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"Doug's Dirty Little Secrets"
Douglas Niedt's Guitar Technique Tips of the Month Archive

Doug subtitled his Tech Tip as "Doug's Dirty Little Secrets" after reading someone's posted message on a guitar web forum. The writer asserted that professional virtuoso guitarists all had secrets they kept to themselves and wouldn't tell anyone else, so no one would play as well as them!

1. The Secret (Little Jennifer's Secret) of How To Play Clear Bar Chords

2. The Little-Known Secret of Connecting Your Chord Changes Smoothly

3. How to Never Ever Forget a Piece of Music Again
    How to memorize a piece using mental practice.

4. Interval and Chord Balance part 1 (of 4)
    Part 1 describes how to learn to control the relative volume between two notes played     simultaneously as an interval.

5. Interval and Chord Balance part 2 (of 4)
    Part 2 describes how to bring out an individual note of a three or four-note chord.

6. Interval and Chord Balance part 3 (of 4)
    Part 3 describes techniques using the thumb to bring out an individual note of an interval or chord.

7. FOR MEN ONLY: No Hairy Arms (or ankles) (Well, ladies may read the last paragraph)


8. An Underused but Valuable Body Part


9. What Do Yo-Yo Ma, Christina Aguilera, and The Pussycat Dolls have in common?
    Performing With Energy, Passion, and Excitement: It's All About Communication.

10. Marsha to Doug: "You need a bath."
     Hand Contrast Baths. Having problems with muscle or tendon pain? Try this.

11. How to Stabilize Scordatura Tunings
     Tired of the hassle of keeping your guitar in tune in altered tunings? This tip really works.

44. Another New Year's Resolution? Not Quite. How About A Life's Resolution!
     Inspirational essay to help you get on track with practicing the guitar every day.

45. Set Goals for Every Practice Session
     Practice smart. To get great results out of your practice session, it must have focus. Here's how to
     do it.

46. Practicing in Altered Rhythms
     Learn how Itzhak Perlman's accompanist practiced. Practicing In Altered Rhythms will turn your
     playing around! (May 2007)

47. Adrenaline and Altered Perception of Tempo (June 2007)

48. More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About: Guide Fingers (July 2007)

49. Slurs ("Hammer-Ons" and "Pull-offs") (August 2007)

50. Conquering Guitar Acrophobia: Playing in the High Positions Past the 12th Fret (September 2007)

51. Top Ten Nasty Habits of Guitar Technique: Allowing Left-Hand Fingers to "Help" a Bar
     (October 2007)

52. Should I Listen to Recordings and Performances of Other Guitarists (November 2007)

53. A Christmas Gift: Doug's beautiful (and relatively easy) arrangement of Away In A Manger
     (Christmas 2007)

54. String Squeaks and Romeo and Juliet. (How to get rid of string squeaks.)
     (January 2008)

55. Rest stroke follow-through.
     (April 2008)

56. Ten Top Nasty Habits of Guitar Technique Part 2. Allowing the Helpless Pinky to be Pushed Around.      (May 2008)

57. Metronome Tempo Markings File Under: "Lies My Music Teacher Told Me." Or, more charitably;      "Things My Music Teacher Forgot to Mention--Or Assumed I Knew." (June 2008)

58. Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On: How to Execute Vibrato, Part 1 This is just Part 1. LOTS more to      come! (July 2008)


The other previous 33 tips will be added as the website update is completed.

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