This month the BLOG entry is short and simple.

No matter how experienced or inexperienced you are do make the effort to record yourself playing and listen to the playback. If you've never done it before you may be surprised at what you hear, but don't be put off by anything, no matter how much listening to yourself playing may make you grimace!

Play your recording over and over as much as necessary so you can define the parts which require working on, including how expressively you have played the piece and, of course, your playing technique. Let the recording be your guide to self-improvement. If you happen to have a professionally recorded version of the piece you are working on try playing it a section at a time, comparing it with your own recording and then gradually try to emulate those parts you prefer to your own.

Beginners should keep to simply pieces without attempting to embellish, at least until they are happy with what they hear from their own playback. For best results players ...

A frequent question is "what is the best way to tie strings on the tuner shafts?". Well, as with most things there is no one way to do it, but here are some recommendations which work and will stop strings from slipping.

On a classical guitar run the strings as shown in the diagram and hold the loose end while you tighten it. This works with all classical guitar strings. Two or three full turns should be enough for the 4th to 6th strings and three or four turns for the 1st to 3rd strings. The diagram shows the left side of the headstock where the tuners should be rotated anticlockwise. On the right side the tuners should be rotated clockwise. 

To achieve the best path for your strings from tuner to nut position make a conscious effort to tighten the strings so they follow the pattern to the right of the diagram and avoid the string touching any part of the headstock itself.

On steel string guitars just follow the stringing diagram, holding and pulling upwards the loose end of ...