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This has been a great month for the Monthly Recording Challenge, we have had submission from 7 members including one first time submission for a total of 9 songs. We have had well over 1000 views on the thread and 80+ comments. I am so glad that everyone chose to participate this month, I think the switch to the new forum had a lot to do with it as everyone has been very excited with the new forum. I hope we can continue to have this level of participation and general interest and I hope that more people will take the opportunity to post whatever they are working on for the rest of us to enjoy. This thread will always be a safe space for everyone to share, enjoy and encourage each other. Thank you all for your support and keep those recordings coming.

Let's work together as the Guitar Gathering Community to write and record a song. It will be a team effort and anyone at any level is welcome to join in the fun. I will pick up any tasks that do not get volunteered for. The production tasks (please volunteer for tasks shown in black) 1) Fretless has Chosen a tempo, time signature, key and a song structure with bars and chords. 2) Nutty1 has produced a drum track. 3) Nutty1 has recorded a bass track. 4) Nutty1 has recorded a rhythm guitar track. 5) rkl312 will do the lyrics and choose the song title. 6) rkl312 will record the vocals. 7) Fretless will do the lead guitar track. 8) Nutty 1 provided intermediate mixes to enable collaborators to record their parts. Fretless did the final mix. Please note Please do not negatively criticise others' contributions; this is a learning opportunity open to all Guitar Gathering Forum members. This collaboration has now been completed. We ended up making this song called "Don't Look Back" https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fapp.box.com%2Fs%2Fo7xa5g0aao2akfjbrwew18ux8s4erug1

@UncleHammy, thank you for taking charge of it and managing it.

Hey Hammy, that's fab! It's really great to see you in the flesh so to speak. Great to hear Steve's thoughts on both this recording challenge and the collaborations. I think that working together and sharing helps to build strong bonds in the community. Makes me really wish that I could come to this year's gathering, but it's so far away. Well done Hammy, looking forward to next months challenge. Ian

Yes! This is my 'free craigslist piano desk' - it was headed to the dump if we didn't get it. I could never destroy a working instrument, so this was perfect for my project. Some parts had to be replaced (sides, bottom), and added the glass top. Getting all the strings off and the harp out was... interesting, lol! Probably $200 investment paint and all. As far as the picks go... I like the bluechip better than the Ultex - it definitely has a 'tackier' feel to it. But, they are pricy....

Well this isn't the song that I planned to post this month but I am running out of time and when I tried to record that song today it is nowhere near ready. So I decided to post this instead. This was me playing in the student showcase at the 2016 Guitar Gathering. Steve gave me a very long intro including a plug for this thread. I actually start playing about, 4:30. Paul Opitz (@Opie) recorded and posted it. I hope everyone can open the link. The audio isn't great and I made a flub, but I really wanted to get something posted this month. Hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for listening! The Peavey amp is everything I hoped it would be. All the hours practicing pentatonic, major scales, and 3 notes on a string are finally helping me learn all the notes on the neck. I can even make sense of the notes from time to time. Still having fun!

Session 11 - need practice guidance Pentatonic scales are a big batch of knowledge that will take some time to learn and digest and eventually put into your playing. Most guitarists learn a pattern or two and play them up and down and think that they have learned all they need to know about pentatonic scales. That's a bit like saying... "I know the alphabet. I can say my ABC's forwards and backwards. I don't understand why I'm not a great novelist by now." So, in the book I give you several steps in your learning of these scales - to get you from learning the alphabet to actually using it. - Practice all of the pentatonic forms ascending and descending -practice the pentatonic forms in all of the keys -practice connecting them together to play in all the keys the full length of the guitar -practice the common pentatonic patterns -Practicing soloing using pentatonic scales on A Minor Pentatonic Blues, G Major Pentatonic, and Aroud the Pentatonic World. Make up your own solo using the scales suggested. Let's go through these. STEP 1 - PRACTICE ALL OF THE FORMS ASCENDING & DESCENDING Start off by learning the fingerpatterns of the forms. Here's how to practice this. Pick a form. Play it slowly and carefully up and down. Each time you make a mistake go back and do the whole form again. You need to teach your fingers the correct way to play the form. Once you can play the form up and down perfectly with consistency. Then move the form up a half-step and do it again (up and down). Don't worry about knowing what key you are in yet, just focus on playing the form accurately. Work your way up and down the neck playing the scale at a slow to moderate speed. Once you have really learned one form then start learning another form using the same process. This process, if done correctly, should take around 2 weeks. When you can play all five forms (ascending and descending) with confidence and accuracy then move to the next step. STEP 2 - PRACTICE ALL OF THE FORMS IN ALL OF THE KEYS Now, its time to move past just playing the finger patterns and begin to assimilate these finger patterns with their associated keys. Each pattern has an associated major and minor root (as shown on the diagrams). So, let's start with the key of C. Play each of the five pentatonic forms ascending and descending in the key of C. You want to start with the form that can be played in the lowest position. Don't start with your favorite form and then figure out the others. Force yourself to learn where each form is on the neck. So start with whatever form is the lowest one in that key on the neck. Then move up the neck switching forms as needed. When you get higher on the neck you will need to flip back to forms you previously did only now they would be an octave up. Once you can play all of the forms on the entire neck in the key of C, then move around the circle of fifths keys. So, they would be in this order... C - G - D - A - E - B - F#. F - Bb - Eb - Ab - Db - Gb. This exercise when done properly should take you, at least, 30 minutes to get through all of the keys. STEP 3 - PRACTICE CONNECTING THEM TOGETHER TO PLAY IN ALL KEYS THE FULL LENGTH OF THE GUITAR Look at the Bonus Resources Book pgs 104-107. These are the patterns that I want you to play in all keys the full range of the instrument. Pick a key. Identify the form you need to use to play at the lowest part of the neck. Play that form ASCENDING, then move up to the next form in that key and play it DESCENDING, then move up to the next form in that key and play it ASCENDING and so on, until you run out of neck. Then work your way back down in a similar way. When you get back to the bottom of the neck again, then move on to the next key and do it all over again. Choose your keys in the cycle of the circle of fifths as outlined above. This should take you about 2 weeks to learn this and will take you at least 30 minutes or more to do this and go through all of the forms in all of the keys. STEP 4 - PRACTICE THE COMMON PENTATONIC PATTERNS OK, now that you've gotten enough practice on the forms and how they relate to each other in different keys, now it's time to move beyond just playing them up and down. You need move beyond viewing these scales in a linear (up and down) fashion. In the lesson book I outline several common pentatonic patterns. Pick a pattern and learn the basic idea. Then pick a pentatonic form and play the pattern ascending and descending. Go to the next pentatonic form and play the same pattern up and down until you've worked through all of the five pentatonic patterns. Move to different keys, different parts of the neck. Play them in a connected form shape (ascending in one form, descending in the next). Once you can do this with one pattern then try the others. This should take you about a week to learn and at least 45 minutes to go through all keys and all three patterns. STEP 5 - PRACTICE SOLOING USING THE PENTATONIC SCALES Now that you've learned the forms, what keys they are in, where they are on the neck, how they connect to each other, and several helpful patterns to play with them, you should be able to look at the entire neck of your guitar and immediately see this grid of connecting pentatonic forms which will form the basis of which notes you can choose from when you are soloing. Now from this grid of appropriate notes you have a palette of notes to choose from when soloing. Begin experimenting, using the play-along tracks, trying to play different melodic ideas using the pentatonic scales. Play them in different parts of the neck. Don't always start with the same form. Vary the forms up. Vary the area of the neck that you start your ideas from. You will sound clunky and bad at first. Keep trying. Eventually you will start to make better and better musical choices. This takes a few weeks to a lifetime to do this with as much accuracy as you need to. The goal is to be able to play through your fingers the ideas in your head. If your head can think it - your fingers can play it. That's the goal. So, as you can see, there is quite a bit of material there to work through regarding pentatonic scales. It's not easy but it's one of the most important skills you need to have as a guitarist for soloing and knowing the neck of your instrument. This whole process took me about 3 months to learn and I use it every time I pick up the instrument. - Steve

How Steve Krenz came about Teaching What made you want to learn guitar? My mom was the one that made me pick up the guitar. No one in my family was musical at all. I had no friends at that time that I knew were musical. But, mom wanted a guitar player and I was forced to take lessons. I was neither interested in it at the time nor asked my mom to let me try it. I started guitar lessons at a local music store in the mall when I was 6 years old. This continued on for years. Friday night guitar lessons then eating out with the family at a nearby restaurant was our weekly pattern. Every day I practiced while the supper dishes were being done. At the end of every supper my dad would say "Get your Guitar" or more accurately, "Git Yer, Gitcher". And I would practice for about 20 minutes or so while the dishes were being done. I still have some of the old lesson books with water stains on them from being set on the freshly wiped table every night. At times I begged to quit never understanding what this guitar playing had anything to do with my life or future. My teacher thought I had potential and that was all that my folks needed to keep up the lessons. Week after week, year after year, lugging my guitar around, my parents paying for all those lessons. My teacher was a gruff Italian man Johnny Frisco who smoked like a smokestack. He was a local jazz player and I have only recently realized and appreciated all that he poured into me as a disinterested kid. He taught me how to read music. I never even saw Tablature and didn't even know what it was until many, many years later. Every week he would write out on music paper the song I was supposed to learn. I have looked back through my old lessons and realized that I was playing pretty complex chord melody jazz pieces by the time I was 9 and 10. He never indicated to me that I was any bit more advanced than any of his other students. And truthfully it never even occurred to me that I had any unique aptitude for the guitar until I was in high school. I was never the least bit interested in playing guitar until 6th grade when a friend of mine said that I could play guitar in the band at school in this special band called a Jazz band. He only came for the first practice with me. He never came again and I never stopped coming. I remained active in the Jazz ensemble at whatever school I was at until the day I graduated from college. I have often thought how my life would have been so totally different had he not invited me to be in Jazz band that day. Much to my utter astonishment by the time I was 16, I was the top high school jazz guitarist in the state of Texas. Now, many years later, I have played and taught guitar here in Nashville (Music City USA) for 5 years; providing for my family, playing music, recording, and speaking. I am by no means the best guitarist here. There are players that can play circles around me but I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment that I have been able to hold my own musically in what is arguably one of the most competitive musical environments on the planet. My parents gave me lessons even though at times I begged to quit. They invested their time and money week after week into me so that I could have a life filled with music. I will be forever grateful that they didn't let me quit when I complained. I am reaping now what was sowed into me by my parents. I have played guitar on almost every continent and now I have the incredible opportunity to help people like you in learning the guitar from all over the world. I am truly amazed and humbled by it all and I count myself a very blessed man. OK, now on to your next question... How did Learn and Master Guitar come to be? Well, let me back up a bit. In 2000, me, my wife and our three young boys were in San Antonio, Texas. I was the Music Director at our church there and enjoyed the blessings of steady paychecks, provided health insurance and great favor with everyone. We were very comfortable except for this nagging idea in the back of my head that I had had since high-school that I needed to be in Nashville playing guitar. Eventually, after lots of soul searching and prodding from my wife, it was time to make our feelings known. Needless to say, it was not received well by my family or the church. I distinctly remember telling the pastor (who was in many ways a father to me) that I wanted to go to Nashville to play and teach guitar. I remember his words "Why would you want to go to Nashville and sit in a little room and teach people how to play? I just can't see you being happy like that." He was, after all, correct. I had a great job and I was getting ready to move not just me but our whole family to a completely new place with the only guarantee of work was one lady at a small music school in Murfreesboro, Tennessee who said when I was passing my resume out trying to get work "Well, when you get to town give me a call." That was all that we needed. I put a deposit on a house in Nashville, we put the house up for sale in Texas, said our goodbyes, cried our tears and moved in July of 2001. For the next 4 years or so, I did just what my pastor had said, taught guitar in little rooms in various music stores to mostly dis-interested teenagers and kids and an occasional adult and entered the often frightening world of the self-employed. As finances got tighter and tighter I wondered if I had missed it by this whole "thinking I was a guitar player" thing and now me and my family were paying the heavy price. It was in the midst of that very low point that after coming home from another less than profitable, frustrating day that my wife said that a guy had called about guitar lessons. After a day or so I called him back. He said he was interviewing guitar instructors for a video project that he was doing. He had gotten my name from a mutual friend who lived up the street. So, we met for lunch and he laid out his idea and asked if I could do video. I had never done any video but I said "Sure, I can do a video." He asked if I could write a book to go with it. Having never done anything like that I confidently said "Sure, I can do the book. No problem" He said thanks, paid for my lunch, and said that he was going to interview some more people. I never heard from him for about a month and had truly forgotten about the whole thing when he called back and said "Steve, I think you're my guy." (I found out later that there he had actually picked another instructor who left them high and dry on the first day of shooting.) This was about November of 2005. Neither of us had any idea the amount of work that was ahead of us. He thought he would have a guitar course by Christmas and I thought I would get some Christmas money. I got my materials together and put together a course based on what I had seen work in my private teaching and what I actually used in my own professional playing, and I tried to avoid the peripheral nonsense that had frustrated me by other teaching materials and just stick to the basics - the "meat" of playing guitar. After a few weeks of me getting some ideas together we started filming the day after Thanksgiving. I must admit at that time of financial hardship, there was no lofty educational visions of grandeur in my mind. It was strictly just another means to pay the mortgage for my family. (You men who are head of households know what I mean. Sometimes, when times get tough your preferences and desires get trumped by your responsibility to provide.) If there was a check at the end of this then "Sure, I can do a video guitar course. Where's the camera." So, we went to a friend of his who did some video and had a home studio. We recorded about 3 or 4 sessions at a time - mostly on weekends and occasional very late weeknights. There was just the three of us at that time. If you would have turned the camera around you would have seen a music stand with my notes on it, the man who hired me sitting on a sofa checking his email, the video guy running one of three cameras that were used bored to death, my guitar cases and gear strewn about the room, and two chinchillas in the next room that slept during the day but became quite noisy and active during the late night hours that we filmed. I remember having to wait to film one time because the next door neighbor was mowing his lawn. What about the funky blue lights and the candles in the (original Learn & Master Guitar) video? The set was the video guys idea and his gear. The candles, which now seem so dated, were supposed to be hip and cozy and comfortable. The blue lights were borrowed from a nearby university and came off too strong on camera later but it was not a big enough deal at that time to try to do any better. We couldn't have the heater on when we filmed because of the noise, so I remember it being burning under the lights and freezing when we weren't filming. As the long hours and late night video sessions continued through the Christmas season the anxiety of keeping up with them (as well as my normal day teaching schedule) increased as well, until finally we recorded the last three sessions the day before Christmas. And I was sick as a dog. I remember sitting in front of one of those notorious blue lights before the taping of the last session just trying to get warm and thinking that there was no way I could do another session. But I knew I needed to finish, I knew there was a check at the end of all of this, so I splashed some warm water on my face and just gritted through the last session. If you look closely on Session 20, you can see in my eyes that I was sick. After it was done well after midnight, I went home utterly exhausted and was sick for several days. Towards the end of January, I had enough stamina to jump back on the horse again and work on writing the book. Once we started getting the rough video edits back to look at, it became clear that lots of editing were needed. I decided to add musical graphics so that the student could just look at the screen and see the music instead of constantly referring to the book. That decision alone added months to the time line. Every graphic you see, every note, every dot, every finger number was painstakingly created by me to be put in the video and in turn in the book. Every second of when that graphic was to appear, what it was to be called, and when it was going to leave was meticulously notated by me and emailed to the video guy who put them in, emailed them back to me and we went through the cycle again. There are probably close to 1000 musical graphics during the 20 sessions that had to be created, refined, put in the book and put in the video. It was grueling, every waking moment, sun-up to sun-down work (while still keeping all of my other teaching and playing going). Easily, the hardest thing I had ever done. And it went on week after week for months. I, and the man who hired me, thought it would never end. But, mercifully, sometime in May 2006 the process was done. I was glad to have this incredibly difficult project through with and was glad to have it in my rear view mirror. In July or so, it had been manufactured and I remember picking up the first few copies. Wow, I had my name on something. Pretty cool. Then, I was off to play and teach some more. Then, 1 or 2 a day sold, then 10 a day, then more. Now thousands have gone out. I would have never guessed how my life has changed since those late cold nights of filming and how many have been helped to become better musicians through some simple concepts of guitar playing that were given. And how through their learning that it would bring so much to their lives and mine. Eventually, I quit the private teaching to come on and help Legacy Learning Systems to further develop Learn and Master Guitar and other projects (while still continuing to play guitar and speak at conferences). Are you the owner of Legacy Learning Systems? I am not the owner of Legacy Learning Systems. It is owned by the wonderful man who I had lunch with that fateful first day and who I have come to respect and care for. Now we work together with several other very talented people to try to put out resources that people can truly learn from. It is a solemn privilege that keeps me motivated as I go, even today, to edit some session of Drums and ask myself the question "Well, who would really know if I didn't put this example on the screen or if I missed a few notes here and there." The knowledge of all of those, yet unseen, that may get helped by it someday helps me to say "Let's go back and fix that one spot one more time, I think I can make that example easier to understand." I was conducting a guitar class for this conference just last week and was asked "Don't you have a guitar video?" I had forgotten to mention it to the class and thought how great it was that I now have a good resource that I can recommend to people who want to learn how to play. All in all, I'm still just a very blessed and grateful guitar player who was up early this morning working on scales (thinking that my chops have gotten sluggish since I have been doing all of this desk work) and looking outside thinking that I need to mow the yard tonight. Wow, this is getting too long. If anyone is still reading by this point and haven't fallen asleep, you should get a prize or something. I will try to answer some more later. Suffice it to say, I love my job - teaching guitar, playing guitar, interacting with you wonderful people, creating quality resources so that people can learn. I like coming to work.

