The Acoustic Asylum

Most people play guitar with a very mechanical straight feel.   Well, today I want to tell you why that isn’t always the best thing to do.   In fact, if you want to add instant excitement to your music and play with more life, soul, and vibrancy, then the little tips I’m sharing in this episode will help you right away!   If you enjoyed this, don’t forget you can get my two exclusive and free eBoo...

Back when I was learning guitar, I had no rhythm.   I wasn’t born with no rhythm, I just hadn’t developed my rhythm skills. This meant when I played guitar, I was all over the place. It also meant that I had a few slightly embarrassing moments.   In this episode, I’m sharing with you a key story that helped awaken me to my bad rhythm, and exactly what I did to fix it. These simple little tips will...

One of the biggest problems a lot of people say is that they simply “do not have enough time to practise” their guitar playing.   While that is true for some extremely busy folk, we often all have a few pockets of time where we can pick up the guitar and play something…   …So in this episode, I’m going to give you some key tips on making more time to practise, why motivation is possibly more impor...

Today, I want to share with you my #1 method for helping you to make more progress on the guitar every single day.   This will help you practise more effectively, and it’s a super simple technique that all guitarists can benefit from – no matter if you’re a beginner or intermediate guitarist…   And this is especially powerful if you’re an adult learning guitar and lacking confidence or you are uns...

Today, I want to share a fascinating story from the 1960s that can help you change your guitar playing forever.   It’s a simple and sneaky study that shows doing this one thing can blow up your progress massively – meaning you’ll have so much more fun on the guitar. Plus, we are breaking some annoying myths that people believe in when it comes to learning guitar as an adult or if you feel you have...

Today, let’s talk about the devil on your guitar-playing shoulder.   It’s dangerous, most of us are plagued by it, and if you put too much pressure on yourself, it’s likely this devil is screaming down your ear.   The good news is, with one simple shift, you can change all that and you can turn the negativity into something much more positive. That will ensure you truly enjoy your guitar playing f...

Trying to be creative on the guitar is one of the most daunting and scary thoughts for many guitarists.   …But if you want to be more creative, then listen today because I’m teaching you a super simple and incredibly fun step-by-step method to be more creative today.   I’m playing these examples on the acoustic guitar but they work perfectly for electric guitar too. The great thing is, being creat...

If you ever want to jam, but don’t know how to begin, today’s episode will help.   We’re talking about the sliding scale of creativity versus structure and how to get the right blend.   The truth is, when jamming on the guitar, we need to have both of the above. On the one hand, if you are only trying to be creative without any structure, it can be hard to make music that sounds good. On the other...

During my many years of teaching, I’ve taught two specific types of guitarists.   One type is the student who is full of positivity, resilience, and open-minded thinking. The other is the type who is struggling and looking for a way out.   It’s a hard truth and some people don’t like to hear it, but that’s what I’ve found. So, today, I want to explain why this is the case, why it’s probably not yo...

Today, I want to give you some simple tips on jamming one chord on the guitar. Yes, just one chord.   Many students want to be able to jam and create beautiful music on the fly… but the problem is they do not know where to begin. This often leads to them getting frustrated, giving up on jamming, and then missing out on all the benefits that being creative has!   For some tips on this, listen to th...

Motivation is one of the biggest factors that will decide if you stick with the guitar or quit.   Therefore, you must do what it takes to keep your motivation up at all costs… but of course, you don’t want to get too excited because when the inevitable pitfalls get in the way it can be like a sugar crash and your motivation may plummet…   Today’s episode is all about a proven study on increasing m...

I love being creative on the guitar.   Many guitar students out there also want to be creative, but often have no idea where to begin. Well, in this little episode, I share with you a very simple tip on creativity. It involves one chord, one strumming pattern, and one simple concept. With just a little bit of practice, anyone can do it… And the great thing is, according to various studios, being c...

In this episode, we’re talking boxing and how elite-level sports and learning guitar have more in common than you might think. I use the fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk to explain some key concepts for learning guitar as an adult. Some of the highlights include how it’s crucial to think outside the box, why most people teach guitar the way they were taught, and the big problem with tha...

