The difficult thing about guitar chords is not constructing and remembering them. It’s changing chords that is actually complicated. Chords have to be changed fast and with precision, all fingers moving simultaneously towards their new place while changing chords. You know it anyway. But how to achieve that? Let’s start with these two chords: The first and the second finger… Continue reading
Once you have mastered enough chords to accompany most of the popular songs, you may want to add some melody. Essentially, this needs a bit different approach as you need to pluck bass, melody and chords at the same time. I’d suggest you start with exploring the common chord shapes also a bit higher on… Continue reading
I had a couple of free days in the beginning of the new year and the weather was good (no snow!). So I took a ‘little’ drive – 5000 km from Tartu to Basel and back. Took me about 30 hours to drive to Bern (visited a friend there) and 30 hours back. All because… Continue reading
Me and my colleague from the university (Margus Niitsoo, PhD) have been working on sound recognition lately. I recorded hundreds of samples on different guitars this summer to form the basis for machine learning. Now our virtual professor can distinguish between different pitches and chords pretty accurately. Rhythm, timing and tempo recognition is under development…. Continue reading
This Christmas I had a wonderful chance to be a member of a symphony orchestra. Nothing special? Well, I played the renaissance lute against orchestra, organ, piano, percussion and 3 choirs (130 singers). It was Mart Siimer’s Christmas story ‘The 4th King’. Lute was included in 8 songs (of 13), being important in 4-5 pieces…. Continue reading
This week we launched our first interactive guitar game. It is called the strumProfessor. You can try it out at: www.strumprofessor.com All you need is a guitar and a microphone. Let us know what do you think?
Karlsson on the roof: “..I am clever, reasonably fat man in my best years” Little Brother: “Which are the best years?” Karlsson: “All of them!” (quoted from Astrid Lindgren’s renown children’s book “Karlsson On The Roof”, 1955) You don’t need to be smart or fat to learne the guitar although it may help. The truth… Continue reading
A study looked at professional violinists and found out that before the age of 21, they had all practised an instrument for 10 000 hours. Given that the violin playing started at the age of 6 mostly, it makes an average of 666 hours a year. In round figures we can say that these people… Continue reading
Festival Via Baltica, celebrating the remembrance of the Baltic Way, took place from August 22 to 31 in cities of Latvia – Liepāja and Kuldīga. Festival program consisted of master classes, exhibition, discussions and chamber concerts by Lavian, Lithuanian, Estonian, French, Spanish and Russian artists. On August 23, duo Leonaora Palu (flute) and Kristo Käo… Continue reading
For two days I was asked to help my friend Maria, who runs a flamenco school in Tallinn. We have been performing together for a few years but this time she asked me to participate in her special Farruca-class to accompany her students. Usually they practise with music from CDs so it was a special… Continue reading