I am ordering a strap for my new guitar when it occurred to me that there may be some new members on here that haven't heard of Lakota Guitar Straps (Lakota Leathers). I have three of them now and they are unbelievably comfortable. All are made from buffalo and should last forever. They do come with a lifetime warranty. There are several other members on here that also use them and have commented favorably about their experience with these straps. Possibly most importantly, all straps are made by members of the Lakota Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The Pine Ridge "Rez" is the poorest county in the United States. Any purchase will, in a small way, help people in desperate need of economic stimulation. If you are, or will be, looking for a new strap(s) at least look at their product/website. Now all I have to do is decide which color will go best with Whale Blue! (I have absolutely no connection to Lakota Leathers other than I like their product.)

There have been a couple posts on here recently asking direction on purchasing an acoustic guitar. I don't think those posts were actually asking about beginner guitars. But I saw this article and thought it might be of interest to some that are considering a "starter/beginner" acoustic guitar. 10 Best Acoustic Guitars Under $300 And if you look at that story there is also a link to "How To Choose the Best Acoustic Guitar For You"

A brief rundown and demonstration of the key aspects of stylistic blues guitar soloing and techniques by Griff Hamlin.

I know there is overlap with Gerard's posts. But I didn' have time to sort all his posts to what was in my file. I didn' post it all as I knew so of the duplcate posts jumped out at me. Sometimes things need to be restated

Thank you @IanD and @Nutty1 that was a lot of fun playing that song at the Gathering, it was only the 2nd time I had played in front of people. (The first was the year before at the Gathering.) Nervous? Maybe a little but it is a great audience, everyone if very supportive and genuinely happy to see you play no matter your skill level.

Yes, the G2 in that example is a moveable form. BUT, your reasoning behind it is right on the money. Here's the rule.... A G2 is made up of the notes G-A-B-D. Those are your ingredients. And, just like most menu items at Taco Bell, you can take those ingredients and mix and match them in a variety of ways and you'll still end up with a G2. As long as the chord, any chord, is made up of a G-A-B-D - in whatever order, or octave, or combination of notes - then it is a G2. With that in mind, you see that there are a myriad of ways that you can think up to play a G2. Some of the most creative sounding chord voicings have a moveable chord somewhere up on the neck combined with an open string or two. So, you're idea of putting the high A on top is absolutely correct. As the color tone, the A would sound better higher up in the voicing generally anyway. Don't be bound by just thinking of a chord as just a picture in a book - think of it as a collection of notes and sounds that can be manipulated. That's one of the things that really bothers me about the "Here's the Mel Bay Chord Bible thick book filled with 1000 chord shapes" approach. Yes, a book like this gives you a quick answer to what a G13b9 is BUT it doesn't give any understanding to why that chord shape is what it is. To change the metaphor... It's handing you the fish, and not teaching you how to fish. So, you are forever doomed to coming back time and time again to find this or that chord.

Question about Rests- Do we silence the note or let the note being played ring through and play nothing for the period of rest? Great question. (Also, it looks by the time of this, that both of us can't sleep.) There's a peculiarity about the guitar. When you play a note on an open string, it continues to ring. But when you play a note that is fretted, it stops as soon as you take your finger off. So, when you are playing a rhythm that has a rest but the previous note is an open string, then the string just continues to ring right through the rest. What's a poor guitar player to do? So, here are your options on the open string ringing problem. You could quickly mute the string either by using the palm of your picking hand or a finger on the fretting hand. Anything will work as long as you lightly touch the ringing string. BUT here's my professional advice after teaching for way too many years... Don't worry about it. Here's why. When you're just starting out, you tend to play rhythms and exercises very slow. Going this slow lets you really hear how one string is ringing out more than the others. (And it bugs you so you think something is wrong.) So, you try to mute it somehow and your already stressed out motor skills get even more stressed out because now you have to worry about not only picking the note, but muting open strings that ring. BUT, As you get quicker and you have been playing a bit longer, then you are moving faster and the once ringing string is often muted quicker by another finger or note needing to be played. Hence, the open string ringing is much shorter and less bothersome. So, my best advice is.... Don't worry about it. If the open string really bothers you then, if you can, try to lightly mute it. But don't overly worry about it. The overall main idea as you're playing the exercise is to play the music in the proper rhythm and count the rests correctly. This "Open String Ringing" problem is really only one that gets bothersome to students right around the developmental level that you are at. And quickly you are on to other concerns. I hope this helps. It sounds like you are off to a great start. Keep going. There's much music to be made! - Steve Some strings (the open ones) ringing longer than other ones is part of the overall guitar sound - and it's actually a good thing. It's one of the parts of the guitar sound that makes it unique. It's even a desirable thing as you get more involved in your playing. Some of the coolest things you can do in your playing involve playing something that some notes are cutting off while others are sustaining. It's a uniquely guitar phenomenon - and it's a good thing. Mute it if it bothers you, but otherwise, don't overly worry about it and in a few weeks you'll be moving faster and it won't bother you as much.

Down Strum - Up Strum - - - - WHAT!!!!??? In general, when playing eighth notes the picking is a down-up-down-up pattern with the downstrokes being on the downbeats and the upstrokes being on the upbeats. For example if I was counting a measure of eighth notes or "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" the beats would be the downstrokes and the "ands" would be upstrokes. Now, this is not a hard and fast rule. In some musical situations and some string combinations it may be more comfortable to adjust this pattern as needed. So, don't get too bent out of shape if this is varied occasionally. Now, regarding me occasionally playing through an exercise using all downstrokes. Yep, I do this sometimes. Sometimes it is just to overemphasize the rhythm of the notes or sometimes I'm just going for a more solid sound that downstrokes provide. I guess my overall point is that guitar playing is not math - with only one possible solution. In real playing situations there are constantly changing variables. Variables of how you want to play and attack the note depending on the strength of the sound you want to produce and so on. When you are just learning how to play this may appear confusing. But as you grow (and you will grow) in your skill you realize that this is a natural and freeing part of expressing on your instrument. Making music in general and guitar playing in specific is a wonderful combination of art and science. You can't analyze it as all rule-governed science, it just doesn't work that way. - Steve

LEARN FROM EVERYONE AND EVERYWHERE YOU CAN Learn from me, learn from your neighbor down the street, learn from the good folks over at Jam Play and anywhere else you can find to learn. Not one course will have it all. (Despite what our very own "over the top" marketing claims say about the course. More than once I have had heated conversations about the educational ridiculousness of "everything you need to become a guitar master in one box" claims.) You're going to need every bit of wisdom and insight that you can get from any source you can to get you to be the player you want to be. The biggest factor in your guitar education is not my approach, or someone else's approach, but is you - your dogged determination to learn. Read this... ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SECRETS TO LEARNING GUITAR Learn from everywhere you can find to learn from. Let me also say one more thing. Learning is a verb - an action - an action that is taken on by the student. The teacher can only present the information. The responsibility is on the learner to reach out and grab that information, work on it with determination, and ultimately benefit from it. So, REACH, and LEARN!

How to learn the notes above the first position It sounds like you are doing exactly what I would suggest which is play the songs and exercises for Sessions 1-4 in the 5th, 7th, and 10th position. Already knowing the melody will help even more to make the connections with the notes and their placements within those positions. Then try making up a simple melody and play it in the open, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 10th positions. These are all great exercises for ear training and learning your notes. - Steve Too many view the practice room as a prison - a place of endless, fruitless frustration and toil. It's seen as a place to be avoided at all costs - a place where your inadequacies are placed in the spotlight. Any distraction is readily embraced to divert us from the cruel, unforgiving mirror of our frail abilities found in the practice room. Many musicians are enslaved to this view of the practice room. If you are in this unfortunate mindset, let me offer you a small alternative view of the practice room universe. With a different perspective your practice room can move from a prison to become a sanctuary - a place where you quietly go to remember who you are, what you love, and who you want to become. Practicing, and the daily "bettering" of your skills (and thus yourself) yields tremendous benefits beyond the specific skills that you are working on. The time you spend with your instrument is special - it's a time where you put away the other cares of the day and focus entirely on something that YOU want to do. Practicing is something that you do for you - not anyone else. So many of the hours in our days are invested in things for other people but practicing is something you do completely for yourself. Learning is valuable - it is a sacred investment of your time purely for your own benefit and enjoyment. The practice room is a place of trials and triumphs, a place where you are challenged mentally and physically, tested to the depths of your understanding and ability. And a place that on some very special days you walk out of as a conquerer. The practice room is a place where your dream of making music is forged - like a blacksmith working with steel - a place of heat, sweat, and where every inch of progress is not "cheap" but is earned through determined effort. In the end, people may walk past and say to you "Wow, you have really improved, you must just have a gift." But in your heart you know that any ability you have was not "dropped upon you" from the sky cheaply but was forged with great effort and determination in one place - the practice room. Many people dream of being a musician - some for years. But there is only one door that those that truly become musicians walk out of... the practice room. - Steve JACK!!!! Yes, that's him!!!! He died several years back and I'm sure he hated it. He was one of the most "full of life" people I've ever met. He was the only guitar teacher I ever had drop me. I was young and stupid - a "full of myself all-state guitarist" in high school who was bored stiff by this kind old man who tried to teach me a style of playing that seemed way too outdated and un-hip. What I would give for a few more lessons from this living jazz legend now. He told me "Why don't you come back when you have a bit more time to devote to the lessons." I walked out of his home and thought "how rude" but that experience and my time with him taught me several life lessons... LIFE LESSON #1: Don't think more highly of yourself than you should. Learn from everyone you can. I realized he was right to drop me. It was a waste of his time and mine. I was faking my way through his lessons. I thought "what can this old guy teach me". Foolish. LIFE LESSON #2: Don't rely on anyone to spoon feed you instruction. It's your job to reach out and dig for it - to claw it out. When I had lessons with him he never wrote anything down. So, it was all by memory and by the time I got home from the lesson I could remember little of what he taught me. (Ever had that happen...)Eventually, I started recording his lessons, but I still didn't take the time needed to grasp the concepts, and I wrote little down. Foolish. Most teachers in your life will give you little help in the process of learning. It's the student's job to dig for the learning - sometimes the teacher may help in this endeavor, sometimes not. I cannot blame the teacher for my lack of progress just because the teacher is making me dig for it. It's in the digging that you learn the most. LIFE LESSON #3: Chords can mean much more than the sum of their notes. Jack taught me that chords were not just for accompanying but that they can be used to harmonize a melody. He also taught me that a chord can function one way in one harmony and another way in another harmonic situation. I was used to analyzing chords as a slice of time - i.e. you look at what notes are in the chord and you can tell how they are functioning. Jack taught me to look at chords in context of the tune. For example, sure a G-B-D-F is a G7. But looking at the function of the chord can tell me that a G7 is the V chord leading me to a C - AND that that G7 can be preceded by a Dm, AND since the G7 is functioning as a V chord then I can alter it a variety of different ways and it will still make musical sense. Jack also taught me that a chord can be a chord without a root. This was a mind-blowing concept to this long-haired teenage jazz player. For example, the chord B-D-F-A-E seems like a meaningless grouping of notes. If I looked at it on the surface I might come up with some non-sensical analysis as a Bm7sus(b5) ???? It was Jack that taught me that a B-D-F-A-E is a perfect G13th - just without the G. And who needs the root anyway if the chord progression clearly indicates the chords function. This opened up a world of thought to me. Anyway, there is only one tune and a handful of licks, and a few key pieces of musical knowledge I can remember from those lessons with Jack. This is through no fault of Jack. I look back on that part of my learning and I think I was so clueless to what this man could teach me. He was a brilliant player and one of the best jazz guitarists of his day playing with world class orchestras and television bands. All I could see was an old man, in a small house on the wrong side of town. He died some years later, only remembering me as a clueless teenager who didn't have time for his lessons. Never knowing the impact he had on me and now on you. - Steve How not to dig into the strings too hard while strumming Quote 1) Relax your wrist. As you speed up your strumming you need to relax your wrist so that it doesn't become too stiff. 2) Use a thinner pick. When you're doing a lot of strumming a thick pick causes you to dig in too much and will eventually cause too much resistance against the strings. Thinner picks work better. 3) Hold pick securely but with some flexibility. I realize that this sounds like a contradiction. And I guess it is in some sort of way, but in my mind this is what I do. I hold the pick firmly enough so that I have a good grip with strumming aggressively BUT I also am, ever so slightly, loosening the grip on the pick occasionally so that it has a little bit of give in it. I'm still in control but, giving the pick some flexibility when needed by adjusting my grip on the pick helps. 4) Don't use too heavy of strings. Use light strings when you are doing a lot of strumming. It will save your arm. Stiff strings, like a stiff pick, just adds resistance which is unhelpful when strumming for long periods of time. I hope this helps. - Steve Here's my official words of advice from decades of playing experience and teaching experience. Are you ready? Lean in so you can get a good look at it...

