Tom Serb

In our last post we learned there is only one kind of major scale. Now let’s look at the minor scale – and there are LOTS of different minor scales!

Now we’ll get into the grand-daddy of music theory. The major scale is important to theory because it’s the yardstick by which we measure all other scales.

Let’s look at hexatonic scales. Like the blues scale, hexatonic scales are any scales that have six notes.

A lot of blues music is played by adding one note to the regular pentatonic scale. This “blue note” is what makes the blues music sound the way it does.

Believe it or not, scales are your friend. There is no reason scales should scare or confuse guitar players and with Tom’s help we’re going prove that.

How do you go from being an amateur musician to a professional musician? Practice is important but the real key is in developing a sense of musicianship.

Even if you consider yourself an expert at guitar solos, you’ll still find the exercise Tom introduces in this mini-lesson eye opening.

Saying something with music is what soloing is all about. Here is the first of a two parts from Tom Serb on “Language Based Soloing.”

Now that we’ve covered all the basics of speed playing, we’re going to conclude this series with some important practice strategies that you’ll find useful.

We’re going to try some more difficult speed drills. If you’ve been following Tom’s lessons on playing fast you’ll like these new more challenging patterns.

There are all sorts of barriers to playing fast. In his latest post Tom shares some practice tips for developing speed in all of your fingers.

Many guitarists will choke up when trying to play fast. Tom Serb shares some advice on keeping your muscles relaxed while practicing speed drills.

In this brief series of lessons, Tom Serb reveals some of the ways guitarists can learn to play much faster in a relatively short period of time.

Students at Tom’s music school receive a booklet called “How to Practice Your Musical Instrument.” Here are some practice tips that apply to guitar.

For anyone who writes songs or plays in a band, there are several different rights regarding performing and recording songs. Here is a break down of what you need to know.

In the second installment of Tom’s series on reading notation, you’ll learn about ledger lines, repeat signs and other musical traffic signals, as well as delve into accidentals and key signatures. Plus you get an arrangement of Jingle Bells to get you going for the holidays!

At long last, Tom takes the mysteries out of chord substitution, giving you detailed and simple explanations that will make you wonder why you ever worried about it in the first place!

Even people who don’t read standard notation will tell you that it’s a good idea to learn to do so. And it’s easier to learn than people think. Tom’s latest piece is a great place to start to pick up this skill that will last you a lifetime.

Tom has a gift of being able to explain complicated material in a very uncomplicated manner. After guiding us through the maze of extended chords in his last article, he returns to explain altered chords and does so in such a simple way that I wish I’d had him explain it to me many, many years ago!

Getting to the stage of playing advanced chords doesn’t really require learning hundreds of new chord shapes – it only demands that you can relate new chords to old ones in a logical way. By the time you’ve finished reading Tom’s latest article, you’ll be able to form any chord extension that you want!