So in this blog, I'd like to present four great city pop chord progressions guitarists will enjoy playing. Yeah city pop does have the reputation for being a bit complex due to it being heavily based on jazz. ii–V–I progressions secondary dominants borrowed chords backdoor resolutions sus chords smooth voice leading But rather than trying to memorize 400 fancy chords, it’s much more useful to start recognizing some of these common movements. Here are four City Pop-style chor

A lot of guitar students hear the word “recital” and immediately think: “Why? I’m not trying to become a professional musician.” Fair enough. Maybe you’re not trying to join a band. Maybe you don’t want to play gigs. Maybe you just want to get better at guitar and enjoy playing at home. But here’s the thing: A recital isn’t only about performing. A recital gives your practice a real target. There’s a date. There’s a song. And at some point, that song has to be ready. Suddenly

So in today's blog, I want to tackle the topic of chord switching. And usually, the problem isn’t: “I don’t know the chords.” The problem is: You haven’t practiced the movement between the chords enough. That’s a different skill. So if you want to get better at switching chords, one of the best things you can do is stop practicing entire songs for a few minutes and isolate the actual chord change. Don’t practice the chords. Practice the change. Let’s say you’re having troubl

Have you ever finish practicing soloing on guitar and and thought: “Technically… none of that was wrong.” The notes were in the key. The scale worked. Nothing completely fell apart. But somehow it still sounded like a bunch of unrelated stuff happening one after another. The problem might not be your vocabulary. It might simply be that nothing is organizing it. The next time you sit down to do some improvising over a backing track or whatnot. Try to do this: Think in 8-bar p

If you want to get better at playing City Pop guitar, there’s an easy trap to fall into: You only listen to City Pop guitarists. Makes sense, right? But a lot of the guitar language you hear in City Pop didn’t magically appear in Japan in 1980. There’s funk. There’s soul. There’s R&B. There’s jazz fusion. There’s AOR (Adult-Oriented Rock). And then Japanese musicians took all of that vocabulary, mixed it together, and created something that sounds very much like its own thing

“Summertime” is one of the first jazz standards I recommend learning. And there’s a good reason for that. The melody is memorable. The chords aren’t completely terrifying. And when you first start improvising over it, you can get through most of the tune using one basic minor scale. Which is great. But.. Eventually, playing the same minor scale over everything starts to feel a little… beige. 😕 Nothing is technically wrong. The notes work, but it can start to sound monotonou

We just finished our 3-month beginner class from June to August, and what a great class it was! It was a pleasure teaching everyone the basics and giving them the fundamentals they need to start exploring the music they enjoy. We covered basic notation reading and chords, learned a few songs, and by the end of the course, we were even able to have a little blues jam session using the minor pentatonic scale! What was also really heartwarming was seeing the four students chatti

A great time this passing weekend at our 2026 summer recital! The 2026 Ontario Guitar Studio Summer Recital Program Check out the program from this passing recital. Some j-pop, R&B, even a bit of swamp jazz! Ontario Guitar Studio recital stage It was held at the Noah Studio Takadanobaba location in the big C room. A great cozy space for performers and attendees. Performers of all ages were there, and they all did a fantastic job! ↓Check out the highlight video here↓ A big h

A lot of people who want to improve their English try the most obvious thing: conversation lessons. And sure, they can help. But if you’ve ever done eikaiwa-style conversation practice, you probably know the problem: Sometimes it doesn’t feel like real communication. It feels like… performing conversation. I should know. I worked at a one of the big boy Eikaiwas for a while when I first moved here! So here’s a question that’s way more interesting (and honestly, more practic

Let’s get a little uncomfortable for a second. A lot of guitar frustration has nothing to do with finger strength, talent, or “having a good ear.” It’s the ego. Not ego in the “I’m better than everyone” way. More like… the part of you that really wants to feel competent right now . The part that hates sounding bad. The part that feels a little embarrassed when you can’t play something that looks “easy” on YouTube. If you’ve ever felt any of this, you’re normal: “I should be