When to use a "Lick" THE SHORT ANSWER: A lick's "usability" depends significantly on the musical context. What may work in one setting may sound awful in another setting. THE LONG ANSWER In your "notes are letters, licks are words" analogy, let me adjust something. Notes are letters, but licks are more like phrases than words. A word generally has one specific meaning but a phrase is much more dependant on context. And that's how it is with licks. For example, the phrase "Hey, buddy, you stink!!" may mean: "You don't smell very good." but it also could mean that "you're guitar playing needs some work." That's how it is with licks. For example, I could play a classic Stevie Ray Vaughn lick on my blues gig and people go wild. But I could also play the identical lick over the identical chords the next night at my jazz gig and get strange looks from everyone. THE MORAL OF THE STORY I wish a certain set of licks would be guaranteed to be great in any setting but it doesn't work that way - you've got to listen and use your ear as to what might work. That's why books like "100 Great Blues Licks" can only take you so far - you still have to apply those and adjust them to fit into a variety of musical settings.

Reason for Naming the Pentatonic Patterns the way I did: Yes, you are absolutely correct. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on how to name the various pentatonic forms. The only reason I labeled my 1st form instead of, let's say the 5th form, is because the shape I am using for the 1st form is the one that everyone knows. So, I just called it the 1st form and went from there. There is also confusion because of the major/minor root relationship. Truthfully, when I'm playing I don't think of the patterns as "1st form", or "2nd form". (I had to teach them with names because there was no other way to convey the concept) But when I'm playing I relate all of the forms by the root and the other scale steps. The main ideas with them is that... There are 5 pentatonic forms that progress from one to the other in a specific order that cycles. In other words, I can have the alphabet letters A-B-C-D-E, or I can write them C-D-E-A-B, or E-A-B-C-D but you can see that Cs are always after Bs and Es are after Ds. And after five letters it cycles back no matter where it starts in the pattern. So, it really doesn't matter whether I call it the 1st form or not as long as you understand how they are fitting together and cycling. Regarding the diagram, I just wrote it out how it made sense to me and how I visualized it on guitar. (And it never really made sense to me why on a diagram people would put the 1st string on top and the 6th string on bottom.) I hope this helps. I will try to address this during the live lesson for next week (Feb 21, 2012). Perhaps I can clarify it a bit more then.

QUESTION 1 - WHAT IS A DIMINISHED 7th CHORD? "..have come across to things I don't understand. ...I see often diminished 7th but thinking back to session 9 I thought only the 4th, 5th and octave (perfect intervals) can be diminished and not the 2, 3, 6, 7th (Major intervals) which I thought could only be minored?" The short answer: The word "diminished" in the chord name is referring to the type of triad, not the interval. The long answer: Chord names can get a bit confusing. Chord names generally have THREE parts - the ROOT, the TRIAD TYPE, and the EMBELLISHMENT. For example in the chord Cm7 (C minor seventh), - "C" is the Root - "m" is short for "minor" and that tells you that it is a minor triad - "7" tells you that to add the flatted 7th step of the scale (remember the flatted seventh rule) to the minor triad. (Remember, in a chord name a "7" (when it appears by itself) is always a flatted seventh unless it specifically says "major7") So, the "diminished" in the chord name is referring to the type of triad needed not the specfic interval of a seventh. So, the chord in question would be built on a 1-b3-b5. Now, let's go on to the next question... QUESTION 2 - WHAT ABOUT THE 7TH? in the song "The Godfather" you have unknowingly stumbled across a rather complex harmonic concept that is going to take a moment to explain. The short answer: The formula for a (half) diminished 7th chord is 1-b3-b5-b7. (You'll notice that I assumed a half-diminished chord was needed instead of a fully diminished chord even though the chord name doesn't specify it.) The long answer: There are two types of diminished seventh chords - HALF-DIMINISHED and FULLY DIMINISHED. (Learn & Master Guitar Lesson Book pg. 90) A HALF-DIMINISHED chord is 1-b3-b5-b7. (Basically, a diminished triad, with a flatted seventh added) A FULLY DIMINISHED chord is 1-b3-b5-bb7. (A diminished triad with a double flatted seventh added) So, why did I assume that the chord in question was a half-diminished when the chord name didn't specify it? This brings us to question 3 about chord functions in minor keys so let's look at that first. QUESTION 3 - CHORDS IN MINOR KEYS - WHY DOES B7 WORK INSTEAD OF Bm? The short answer: Because in Em, the B7 chord functions as a leading chord called a "dominant 7th" chord and those tend to always be major chords rather than minor chords. The Long Answer: "I wanted to find the chords to play it in Em, so I found out that Em is the relative minor of G". Yes it is, BUT while the key signature is the same between Em and G there is one BIG difference between chords in the key of Em and chords in the key of G. Here it is... the 5 chord (V) in the key of Em is a B7. continuing... "So finding this out I came up with these chords for the key of Em, Em, F# (this one confused me), G, Am, Bm, C, D. I can now play the chords to the Godfather the only problem is the Bm didn't fit into the chords and I discovered that B7 did." You are exactly correct! The reason B7 sounded correct and Bm didn't is because the B7 was "functioning" as the 5 (V) chord, the dominant seventh chord, in the key of Em. And V chords always lead to I chords (whether they are major or minor, it doesn't matter.) For example, in the key of G major the five chord is a D7 and so you'll see a lot of D7-G progressions. But, in the key of Em, the five chord is a B7, because the five chord is leading back to the minor one, so you'll see a lot of B7-Em progressions. Five (V) chords are always a major triad and a flatted seventh. I apologize for the in-depth answer. This may all be way over your head where you are at currently in Session 9. You've stumbled upon a pretty complex harmonic concept that isn't going to make sense until you have learned a few more musical concepts. So, the chords in a minor key are adjusted a bit from their pure relative key counterparts to accomodate for this B7 problem. The chord in the key of Em would be... Em (E-G-B ) F#diminished (F#-A-C) G (G-B-D) Am (A-C-E) B7 (B-D#-F#-A) C (C-E-G) D (D-F#-A) QUESTION 4 - WHY IS THE F# CHORD A "DIMINISHED 7th" or a HALF-DIMINISHED 7th? and WHICH SHOULD IT BE? final question is... "So please can you tell me why this is and whats going on with that F#..." The short answer: In a minor key, the ii chord is customarily played as a half-diminished. The long answer: I don't really know why this is musically or how it can be explained harmonically, but this is just how music has developed. In a minor key, the ii chord tends to always be played as a half-diminished chord rather than a fully-diminished chord. I think part of the reason may be that ii chords tend to move to V chords which tend to move to i chords. And in this ii-V-i progression a ii fully diminished chord just doesn't sound very good. So, in the Godfather in Em, the ii chord would be F# half-diminished 7 which is F#-A-C#-E (1-b3-b5-b7) I hope this clarifies some things. Here are the things you need to remember from all of this. 1) In minor keys, the V chord is major. 2) In minor keys, the ii chord customarily is played as a half-diminished chord.

FIGURING OUT CHORDS There are quite a few ways to tackle identifying chords in songs... some more helpful than others. Let's have a look at a few of them. Using Bass Notes Listening for bass notes is, to me, the easiest way to identify chords. Since the role of the bass in pop in rock music is generally to lay down the foundation of the music, and play the root (primary note) of most chords, all the information we need to identify chords can often be found in the bass part. Try this: • pick a song that sounds relatively simple to play - one that doesn't move too quickly, and uses a basic strummed guitar part. • now, listen to the guitar part, and identify when the chords are changing in the song. • try to identify the bass part. The bass part in pop and rock music usually contains single notes, and is the lowest sounding instrument in the band. • using your guitar, try and identify what note the bassist plays when the guitar chord changes. Slide your finger up the sixth string of your guitar, and try every note, until you find one that sounds like the recording. • identify that note (eg. eighth fret on sixth string is a C) • try playing different types of C chords (Cmajor, Cminor, C7, etc) at that point in the song • when you find the right chord, move on to the next chord change This is a pretty solid method of figuring out songs, although several problems arise. Sometimes, bass players don't play the root note of the chord... for example, they may play the note E, when the chord is actually Cmajor. In time, you'll learn to identify these sounds immediately, but in the beginning, these sort of situations will certainly cause you some anguish. Suck it up! Identifying Open Strings This technique is particularly handy when you have tried the bass note method of figuring out a chord, and failed miserably. Hope you've been honing your skills at hearing open strings ringing, because it comes in handy here too! The concept is simple: listen for any open strings ringing in the recording, then find those same strings on your guitar. Now, rack your brain to remember all the chords you know that use those open strings, and try all of them, until you've found the proper chord. For example, if you were able to detect the open G and B strings ringing in the guitar part you were listening to, the chord could be an open G major chord, or an open E minor chord (actually, it could be a whole lot of chords, but we're keeping it simple here!) You would then try both chords, to see which one sounded correct. Note by Note Method This is admittedly a laborious method of figuring out chords, but sometimes, it's a necessary evil. The concept is simple... simply listen to the chord on the recording again and again, picking out any notes you can hear, and trying to replicate them on guitar. If you're lucky, after you get a couple notes, you'll recognize the chord. Sometimes, however, you just won't know the chord at all, so you have to put it together one note at a time. This can be extremely frustrating, but hey, no one promised this would be easy! And have faith that, while you're working, you're also training your ear, so next time, it will be a little easier. With just a little bit of knowledge, we can also make it mucheasier to anticipate what the chord *could* be, without even picking up a guitar to try and figure it out. We'll finish up by using basic theory to help figure out songs. The phrase "music theory" strikes terror into the hearts of many amateur musicians, and budding musicians the world over. Don't let those words scare you... while many think music theory is nothing but a bunch of dry, boring rules, the truth is, knowing some music theory can make your job as a guitarist much easier. Let's have a look at how knowing some theory can make figuring out songs much easier. Chords in a Key Let's get some straight facts out of the way first. There are 12 major keys, one for every letter of the musical alphabet (eg. Amajor, Bbmajor, Bmajor, Cmajor, etc.) Similarly, there are 12 minor keys (eg. Aminor, Bbminor, Bminor, etc.) A set of chords belongs to each of these keys. A song doesn't have to remain in one key... in fact, jazz and classical music very rarely stays in one key. Now, the good news. Almost all pop, country, rock, and blues music stays in one key throughout. Additionally, most of the music in these styles are written in the key of Cmajor, Dmajor, Gmajor, Amajor, Eminor, or Aminor. Why, you ask? Because the chords in these keys are easier to play on guitar, so songwriters tend to stick with them. Who wants to write a song in Dbmajor, and play a bunch of Db, Gb, and Ab chords when you could instead write the song in Dmajor and play D, G, and A? Explaining the chords in the following chart goes way beyond the scope of this article. Instead, attempt to do the following: • find out which key the song you're trying to figure out is in • Reference the below chart for that key, and see what chords are available (the key is highlighted in black - all chords beside it are the chords available in that key). • Experiment with the available chords in that key, until you find the correct one MAJOR KEYS I ii iii IV V vi vii bVII * C Dm Em F G Am Bdim Bb D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim C E F#m G#m A B C#m D#dim D F Gm Am Bb C Dm Edim Eb G Am Bm C D Em F#dim F A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim G * this chord doesn't actually belong in the key, but is very commonly used MINOR KEYS i ii III iv v or V VI VII Am Bdim C Dm Em or E F G Dm Edim F Gm Am or A Bb C Em F#dim G Am Bm or B C D I can hear many of you asking "but.. how do I figure out what key the song is in?" Several ways... you could look at a couple chords in the song you know, look in the chart above, and see which key has those chords in it. Another simpler, very inaccurate method of guessing which key a song is in, is to assume the first chord in the song is the correct key. So, if the first chord in the song is an Eminor, you would guess that the song is in Eminor. While there is absolutely no theoretical reason for this to be true, most pop/rock music is rather simple, so it tends to be true more often than not. So there you have it... a good basis for learning to figure out songs on your own. It will be a slow going process at first, but if you try a little each day, I think you'll find that within a few weeks, you'll have learned a whole lot. For those interested in learning more about music theory, I can't recommend the excellent Mark Levine's excellent Jazz Theory Book highly enough. The book begins at a rudimentary level, and provides as much music theory as most people would care to know. The package delivered may be different than the one your receive, standard that things change over time. but since I have a few minutes spare I'll type it for you... Sessions: This course is broken into twenty "Session". Each Session builds upon the previous one, so it's generally best to follow them in order. Both guitar and musical concepts are introduced in a simple logical sequence. ----- Practice Time: For most students, twenty to thirty minutes of practice time five days a week is a good pace. Student will typically spend tow to three weeks on each Session before they are ready to move on. You will find an "Estimated Time to Learn" printed in your Lesson Book at the start of each new Session. These are estimates only and will vary widely. Work at your own pace. ---- The DVD's On the DVDs, each Session will have an extensive instruction time followed by a shorter workshop time. The concepts are first explained in the instruction time, and then you practice them in the workshop. It is not necessary to watch the instruction portion repeatedly each day. Once you have the concepts down, go straight to the workshop for your practice times. ---- The Workshop Time The workshop portion of each Session is meant to be used during your daily practice time. We will cover together the concepts discussed. Generally the workshop times will be 10-15 minutes in length and will practice the main points of the session. When you have a few minutes and are ready to practice, turn on the workshop and we will go over the material together, starting slowly and gradually progressing to where you need to be before moving on to the next section. --- The Lesson Book Your Lesson Book contains all of the songs, examples and exercises that appear on the DVD's. Follow along in the book as you watch the DVDs, take notes in it, and use it any time you don't want to practice in front of the television. You will also use it when practicing with the Jan Along CDs. --- Jam Along CDs: This is the fun part! The Jam Along CDs contain recordings of all the songs you will be learning in this course. Practice by playing along with the guitar part. You will notice that the guitar has been recorded in the left channel, so you can turn it down by adjusting the balance on your stereo. Once you do, you'll be "Jamming Along" with the band all on your own! --- Members-Only Website: More resources, bonus exercises and a discussion board for posting questions is available to you at w w w .. forum changed names [dot] com here. Don't miss this tremendous new resource available to you at no cost. And Finally.... A word of encouragement. You may have realized that it is likely to take a full year to get through all of these Sessions. That probably seems like a long time, but keep this in mind: You will become a guitar player long before you actually finish this course. You will be playing your first songs within a few weeks. A few weeks more and you'll have some basic chords. Within a few months, you'll be able to play most of the songs you hear on the radio. The "mastery" part of the Learn and Master Guitar does take a bit longer, but by then you will probably be having so much fun that the time won't matter. Of course, you may also choose not to go much beyond the basics. That's ok, too. Guitar "master" may or may not be your goal. Whatever your destination is, focus on enjoying the process. Take one step at a time, and above all else. Have fun with it.

