn some new guitar stuff, you’re in the right place! The lessons are going to be written for varying levels, from beginner to advanced, so the topics will jump around a bit. If there’s anything you’d like to see covered, or you have any questions about anything I’ve posted, please feel free to get in touch.
Thanks again for stopping by and have fun checking out my blog! If you happen to be in the area and are interested in guitar lessons in Chicago just send me an email. And, again, don’t hesitate to contact me with any comments, suggestions, or contributions.
Have fun and please check back often!
A lot of my guitar students ask me about seventh chords because they have heard of them and have seen them in pieces of music, but don’t know what they are or how to play them. I thought I’d post a guitar lesson to give a brief overview to help you get started with seventh chords.
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Kenny Burrell has been one of my favorite guitarists ever since I first started getting into jazz. To me pretty much everything he’s played on is worth hearing, but if you haven’t listened to him much, I recommend the albums ‘A Night at the Vanguard’ and ‘Soul Call’ as good starting points. This transcription is from an album called ‘A La Carte,’ which is a duo recording with bassist Rufus Reid. The album seems to be out of print, but this version of ‘Tenderly’ is available on an album called ‘Laid Back,’ which is a compilation from a few different albums of his from the 70’s that are not in print. It’s a great album and I highly recommend it!
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One music theory skill that’s very helpful to have is being able to identify the key of a song or chord progression. Having an understanding of how to identify the key helps you, among other things, to know the appropriate scales and notes you can use to improvise over a chord progression.
I always cover this topic with students at my guitar lesson studio in Chicago and thought I’d write a music lesson about it. In this lesson, we’re going to learn to identify the key of a song by looking at it’s chords.
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I’ve had a number of inquiries over the past month from people interested in buying gift certificates for guitar lessons as holiday gifts. I just wanted to write a quick post to say that, yes, you can buy guitar lessons from Village Guitar Studio as a gift. And, in my opinion, guitar lessons are one of the best gifts you could ever possibly dream of giving someone!
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Here’s a transcription I recently did of Wes Montgomery’s guitar solo on the song ‘Stablemates.’ This is from the great album ‘Bags Meets Wes’ with Milt Jackson, Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones, and Philly Joe Jones. Here’s ‘Bags Meets Wes’ at Amazon.
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I’m going to get back to the guitar lessons on arpeggios that I started recently. If you have a working knowledge of 7th chord arpeggios, you may be able to jump in at this installment with no problem. But, if you’re just learning about them, or would like to see what I’ve covered so far, here is a link to arpeggio guitar lesson 1 and arpeggio guitar lesson 2. Part 1 deals with learning the arpeggio fingerings for the four main types of 7th chord arpeggios and part 2 introduces playing the arpeggios over the chord progression of a jazz standard.
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I teach a lot of students at my studio in Chicago, and many of them are just beginning guitar lessons. One thing that’s difficult for most students just starting out is making the transition from learning a few chords to making those chords actually sound like music. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that there’s an easy solution to this, other than regular practice over time. Chords are hard at first! But, what’s usually missing in beginner guitar students is playing the chords with a sense of rhythm. The best way to learn this is by practicing with a metronome, a little device that gives you a steady beat to play with. In this lesson, I’m going to talk about how you can practice with a metronome so you can start making music with the chords you’ve learned.
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What would you like to see?
Here’s a quick post that I’ve been meaning to make for a while. If anyone has any suggestions for topics of guitar lessons that they’d like me to write about on the blog, please feel free to send me a message or leave a comment. I’d love to write and publish some lessons about specific topics that people are interested it. Just let me know! Though I probably can’t do EVERY topic that gets suggested, I’m happy to do the ones that I think I’d be able to do well and would be of common interest.
Don’t worry about the skill level of the topic or topics that you suggest. I want to have lessons on my blog for total beginners, as well as more advanced players. So, unless it’s something that I don’t know about and is over MY head, then I’m happy to write about anything that anyone would like to see here.
Also, if you’re in the area, and are interested in guitar lessons at Village Guitar Studio, my guitar school in Chicago, feel free to contact me. Feel free to contact me through that link with any suggestions for the guitar lessons on the blog as well.
Cool!