Articles & Such

A collection of articles, essays, lessons, reviews and other items I’ve written from the late 1980s to the present. The focus tends to be on stringed instruments, particularly the guitar and the unique lifestyle of a working musician, but diversions into other topics are also presented.

I hope you uncover some worthwhile nuggets within these pages. ~~ JF

• Guitar Corner
  • A Night In The Life
  • All About Soundholes
  • Disability Doesn’t Mean Disabled
  • First Guitars and Teachers
  • Flamenco! The Guitar and the Music
  • How Strings Produce Tones: a lesson in physics
  • Nail Care for Guitarists
  • NAMM Summer Show 2005 Review
  • Parsons’ Improbable Processional
  • Southpaw Solutions
  • The First Song
  • The Guitar Paintings of Liona Boyd
  • The Guitar: A Miniature Orchestra
• Music Instruction
  • ‘Basic Skills for Guitar’ by Stanley Garrison (c.1975)
  • Basic Barre Chords
  • Bass Arpeggios and Patterns
  • Fingerstyle Basics 101 (video and textual tutorial)
  • Foggy Mountain Breakdown (banjo tab)
  • Foster’s Banjo Primer (PDF)
  • Getting To Know The Fretboard (video + transcript)
  • Introduction To Modes
  • Melodic Banjo Basics
  • On the Student-Teacher Dynamic
  • Primary Keys for Guitar
  • The Importance of Good Practice Habits
  • The Minor Pentatonic & Blues Scales
  • The Seven Categories of Chords
  • What’s the most fundamental thing a student of music should learn?
  • Notes On The Guitar
• Instrument Maintenance
  • Date Your Guitar: Fender, Gibson, Gretsch & Martin
  • How to Adjust a Guitar Neck
  • How To Adjust Intonation
  • How to Reglue a Guitar Bridge
  • Installing A Golpeador On a Nylon-String Guitar
• Miscellaneous Topics
  • Art In Yugoslav Special Ed
  • The Musician’s Doctor

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