This was actually a response in another thread but I wanted to repost it here. As long as we're discussing teaching philosophy let me put on my philosophers hat and chime in. These are some thoughts that have been rolling around in my head for a while. LEARNERS NEED A PATH There is no shortage of tips, tricks, youtube videos, and the like for guitar instruction - each gving a piece or a particular players view on a very specific topic. What is lacking is the "path". There is no way to collect the information from its variety of sources, apply it across a wide variety of musical settings and incorporate it into your playing. We have become musical "hoarders", with little scraps of information cluttering our musical house - a song intro here, a blues lick there, a few chord forms over there. All scribbled down in our musical minds with the best of intentions and then, for lack of a better place to put it, stuffed in our proverbial guitar case. People need the path. The path of systematizing the information IS the important part, otherwise all of the other disorganized information is musically useless to the learner. The mountain climber at the bottom of the mountain knows what needs to be done. And there are a million ways to get to the top - some easier and some harder. What he needs is the sherpa guide to come alongside and say "Start here. Then go up to that point and I'll tell you where to step next when you get there." LEARNERS NEED A COACH Blurting out information is the easy part of teaching. Way too many teachers (musical and otherwise) think their responsibility is to spew out information all over their students and then its the students job to take it all, assimilate it, and apply it. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. If you've ever sat, completely lost, in a college lecture hall while a teacher endlessly spews out information with no concern for the students learning then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Teaching by information only is lazy teaching. The great basketball coach John Wooden said "You have not taught until they have learned." The teacher's responsibility isn't to pour out information. The teacher's responsibility is to make sure the student has learned the material. When the studen't understanding is your ultimate goal, then you change drastically how you teach. Teaching is hard work. It is figuring out which key will open a particular students understanding. It takes trial and error, endless refinement of the order and flow of information, and the ability to assess and anticipate the problems that the learner will encounter. A coach doesn't just toss the rulebook at the players and then sit on the sidelines. A coach is running along side the player as they are practicing, speaking to them in their ear right at the moment of decision saying "Don't look here, look there. Recieve the ball like this, not like that. Pay attention to this. Wait for it... now Go, Go, Go". The information is the easy part, it's the coaching that takes great skill to take a learner from one point in their development to a completely different place. TRUE LEARNING IS HARD WORK There's no getting around it. If all you do is watch YouTube Guitar Tip videos then you'll be constantly frustrated at why, even though you have the information, you can't make it sound like the guy in the video. The difference is the three months of practice that it takes to master the skill. I love the Extreme Makeover weight loss shows. There was even a new one a few months back where they would take an incredibly overweight person and get them all the way to the big reveal, clapping moment with their families. It was actually a year's worth of this person's life compressed into one hour - from the fat slob eating a cake on the couch to the crisp, trim athlete stepping out from behind the curtain to the cheers of their families. You never saw the hundreds of days of sweat and struggle. The tears, the "I can't do it anymore", the " "who cares about this anyway", the times where the trainer is screaming into the sweaty face of the person saying "Quitting is easy. If you really want to change, you've got to fight for it." When you bleach out the "hard work" from the becoming a musician process, it doesn't work. Learners end up being confused at why things aren't coming easy for them. LEARNING IS PERSONAL We've sold a gazillion courses. And, more times than I can remember, I have sat in my chair in the video studio with the director counting down "3...2...1... action" and I think to myself "Don't worry about the thousands of people who are going to be watching this. Don't worry about them. Talk to the one person who is sitting there with their guitar trying to learn. Help that person. Don't worry about the thousands of other on-lookers." As all of you know, learning is a profoundly personal process. Yes, it is the acquisition of information and skill. But it is also the very personal struggle to become something that you've always wanted to be - doing something that you (in the deepest part of you) truly wants to do for you, not for someone else. It's getting up and practicing when you would rather be doing something else. But you practice anyway because, deep inside of yourself, you want to become a musician. Learning is personal and my job as the instructor is to relate to you in that way. THE G.A.D. FACTOR One of my marketing professors in college said this quote that has bothered me ever since... "Once you can fake sincerity, the rest is easy." What a wretched way to view interacting with people. I was talking with Greg Voros on the back dock of Gruhn's guitars several years ago and he was telling me something about how this or that person stands out in their work because they actually care about what they do or, as Greg so eloquently put it, they "Give A darn" (G.A.D). Phony-ness is so prevelant in our worlds that when someone, even in the smallest of things, actually let's you know that they actually care about what's going on with you, it's shocking to most of us. It's much easier to create a guitar course by just figuring out a few licks, turning on the camera, tossing out some information, cutting a few problematic production corners like creating a book or "on-screen" graphics, and releasing it. Most people will still buy it (at least the first time) so why bother with doing more. The only person that will know that we cut this or that corner will be the poor guy sitting there with his guitar trying to follow along. The G.A.D. factor makes all of the difference in the world, in every decision that is made, in the way the product is produced and marketed. The teacher doesn't have to be the greatest guitar player on the planet. But if the teacher is going to be long-term effective they have to care deeply about the end-result of their teaching to the learner, in other words, they have to "give a darn" because it affects a thousand decisions every day. So, there are some of the dusty thoughts in my guitar teachers mind. You all are the best students in the world and I'm honored with the humbling responsibility to help you out any way that I can. We'll both keep learning together and hopefully make a little music on the way.

As far as practicing goes... it's about quality not quantity. I am not impressed by the person who says that they practice 4 hours a day. My professional experience has shown me that the person practicing 4 hours a day as a beginner probably wont even make it to become an intermediate player. Yes, you need to practice. Yes, everyone should probably devote more time to their learning in order to get increasing results. BUT, as a self-guided beginner it's much more important HOW you practice than HOW MUCH you practice. Think of it this way. It's not about counting minutes, it's about making your minutes count. I fully agree about practicing at a time where your brain is fresh and "making connections". This is very important. You should come away from your practice time... tired, and mentally exhausted. You want to be working at the very edges of your ability. In order to do this you need to be very focused. And you can only stay in this level of focus for about 3 hours at a time before your brain starts oozing from your ears. Focused, deliberate practice at the edge of your abilities with a laser-like attention to correcting your mistakes is the type of practice that yields profound results. Here's an analogy. You, as the learner, are like a stumbling baby trying to walk. STOP!!!!! Think about that. A baby is intently focused on what they are trying to do - what they are trying to accomplish. They stumble and are keenly aware of the stumbling and its distance from the walking that they want to do. They are neither discouraged or surprised when they stumble. It doesn't distract them from their goal of walking. They have a vision in their minds of exactly what they want to do and are constantly measuring themselves and their ability to this mental image. It's this kind of mental focus that yields faster and more deep results when you practice. Let me say this again... You, as the learner, need to have the mindset of a stumbling baby trying to walk. When your practice times take on this level of focus then great results will happen in a short amount of time.

The New 2011 Learn and Master Song Hit List SONG LIST CHOICES I fully realize that we are not going to have everyone's favorite songs on the song list. This was never the goal from the beginning - I realized immediately this was a battle that is impossible to win so I arranged the course from a "learning guitar skills through classic songs" perspective not a "learn this specific song" perspective. Legacy worked through a specific song publisher so I was limited to their song catalog. So from the very beginning I was limited on the songs I was able to choose. I was handed a list of 500 songs or so from this publisher and I had to pick the songs from there. Tom is exactly correct, there were a couple of big artists' libraries that I was initially very excited about that in the end wouldn't allow us to use their material. I'm hesitant to go into the "fish that got away" artists and songs but suffice it to say if I was a cussing man, like I used to be, I would have let a few fly the day I found out about that. Rest assured, I labored a great deal over trying to pull the best songs out of the limitations we were under - the best songs musically and the best songs educationally. WHO IS THIS PROJECT IS FOR? This project is for the guy who is going through the Learn & Master Guitar Course and wants other "more familiar" songs to work on the skills applicable to the session he is on. In other words "I'm so bored learning "Jingle Bells", can't we learn songs that I know?" This Song Hits course is a resounding YES to that concern. ARE THE SONGS GOING TO BE SIMPLIFIED ACCORDING TO WHAT SESSION YOU ARE ON? YES Yes, very deliberately, the songs are going to be simplified and arranged specifically to coordinate with the session that you are on. Fabian, you specifically mention "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "You Got It" being in the first session. For those two songs I teach an "Easy Version" and a "Full Version". The Easy Version corresponds to what a Session 1 learner would know. So they have a very simplified version of the melody of the chorus of the song written in TAB, and 3 note chords above it. This would be attainable by a Session 1 learner. But I also include the Full Version of the song which is the entire song (Intros, Verses, Chorus etc) with the complete melody and words written out with the guitar part written out as well in the lower staff including the rhythms and chords used in the original version of the song. I even wrote and tabbed out the entire guitar solo for the song "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" as played on the original recording. (Roughly about a Session 19 level of playing.) I painstakingly made sure that what I notated out and Tabbed is exactly what the original guitar played. So, the answer is yes - I did write out the songs according to what level you are corresponding to in the main guitar course. But, I also wrote out the full version on some of the earlier songs so that folks would get the instruction on what the full version of the song is doing. I tried to give something to both sets of learners. I wanted the Session 1 learner to have something that they could work on but I also wanted the more advanced learner who really wanted to learn the song "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" as they have heard it to have something that they can work on as well. THE SALES AND MARKETING OF THE COURSE I have literally nothing to do with that. Granted, there have been a few problems of the outworking of the pre-sales for this course. There are a lot of people concerned about that here in the Legacy office. Thankfully, I am not one of them. When you pop in the DVD and start watching then you are on my turf. How it's marketed, when the pre-sales are, and for how much, and what the website looks like are all areas that I have little to no influence on. I hope that gives a little more insight to the course. I'm excited about getting it into your hands and having you all learn to play guitar through the songs in it.

Stage Fright Here are some simple tips I use to help overcome stage fright. 1) Get Familiar with the Playing Experience. Put yourself in performing situations – no matter how small or insignificant – as much as you can. For me, much of the “panic” that comes in these moments finds traction because it is an unfamiliar situation. I find that if I can play in that situation more than once the stage fright seems to diminish with the more familiar I get with the experience. You may be completely frozen to play at your local jam session but try to come right back again the next week and chances are you’ll find it will go much better for you. 2) Warm Up in the Same Place as the Performance. If possible, it helps me a great deal to get to the event very early and get a few moments on the stage, or wherever you will be playing, to get my guitar out and play a while. Just getting used to the feel and sound of the room takes a lot of these stress-inducing unknowns out of the equation. And the more time I get to be in the playing environment the more my nerves calm down. Leaving plenty of time to hang out before the gig acclimating to the environment seems to help. 3) Know Your Material Completely. Short-term memory is the first thing to go out the window when you’re nervous. Make sure you can play the song effortlessly. Be well practiced on the song you want to perform. You want to know the song so well you could play it in your sleep because in the heat of battle of performing your brain is going to have enough to deal with trying to manage the situation. You don’t want to have to rely on it to remember some tricky ending of the song that you worked out minutes before you perform. Remember, this is just guitar playing and you don’t need to be perfect. At the Guitar Gathering conference a few weeks ago Musicians Hall of Fame guitarist Will McFarlane said “Its just guitar playing, its not like I’m a doctor and if I mess up some guy never walks again.” Stage fright is a common experience that we all face. Use these simple tips to help you get back to enjoying making music Here is a wonderful article I came across about our brains and playing music. Here is the original link... MUSICIANS BRAINS STAY SHARP AS THEY AGE Here it is... Summary While it is known that practicing music repeatedly changes the organization of the brain, it is not clear if these changes can correlate musical abilities with non-musical abilities. The study of 70 older participants, with different musical experience over their lifetimes, provides a connection between musical activity and mental balance in old age. “The results of this preliminary study revealed that participants with at least 10 years of musical experience (high activity musicians) had better performance in nonverbal memory, naming, and executive processes in advanced age relative to non-musicians.” Introduction Changing one’s lifestyle may postpone the onset of problems connected with old age, like Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases cause cognitive changes like loss of memory, reasoning, and perception. Adequate rest and physical exercise as well as a lifelong habit of stimulating the mind are favorable for clear thinking in old age. Musical activities, undertaken throughout the lifetime, have an impact on one’s mental health during old age. This has been studied in this current research work. Practicing music for a number of years brings about certain changes in brain organization. Comparing the lucidity in old age of those pursued music related activities and those who didn’t may help to understand the effect of the music-related reorganization of brain on successful aging. Methods * Seventy healthy participants, aged between 60 and 83, were divided into three groups, based on their degree of involvement in musical activities, over their lifetimes. * The three groups were similar in average age, education, handedness, sex ratio, and physical exercise habits. * The first group, namely the non-musicians, never received any formal musical training. The second group, the low activity musicians, had one to nine years of training. The third, the high activity musicians, trained for more than 10 years and played regularly afterward. * All were tested for brain strengths such as memory, attention, and language prowess, using standardized tests. Their mastery on the use of language, ability to remember, and ability to express oneself were tested. Results * Verbal intellectual ability and learning, as well as recall of verbal information, were found to be similar across the three groups. * The high activity musicians were significantly better at performing tasks based on visual inputs. * Although language prowess seemed to be similar across the groups, the high activity musicians’ memory for words was significantly better than that of non-musicians. * The age at which musical training started affected visual memory, while the number of years of training affected non-verbal memory. Shortcomings/Next steps High activity musicians have a better chance of retaining certain mental abilities in old age; however, preexisting factors that may affect their choices have not been considered in this study. Social influences like motivation should be considered in future studies. Effects of musical training on verbal memory need to be analyzed further, by considering changes in brain organization that set in with age. A study on whether the effects of music are generalized or whether they affect only specific parts of the brain could also be undertaken. Conclusion Engaging in musical activity for most of one’s lifetime significantly helps remember names, and enhances nonverbal memory, the ability to work based on what one sees, and mental agility during old age. The habit of physical exercise, in addition to musical involvement, further adds to mental lucidity in old age. Starting musical training early and continuing it for several years have a favorable effect on metal abilities during old age. Musical training also seems to enhance verbal prowess and the general IQ of a person, although it is possible that people with higher IQ tend to pursue music more seriously. It is advisable to think about our lifestyles and change them accordingly to have a better chance at a healthy, clear-headed old age.

Steve on Session 4 Problems You aren't the first to vent about Session 4 and I'm sure you won't be the last... or even the last this week. I fully realize it is extremely frustrating ESPECIALLY for you who has already had some playing experience. Basic music reading is a wall that you are currently chipping away at. Behind that wall is a wealth of musical understanding that, up to this point, has eluded you. This isn't just Steve's little bit of sunshine and encouragement. It is a practical fact that I have seen worked out through player after player a thousand times over the years. Right now it seems extremely frustrating. Your fingers won't cooperate. Even though you've played these notes a thousand times, you struggle with getting your fingers to play them while you are reading the music. It's frustrating, tedious work that seems to be only yielding minuscule results that quickly evaporate the moment your concentration wanes. All of the notes, and now with added sharps and flats, your mind is spinning frantically to keep it all straight all the while while the voice inside of your head is saying "Forget this, it's not worth it. You can play fine without learning to read the notes. Besides all of the great players didn't read notes, why should you. In fact, you play better without reading the notes." Here are some quick tips... 1) Relax. There is no time limit. Session 4 usually takes at least twice the amount of time for the average student to conquer than the earlier sessions. Session 4 is the last stand for your basic music reading skills. If you can conquer it on the field here then everything else will fall into place. 2) Slow Down. Take the exercises and songs painfully slow. Shut the door so that no one hears. Swallow your pride and slow those exercises down until your brain can figure what the notes are and get your fingers to play them. Speed is not your friend or your goal in Session 4. Getting your fingers to cooperate with what your brain is telling them to do is the goal. 3) Play as much different music as possible. I recommend several resources in Session 4. I encourage you to get those. It's tremendously boring working through the same 3 exercises. Your brain needs to get practice in solving these problems in a variety of settings. I look forward to hearing a few weeks from now how you made it through Session 4. You've got a whole musical life ahead of you. Don't let your dreams of playing guitar better and understanding music better be stopped here at Session 4. Keep going. You'll get there. You're doing it. You are doing the hard, frustrating work of becoming a better guitar player. This is how it is done - one practice session at a time - one exercise at a time.

