As guitarists, we explore new and different styles of music in an effort to satisfy our curiosity, utilize our creativity, and improve our technique in the process. In this blog we’ll compare the genres of rock and classical guitar in an effort to understand some of the foundational techniques that can inform our own playing.

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a new feature around town: Messaging. This comes as a special request from our online students to add more community features so we hope you enjoy communicating with each other! Messaging is going to open the doors for new conversations and connections with like minded ArtistWorks musicians around the world. Talk about the lessons, talk about the music, talk about whatever you want!

Please note: this is a still a “beta” version of Messaging. 

We’ll be rolling out another version with added features soon, but let us know how you like this one first. Please send any feedback or questions to our Customer Service Team and be sure to tell us your Operating System and browser please. You can also email any feedback to info@artistworks.com. Have fun!

How to Send a Message:

On the Dashboard and Community below the Shout area you can now see who’s online.

Click on the green Chat button next to someone’s name to send them a message. You can have multiple one to one Messages at the same time, and you can always minimize the windows if you just want to focus on one at a time.

You’ll see if you have any new messages near the top of the page with a little number telling you many unread there are. If you’d rather not be visible for other students to contact you, just choose the Invisible feature by clicking the Settings icon and choosing Privacy.

Now see who’s online and give Messaging a try!

One of the most intriguing aspects about classical guitar is that the style remains timeless. The great guitarists of the past continue to influence other musicians, artists, and beyond. That's one of the amazing things about music - it's a universal language that can cross cultures and bring people together. Studying the masters from the past can be such a rewarding experience; it serves as a bond, connecting you to the different players throughout time. 

Here's a brief look at four classical guitar players who are definitely worth studying. 

We all play music, but not everyone understands the science behind it. With music theory, musicians have a shared language to discuss and articulate ideas with other musicians. Unfortunately, not everyone learned this in school growing up (it'd be nice). Even if you do seek it out later in life, it can be hard to find a qualified music theory teacher willing to dispense all this knowledge on you (especially for free).

Lucky for anyone learning online at ArtistWorks, we've already done the work for you. We found a verifiable expert, Mr. Jonathan Coopersmith, and got him to record a whole series of music theory lessons for everyone here.

He boiled it all down to the main ingredients and has it broken up into 2 main categories: Basic Music Theory and Advanced Music Theory. Did we mention you already have access to all this in the Learn area? Read on to take the tour!