Greg Ruby

Greg Ruby is the director of Guitar Week for the Swannanoa Gathering and has taught extensively. He is the author of the Oscar Alemán Play-Along Songbook.

Play Like Your Favorite Guitarists

Django Reinhardt playing guitar while smoking a cigarette

Expand Your Harmonic Vocabulary Using Django Chord Voicings

In this lesson, we’ll dive into some chordal innovations you can use to get a Django Reinhardt sound or to simply explore new ways of approaching chords.

November 14, 2023
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Nylon-String

Córdoba Stage nylon-string guitar front view

Review: The Córdoba Stage Is a Gig-Ready Nylon-String that Plays Like an Electric Guitar

With its C-shaped mahogany neck and radiused fretboard, the Stage handles more like a semi-hollow electric than a traditional classical or flamenco guitar.

August 25, 2023
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Flatpicking

A smiling Greg Ruby seated playing guitar. Photo by Max Branigan

How to Use Rest Strokes to Improve Your Flatpicking Technique—and Your Guitar Sound

The rest stroke—similar to the fingerstyle approach used by classical guitarists—is a plectrum technique in which each downstroke lands on an adjacent string rather than passing over it.

April 5, 2023

Jazz

Greg Ruby teaches How to Visualize and Play Chords Up the Neck

Video Lesson: How to Visualize and Play Chords Up the Neck

In this guitar lesson we will focus on how to play chords “up the neck” in order to learn to play a chord-melody.

February 10, 2023

Jazz

Video Lesson: Turn Any Song into a Chord-Melody Solo

Try this approach to make a chord-melody version of Django Reinhardt’s iconic interpretation of “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”

December 1, 2022

Jazz

Jazz guitarist Eddie Lang for chord melody guitar lesson

Learn Chord-Melody Techniques from Jazz Guitarist Eddie Lang

Here are some ideas from jazz great Eddie Lang for some new chord melody techniques and textures on guitar, applied to the verse of the old standard “After You’ve Gone.”

June 17, 2022

Jazz

guitarist Greg Ruby playing a National resonator guitar

How to Hold Down the Harmony on Guitar in Tricky Chord-Melody Arrangements

When playing chord-melody style guitar, sometimes you're not sure which chord to use when the melody isn’t a chord tone or moves too quickly. Here's the solution.