Finding your way in playing even if you have experience playing I believe you can do it too. In fact, I know you can do it. Here are some things I feel are going to help you get to your goals. I've been teaching lessons for way too long and if anything, I can say I've at least become knowledgeable about HOW people learn guitar - the process of learning guitar. I've literally taught thousands of lessons and I've walked numerous people with your similar playing goals and experiences through to guitar playing. Along the way I've found certain pitfalls and detours that will derail many people in your situation. Think of it like this. It's me and you on the bottom of the mountain. You want to get to the top. I've taken countless people to the top - it's what I do everyday (I'm a guitar playing sherpa). Since you have already done some mountain climbing, you feel confident that you have a pretty good idea of the way. I, as the sherpa guide, know that there are some unique challenges that you will face and can conquer if you just aren't enticed and fall into them. With that little story in your mind. Here is the pre-mountain climbing briefing from the sherpa. PUT YOUR PAST PLAYING EXPERIENCE AWAY... AT LEAST FOR A WHILE. I can say, for now, the best thing is to completely put away in your mind your past playing experience. To rely on it now is only going to confuse you, possibly derail you, and at best delay you getting to the top. Pretend you have never seen a guitar before and trust what I tell you and give you to do. Do the exercises, faithfully and seriously. Don't blow off anything thinking "This is baby stuff, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about." Now, on some things, your past playing experience will allow you to move more quickly. This is great. Just make sure that you are fully doing what I am asking you to do - not short cutting it. You may be able to move through the first sessions fairly quickly. BUT DON'T SKIP THEM OR BLOW THEM OFF. There are going to be concepts you are going to need in order to move further. After a while then the proper ground work will have been laid and then you can begin to incorporate some of the good from your old playing into your new playing. But at first, just trust me, and approach it as if you had never seen a guitar before. Trust me, it will go faster for you. Relying and comparing everything to your past playing will only confuse things and slow down your progress. FORGET YOUR BROTHER (or any Nay-Sayer). This is your journey. It's not going to look like his. Let me say that again. This is your journey. It is not going to look like his. In fact, your brother might very well be the one initially that is going to say to you things like... "So, you're taking a new course, well, I never learned from a course..." "What! He's teaching you how to read music. Real musicians don't read music. I've played for little clubs for years and I don't know how to read music..." "Look at this dumb little tunes your playing. This way is never going to get you anywhere. You're wasting your time." This is your race, not your brothers. Don't even tell him you are trying to learn how to play. It will only discourage you. Your goal is not to play like your brother. It's to be the best guitar player YOU can be. BE PATIENT. CONQUER THE "FOREST OF VOICES" Don't rush. Let yourself learn. Your first challenge will be to survive the walk through the "forest of voices". When you first start you will have a ton of voices in your head as you are playing these simple exercises and songs telling you that you are wasting your time and money and you will never learn how to play guitar this way. At times they will be deafening to you as you are struggling to play dumb songs like "Jingle Bells". The first trap you are going to encounter is the "forest of voices". They have derailed the guitar playing dreams of many. Don't listen to them. Just keep working. They will eventually be proved wrong, but in the mean time they can kill your dream. Be patient. Just keep working. Don't get trapped by them. CLIMB A LITTLE BIT EACH DAY. Practice a little each day. Build it into your routine. Some days you are going to feel like it, others not. Your "feelings" at this stage are no indication of your future success. Make it like brushing your teeth. 20 minutes at a set time that you go up and do the exercises - with or without "good feelings". Whether one particular practice time was a good practice time or a bad one doesn't matter. Just keep doing it - step by step, exercise by exercise, practice session by practice session. Eventually in a few weeks or month. You will musically, turn around as you are climbing and say "Wow, I really have come a long way." I look forward to working with you to get you to your goals.

Struggling on a Particular Session/Exercise/Lesson/Song 1) Why do I seem to be unable to breakthrough on this one task? It seems like even things I already know seem to fall apart in this one task. 2) What to do when you find yourself in this situation? WHY DO I SEEM UNABLE TO BREAKTHROUGH ON THIS ONE TASK? The short answer: You are at the far outer reaches of your ability. The long answer: If your brain was a CPU, it would be at about 98% of it's usage when you are playing Minuet in C. You're just maxing out it's ability to process all of the tasks. You can play the Notes in the First Position up and down no problem (Brain CPU Usage 60%). You can play rhythm exercises no problem (Brain CPU Usage 60%). But playing the notes up and down, changing direction, according to a specific rhythm that changes from line to line (Brain CPU Usage - Maxed Out!) When your brain gets maxed out it starts dropping things - things that when it is not maxed out it could handle. Think of it like this. Let's say I asked you to dance a simple repeated sequence of steps with your feet. - Easy Task. Or I could ask you to throw a ball up and catch it repeatedly - Easy Task. Or I ask you to say the alphabet back-wards skipping every other letter. - An obtainable task, but it requires a bit of concentration. Each of these tasks is completely within your realm of ability and each can be done relatively easily. But what if I asked you to do them all at the same time. Physically, it's very possible, but mentally, this would be pretty tricky to keep up with and the brain might could do it for a brief moment but eventually one of the otherwise easy tasks would get mixed up. So there is what's happening neurologically. Now, the good news is that your brain will grow rapidly in its ability to process all of these tasks. So... Today's impossible struggle is tomorrow's warm-up exercise. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THIS SITUATION? Occasionally, in your guitar learning journey, you are going to run into these "Wow, I just can't seem to get this." problems. Minuet in C might be the first you have come up against. But in a few months it might be something else - similar struggle, just a different name. Minuet in C, Barre Chords, Canon in D, Strumming, Pentatonic Scales - just fill in the blank with your "impossible struggle of the moment". What to do? 1) Break the song down into smaller pieces. Take the song and split it up into bite-sized pieces. Instead of wrestling through it from beginning to end, give your brain some time to work out the solutions to the musical problems in much smaller pieces. Start with 2 bar phrases. Just work on the first 2 bars. Once you can play them fairly securely, then move on to bars 3 and 4 and work those. Play bars 3 & 4 over and over until you can play those securely. Then go back and play bars 1&2 a few times to remind yourself how you did those and then try to add bars 3 & 4 to them playing bars 1-4. (Don't be surprised when you play bars 1&2 perfectly, and then play bars 3&4 perfectly, that when you put them together (bars 1-4) that something falls apart. See the first explanation above.) 2) Take it Slow. When you are working out the finger gymnastics of a particular passage, go slow - ridiculously slow - so that you can train your muscles to do what they need to do. Once you have the correct movements down and can play it perfectly (albeit slow) then play it over and over again. This will train your muscles in the proper coordination. Only once the muscles are comfortable in the proper moves can you begin to speed them up. If you try to play something faster than the muscle coordination can keep up, then you will always miss a note here and there. Slow things down to work out the muscle coordination and only then begin speeding the moves up gradually. 3) Work on the problem area for a while and then put your guitar down and go do something else. I don't know why this works, but I've seen this work time and time again. I'm working on something, banging my head against some musical problem, making frustratingly little progress. Then I'll put my guitar down and go play some basketball or something for a few minutes, then I come back to the problem and I can suddenly play through the hard section of the song, when I was previously unable to do so. It's like the brain needs some "cool down" time and once it comes back after a time of doing another task, it can now process the problem better. 4) If you just can't seem to make any progress after many practice sessions on the same musical problem and you are just getting frustrated and discouraged, then wipe the dust off your feet and move on. In your guitar learning journey you are going to occasionally run up against a song or musical problem that fits into this category. Don't let it stop your progress. There will be some songs or tasks that are going to take a long time to master. They can and will be mastered eventually, but it's just not going to happen in the normal course of practicing. I think barre chords for most people fits clearly into this category. They initially approach it as "Well, with a little bit of work, I'll get this. The last concept took 2 weeks to get, I'm sure this will be the same" And they don't realize they have come up against a "6 month" problem, not the normal "2 week" problem. The secret is to realize when something is a "6 month" problem and then move on to new smaller "2 week" challenges while still working on the "6 month" problem for a few minutes each practice session. Sorry to be so long-winded. It's the middle of night here in Nashville on a stormy night, with a stressful day ahead of me tomorrow, and I am having a bit of trouble sleeping so answering a few questions on the discussion board is just the trick to clear my head so that I can get back to sleep. I hope this helps. Don't be discouraged, confused, or frustrated. These problems are something you need to learn how to work with as you learn. All of these musical problems will get mastered eventually, it's just some problems require different tools. In no time you'll be on to other challenges and you'll flip back nostalgically a few pages in your book to good ole Minuet in C and play it perfectly the first time, smile and think to yourself "Wow, I remember when I thought I would never be able to play that." As you progress in your ability you will be able to look back and find more and more of those "impossible struggles" in your rear-view mirror. Keep Learning & Growing.

Where does this course lead us in Music understanding? Here is my overall goal for all of the music theory... So that you can stand up on a bandstand and look at a piece of music and understand... ...what key you are to play in ...how to play the melody of the song ...what chords are being used ...how you can elaborate on those chords as you play rhythm ...how you can create a solo over those chords That's my goal. To create a guitar player that can do those things. In order to do that I have to give you lots of pieces of information in the correct order to get you there. If I give you too little, you don't learn and get frustrated. If I give you too much, you don't learn and get frustrated. If I under-explain it, then you don't understand why something is meaningful. If I over-explain it too early, you get frustrated. So, getting the order correct is important as well as giving you the information in small enough bite-sized pieces so that you don't get overwhelmed. Over the course of my own teaching I've found that this particular order of information seems to work the best. And that is what I put in the course. Here is the basic flow of the Music Theory information. Session 2 - Music Reading Purpose: You've got to learn the language of music so that we can communicate. I can't talk to you or instruct you unless you can understand the language. Sessions 3-6 - Music Reading Practice Purpose: Lots of practice reading music and playing it on guitar. Session 7 - Major Scales Purpose: Scales are the building blocks for chords, chord harmony, soloing and everything else in music. In order to get to those we need to understand the structure of these melodic patterns. Session 8 - Keys & Key Signatures Purpose: Deriving from scales the specific patterns for all twelve keys. Session 9 - Intervals Purpose: To understand the various intervals in a scale and key. Session 11 - Pentatonic Scales & Major and Minor Roots Purpose: The pentatonic scale is a very helpful major scale variation that is constantly used in guitar playing. Also, understanding the unique and very helpful relationship between the Relative Major & Minor roots in a key. Session 12 - Beginning Chord Substitution Purpose: To introduce the idea that chords can be elaborated upon. I don't teach the theory here, just the application of it. Session 13 - An Altered Pentatonic Scale with Blues Notes, Triads Purpose: Showing how a pentatonic scale can be altered to create other scales and sounds. Also, it's very characteristic and helpful in blues. Purpose Triads: The building blocks of chord theory. How three-note chords are made and their types. Session 15 - Harmonized Major Scale Purpose: How chords relate to each other in a key. Session 17 - Seventh chords Purpose: How four-note chords are made. Session 18 - Chord Harmony Purpose: To show how chords and chord changes can be elaborated on. Session 20 - Advanced Chord Construction Purpose: To show how advanced chords are formed. I fully realize that some people learn more from just being told what to do and trusting the instructor to lead them the best way. And for others it is helpful to see some overall context in order to understand how to assimilate the information that is being given to them at any particular stage in the process. There are obvious points in the course where I just tell the learner to do this. In other words, I give the application before the understanding. With other concepts the understanding has to come first in order for the application to make sense. I hope this helps.

Hello all of you new learners! Tis the season for a wave of new people to join our guitar family. We're glad you're here. It's going to be a great year for you and your learning. Don't believe the nay-sayers. You can learn how to play guitar. I wanted to give you some advice. READY OR NOT, MOVE ON TO SESSION 2 AFTER TWO WEEKS IN SESSION 1. No matter what. Don't spend more than 2 weeks on Session 1. The purpose of Session 1 is to prepare you to learn. It gets your fingers toughened up and it gets them used to fingering the strings. The real learning starts in Session 2. Session 1 is the warm up. Session 2 is when you get out on the field. Many people start their learning journey and immediately get stuck by assuming that since they can't play everything absolutely perfect then they can't move on to Session 2. The purpose of Session 1 is not perfection. It is just to get your fingers toughened up and your motor skills working. DON'T WORRY ABOUT GETTING THE C & G7 CHORD PERFECT. Don't stress out about the C and G7 chords and how your fingers can't play all the notes or how they hit adjacent strings. I just gave them to you so that you would get the basic idea of how a chord is notated and what you need to play. If you can form the chord correctly and get your fingers in the right place then that's all of my goal for Session 1. Don't worry about all of the notes not sounding out clearly. This is due to your hand strength not being developed enough yet. By the time you get to Session 5 you will be able to play those chords just fine. PRACTICE A LITTLE BIT EACH DAY. REGULARITY IS THE MAIN THING, NOT COUNTING MINUTES It's not about counting minutes. At this stage, the goal is to get into the daily pattern of spending a few minutes with your instrument. You will get farther by playing 10 minutes each day than if you play 90 minutes on Sunday and then never play again for the rest of the week. DON'T STRESS OUT ABOUT ANYTHING AT THIS STAGE. Don't worry about how you sound or how good you think you should be. Or how frustrated you get with yourself at not being able to do something. Don't worry about any of that. Right now, you are a toddler trying to learn how to walk. I'm not expecting you to be doing the perfect Tango on Dancing with the Stars. Right now, in these early sessions, you are the little toddler that is pulling himself up on the coffee table and starting to take a few wobbly steps. Sure, you are going to fall. Falling is expected. Making mistakes and missing notes is expected. Making mistakes is no indication of your future ability. In Session 1, I am not concerned at all about perfection, and neither should you be. Just take a few minutes each day and do the exercises. Don't worry about "feeling" excited about it or not. Feelings will come and go - they are no indication of how you are doing. It doesn't matter whether you think yourself a musical person or not. Your view of yourself as musical or non-musical is no indication on how far you can go with guitar playing. Well, there are a few thoughts for you from someone who has walked many, many people through the journey that you are now on. I am confident that you can turn into a guitar player. The only person that can disqualify you at this point is you. Too many people way over-think the guitar learning process, especially at these beginning stages. Don't think and worry about it. Just do the exercises for a few minutes each day - whether you feel like it or not. It's like brushing your teeth. In a few weeks you will be playing things you never thought possible. I'm honored and proud to be your cyber-teacher.

initial question about chords. You touch on two quirky chord types that don't really follow the rules too well so I understand the confusion. DIMINISHED CHORD The diminished chord is a unique chord because all of the intervals within it are identical - a minor 3rd (or a Step and a Half). For example, in C, a diminished triad is C-Eb-Gb. The distance from C to Eb is a minor 3rd and the distance from Eb to Gb is also a minor 3rd. If we did the seventh version of the chord it would be C-Eb-Gb-Bbb(A). With the last interval Gb-Bbb(A) being another minor 3rd. To complete the circle, the distance from Bbb(A) to C is also a minor 3rd. Think of it as a musical repeating number. OK, armed with this information, let's get back to your question about the difference between a triad diminished chord and the seventh diminished chord. In almost every musical situation that I can think of, a B diminished triad (B-D-F) and a four note (adding the diminished seventh) version (B-D-F-Ab) would be musically interchangeable. I guess our ear doesn't have a problem with this because of the nature of the repeating intervals. So, in real music, I can use the triad and seventh chord versions interchangeably. SUSPENDED CHORDS Suspended chords and Suspended 7th chords create a similar musical exception. Typically, in everyday music, a suspended chord is used in either of two ways. 1) The suspended chord works on the V chord in a key (the dominant) and then resolves to the I chord as in the progression... Asus - D. 2) The suspended chord is used on the I chord as a variation of the I chord as in the progression... D - Dsus - D. When using the suspended chord as the V chord in a key, then it is perfectly fine to add the 7th step into the suspended chord making an Asus (A-D-E) into an Asus7 (A-D-E-G). This works because the V chord in a key includes the dominant seventh. So, in the key of D an Asus and an Asus7 could be used interchangebly. But, when using the suspended chord as a variation of the I chord as in example 2 (D-Dsus-D) you wouldn't want to substitute in the Dsus7. When using the suspended chord as a variation of the I, you generally use just the triad versions of both. D (D-F#-A) and Dsus (D-G-A). I hope this helps.

