How to Finish and Release Your First Song on a Budget

There’s nothing more satisfying than writing your first song. All that time spent learning chords, writing lyrics, structuring your song and composing melodies has paid off. Now it’s time to record your track, mix, master and release it into the world for your friends, family and hopefully some new fans. With a few tips, some basic tools and a little bit of learning, getting your first song finished and released is easier than you think.

Unison Bends Made Easy

Unison bends can add a layer of depth to your rock soloing and really level-up your sound. In this lesson, Mike Olekshy demonstrates an easy approach to unison bends so that you can have the skill in your back pocket the next time you take a solo.

CAGED System Explained

As you're learning guitar, you'll likely hear players reference the CAGED system as being a great tool to utilize in your learning process.  To put it simply, CAGED is essentially a way of visualizing chord shapes on the fretboard. The trick to using the CAGED system is to realize that it consists of moveable shapes that can be any chord depending upon where you put the root note. The letters C-A-G-E-D refer to the open chord shapes. 

Super Easy Finger Tapping

Mike Olekshy is back again with a primer on finger tapping. In this lesson, he'll show you where to start to make sure you build yourself a solid tapping foundation. It all starts with putting the pick down and getting the technique feeling comfortable under you fingers. 

How to Use Finger Rolls

Can't quite get the hang of the finger roll technique? In this video, Mike will break it down for you and make it super easy to understand!

A useful little technique, the finger roll employs a bit of barring/muting with one finger in order to get some more note separation during licks. It essentially allows you to mute one string as you m