It’s May, and it’s spring.   Yeah, I know, it has been spring for a while… but if you want to make more guitar-playing progress at this time of the year, this episode will help. In today’s episode of the Acoustic Asylum, I’m giving you two tried and tested ways to have a “spring clean”. One involves something in the physical world and the other in your mental space – but both are effective for get...

Do you practise with absolute focus? Or do you practise guitar in a “wishy-washy” way?   Well, today, I’m sharing some interesting little insights into how to practise your guitar in a more optimal way…   This includes exactly what I did back when I was learning guitar and I only had 10 minutes per day… How I would “practise” on the bus (even though I didn’t have my guitar with me)…   ...And one t...

Let’s talk about autobiographies.   In today’s podcast, I’m sharing some little gems of inspiration I have read from a variety of guitarists in their autobiographies. You’ll hear stories from Neil Young, Eric Clapton, and bizarrely, even Andrew Ridgeley (from Wham!).   I find that when guitarists and musicians talk in interviews about their experiences on the guitar, they rarely go into much detai...

Distractions are everywhere – especially in the guitar world! Today’s episode is dedicated to avoiding all these crazy distractions when improving our guitar playing! There’s one really big tip I want to share today. …And it’s been working like a charm for my students – especially for Ryan, who is a super busy father, coach of the kids’ soccer team, and is very busy with his career. Listen to Ryan...

Let’s talk about chord progressions.   …And specifically, two super popular chord progressions that I love and that get used in a tonne of songs!   When I started off learning guitar, I never used to think about chord progressions. That was a huge mistake because learning just a few chord progressions could have saved me a tonne of time… It would have given me a better understanding of how music w...

Today, I want to talk a little bit about connecting the dots in music.   One of the key things about music and being a musician is being able to know where the notes are that you hear in your head. This ability is what separates a beginner guitarist from an intermediate guitarist.   In today’s episode, I give you a little way of testing your aural skills. I play a little riff and set you the chall...

Have you ever learnt something on the guitar, enjoyed it, but then later on… forgotten all about it?   …You’ve spent all that time learning it, only to not play it again, and then, of course, you have to spend time re-learning it. That’s the sort of madness that would make the malevolent Gatekeeper of the Acoustic Asylum proud.   Well, today I want to show you a simple plan to help you so you neve...

This week’s episode is all about a guitar hero of mine, Kurt Cobain, who passed away thirty years ago, on April 5th.   I have many guitar heroes, people like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Chet Atkins, and so many more, but Kurt Cobain was one of my favourites. He was in the band Nirvana and he was only 27 years old when he died. In this episode, I talk about my own discovery of Nirvana...

Let’s talk fingerstyle arrangements.   There’s a secret to playing fingerstyle arrangements… Especially ones that sound great, but aren’t painstaking to learn. In this episode, I’m sharing with you these secrets all broken down into three simple steps.   You’ll discover some key advice the great guitarist, George Benson, once shared on a TV show called Guitar Star. Plus, I talk about what you can...

Today, I want to talk about licks and the importance of having just ONE powerful lick in your tool belt.   So many people want to teach you dozens of licks, sometimes more... but the problem is, many licks don't work... at least not in a practical setting. That's why having one lick you can use, jam, and mould into different forms is super powerful. In this episode, I take one of my favourite simp...

This week’s episode is all about a little tone test I’m doing on three different acoustic guitars.   It’s really important to find a guitar that suits you and inspires you to pick up the guitar every day. One of the best ways to choose a guitar is to try out several guitars and do a little tone test on them. In today’s episode, I’m showing you how to do this by doing a little tone test of three of...

This week’s episode is all about Rule #11 of the Asylum, which is all about the break / blast method.   When people practise, they tend to play everything too fast, causing everything to be full of buzzing notes. Today we are looking at how to avoid this when practising. Most of your practice should be slow and methodical. Practising slowly allows you to focus on all the details and consciously th...