Suspended chords come in a couple of different flavors and they can be used in a variety of ways to create pleasing sounds. Let's delve deep into the darkness of the trench of music theory. (Actually, it's not too dark where suspended chords live. Now, atonal music, quartal harmony, and 12 tone rows - that's enough to make any music major shiver.) Although I don't know the musical history of suspended chords, here is what they do. You are basically "suspending" or adjusting the third of the chord either up or down. When you adjust the 3rd down from it's normal 1-3-5 form, then it makes it a 1-2-5. The 1-2-5 combination of notes creates a very "open" sound that, as John said, is neither major or minor sounding. What determines a happy "major" sound and what determines a sad "minor" sound is the 3rd of the chord. But the 1-2-5 omits the 3rd, thus neutralizing the major or minor sounding tonality. The 1-2-5 chord in the key of C would be C-D-G. This combination of notes is called many things Cadd2, Csus2, or more commonly C2. What in the real world are C2's good for? I'm glad you asked. They are great for chord substitutions. Since they are neither major or minor then they work equally as well in either tonality to provide an open sounding chord. The other type of sus chord would involve suspending the 3rd up one note to get 1-4-5. This chord, like the other, is neither major or minor in sound. BUT, and this is a big but, this chord does not sound settled. This chord WANTS TO RESOLVE. It could resolve to a major or to a minor. In music there is tension and resolution - with infinite degrees of variation of each. There are chords that lead to other chords and then there are chords of finality or resolution. This constant pulling and tugging musically is what makes chord changes interesting. Diminished & Augmented chords are chords of tension that scream out to be resolved. You don't end a song on a diminished chord or an augmented chord. Back to suspended chords, suspended chords want to resolve. I could go on much more here but I'll stop. These 1-4-5 chords can be notated Csus or Csus4. In the common guitar vernacular Csus is used more commonly. When the seventh is added to our triad you get 1-4-5-b7. This suspended dominant seventh chord is very common. So, common that the names are used interchangebly. Most often suspended chords are used as the V chord in any key that would resolve to the I chord. And a Gsus7 going to a C would be a great example of this. So, since suspended chords are most often used on the V chord in any key then, to add the seventh to the sus chord, is almost so common as to be understood. So, when I am using the chord in this way and it is notated as a Gsus, it is quite customary to add the b7 making it a Gsus7. I hope this helps.

On Soloing and Scales I am learning the pentatonic scales & soloing and I am a bit confused with key signatures. The way I understand it the notes in the C scale are C, D, E, G & A. So, if I a song is in the key of C does that mean I can only play these notes around the fretboard? Or does it include the notes that are in say the D scale as well for example F#. I have an amp that will play a loop in a given key, but I am not sure what notes I can use. It does not seem right that I can only use five notes. You raise a great question. Here's the deal. You are correct, the pentatonic scale in C major is C-D-E-G-A. The major scale in C or the C major scale is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. In any key, the major scale in that key represents all of the "safe" notes to play. So, if the song is in C, then if I stay within the notes of the C major scale as I solo, I'll, for the most part, have no problem creating a good musical solo that works. Now the pentatonic scale represents a subset of the major scale that only includes the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th steps. Think of these as the "safest" of the safe notes. So, if the song is in C major with chords like C - Am - F - G, and I really wanted a good easy way to sound good soloing then I would stick with the C major pentatonic scale. I am dumbing down the musical theory behind this quite a bit. I realize that there is actually a lot more to it than this. Each chord in the chord progression represents a collection of notes. If I work these various collections of notes in as I solo over the particular chord changes then my solo sound more musically interesting and that it is moving somewhere. But it would all stay in the key of C, not any other key. If I suddenly played a D scale with F#'s and C#'s being emphasized while the band was playing their song in C, then I would sound wrong. But let me answer the larger issue that you raise about what notes can I use as I solo. The short answer is that you can use any note you want - all 12 notes. The trick is making the right choices to go over the right chords at the right time. Think of it this way. When you are just starting to learn how to draw, you get the small crayola box with 5 colors (the pentatonic scale). You have a lot of fun but after a while you notice that all of your pictures look pretty similar because they are only using 5 colors. So, in your quest for a bit more variety, you get the box with 8 colors (the major scale). You realize that you have some more colors to choose from but you also have to be a bit more careful about when you use some colors because in some situations they work but in others they don't work as well. When you were just starting, it was ok for a tree to be red but as you gain more understanding you realize it's better for a tree to have a brown trunk and green leaves. And musically, when you were just starting it was OK, to play the C major pentatonic over a G7 chord, but actually it is better to use the F and B notes to make the G7 sound more accurate. So, as you figure that out through experimentation and knowledge of chords and colors, you want to expand a bit more so we get a few more colors added to our box when we start adding blues notes. You learn about shading some of the notes and colors you already have. Until finally we end up with a complete box of 12 crayons and then we can create a Monet masterpiece of a solo with all kinds of nuance and shading and subtlety. Now, of course, it doesn't mean that all notes are equal in their importance. Obviously, the notes in the key are going to be your pillars of tonality. So, if I am in the key of C and I play a G whole note, it's generally going to sound correct (because a G is in the key of C). But if I play an F# whole note, I will definitely sound wrong. (because it is not in the key of C) But that doesn't mean I could never use an F# in the key of C. Let's say, if I want to get from an F to a G, and I dance for a second on the F# on my way from the F to the G that it wouldn't sound perfectly fine - even hip. So, you can use any note but the trick is knowing which notes work and which ones don't at any point in time. I hope this helps and that I haven't confused you even further. You are certainly able to use more notes in soloing than just the pentatonic scale. I just introduced it that way because it is an easy place to start to learn how to solo. Sorry for the long answer. Keep Learning and Growing!

On Soloing and Pentatonic Scales I have managed to reach session 11 and understand the 5 pentatonic forms. However, that is also where I got seriously confused. I am unable to relate pentatonic scales with actually playing solo. Consolation is I do understand the relationship between major roots and the forms but am still unable to relate with playing. For example, for track 17 for the Jam Along CD, what is the significance of these A7, D7 chords? How do I play with 1st form with the chords? Also, do I have to start hitting the minor roots first (A) or can I start with major roots ©? How do I relate the major or minor roots with a song? The song A Minor Pentatonic Blues on pg. 66 of the lesson book is basically an A blues. I suggested that you play an A minor pentatonic scale through the whole song (over all of the chord changes) because I wanted you to hear how you can use one scale as a basis to solo from for a whole song. When I use the minor pentatonic scale over what would normally be a major root, I end up with this "bluesy" sound which works well when I want to get that sound. Since the song is a blues in A, I used it here in this example. So I was able to get a bluesy sound by using the A Minor pentatonic scale over the A7 (and other) chords. Now, I can use the Major Pentatonic over those chords as well. For example, using an A Major pentatonic over the A7 chords. This works completely fine, although you will notice that I lose the "bluesy" sound". I can also try to skip between the scales based on the various chords. For example, playing an A pentatonic scale for the A7 chord, a D pentatonic scale for the D7 chord, and an E pentatonic scale over the E7 chord. This is a completely valid way to approach it but you have to skip between scales pretty quick so it doesn't lend itself to being able to solo over very easily. Now, let me address the second part of your question. How do I transfer my knowledge of how to play a scale into something that works for a solo instead of sounding just like I am playing the scale. Well, that is a bit more complicated. Let me put it this way. An English teacher can teach you the alphabet and letters but it is up to you to put together a story. That's how it is with scales. The scales are just the alphabet. But scales, by themselves, aren't very interesting. Here are some ideas to get your soloing started. 1) Pick just a couple of notes from the scale, not the whole scale and try to make something musical happen with it. Just start with two notes. Then maybe add a third. These are musical baby steps. 2) Once you have gotten a couple of ideas. Try them in different octaves, then maybe add a fourth note. 3) Try bending a couple of your notes. Listen to what notes sound good bent and which ones don't work as well. 4) Try some different rhythms. Repeat some notes or hold some out. The key that takes you from playing scales into making a solo is called experimentation. Sometimes it is frustrating, sometimes it is exhilarating, but it always takes effort. So, take a few minutes of your daily practice time to start experimenting. Keep up the great work!

On Key Signatures Hopefully, I can try to clear up some of your confusion. I did a post on the old discussion board which I found after some searching that explains key signatures pretty well. Here it is... It seems like the concepts of accidentals and key signatures are just a little more prone to confusion. In a nutshell, here it is. Sharps or Flats for Just One Note. If I just need an accidental (sharp or flat) for one particular note in a specific measure, then I just put the accidental on just that note. It stays in affect for rest of that measure and then resets back to normal. Sharps of Flats for the Whole Song If I want for all of the notes in a whole song to have the same accidental then instead of writing it on every occurance of that note through the whole song I just put it in the key signature which appears beteen the treble clef and the time signature on the first line and then after the treble clef on every remaining line of music. Examples So, for example, if I just want one "F#" (as in the second full measure of Greensleeves on Pg 42) then I just put the sharp by the "F" and then it resets back to normal at the end of that measure. But, if I want all of the "F"'s to be sharped then, I put a sharp sign in the key signature as in The Banana Boat Song on pg 42. Then all the "F"'s are sharped for the entire song automatically and I don't need to put a sharp next to each individual "F". Key Signatures Now, that is the general difference in the two uses, but now that you are farther along it's time to explain a little more about key signatures. Key signatures mean a little more than just affecting certain notes with sharps and flats. The notes that are sharped and flatted in a key signature are not as random as they might first appear. The specific sharps and flats used in a key signature are derived from the major scale of any key. They correspond to the major scale. For example, you wouldn't ever see sharps and flats in the same key signature because major scales don't mix sharps and flats in the same scale. A major scale is a pattern of whole steps and half-steps. You can start on any of the twelve different notes and if you follow the pattern of whole steps and half steps for a major scale then you will end up with the major scale in that key. In order to get the correct pattern of whole-steps and half-steps for a major scale you will need to sharp or flat certain notes along the way. So, for each of the twelve major scales, you will end up deriving twelve different combinations of accidentals in the key signatures. Some keys will end up using sharps, some will use flats, and one of the twelve keys requires no adjusting of the notes. The key of C does not need any of the notes to be adjusted in order to create a major scale so the key signature appears blank. The pattern of whole-steps and half-steps to make a major scale is described on pg.45. In the key of C, all of the notes work out with none of them needing a sharp or flat in order for the pattern to be created. But in the key of G, all of the notes work until you get to "F". The "F" needs to be a whole step above the "E", according to the pattern. And an "E" and an "F" are only a half-step apart. So, in order to make a whole step between them then I need to push the "F" one step farther up from the "E", by adding a sharp to it, making it an "F#". So, we would say that the key of G has one sharp in it, an "F#", as in the Banana Boat Song. Sorry about the long explanation. I hope this helps. Keep working on understanding all of this. What seems frustrating and illogical now will eventually become clear as you understand them better and work with them. Keep going! - Steve Krenz[/quote] On Minor and Major Pentatonic Scale Usage I noticed in the soloing part in learning pentatonic scales you had me use the Am pentatonic scale and yet the blues song was written in A7. I did fine and it sounded great. However, just by me myself looking at it I would have thought I would have used the A major pentatonic scale since the song was in a major key and not a minor key. Can you explain? OK, here's the scoop on using the minor pentatonic over what would seem to be a major chord progression. It's all about the sound that the particular scale creates when played over specific combinations of chords - and what sound are you going for. In most songs, it's pretty straight forward. If the song is in A major, with chords like A, D, F#m and E7, then you can use the A major pentatonic scale to achieve a good "safe" collection of notes to solo over. And the same thing is true in minor. If you have a song filled with chords like Am, Dm, and an occasional E7, then you are pretty solidly in A minor. So, dust off the A minor pentatonic and it will work fine. But here in your example of the A Blues we have a musical grey area between major and minor. You can still use an A major pentatonic to solo over the top of it and it will work fine - nothing will clash but you will be missing the "bluesy" character to the notes. And it's that bluesy character, brought on by certain note choices, that gives the Blues that characteristicly blues sound. But if you use an A minor pentatonic scale over the A blues progression filled with A7, D7 and E7, then it adds those bluesy sounding notes like the flatted third, C, in the key of A and the flatted seventh note, G. And then you sound like a blues player. Add the minor pentatonic scale, a couple of lines about "my woman done left me" and some dark sunglasses and you're ready to officially become a blues guitar player. (But of course you need to change your name from Denny to Blind Lemon Denny in order to get the full effect.) You can substitute the minor pentatonic scale for the major pentatonic scale any time that you want to achieve this bluesy sound. Let's say your song is in G, with chords like G - Em - C - D. You can play the G major pentatonic scale, but if you wanted to sound bluesy you could play a little bit in G minor pentatonic to hit those blues notes. But be careful, don't substitute the minor pentatonic scale for the major pentatonic in just every major chord progression you find. It doesn't work in all musical situations. If you are playing a pretty slow song with your band as you are serenading your sweetheart, and you slip in the minor pentatonic, you are going to sound dumb and musically out of touch with what the song is needing. But, on the other hand, if the marquis says, "Blind Lemon Denny and his all star blues band" appearing tonight then I would play the minor pentatonic scale all night long no matter what song was on. But, all kidding around aside, I would encourage you to experiment with it a little bit. Try approaching a solo from the major pentatonic scale over the A Blues changes and then try it again using the minor pentatonic scale and hear how the sound changes. Your ear will start to tell you when it is appropriate to throw in the minor pentatonic scale into an otherwise major chord progression. I hope this helps. Keep up the great work

Bracing with the Pinky Here are some thoughts on the pinky bracing. The big idea of bracing your pinky is to give your picking hand some stability and a reference point for determining the distances between all of the different strings as you pick them. Through my teaching experience, I have found that, in general, bracing with your pinky tends to help beginners find the strings better when they first start out. If they don't brace somehow then you end up with a lot of avoidable frustration at missed strings. So, I generally teach complete beginners the bracing of the pinky just to make it easier on them. I have found that, like training wheels on a bicycle, after they become a bit more proficient of a player that they will quite unconsciously tend to brace less and less some will eventually find some other more comfortable way to play. When you are strumming chords, there is no need to brace at all with your pinky. Bracing with your pinky is really for developing stability when playing single notes. You can move your pinky around as you play if that is comfortable for you. Actually, I have found that what I do is lightly touch the first string with my pinky as I play (any other string but the first string) and just let it slide around on the first string as it needs to while I play. And when I need to play the first string I tend to angle my wrist so that the fleshy part of my palm at the base of my thumb is resting on the lower strings (6th, 5th, 4th) and this gives me the stabilty I need to play the higher strings (3rd, 2nd, and 1st). Also, an additional advantage is that it mutes the lower strings from ringing unintentionally. I was never taught to do this, it just happened quite naturally. But this way is a little complex to teach a beginner so I just generally go with the bracing of the pinky which most people seem to do just fine with. So that's the idea. Use pinky bracing when you're just learning how to play, let's say through the first four sessions. And then after that, use it when you need it. Don't use it on chords and strumming. Bracing is there to help you, not confine you. If you find that you're playing single notes pretty well and now it just bothers you to brace, try going without or finding some other way to brace with your hand. I hope this helps. Keep up the great work everyone!

