In the acoustic guitar world — outside of jazz and strict classical — we seldom use certain parts of the “Circle of Fifths.” We prefer to stick to the half of the Circle that uses open strings. Hence my “Semi-Circle of Fifths” term.
The term “Pull-Off” is a Misnomer!
Anticipation is SO important in playing music. Your brain must be ahead of your fingers.
Mark’s guitar performance history featured in regional newspapers!
In this age of internet sales, EBay and Reverb.com, this story of my first Martin guitar purchase is both quaint and touching. Thanks to caring family members for my lifetime possession!
With correct practice, you may be surprised at how quickly you can increase the tempo to performance speed without making errors.
Mark’s Student Recitals are great fun!
From Fingertyle guitarist Mark Hanson: This is the list of tunes that I have worked on/taught at some point between 1963 and the present. The list is approaching 2,000 tunes!
By Mark Hanson It was fun to read about Sting studying scores of French Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel (“Bolero”) for new harmonic and chord progression ideas. In this article we’ll study a chord progression you may not have seen: a dominant 7th chord resolving down 1/2 step (G7 to F#, or D-flat7 to C, for instance) — the “Augmented 6th” progression. First, here’s a fundamental harmonic movement to understand: You all know that V7 chords (“dominant 7th”) resolve regularly to the I chord (“tonic”): G7 to C, for instance. They also resolve effectively up to the vi chord of the […]
In a major key, combine the ii chord with the key’s leading tone. Voila!