Last night I had a quick private session with Maria (TSG member). She was so close - the right notes were there, but something felt just a little off. Nothing major. There was just a bit out of sync between the notes. But in under 2 minutes, it started to come together. You can hear the shift in real time below. If your picking sometimes feels disconnected… Or you’re not sure why something sounds off even though it looks right… Try this: ✅ Slow it way down ✅ Focus just on your fretboard hand ✅ Loop a small section until it feels smooth ✅ Only then — bring in speed That’s what Maria did - and it started to come together. Dave 🎶 p.s. We went deeper in the full 10-min lesson.Want to check it out? Comment “PICK” below and I’ll send it over.

I was working with a student today in a private lesson and their singing and playing weren't syncing up... So we broke it down as follows: 1. Drill the line of chords: D A Bm A | G G A A 2. Eliminate any gaps in the chord changes e.g. the A to Bm could be tricky 3. Keep focusing on the chords & strum while briefing only "thinking" about the lyrics 4. Then do a "dance remix" type thing where you only sing the first 2-3 lyrics of the line and keep your full focus on the chord playing! ..this means we are training our brains to prioritise the chords/strum. 5. Continue to add on more lyrics bit by bit, each time you get something working, repeat it a couple of times, so you are continuously expanding out the line with solid singing and playing. Hope this helps, if you would like to me demo this on a video comment DEMO below this post and I'll do one up!

Mine was Sultans of Swing. What’s yours?👇

So far this week I've been sharing some singalong stories, as well as how I got into playing at music sessions, without knowing much chords or rhythm at all. ..and then there was the singalong chord cheatsheet I shared yesterday.. Today I wanted to share with ye about the the phases of joining in with ONE singalong song.. Let's jump in! 1️⃣ "The Before" Before the song starts try and gleam as more info as you can from the person who's about to start playing the song.. Here are some quick questions you can ask, that won't overload the person, draw too much attention on you YET give you just enough info to join the dots. 1. "What key are you in?" <pretty musical lingo> ..some players might not know the answer to this..so instead ask: 2. "What are the main chords are you using?" ..this keeps it high-level, because this way, they might answer "G D A Bm"..instead of feeling obligated to show you everything in the song, and holding up the singalong. 3. "Whats the first few chords you play in this?"..again, this is high-level but it gives you the first line or two of chords the person will play, because odds are, this is what they are currently reminding themselves of! 🗣️ You ask: "What key are you in?" 🎶 OUTCOME 1: They answer: "Key of G" 📋 You think of our chord cheatsheet from yesterday, and now you've a couple of chords to be aiming towards. 🎶 OUTCOME 2: They answer: "dunno" Then You Ask: "no prob, whats your first few chords?" ..then you'll probably see them play them real quick in order to remember them.. Pro-tip: if you see them do this, they'll probably play the chords in the order they are meant to go in.. 2️⃣ "The During"

It took many many singalongs and music sessions to start to spot patterns in songs that people around me played... This is the cheatsheet I would write out, memorise and use when I'd sit in on future sessions... If a player around you starts a song with: - G - D - C - A - E There are some SUPER predictable patterns of chord progressions that they may play.... Now what happens if they play a Queen song? Or something with a bazillion chords? Then you do your best, make a note to go learn that song so you'll be more singalong-saavy next time someone pulls that song out.. But you know yourself, in general: - many songs contain 3-4 chords - those chords are typically open chords - some open chords are played more than others... And that's where this cheatsheet comes in so handy... Watch the video and let me know what you think!