On Miss-Fires aka Missing strings I'm just starting out. When I try to hit one note or fret, I end up hitting the one next to it or perhaps the string down or up from the string I am intending to hit. What can I do? Is this normal? First, don't worry. This is completely normal at this stage. (It's actually a pretty short phase that you are in. The left hand mis-fires should settle down in a couple of weeks, usually). There are actually two parts of this problem. Your fretting hand is figuring out its spacial relationships to the frets and strings and your picking hand is figuring out its spacial relationships to the soundboard and the strings. Think of it like this. You have got two new kids on the assembly line job. Sometimes one of them will mess up, sometimes the other, sometimes both. And sometimes, with great effort, you can get them both to do a good job and "voila" you pick the right string and finger the right fretted note and music is born! These sort of misfires occur when your fretting hand is not familiar enough with the fretboard. Your mind knows where your finger should go, the trouble is getting your finger to cooperate and getting it to fret the note specifically enough to find the sweet spot. Also some of the misfires tend to occur from picking the wrong string. Let's say your trying to hit the second string and you accidentally strike the third string. This will also settle down as you gain more familiarity with the picking hand. Here are some things to help. For Fretting Hand Misfires - For a while, look at your hands while you try to play the note. (At least for a while. You eventually want to wean yourself off of looking at your hands but for now while you are working on this, go ahead and look at your hands until your fingers have a pretty good idea where to fret the note. And then try playing the song that you have been working on without looking. Sure, you'll have a few bobbles - that's to be expected. For Picking Hand Misfires - I suggest playing all the notes you know in order ascending and descending. Let's say you are in Session 2, then play B-C-D-E-F-G. This would be ascending and would take you over the two strings. Then do it descending, G-F-E-D-C-B. Up and Down B-C-D-E-F-G, G-F-E-D-C-B. Do this several times every time you sit down to play. Look at your hands at first, then try not looking. Say the notes as you play them. When you get to Session 3 and add the G-A then add them to this exercise, i.e., G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G, G-F-E-D-C-B-A-G. When you get to the fourth string notes, then add them. D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G, G-F-E-D-C-B-A-G-F-E-D. And so on. Do this every time you sit down to play. As with everything, it will be difficult at first and you'll make a lot of mistakes, then after a few times it will get a little easier. When you add a few more notes, then you will have to struggle again, but you'll eventually get it. That's how learning is. Patient climbing. About 3 steps forward. A new challenge comes, then it's one step back. Then three more hard fought steps forward and so on. Just don't get discouraged. Misfires are normal at this stage. You'll get it. Just keep going, you'll get there. Thanks for letting me be a part of the process with you.

On Simplified Chords Hello all, The reason I put the simplified chords in the bonus resources book is for the people that may struggle with the full version of the chords at these early stages. Neither one of them is more "correct" than any other. A chord is just a collection of notes. A three note C chord on a guitar is just as much a C chord as if a whole orchestra plays it. So the difference comes down to the "sound" you are going for. Sometimes when I am in the studio, it is amazing at how just the simplest combinations of tones will fit so nicely into a track. I suggest not getting too confused by it all. If you are on Session 2 or 3 then just focus in on learning the single notes for now and the chords will become a lot clearer by the time you get to Session 5 when chords are officially introduced.

Let me touch on the chord naming confusion. Are chords named loosely? No. Generally, if they are notated with care, then they are accurately represented. If they say a Cmaj9 then they are very specifically wanting a Cmaj9, not a Cmaj7. But sometimes, chord notes are so strongly implied that they will not be spelled out exactly. For example, if I am in Dm and I see a common chord progression of Emin7(b5) to an Aaug. It is very strongly implied that the Aaug is actually an Aaug7 with the added G. Because it is so customary in this scenario that the Aaug is functioning as the dominant which would include the seventh note (G) in the chord. This is just one example of a little bit of ambiguity that is built into the system. Now, a similar problem occurs with Diminished chords. When you see a diminished chord it is almost always OK to include the Seventh step (actually the double-flatted seventh step) to the chord. For example, If I see a Dbdim chord, then I almost instictively would be expected to include the Cbb (or enharmonically Bb) into the chord. Even though, technically the chord name is only telling us that the chord is a triad. That's why a Bb sounds good in a Db dim chord. But if they didn't want the Bb in there and wanted the Cb or B instead then they would have to tell you to play a Db half-dim 7. But if it is just a Db dim or any diminished chord then it is strongly implied (unless you are playing some Bach classical music piece or something from that time) that you are going to include the 7th step to the triad (actually the double-flatted seventh step. Sorry for the confusion, but that's the way it is. If the music says that they want an Fmaj13, then you have to play an Fmaj13. But if it says to play an Fdim, then you can play an Fdim but you can play an Fdim7 and be just as correct. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slug and Jsignal, Can any note of the dimished chord (1-b3-b5) or the fully diminished seventh chord (1-b3-b5-bb7) be the root? The answer is Yes. Any note of a Diminished chord can serve as the chords root. Because you have stumbled upon a musical repeating number. Think of it like this. Let's look at a D diminished chord. The notes in the chord are D-F-Ab-Cb (or (1-b3-b5-bb7) So this chord is a D diminished but it is also a B diminished... and a D diminished... and an F diminished... and an Ab diminished. You see, a diminished chord is actually a collection of intervals - all minor 3rd intervals. So, if I switch the notes around I get B-D-F-Ab. Since all of these notes are the identical interval from each other, they have an unusual relationship to each other. Think of it like a repeating number in math. So this chord is just as much a D diminished as it is an Ab diminished. It's wierd but that is the wonderful magic of diminished chords. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Slug, as far as your initial question about how to use diminished chords. Here are the main ways that diminished chords are used in chord progressions. 1) As a transition chord. Diminished chords are a great way to approach any chord. Diminished chords are so unstable harmonically you would rarely ever want to just land on a diminished chord and hold it. Usually they are used as stepping stones to get to another chord. And usually the resolution chord is a half-step up from the diminished chord's root. For example, If I want to get from a C to a Dm, I could slip a C#dim in between them for a smooth, jazzy transition to the Dm chord like this... C - C#dim - Dm. It also works for major chords as well. For example I could go from an F to a G by squeezing in an F#dim between them creating F - F#dim - G. Diminished chords can function as an approaching chord for any chord, major or minor. Just go one half-step down from the chord you are going to and play the diminished chord. This works as a simple, effective, jazzy transition to any chord. 2) Diminished chords can also serve as a substitute for a Dominant seventh chord with a flatted ninth. OK, hang on to your theory hats. Lets say my progression is Dm - G7(b9) - C. Well, the notes in a G7 (b9) are G-B-D-F-Ab (1-3-5-b7-b9). If you take out the G of this chord, the notes left are B-D-F-Ab which are the exact notes of a B diminished chord. So, if I'm soloing with my jazz quartet and I come across the progression Dm - G7 - C then I would probably turn the Dm into a Dm7, then turn the G7 into a G7(b9) and then play B diminished licks and chords everywhere on my way to the C. It's just a real effective jazz soloing trick. Anyway, sorry about the long post. But I hope this helps.

On Most common Keys Yes, you can use an Am pentatonic scale over the key of A Major (3 sharps). And you will get... a Bluesy kind of sound. Minor pentatonic scales used in their corresponding Major keys will give you a Bluesy sort of sound. Because you are emphasizing the flatted 3rd and flatted seventh of the key. (I cover this in more detail in the Blues Session on the DVD's) So, when you are in a major key like A Major (3 sharps) you are faced with a choice... 1) If you want to sound Major then play an A Major pentatonic (also called the F#minor pentatonic) 2) If you want to put a little "stank" on your playing and sound bluesy, then use the A Minor pentatonic scale (also called the C Major pentatonic). As far as your initial question about what keys are the most common. Here are some observations from what I have experienced in my professional playing career. 1) You as a real musician need to be prepared to play in any key at any time. One of my greatest advantages I think I have over the average guitar player is because I never learned to favor open guitar keys like E, A, D or G. Nor did I learn to fear more heavily accented keys like Db or F#. I think it must have been because I was taught by a jazz guitarist and we quite routinely did things in all sorts of keys. And in my early playing I did a lot of duo work with various other instruments (Guitar & Sax) (Guitar & Violin) so you just played in whatever key that goes good for them. 2) Overall, you are going to see more songs in C than probably in any other key. Next it would be the key of F or G. 3) Different instruments prefer various keys because they just land better on the instrument. 4) Good Open Guitar Keys are ones that open chords work well in like the keys of G, D, A, or E. Most Country songs tend to be in these keys. 5) Most Jazz Songs tend to favor Flat Keys like F, Bb, or Eb. 6) In Gospel music, very flat keys are quite common like Db, Gb, or Ab. (But I have played with Gospel organ players who can just rip brilliantly when the song is in Db, but when the next song comes up in a good sharp key like B, they just fumble around and eventually put their hands down.) 7) Lots of recent Rock songs are in B or F#. I think this is because it is quite common to tune their guitars down a half a step to get a more jangly and raw sound. The key is to eventually know your barre chords and other moveable forms so well that it is not that big of deal to change to non-guitar friendly keys at the drop of a hat. A CLASSIC STORY Here is a classic story I have about that. I was playing a big event one time in an arena (I think in Dallas). It was my first time playing for this group but I was recommended in by my friend who was their normal keyboard player. We get driven to the arena mid afternoon to sound check with the 1000 voice mass choir and the main singers. The music director who is perched 30 yards from me at the very front of the stage is conducting us all and taking us through the songs for the night. After numerous songs that I didn't know and inadequate charts to read music from, he finally called up a familiar song that I had played before. I thought "Great, the song starts in Em and the piano has the intro. At last something easy." Just before he counts off the song, the music director's voice echoes throughout the arena and he looks at me and says "OK, let's take this one down a half step and have the guitar play the intro. Here we go. One, Two, Three..." And that was it. That was all the warning I got to fumble through the intro in Eb minor in front of everyone. This was the big leagues and that was my introduction to it. Well, I did the best I could and by show time I was ready. The ability to switch between keys is a great advantage that you can have as a guitar player. Keep Learning and Growing!

On Chords and Single notes in same song Question 1 - Pg.15 Jingle Bells Chords - How long is each chord in effect? You are correct in your assumption about when to change the chords. A chord written above the music stays in effect until another chord written above the music replaces it. So a chord may be good for just a few beats or for many measures of music. So, in Jingle Bells on pg. 15 the initial C chord in the first measure stays in effect for 4 entire measures until it is replaced with the G7 chord in the 5th measure. Then the G7th chord is good for just 4 beats (1 measure) and then it is replaced by the C chord and so on. Question 2 - Pg. 21 When The Saints Go Marchin In - Pickup Notes & When to Change Chords When the Saints Go Marchin in starts with 3 pickup notes in the first measure. These pickup notes are in the melody part. The accompaniment chord part starts on the G in the second measure. So for those first three notes in the melody line, there is nothing happening in the accompaniment. The chordal accompaniment doesn't start until after those three notes are played and we get to the second measure and then the accompaniment part plays the G chord and goes from there. Once you get to the second measure and the chordal accompaniment starts with the G then normal chord change rules apply. In other words, keep playing the G chord until it gets replaced by the D7 in the second line. Think of it like this. There are two things going on - the melody and the chords. Up until this point in the course, these two elements are in effect at the same time. But occasionally you might have a situation like we found in When The Saints Go Marchin In, where the melody plays a few pickup notes with no chords going on. You can also have the opposite situation, where the chordal accompaniment plays for a while before the melody comes in. Like when you have someone playing an intro for a few measures before a singer comes in sing the melody. I hope this clears things up a bit for you. Chords and melodies and how they work together are pretty easy to understand once you understand how the two partners dance together. They mostly dance together, but occasionally one can dance without the other. Chords and melodies are pretty easy. Figuring out the occasional frustrating problems with our friendly discussion board is a little more complicated. I sincerely apologize on behalf of "all that should work like it is supposed to" about your problems with our discussion board. I actually was told several days ago of one particular account that had such mysterious problems that the computer programmer guys had to be called in to sort it all out. It's nice to meet you through this thread. Of all of the recent problems that we have had with the boards, yours has been the worst - through no fault of your own. All of our normal fixes didn't work on your account when we tried to link the information properly. I sincerely apologize and I am glad that you had the patience and perseverance to keep trying to be a part. (To the rest of you who might be reading this, Lupe has been through a several week long and frustrating process trying to get here to this board - such tenacity to learn will surely help anyone get the results they desire on guitar.) Now that you're here I hope you find this place to be a very encouraging and supportive place with some of the best people I have found in this sometimes frustrating cyber world. On the ends of this all of these computer screens and servers are really a guitar player with a heart for teaching and a learner wanting to learn. I'm glad that we've connected. Maybe someday we can figure out why some server somewhere insists that you joined in 1969. Until then, thanks for letting me be a part of your learning process.