(…well, “any” in the practical, jam-session survival sense.) Most people think jazz guitar means memorizing a million chords. And yeah… if you Google “jazz chords,” it definitely looks that way. But here’s the truth: if you can comp cleanly through the four main 7th-chord types , you can get through a huge amount of jazz repertoire without falling apart. Those four types are: ✔Maj7 ✔min7 ✔7 (dominant) ✔m7♭5 (half-diminished) And if you learn two usable voicings for each , th

Most guitar players learn solos in one of two ways: They memorize a bunch of random licks and hope it magically turns into “improvisation.” They chase difficult solos for ego points. Both can be fun, but if your goal is to actually get better at soloing, there’s a more efficient way: Learn solos that teach you reusable vocabulary. Not necessarily the “hardest solos ever.”Not even the “best solos of all time.” Just solos that are so well-written (and so commonly referenced) t

Mixolydian is one of the first “modes” most guitar players learn. And weirdly… it’s also one of the first things people learn how to make sound kind of awful. Not because the scale is bad. Mixolydian is great. It’s usually because people learn the shape before they learn the sound . So they run the pattern up and down over a dominant chord and think,“Why does this sound stiff… or like an exercise?” If that’s you, no worries. This is a super common stage. For me, Mixolydian

When most people start learning guitar, they usually want to do one thing as quickly as possible: play something that actually sounds like music. That’s why simple riffs can be such a great starting point. Before full chords, barre chords, or longer songs, a good riff can help beginners start building coordination in a way that feels fun and satisfying. You get to work on finger movement, timing, picking, and string crossing, but without the frustration of trying to change be

Jazz fusion can be a weird category. Depending on who you ask, it either means electric jazz with funk and rock influences , or basically anything with a Fender Rhodes and a backbeat . Some players use the word very loosely. Others act like there’s a strict fusion council handing out official approval stamps. So for this list, I wanted to take a practical approach. Instead of trying to define fusion in the most academic way possible, I’m focusing on tunes that the fusion worl

R&B has produced some of the most beautiful and memorable songs ever written. From smooth soul ballads to groove-heavy classics, this style of music has influenced everything from pop to funk to modern neo-soul. But here’s the good news for guitar players: many of the classic R&B songs are surprisingly simple to play. Unlike some rock or jazz tunes that rely on complex harmony or fast playing, a lot of R&B music focuses on feel, groove, and strong melodies . The chord progres

I think for most guitarists who start looking into scales, it can feel overwhelming, especially online. It looks like there are a bajillion scales . It’s hard to figure out where to start… and more importantly, why you should even learn some of them. At the same time, maybe you’ve watched a great guitarist play something incredible and thought: “I wanna do THAT.” So in this post, I’m giving you 12 guitar scales you actually need. My criteria for a “needed” scale is simple: I

If you’ve been playing guitar for a while, there’s a good chance someone told you this at some point: “Just learn the CAGED system and the whole fretboard will open up.” And on paper, that sounds great. Five shapes. Connected across the neck. Suddenly, everything is “mapped.” But if you’re honest, you might also recognize this feeling: You know the shapes…You can move them around…But when it comes time to actually play music , you still feel stuck. So let’s get this out of th

If you play guitar, you’ve probably had this thought at least once: “I should probably learn how to read music…” Not because you want to, but because it feels like something you’re supposed to do. And if you haven’t learned yet, there’s often a quiet guilt attached to it. Like you’re missing some essential step. Like you’re not a “real” musician yet. So let’s clear this up early: Yes, it’s okay if you don’t learn how to read standard notation on guitar. And for many guitar

If you’re an anime fan and a guitarist, welcome back. 😄 This is a follow-up to my first “5 anime songs you can play on the guitar” post — same idea, same format: 5 iconic (or sneakily awesome) anime picks , with performance videos + tabs so you can actually learn them instead of just thinking about learning them . 👉 Haven’t read the first one yet? This post is a continuation of my original article, “5 Fun Anime Songs You Can Play on the Guitar.” If you want even more beg