What sets fingerstyle guitar apart from other types of guitar playing is,of course, playing with the fingers of the right hand (rather than with a pick). Over the years. I've noticed that if you're likely to make a mistake with your fingers it's going to be that your thumb is in the way of your inde...

Having taught thousands of guitar students over the decades and used just about every book there is, I keep coming back to only a few rumbas when I teach how to play this fun Spanish guitar style. 

The Rumba Basics

Rumbas can be counted in 4/4 or 2/4 time (I'm partial to counting in 4/4) and typic...

Introduction

Fingernails are an important part of your hands as a classical and nylon string guitarist. Not only do they help you to grip the guitar strings and provide volume and tone, but they also serve as a protective barrier between your skin and the strings. The fingernails are an integral pa...

The rumba is one of the most exciting rhythms to play on acoustic guitar. It's a rhythm that is pretty familiar to the "western ear" as opposed to many flamenco forms that follow a much more complicated rhythmic structure. In my decades of teaching guitar, I have composed many studies for students t...

Here's one of the exercises I do just about every day for my classical guitar technique: Allegro by Mauro Giuliani. This is not the more well known Allegro by Giuliani but rather a seldom-heard piece that is made up entirely of the double arpeggio technique where we play all fingers of the right han...

Mastering the Gipsy Kings Rumba Style

The Gipsy Kings are synonymous with the vibrant, energetic rhythms of rumba, a style that has captivated audiences worldwide. In this lesson, we’ll break down the essential rumba rhythm used in countless Gipsy Kings songs and learn how to apply it to your own p...