In-Tune Guitar Academy

Welcome to In Tune Guitar Academy — your gateway to mastering the guitar with expert lessons and exclusive interviews. Whether you’re starting out or sharpening your skills, we bring you top-notch instruction and inspiring stories from renowned musicians to fuel your passion and progress.

Lessons

Our guitar lessons are designed for all skill levels, blending technique, theory, and creativity. Learn at your own pace with clear, engaging tutorials that get you playing your favorite styles — from rock to blues and beyond.

The Rule of Three

Triads are the building blocks of chords. But what are they really? To the uninitiated, they can be a little confusing. With a little thought, you will see that the concept isn't that hard to understand.

Mo’ Better Bass

Getting Your Ideas Recorded

Songwriting is one of my favorite aspects of being a musician and I consider great fun. As always, if you have any comments, critiques, and criticisms, I would love to hear from you. Please leave a message if you have any reaction to this or any other of my articles.

The Elusive Art of Songwriting

Good songwriters are few and far between and good ones should be celebrated. Some great pops songs may be simple but writing them is anything but easy.

Improvising In G: A Major Building Block to Guitar Mastery

The G major scale is a very common scale used in pop, rock, and country songs. It is a handy building block to further your guitar playing abilities.

Guitar Maintenance – Changing Your Strings

Learning to change the strings and cleaning your guitar are relatively simple tasks to keep your guitar sounding good. While there is some skill involved and you do have to know what you are doing, it's not that hard to learn.

Interviews

Discover inspiring conversations with skilled musicians as they share their journeys, tips, and stories. Our exclusive interviews bring you behind the scenes of the guitar world, fueling your passion and creativity.

Bash That Kit: The Importance of Drums in a Band’s Sound

Guitarists From a Drummer’s Perspective, Part 2

Mike's expectations of a guitarist are: Play in time. Respect the right number of notes to play, relative to the time signature of the song. Engage the audience in an outgoing and entertaining fashion - "be that leader that brings people in."

Timing, Truth, and Tenacity

Everyone really does have a story to tell and I am ready to listen to those musicians who are ready to share their stories. I just hope that you, my readers and viewers, are as interested in those stories as I am.

The Truthful Troubadour

Soul of an Artist – Part 4 of Our Interview With Mike Tessier

In this fourth and final episode of our fascinating interview with the amazingly talented and personable gentleman, Mike Tessier, we delve deeper into Mike’s creative process. It was a true pleasure interviewing Mr. Tessier. His wisdom is all encompassing. His passion and caring for guitars is infectious. He really is an artist and a damn fine guitar player.

The Soul of an Artist, Part 3 of My Interview With Mike Tessier

In this part of the interview, we talk more about Canadian artists that have left their mark on rock history, including April Wine and Rush. Mike then treats us to a demo of his Rand Habner inspired, Model TR, as he calls it. It's a "neck-through" design and a true "hair metal" looking guitar. But he is quick to point out that his TR is at home playing any style of rock & roll.

Stories, Ideas & Adventures

Dive into a diverse mix of articles covering inspirations, travel tales, gear insights, and more. This space is where passion meets curiosity, offering fresh perspectives and stories that fuel your musical journey beyond lessons and interviews.

Where Have I Been?

Pedal to the Metal

The Little Things

Applying just the right amount of force on the fretboard is also a skill that needs to be mastered when playing guitar.

Cold Weather is Part of Me

You can’t appreciate joy without sorrow. You can’t appreciate light without darkness. And you can’t appreciate warmth without cold.

Sound advice

Plexi Showdown

In the annals of rock and roll history, one name stands apart: Marshall amps. The brainchild of Jim Marshall and Ken Bran, and a couple of Bran’s HAM radio enthusiasts. Marshall amps are synonymous with rock and roll, and are considered the sound of rock, especially the 1959 Super Lead, often referred to as the Plexi.

About me

My name is Frank Claeys. I created this site to share my passion for guitar, guitar playing and guitar-based music to anyone who is interested. I’ve been playing guitar for several decades but only got really serious about playing since roughly 2005. By serious I mean taking lessons, studying and really practicing and creating a regular practice routine.

I like classic rock but sometimes I hate the term because it pigeonholes the music I love into a time-frame and age group that I think does a disservice to the music. This music was not a fad. It was a serious art form. I believe the period between 1968 and 1979 to be the true golden age of not just rock music but pop music in general. The songwriting, poignant lyrics, composition and sheer musical talent of the musicians of that decade has yet to be surpassed and probably won’t be for many years to come.

This site is my ode to the music I love and to the musical instrument that has played a key role in my life for so many years. It’s also a tribute to the greats of guitar playing history. My first love is classic rock so of course I will pay tribute to the likes of Hendrix, Page, Townsend, Blackmore, Clapton, Van Halen, and many other rock guitar greats. But I do intend to shine the light on blues, country and jazz greats because all musical genres influence each other.

I also love to play bass guitar and have a real affinity for music with great bass and will definitely find room to pay a tribute to great bass players of rock history.

This website is to discuss the history of guitar, the current state of guitar and guitar based music, and to try to divine the future of guitar based music, whatever form in may take in years to come.

As the name of my site implies, I also intend to pass on my knowledge and the knowledge of others so that together, we can ensure the survival of this wonderful art form.

I hope you enjoy your stay here and invite you to participate through active participation and constructive commentary and suggestions.