On Playing 3notes on a string

Giving up on Yourself This has been stirring in me for a while so I thought I would get some thoughts down. Here are things that I hear daily... "I've got short and stubby fingers, I guess I'll never be able to play chords real well." "My hand is too small and I can't get my fingers to stretch where they need to be, I guess I'll just have to live with my limited motion and adjust my guitar learning aspirations accordingly." "I tried barre chords for a whole day and I just can't get them, I guess I'm just not cut out for the guitar." And within the first few days of trying to learn guitar, many reason themselves out of a bright and productive future playing guitar. Johnny Hiland has the shortest, stubbiest fingers I have ever seen yet he plays with a grace and facility like I have never seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYkv5mcqevw Phil Keaggy is missing a finger on his picking hand and yet he plays Fingerstyle brilliantly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3iSiij98VY Django Reinhardt was badly burned and lost use of his 3rd & 4th finger on his fretting hand. He used only 2 fingers to solo with, and could only use the others for some limited chord work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iJ7bs4mTUY Tony Melendez has no arms at all and still plays. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuIkrsdrJLY My point with all of this is that we give up on ourselves way too easily. You can do more than you think you currently think you can. At the first point of difficulty, we make the mistake of rationalizing in our mind that "I guess I'm just one of the unlucky ones who won't be able to play well." If you want to play, you will find a way to play. Your fingers will limber up but it's going to take some time. Sure it's not going to work right now, just keep working at it. Trust the process. And in a few weeks of some faithful exercises and you'll start to get some more mobility. Your fingers may seem too fat and stubby to fit in between the strings, but give it a little time and they will start to find the sweet spot and soon you'll be playing great. Barre chords are difficult for everyone and sometimes they take weeks or months to blossom. It takes time to develop the hand muscles needed to play. But you'll get there. These are not just ramblings from a rampant encourager. These are the real-world observations of a guitar instructor who has walked thousands of people through the difficulties that you now face. Don't give up too soon. Many people give up a couple of weeks too soon, not realizing that clear sounding barre chords are just a week or two away. Stop measuring yourself by instant results. Real learning takes time. Be patient. Don't over-analyze things. Just trust the process. Many people wrestled with the same things that you are currently struggling with and have made it to the other side. You can too. Your fanatically encouraging teacher

1) The Importance of Guitar Setup. - Yes, Yes, Yes. When learning barre chords the first stop is the local music shop to get your guitar and its action properly adjusted and a set of light strings put on. Once barre chords are learned you can go to whatever guage of strings you like. 2) Holding the Guitar with your body leaving the fingers to do the actual playing. - Yes, Yes, Yes. This is good advice for any guitarist. When standing let your strap hold the guitar. When sitting let your lap hold the guitar and your right arm and elbow cradle it into a stable position. Your fingers have enough to worry about apart from holding the guitar. Also, avoid hanging your left hand thumb over the top of the neck like a hook. This also will impede your playing and is a lazy man's way of playing. 3) Where the Strength for Barre Chords comes from. OK, he lost me a little bit here but I think overall its a valid point. We both are describing the muscles to be used and not used when playing barre chords - his perspective (relax your back, keep your first finger straight, pull the barring finger) and my perspective ( keep your first finger straight as an arrow, lower your wrist, the strength is coming from your first finger not the squeezing muscles between the thumb and index finger). I think both of these perspectives are really looking at the same thing from different angles. For me, I don't really think of it so much as a back issue as much as a finger strength issue but I see where he is coming from and I don't really disagree with his observations. Muscle movements are very difficult things to easily describe in words. This is one of those times that a picture, or video would be a whole lot clearer than trying to put descriptions of muscle movements into words. His description does tend to make it sound a bit more complex than I personally think it needs to be. Sometimes when you have to think about a dozen things to get a movement it has an unintended negative consequence of tensing up all of your muscles as you perform the motion because you are just having to concentrate on so many things. However, I don't really think of it as "pulling" the barring finger back onto the neck using the arm muscles (the force coming from the arm). I think of it more as pushing the barring finger agains the fretboard (the force coming from the barring finger). 4) The Advantages of not using the squeezing muscles. I heartily agree with his observations here. When your hand is busy "sqeezing" to get the power needed for a barre chord it tenses up all of the muscles as well as the fingers and this tension will impede your playing. 5) Using the wrist when picking. Yes and No. "Yes", you do use the wrist but "no" it is not the only motion in the mix. From his perspective as a non-pick using guitarist, I see where he is coming from when he says that all of the motion needed for good strumming comes only from the wrist - this is, of course when coming from a classical perspective, how he would see it. But I think that when using a pick and strumming aggressively that the up and down arm motion is used in conjunction with the twisting motion of a relaxed wrist. If I had an evening's worth of hard strumming ahead of me on a steel string acoustic and I was told I couldn't move my arm, my wrist would tense up, work hard and eventually die after about an hour or so. The strumming motion is a fluid motion combining several elements. I bet Tiger Woods's golf swing is not 100% arm motion with no flexibility in the wrists. I would think it would be a melding of many smaller motions, joints, and flexibilities to create an overall highly productive larger motion. Let me also say that some of the posts about rolling your barring finger slightly to the side when playing a barre chord is exactly what I do. My finger remains straight but I roll it slightly off center to get a more even barring surface. When I come straight on the fretboard, the natural ridges in my finger because of the joints seem to come right where the strings need the pressure so rolling my finger ever so slightly off center helps make a more even barre. Wow, that's more technical information than anyone should have to think about when trying to have fun playing guitar. Technique is very important but it is not everything. Guys who get so deep into technique often don't end up making good music. To keep these technique issues in proper perspectice let me finish with a story. When I was in college and classical guitar was my pricipal instrument, I remember a particular player who was so obsessed with the physicalities of his technique. He could tell you in excruciating detail about all of the things you needed to do in order to play "the right way". There was only one problem. At the end of his 100 things to make the proper hand position and the endless repetition and analysis of his finger, wrist and arm movements was a confusing tangle of ideas and rules that only led to frustration and very little musical fruit. He was one of the best players in my world at that time but also one of the most joyless and I would venture to say he probably is not playing his guitar today. Playing barre chords is not complicated. It involves developing your hand and finger strength enough to push the six strings of a guitar about an eighth of an inch to the fretboard and holding them in place so that they make solid contact with the fret when strummed. It involves developing the flexibility in your hand to be able to contort into various positions while still applying the proper amount of finger pressure against the frets. I have taught many people how to play barre chords and, almost without exception, it takes time and effort - more time and effort than most people realize. But the ability to play barre chords will most assuredly come if you keep at it and don't give up when it sounds bad at the beginning. No secret techniques. No hidden secrets of the pros. Just sitting with your guitar in your lap trying to play them day after day, week after week until you get them. I have found that the real test for the learner when trying to learn barre chords is not the physical game of playing the guitar as much as it is the mental game of learning the guitar in patience and perseverance. Keep Learning and Growing.

ACHIEVING GREAT SKILL WITHOUT EFFORT Now, having said all of that let me say that there are no shortcuts for understanding the fretboard. Sure there are some helpful relationships like the one I just mentioned that occasionally allow you to play a bit farther ahead than you may currently understand. But, I play for a living and haven’t found any secret tip that can be explained in a few minutes on a video that will transform you from a beginner to a guitar god before lunch. Real learning takes time and effort – the two things that we humans avoid at all cost. My course is by no means “the only way” to learn guitar. There are many wonderful instructors out there with great materials that I heartily recommend. But unfortunately there are a lot of guys trying to make money off of our natural tendency to want to believe that there may be a “secret” to playing guitar… or getting in shape… or losing weight or a host of other things. Sorry to let my thoughts ramble for a bit. I just hate to see sincere people wanting to learn how to do something get fleeced by opportunistic people promising the world and delivering little. I am glad that the course is going well for you. Keep up the great work with it and thanks for letting me be a small part of it with you. I would write more but I have to go watch my “Become an Olympic power weight lifter in one easy lesson” DVD that I just got. Keep Learning and Growing!

GUITAR POSITIONS & FIRST POSITION In the first session, I spoke about where to put your fingers that went something like this ”the first finger goes on the first fret, the second finger covers the anything that comes on the second fret, third finger for the third fret, and fourth finger (pinky) covers anything that happens on the fourth or the fifth frets”. This relationship of four fingers covering a specific five fret range can be thought of as a unit that can be moved around on the fretboard and is called a POSITION. So, if your first finger is on the first fret (as it is for much of the first half of the course) you are said to be in FIRST POSITION relating to the fret position of your first finger. If we took the whole picture and shifted everything up one fret so that your first finger would be on the 2nd fret, second finger on the 3rd fret, third finger on the 4th fret, and pinky covering the 5th and 6th frets then you would be in SECOND POSITION. Let’s do one more. If you moved your first finger up to the fifth fret and put the rest of your fingers in their respective positions then you would be in the FIFTH POSITION. Technically you could play anywhere on the neck so you could have as many positions as you have places to put your first finger and form the others effectively. But, generally guitar playing tends to happen, at least for me, in either the first, fifth, seventh, or 12th position with most of my day to day playing occurring around between the fifth and seventh positions. FRETBOARD RELATIONSHIPS Many “Learn the fretboard instantly with my secret tips” courses seem to focus on a unique relationship of the strings on a guitar. (I know I touch on this concept somewhere in the bonus workshops but I have searched for the last hour and I can’t find it. I suspect I touch on it in perhaps Session 17 or 19 bonus workshops somewhere in the middle of two points.) Anyway here is the quick version of a helpful tool for building longer melodic lines on guitar without having to really think about all the notes involved by just taking a simple line and playing it in octaves all over the fretboard with the same fingering. You are just shifting positions and string sets on the guitar. OK, here we go. I want you to think about the 6 strings on the guitar as three sets of 2 adjacent strings. The groupings would be [6th & 5th ] and [4th & 3rd ] and [2nd & 1st ]. Now, notice the relationships of these strings to each other. Each of these pairs of strings shares the distance of a 4th between the two strings. For example the 5th string A is a fourth above the 6th string E. The 3rd string G is a fourth above the 4th string D. The 1st string E is a fourth above the 2nd string B. This identical fourth relationship between these strings allows us to do some neat things on a guitar. For example I can play a simple melodic idea using both strings in a pair let’s say I wanted to play a G triad (G-B-D) on the first pair of strings. I would use my second finger on the 6th string third fret G. Then move to the B on the 2nd fret fifth string with my 1st finger. Then I would play the D on the 5th string fifth fret with my fourth finger. So my finger combination would be G – 2nd finger, B-1st finger, and D – 4th finger. Now, lets move to the 2nd pair of strings, the D and G strings. If I play exactly the same fingering and start at the G on the 4th string 5th fret I end up with the same triad one octave up. Now, let’s move to the 3rd pair of strings, the B and E strings. Again, if I play exactly the same fingering and start at the G on the 2nd string eighth fret I end up with the same triad one more octave up. This helpful relationship between these strings allows you to play one phrase in three different octaves by just shifting positions and using the same fingering. Often the “learn the fretboard instantly” courses are based on this fretboard relationship. ACHIEVING GREAT SKILL WITHOUT EFFORT Now, having said all of that let me say that there are no shortcuts for understanding the fretboard. Sure there are some helpful relationships like the one I just mentioned that occasionally allow you to play a bit farther ahead than you may currently understand. But, I play for a living and haven’t found any secret tip that can be explained in a few minutes on a video that will transform you from a beginner to a guitar god before lunch. Real learning takes time and effort – the two things that we humans avoid at all cost. My course is by no means “the only way” to learn guitar. There are many wonderful instructors out there with great materials that I heartily recommend. But unfortunately there are a lot of guys trying to make money off of our natural tendency to want to believe that there may be a “secret” to playing guitar… or getting in shape… or losing weight or a host of other things. Sorry to let my thoughts ramble for a bit. I just hate to see sincere people wanting to learn how to do something get fleeced by opportunistic people promising the world and delivering little. I am glad that the course is going well for you. Keep up the great work with it and thanks for letting me be a small part of it with you. I would write more but I have to go watch my “Become an Olympic power weight lifter in one easy lesson” DVD that I just got. Keep Learning and Growing!

If you have not seen this video, it is worth a look.

BEFORE YOU EVEN BEGIN THE COURSE 1) Get your guitar setup. Learning guitar is hard enough without have to fight to play an instrument that is fighting you back. Take your guitar down to the local music store and have them do a guitar setup, adjust the instrument properly, and change the strings. 2) Print out the Bonus Resources Book and have it spiral bound. Take the Bonus Resources book PDF down to your local copy place and have them print it out, black & white, double sided, spiral bound, with a clear plastic cover on the front and a black one on the back. 3) Consider getting a music stand, guitar stand, and a metronome. These are going to be of immeasurable assistance down the road. I recommend getting something like this MUSIC STAND and this GUITAR STAND and this METRONOME. (There are plenty of other great ones, these are just some recommendations.) 4) Find a place to practice. A corner of a room - something that is far away from distractions. WHEN YOU BEGIN A NEW SESSION 1) Before you watch the new session, take a look at the new material in the book. Get an idea of what you are going to be learning and what is going to be asked of you. 2) Watch the teaching portion of the session and go through the workshop with the session as best as you can. Stop or backup the DVD when you need to. The goal at this point is to really understand what I'm asking you to learn on the guitar. The out-working of that will take some time but make sure you understand clearly what you are needing to do. (You've got to understand the target you are trying to hit.) Don't worry about not being able to keep up with the workshop - just do the best you can. 3) Work with the session workshop during your daily practice time for a few days. Review the teaching portion of the session if you need to. Don't be overly concerned about progressing quickly. It's not a race. Real learning takes time. Allow yourself time to soak in the concept. You're not allowed to have an opinion about how you are doing on the new material for three days. Just put in your time doing the material for three days. People have a tendency to attack a new session, do the workshop once and start evaluating themselves. That's like me going to the doctor, he gives me the first dose of medicine and, before I leave the office, deciding whether its working or not. Just trust the process for a few days - whether you feel like it or not. 4) After you've worked with the session workshop for a couple of days, then watch the Bonus Workshop and begin working with the Bonus Workshop. From that point on, don't worry about the session workshop anymore and just focus on working through the Bonus Workshop in your daily practice time for as long as it takes until you've mastered the material. 5) Pay no attention to my "Suggested Times For Learning". Just strive to understand and do on guitar what I'm asking you to do. Focus on what you need to learn. It helps no one to look at the clock. I've regretted putting these in there ever since we put them in the course. Everyone's path and pace is different. 6) Don't worry about perfection. Strive for competence, not perfection. You're going to have mistakes, plenty of them. Don't put the burden of perfection on yourself. When you are going for your Carnegie Hall debut concert, then you are allowed to worry about perfection. For now, just worry about gaining competence on the material. To put it bluntly, don't say to yourself "I'm not going to move on until I can play this completely perfectly." That would be the equivalent of me asking a toddler just learning to walk to do a perfect dance step on Dancing with the Stars. A better thing to say to yourself is "When I can play this 90% correct, 3 out of 5 times consistently, then I'm ready to move on." 7) As soon as possible, play for other people. It doesn't matter what it is - exercises, songs, whatever. Don't wait to be "good enough", start anyway. 😎 Relax and enjoy the process. Everything works better when you relax. You play better, You retain concepts better, You learn quicker. When you get uptight you might as well just put your guitar back in your case and try again later. I could get deep into cognitive tests and brain activity and loads of medical research on how people learn, but just trust uncle Steve when I say... Just relax, you'll learn better. 9) Practice consistency is more important than quantity of time practiced. STOP!!!! Read that again and trust me. 20 minutes of consistent practice 5 out of 7 days a week will get you farther down the road then spending 3-4 hours on a Saturday afternoon. 10) Don't count the drops, count the catches. My son is a juggler. Everyone drops when learning to juggle. Those who spend all of their time worrying about dropping will never learn. But those that spend their time focused on increasing their catches are the ones that will eventually learn the skill. Don't count the notes missed. Count the number of notes played correctly and worry about moving that number. I hope this helps. You're going to do great. One more thing, read this book. THE TALENT CODE by Daniel Coyle. - Steve