While this was done almost 2 years ago - I'm putting this in the Early Access section of the Forum. Back in late Summer 2020 - I did a series of Live Workshops on my twitch channel specifically about how to develop sight reading skills on the guitar. I'm going to post this here with the 3 videos that came of this, as well as the screen grabs of the whiteboard I used during the streams. The plans is that over the next few months to take this content, work it out for YouTube videos as well as an eBook. So definitely stay tuned! Video 1: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/697330309?collection=aQg1Rv5QJxZuKg Video 2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/741786887?collection=aQg1Rv5QJxZuKg Video 3: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/761344084?collection=aQg1Rv5QJxZuKg Here's the PDF sides for the section I did on Intervals. To me this is a great visualization on the fretboard to see where notes are available to you within a given position (based off your 1st or 4th finger of the left hand). Seeing these shapes on the guitar to me is the missing link to taking what you see on sheet music and finding it on the fretboard. PDF: https://dl.orangedox.com/rkrfum Again - the plan will be to take this content, script and record it as well as produce an accompanying eBook (which might come first actually). Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions with what I've posted. I'm more than happy to continue the discussion!

Hey y'all! So while I haven't made a video lesson on this, I quickly put together this string crossing PDF. This is nothing "official" with any fancy formatting or anything like that, but I put this together for my own practice, and figured I'd share it with y'all here! Those who've taken 1-on-1 lessons with me or have talked to me about developing technique know that I'm a big believer in sequencing the experience. So this exercise is just open string bursts where the rests in between every 5 notes are as long as you need to physically and mentally reset for the next note grouping. Also, while it's only presented as open strings - you can take the idea and add some kind of left hand fingering to it. This is just a skeleton to provide a visual of how to practice. As with everything I suggest using all possible combinations of right hand fingerings of I M and A. (IM/MI; IA/AI; MA/AM; IMA/AMI). This is great for balancing the RH, making sure that all fingers are being worked on equality. Additionally, using both rest and free stroke is a must! (If you are one of my students who doesn't play classical guitar, and/or uses a pick - this can easily be an alternate picking exercise). Finally, you can choose either strict alternation where the starting finger will be different with each burst OR start each burst with the same finger. Personally, I find that I get more out of this exercise by keeping strict alternation and then practicing with the different finger combos listed, it gives more of a realistic scale experience that way. You can download the file here ⬇️ I'm looking forward to share more with y'all, both official releases as well as these very unofficial things! As always, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Enjoy and Happy Practicing!

Welcome new members of the Practice Academy! It is our sincere hope that your experience here is a positive one as we encourage all of our new members to actively contribute in our great community. Your Introductory Post's Title Your introductory post is an important one. This allows the members of this community to get to know you. This starts with the title. We suggest using a title like "Hello/Hi/Greetings from <insert city>. As our community is international, knowing where you are forum, we feel that it is useful to let us know where you live in the title of the thread. This allows members of the community to easily find your post, welcome you and help with language issues if English is not your first language. If you are uncomfortable with providing your location, you can leave it more broad and list what state or country you are from. Finally, if you have met Nick or found out about the Practice Academy through communities on Twitch, YouTube, Reddit, or Nick's Discord -- feel free to share your user name in the title so we can make that association with you here. What should I post about? This is completely up to you! We do have some suggestions to help the members learn more about you. Do you play the guitar? If so, how long? Don't play but are a passionate fan of guitar music? How long have you played? What's your experience? (IE - starting age, started last month, starting now, etc...) Are you an amateur, pre-professional, aspiring professional and professional? Do you teach guitar? What other musical experiences do you have? Is guitar your first instrument? What genres are you most interested in? What are you currently working on? And more! Share with us anything you wish and we all look forward to your participation here! Your Username Because this forum is part of the Practice Academy subscription service, you may wish to share your name with other members. Some may wish to remain anonymous and others may wish to continue using their usernames from other platforms where they've interacted with Nick and other members of this community. You may even choose to use an anonymous username but sign your posts with your real name. All of these options are fine, what is most important is that you feel comfortable. Please feel free to let us know how to address you. You can even do this in your Introductory Post! Emojis and GIFs and Memes...OH MY!!! Those who know Nick outside of this forum are well aware of his affinity for a good GIF, Meme or a well placed Emoji. Built into the text editor you have the ability to use emojis and GIFs. Memes are also welcome, however be sure to use them wisely as to not be misunderstood or insult someone unintentionally. Emojis are especially a great way to add personality to your posts, especially if there's the potential to be misunderstood. Posting your first message Now with all of that out of the way, it's time to write your first post! Start here and click on blue button that says "Create a New Post". Be sure to give a title to your post. Then start writing your introduction. It's that simple! After you've finished, be sure to read it over as there's no preview function. Once you are read to post, click the blue "Publish" button at the bottom right hand corner of the page. If you need to go back and edit after publishing, you can do so by going to your post, clicking on the vertical 3 notes in the upper right hand corner of your post and selecting "Edit Post". Similarly, you can choose other options like Follow Post, Share, etc... Thanks for joining our community and we look forward to reading your introductory post and getting to you know. We hope you enjoy the forum and find it beneficial. Remember this is a place for us to share our ideas, experiences, knowledge; a place to ask questions and seek advice; a place to provide advice to others; and most importantly a place of like minded guitarists who seek to better one's self. Enjoy! Thanks from Nick and the Moderator Team!

Hello everyone! And welcome to our little place on the internet. The Practice Academy has been a work in progress for a few years now. And I'm so glad to have launched it! Since streaming on Twitch, I've come to find an amazing community of people who appreciate and enjoy the guitar, specifically the classical guitar, and are very passionate about their development. This is where TPA comes in. It is my sincere hope that we can cultivate a community to provide a non-threatening and encouraging educational environment centered around learning the guitar. As time passes, we'll be expanding offerings with a library of sheet music available, evergreen instructional content and even full length courses to supplement your experience while working with me. Thank you for coming on their journey with me, and I hope you all enjoy! Over the next few weeks we'll be sprucing up the forum, adding areas and topics for discussion. Feel free to engage, post, as questions, start topics, etc... -Nick