Getting in tune and staying in tune, are what the job requires, for sure. I've been in so many situations where string breakage and not staying in tune just creates havoc on the band, Audience, and music. I've had situations in my youth and now a days to be sure, where I've neglected to either change my strings, and a couple of times I like, a dumb kid, just didn't bother to properly tune my guitar.

I used to work for the Gibson Guitar String and Accessories Division [continued...]

For starters I am not a writer. I am a guitar player and you probably are too. So if you moonlight as an English professor please don't contact me with corrections. That being said let's talk about finger exercises. For this article when I refer to finger exercises I am talking about the 2,3, or 4-finger chromatic type exercise.

It seems like there are two schools of thought when it comes to finger exercises. One is that they are totally necessary when learning. In 10 years of teaching guitar I find this to be about 95% true. [continued...]