Bars, counting and chord charts – free beginner music theory lesson

By Andy@Musicademy | March 2, 2016

Here’s a quick beginner theory lesson on the topic of bars, counting and chord charts. The lesson is taken from Musicademy’s Beginning Worship Guitar Course but has learning suitable for any musician. The course is available on DVD, as downloads and also via our streaming subscription service. All our guitar courses are detailed here. If you’d prefer […]

Strat upgrade part 1: Bare Knuckle pickups

By Andy@Musicademy | September 17, 2015

I’ve had this early 80’s Tokai Strat for years now and I’ve been wondering what to do with it. The guitar itself felt great to play but the pickups were so-so. Some years back I put a Seymour Duncan Lil59 pickup in the bridge. It was ok, it gave much more punch but still didn’t […]

Ask the expert: Recommendations on electric guitar amps

By admin | July 14, 2015

Andy wrote recently on the  Cornell small amp he is now using. There is also an archive of “Small amp, great sound” articles here =>  part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5. You’ll also find advice on buying small tube amps in our Intermediate Electric Guitar Course. It is one of the lessons included […]

New baby at Musicademy

By Andy@Musicademy | May 27, 2015

For who have eagerly followed some of my guitar gear related articles in the past, (or for those looking for an immediate cure to acute insomnia) you may remember I spent a long time banging on about the benefits of using small tube amps for churches as opposed to our typical dream amp – insert […]

New Course: Capo Positioning & Transposing for Guitar

By admin | April 24, 2015

 A step-by-step course for guitarists wanting to: Find any capo position in any key using familiar chord shapes Transpose chord charts with complex chords into guitar friendly keys No knowledge of music theory or reading necessary! Step by step lessons using worship songs MORE INFO and BUY Topics covered include: Three methods for finding […]

Turn it up to 11 (and down to 1)

By Tim Martin | February 6, 2015

  Yesterday I was flicking around radio stations in the car as I do from time to time. I’d stick with each station just long enough to hear what was going on and decide whether I was in the mood for what I heard. As I was scanning through I came to a station which […]

How music theory can create a worship moment. Guest post by Jon Nicol.

By Guest Blogger | January 15, 2015

Have you ever gotten to that place in a worship song where you just wanted to linger for a moment? It might be as a song ends, or during an interlude within the song, but the arrangement you’re using doesn’t seem to give you that.  That’s because many of the worship songs we use in our service […]

Two free lessons from the Beginning Worship Guitar DVDs: teaching Cadd9, G and Em7. SALE: up to 50% off Guitar course, workbooks and training tracks.

By Marie@Musicademy | January 9, 2015

We shared a while back how Andy had devised a new system for teaching beginners guitar ditching the more usual chords of Em, G, C, D, A, Am for chords with more complex names but that make more sense in the context of modern worship songs and enabling quicker chord changes. In this first short video lesson, […]