Category Archives: Music

All aspects of music: composing, performing, recording, producing, touring, listening to music, musicians, musical genres, musical instruments, teaching (workshops, master classes, seminars etc.), the music business.

Guitar players! Check out my summer workshop…

Posted on April 11, 2017 by fretgenie

I will be offering a 4-day acoustic guitar workshop this coming July at my home in beautiful southwest Scotland. If you are a guitar player interested in learning my integrated percussive approach, this will be a thorough, in-depth opportunity to … Continue reading →

Posted in Composing, Guitar, Learning, Music, Performing, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The day I lost my Leatherman: a cautionary airline guitar story

Posted on March 3, 2017 by fretgenie

I want to share an experience I had traveling with guitars last summer. I was dropped off late to Toronto Airport to catch a flight to Beijing. I had two acoustic guitars in professional carbon-graphite flight cases as well as … Continue reading →

Posted in Guitar, Touring, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

A big year

Posted on December 23, 2016 by fretgenie

My own personal 2016 was such an enormous year that I feel the need to write it down. It was amazing not only for the vast traveling I did, but for all the experiences and challenges I had along the … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Guitar, Touring, Travel, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

How I beat tendonitis

Posted on September 23, 2015 by fretgenie

At a workshop in London earlier this month I was asked if I had ever had to deal with any physical problems related to playing guitar, and specifically tendonitis. Many times over the years guitarists have asked me a similar … Continue reading →

Posted in Guitar, Health and Well-Being, Learning, Music, Neuro-science, Psychology, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

John Fahey: A Tribute

Posted on July 26, 2014 by fretgenie

I first heard John Fahey‘s solo acoustic guitar playing on an album when I was a teenager. I liked his strange, minimalist, visually and emotionally evocative instrumental compositions, performed in open tunings in an alternating-bass fingerpicking style. I found his … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creativity, Culture, Guitar, History, Music, Music business, Recording and producing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Three days in Odessa, Ukraine

Posted on May 9, 2014 by fretgenie

I had always wanted to see Odessa, ever since watching the 1925 Sergei Eisenstein film The Battleship Potemkim in high school. The brilliantly-conceived scene of horror and tragedy distilled into an ironic symbol — a baby in a buggy rolling … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Literature, Music, TheArts, Touring, Travel, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The 20th anniversary of my instructional video

Posted on March 26, 2014 by fretgenie

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of my 1994 instructional video, The Guitar of Preston Reed: Expanding the Realm of Acoustic Playing on Homespun Tapes. (I can’t believe it’s been twenty years!) In the late 1980’s I … Continue reading →

Posted in Composing, Creativity, Guitar, Learning, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Recording an instructional video project

Posted on January 6, 2014 by fretgenie

A few weeks ago I flew to Colorado to record a video series for an internet company specialising in online guitar lessons. I had been contacted by the company about six months earlier and liked what they were offering guitar … Continue reading →

Posted in Guitar, Learning, Music, Neuro-science, Teaching, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

When you are doing nothing, you are doing something

Posted on December 16, 2013 by fretgenie

When I first finish a challenging creative project, I feel a sense of relief and euphoria. That feeling may last for a little while. But eventually it wears off…and I am left feeling exhausted. The truth is, the project has … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, blogging, Creativity, Guitar, Music, Photography, Psychology, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

An incredible year

Posted on December 12, 2013 by fretgenie

I think this past year has been the biggest of my life. It was a year of creating, producing, traveling, performing, making new friends, learning, meeting challenges and growing. It was a year of “firsts” — my first album in … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Guitar, Learning, Music, Performing, Photography, Recording and producing, Teaching, Thoughts, Touring, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments