BLOG POSTS BY Carvel Avis
Posted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 17, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
JamTrack Zone has huge and growing collection of free guitar backing tracks but it's way more than just that. If you've ever felt overwhelmed when trying to practice soloing or improvising JamTrack Zone has tools to make your practice more manageable and effective.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 17, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned guitarist, Chord Vault offers a practical and convenient way to explore guitar chords at your own pace. With Chord Vault, you can quickly view left-hand fingerings, chord intervals, and note names directly on a guitar fretboard diagram.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 17, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
Interval Madness is a game that will help you learn to quickly learn intervals all up and down the guitar fretboard. Hearing the sound of each interval will also help you to recognize the sound of each interval.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 03, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
Just below the Tab/Staff area you can load a number of different infinite loop backing tracks in different styles and keys to play along with.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 03, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
If you’re starting from scratch, it’s a good idea to start by setting the notation key and then loading a matching fretboard display.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 02, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
How to convert any major or minor scale into a pentatonic scale in Scale Mate and the music theory behind why the pentatonic scale works so well.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 02, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
The “Starting Pick Stroke” setting tells Riff Lab whether to start with a down or up stroke and the “Pick Technique” setting lets you choose between Alternate Picking and Sweep Hybrid Picking.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 02, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
When you’re trying to work up a new riff, especially one that’s a little challenging, it’s good to be able to set a slower tempo and play along in time and then slowly adjust the tempo as you’re able to play it a little faster. Open Settings by clicking the Settings Gear at the top right of Riff Lab then be sure to select “Notation”. Scroll down to the “Tempo” Setting.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 02, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
Once you’ve built a note sequence, Riff Lab can instantly add different rhythms. To do that go to the top right of the notation area where you see “Rhythm Remix Versions”. To add a new version, click the plus button on the left. Riff Lab instantly shuffles the rhythms for you.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 29, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
If you’re left-handed, you can switch the view to what YOU normally see when looking down at YOUR guitar.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 28, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
There's a neuroscience-based reason for all the note colors. This video shows how tro control the color settings and why setting different colors for the various intervals is a good idea.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 28, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
Whether you’re creating a new riff or have loaded a saved riff like this, you can change the guitar sound if you want to using Guitar Sound in the Fretboard section of the Settings Menu.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 28, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
The Notation Interactions section in the Fretboard section of the Settings Menu lets you control how the fretboard and the notation sections interact.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 03, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
How to let Riff Lab's auto generate feature create a starting pattern and then watch as Riff Lab's Auto Pattern Builder completes a full riff from the original notes.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Apr 03, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
How to let Riff Lab create a riff for you in either Scale Mate, Arpeggio Flow or Key Weaver
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 27, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
How to get the most out of Riff Lab.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 27, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
How the two Fretboard Note Display dropdown menus work in Scale Mate, Arpeggio Flow and Key Weaver
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 26, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
Fretboard display options that are common to Scale Mate, Key Weaver, Arpeggio Flow and JamTrack Zone.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 14, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
Learn how to find a list of prebuilt riffs, search by keyword and sample each one to find one you'd like to learn. Then load it into Riff Lab and listen to it while watching the fretboard and notation window animate.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Mar 13, 2025
Category: How-To Guides
This video shows how to load any scale in any key into the 22-fret, fretboard diagram in Scale Mate.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Oct 23, 2024
Category: Lessons
Learning and understanding intervals on your guitar will help you grow as both a chord master AND a lead or solo guitar master. The fastest (and most fun) way to learn intervals is by playing a game called, 'Interval Madness'. Check it out here. If you sign up for a free account, you'll also get a free PDF with chord charts showing all the Intervals you'll encounter in the game.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Oct 20, 2023
Category: History and Information
From the ancient kitharas and lutes to the pioneering techniques of Andrés Segovia, the classic guitar has been a subject of endless fascination and innovation. But what if we told you that the future of guitar learning is being reshaped by technology, offering an interactive, intuitive, and intelligent approach to mastering this timeless instrument? Dive into the captivating journey of the classic guitar—past, present, and future.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Jan 11, 2024
Category: Tips
Let's talk about something we all cherish but often take for granted: our calluses. Those hard layers of skin are badges of honor, earned through hours of jamming, practicing, and performing. But what happens when life takes you away from your beloved instrument?
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Feb 17, 2023
Category: Think About It
Timing your breaks is important but in this guitar thing, you're the only one who can sense when it's time to take a break. So, here are some indicators that should trigger a break time for you.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Dec 07, 2022
Category: Think About It
Give yourself a chance to enjoy your playing time but give yourself a chance to grow as a player. If you want to minimize burnout and maximize your enjoyment of the instrument as well as make massive leaps forward you have to fill your overall playing time with these three types of music...
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Dec 07, 2022
Category: Think About It
This is one of the greatest secrets held by exceptional guitar players. Yet, it is one of the most difficult principals I've ever tried to convey to beginner and intermediate guitarists. The good news is that it's not difficult to learn.
morePosted by Carvel Avis
Last updated: Jul 09, 2022
Category: Think About It
If you want to become a better guitarist, you have to spend more time playing! In this blog article you'll see an easy way to make that happen. In fact, it's so easy to do it's often overlooked by a lot of guitar players.
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