Practice

9 Ways to Boost Your Creativity on Guitar (and get out of a rut)

Sometimes when we work on the same creative project for a long time, under the same circumstances we can get into what is called a “rut.”

This can happen whether it’s practicing guitar, writing, work responsibilities, painting, etc. It’s the feeling of no matter how much we practice or work, that things stay the same.

It’s a “stuck” feeling…we can’t figure out how to get new life, joy and inspiration back into our work.

We wonder “where did the fun go?”

It’s totally normal, so don’t worry if you are feeling this. It means you’re caught in a cycle.
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The Joy of Horizontal Musical Flow

By Adam Rafferty 5 Comments

Have you ever had times where you’ve tried to master a guitar technique, but get stuck no matter how hard you try?

Or maybe you’ve seen someone play something and they make it look oh-so-easy, yet when you try it, you “hit the wall?”

I’ve been there too, but I’ve been fortunate enough to be shown how to navigate this inner mental game by master teachers. [Read more…] about The Joy of Horizontal Musical Flow

How to Develop Your Thumb’s “Thump” for Fingerstyle Guitar

By Adam Rafferty 13 Comments

Adam Rafferty - How to develop Your Thumbs THUMP for Fingerstyle Guitar

That’s the sound of what you’d want a bass player or drummer to make so that if you were playing with them, you’d feel the beat from what they are doing – not only hear the note.
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2016 in Review: An Honest and Transparent Look at My Successes & Failures This Past Year

By Adam Rafferty 7 Comments

A few days ago, I was contacted by Matt Oestreicher for a podcast interview on The Mindful Musician. Our talk started with Matt mentioning how much he loved my 2015 in review post from last year.

Knowing that this resonated with him made me realize I should do it again, so here is my 2016 review.

I will give it to you straight, and say where I did well, and where I think could have been better.
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Discovering Your Guitar Technique

By Adam Rafferty 6 Comments

ultimate-secret
Often we have ideas of how our technique “should” look or be when we play guitar. It can cause a lot of cognitive dissonance when our ideas and the MUSIC itself disagree.

Hopefully this info will help you melt into mental, musical and spiritual grooviness.
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