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About Cameron Hayes

Cameron Hayes is a guitar educator at the London Guitar Institute, teaching a wide range of styles such as rock, metal, blues, jazz, folk, RnB, acoustic, and many more! He teaches a large volume of students on a weekly basis and always looks to provide outstanding value in each and every lesson!

Strumming Hand VS. Fretting Hand – Which is More Important?

2024-04-16T13:16:38+01:00

We need both hands to play the guitar, but which is more important? We need to make all of the chords with our fretting hand, but they won’t make much sound without the strumming hand! So which one is more important?Strumming hand vs. fretting hand - which is more important?Role of the fretting handWhen we first start learning the guitar, a lot of thought is given to the fretting hand.This will be important as we are constantly thinking about which strings and frets each finger needs to be on for both riffs and chords, as well as which fingers should be [...]

Strumming Hand VS. Fretting Hand – Which is More Important?2024-04-16T13:16:38+01:00

How Playing Along to Songs will Make You a Better Musician

2024-04-16T13:06:27+01:00

Not only is jamming along to your favourite songs at home a whole lot of fun, it is also a great pathway to becoming a better musician! This will improve your ability to stay in time, your dynamic sensibilities, awareness of the vocals, and your overall musicianship. How playing along to songs will make you a better musician Staying in time One of the major skills that you are going to develop from playing along to songs is the ability to stay in time, which is something you aren’t tested on as much when you are playing by yourself solo. You [...]

How Playing Along to Songs will Make You a Better Musician2024-04-16T13:06:27+01:00

Guitar Strumming – When Should I Strum With a Plectrum and When Should I Pluck with my Fingers?

2024-03-06T08:46:00+00:00

If you’re just starting out on your guitar journey and are primarily self taught, there may be some confusion for you around whether or not you should be using a plectrum/guitar pick to strike the notes that you are playing. Some people take to using a pick more naturally than others, but it is actually very important to getting the best result possible in your playing to either use this or not. I would urge all guitarist to get used to playing both with and without a pick, as different songs will require different techniques and sounds. Chords For 99% of [...]

Guitar Strumming – When Should I Strum With a Plectrum and When Should I Pluck with my Fingers?2024-03-06T08:46:00+00:00

How to Learn Songs by Ear on the Guitar

2024-03-06T08:43:43+00:00

Listen to the bass! Learning songs by ear is a lot of fun, and a skill that will come in extremely handy for you both at home for your own enjoyment and in jam sessions/rehearsals when you need to be able to pick things up quickly without TAB’s or sheet music. When starting off on your ear training journey, keep things simple and try to learn a simple four-chord-song that will have pretty straightforward information for you to transcribe. Let’s take “With Or Without You” by U2 as our first example. This will use the same four chords the entire way [...]

How to Learn Songs by Ear on the Guitar2024-03-06T08:43:43+00:00

How to Get Started With Jazz Guitar – Rockers Guide for Wanting to Learn Jazz Guitar

2024-02-02T10:01:07+00:00

Many rock guitarists may, at some point in their musical journey, feel the need to learn jazz, which can appear quite daunting initially. The good news is, that you are able to use your existing knowledge of rock guitar to start you off on your jazz guitar journey! Scales Like with any style of music, scales will be a fundamental piece of knowledge that feeds into every aspect of your playing. This will particularly help with the theory side of jazz guitar playing, as you could argue that jazz guitar is much more theory-based than rock guitar. In rock, we play [...]

How to Get Started With Jazz Guitar – Rockers Guide for Wanting to Learn Jazz Guitar2024-02-02T10:01:07+00:00

Jazz Guitar Chords for Beginners

2024-01-31T19:48:26+00:00

Are you ready to increase your jazz guitar chord skills but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you’ve already tried but don’t quite understand the theory behind what you’re playing? Follow these crucial steps to get started on your jazz guitar chord journey. Think about the degrees of the major scale Ok so before you google “jazz guitar chords” and start trying to memorise a bunch of chord shapes on the guitar neck, let’s take a step back and think about the bigger picture. I’m a big advocate for understanding the theory behind what you’re playing since if you [...]

Jazz Guitar Chords for Beginners2024-01-31T19:48:26+00:00

How To Outline The Changes In a 12 Bar Blues

2023-12-07T21:16:51+00:00

One of the most sacred and definitely more popular chord progressions for guitar players, the 12-bar blues, is a must-know if you’re learning guitar or jamming with some mates. But how can you avoid sounding like you’re using the cliche pentatonic licks over and over again like every other intermediate guitarist? Well, you outline the changes! How to outline the changes in a 12-bar blues: Work in thirds! You may have heard this terminology before somewhere on the internet while on your blues guitar journey, but what exactly do we mean by ‘thirds’? This is referring to the [...]

How To Outline The Changes In a 12 Bar Blues2023-12-07T21:16:51+00:00

Is It Worth It to Pay for Guitar Lessons?

2023-11-15T12:59:59+00:00

Why should I pay for guitar lessons when I can get them online for free? Is it worth it to pay for guitar lessons? The short answer is YES, it is most definitely worth it, and there are many reasons why that you may not have yet considered YouTube lessons can only take you so far A way that many of us start learning the guitar is through sites such as YouTube (or even TikTok nowadays!), and although this can be a great way to get started, this method can only take you so far. Once you’ve learned a bit [...]

Is It Worth It to Pay for Guitar Lessons?2023-11-15T12:59:59+00:00

Should I learn to read sheet music on the guitar? Pros and cons

2023-10-11T16:38:42+01:00

What is sheet music? The words of death for a guitarist - “sheet music”. Although there’s no doubt that many of us have at least heard the term, many may still not fully understand what this is. Sheet music is the traditional method for notating musical compositions, through the use of placing notes on the five lined musical stave, which will include a clef (usually written in treble clef for guitar), a time signature which will tell us how many beats we have per bar, and a key signature which will tell us which notes for the key of the piece [...]

Should I learn to read sheet music on the guitar? Pros and cons2023-10-11T16:38:42+01:00

The History of the Guitar: A Brief Overview

2023-06-16T12:10:38+01:00

The Beginnings Of The Guitar Guitars have existed, in one way or another, for hundreds of years in many different shapes and sizes. To the eye of someone today, some of these instruments may not even look like the modern guitar, although they do play an important part in forming what would go on to be one of the most popular instruments of modern times. The Arabic oud is an ancient cousin of the guitar that although still exists today, we can trace back to thousands of years ago. Similar looking to the lute which would come later, the Arabic [...]

The History of the Guitar: A Brief Overview2023-06-16T12:10:38+01:00
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