Leaderboard

Congrats! Unfortunately, I'm still working the demonic Pentatonic Sess 11! Can't wait to get to the Blues. Congrats again and will post when I get there.

Yeah, Neil. I'm here with you. You will find this session a fun one. The patterns with the added blues note is just rote memorization. But the "Jammin the Blues" at the end is a really fun song. Getting the timing on it was challenging. I think it was @Triple-o that said "Johny' s E Blues" took him a while. I haven't started it yet. I haven't started it yet because I've sidestepped for a little bit. I've been learning songs for my weekly jam sessions. This takes most of my practice schedule. I'm also working a Truefire blues licks course that complements S13 nicely. I think I have also mentioned elsewhere that Guitar Techniques magazine's had an article/lesson on the Blues scale that I was working concurrently. When I get back to 13, which should be soon, I will go back to it as well. (If you want more info on that article, let me know). But you are likely to pass me here. Keep me posted on your progress.

The HD500X was a gateway drug for me. I was hard over on tube amps and individual pedals, for years but once I went with the HD500X, I played it nearly exclusively for about 2 years, and just sold one of my tube amps and traded the HD500X up to a Helix LT. As far as I can tell, my pedal addiction has been supplanted by the methadone of the Helix. Its nice to be off the madness of trying to choose one pedal to drop $100+ bucks on from 100 fuzzes and 1000+ Overdrive/Distortions. I now have a bunch of them built in the Helix and use the Klon and OCD dirt models and Big Muff Fuzz model along with 3-4 different amp models from about 60 on hand, for just about everything. I should credit CapM's AxeFx recordings as an influence in my decision to try modeling when I found a product that seemed more suited to my goal of playing live (not to mention more in my price range). I liked what I heard from CapM's modeler but a rack unit seemed more suited to studio work (plus expensive), so I didn't take the plunge for a while after he convinced me tube amp sound didn't just come from tube amps.

Hi Gang, Well I am putting off the review of the guitar zen book by Lee. F. Ryan until next month because I found a new book that grabbed my fancy. “When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.“ B. F. Skinner The book I found is Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus. Gary is a cognitive psychologist who decided at the age of 39 he was going to learn how to play the guitar. Since a couple of my degrees are in psychology and I specialized in developmental and affective psychology I became very interested in Gary’s studies and experience. I had to laugh as he was concerned about learning anything … especially the guitar at age 39. Since I took on the learning of the guitar at age 74 I really wanted to know what the young kid had to say GUITAR ZERO: The New Musician and the Science of Learning Gary Marcus 2012 274 pg. Penguin Books ISBN-10: 9781594203176 Amazon: New and used versions running from $2.50 to $30.00 scribd.com …. if you did what I suggested earlier and subscribed to this page you can find a FREE copy of the Guitar Zero audiobook Let me first say this book may not be for everyone as it addresses the scientific aspects of what it takes to become musical. The author speaks of neuronal changes in the brain and the modeling of neurons through practicing material over and over. Much of the information follows developmental psychology concepts. I do recommend this to students of music and those who will be teaching music as he does talk about many different types of teaching styles and the learning theory behind each style. The book goes through Gary’s history of learning the guitar and the cognitive values that are present with the task. The book jumps between specific concepts and generalizations especially when he discusses the drive to learn by various guitarists (the true talented individual vs. the non talented individual). Practice is essential for all … musical skills must be cultivated according to Dr. Marcus. The concepts of learning a language vs. music are brought up during a discussion of brain development and social needs (cultural variations). Gary appears to believe genetics is a better predictor about skills or a task than living in a specific musically enriched environment. However, both are important. According to Dr. Marcus the history of music and development of new sounds are based on genetic likes and why each of us enjoys different forms of music and/or sounds. And yet he stipulates there is no musical center within the brain. The question may be where does DNA play a part in becoming musical? He points out that historically harmony was actually developed by early musicians and if it hadn’t been then 12 bar blues would not have occurred, etc. Much of musical change and development is based on cultural familiarity and also novelty. Adults learn quicker than the younger individuals, whereas the kids are more persistent in learning a task. However, both eventually reach the same goal. And of course the more knowledge gained the easier new tasks will become … especially when applying “chunks” of material towards a specific goal, such as learning lengthy songs. Dr. Marcus stretches his guitar study into playing music with others and also the writing of songs … what works and what doesn’t work (what keeps the listeners interested in a specific tune). The chapters are titled, but will provide little information to the pre-reader… Tuning Up Take Me to the River Learning to Crawl It Don’t Come Easy Talking Heads Back to School School of Rock True Talent Into the Groove On Stage The Worst Song in the World Knowing Without Knowing Take it to the Limit Heavy Metal Epilogue Hopefully you will enjoy this book. I found it to be very interesting and challenging to some of my beliefs. As an adult with attention deficit I have always fought against my abrupt change of interests and dropping tasks. My drive to meet the specific task of learning the guitar is being accomplished through using multiple guitar styles and scientifically investigating the instrument. This form of varied environmental factors appears to off set the lack of my DNA musical capability and ADHD. Well, next month I will look at Ryan’s book. I have also picked up a couple new books on guitar engineering, history of the electric guitar, and amplification for future reviews. Have a great month.

So, I'm not a jazz guy, really. I admit, my first time through L&MG I skipped the jazz lesson because I wasn't interested in it, and frankly I found it too difficult. What? I have to learn a whole bunch of new chords, and the ones I already know aren't any good anymore? And these are so weird... No thanks A month or two ago, my guitar teacher encouraged me to spend time working on funk and jazz to expand my playing. His recommendation of Robben Ford was kind of the gateway drug here, but at some point in the last couple of years I reached the point where I knew enough to look at jazz again and think, "Whoa! This is great!" Now, I still don't listen to a ton of jazz outside of a little Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery now and again - but, learning all these crazy chords has really helped me take a leap forward. To anyone who's shied away from it, the struggle is worth it. Once you start seeing all these chords and comparing them to each other, trying to memorize them, you start to see intervals instead of notes. You can quickly figure out how to play a chord you don't know. You start to see why some things sound cool and why some things don't. Hey! That chord progression all pivots off this one note! These two notes are walking down in unison together! The things you see when you start to really look at chords like a technician - it's really opened some new doors for me. If you have been coloring inside the lines and afraid to go out like I was, it's SO rewarding. Give it a shot! This is a way to break off a plateau and move upward, and I'm loving it. Just wanted to share some encouragement/success/exhortation with all of you

Welcome back Mandy, ??? This is beautiful, well done! ??????? It’s a great idea to play around with recording techniques. You’ve managed to make something wonderful out of your (temporary) physical limitation. Bravo. There really is great potential for improvements with the right physio. Stick with it and I’m sure you’ll reach your goal. Good luck. mark

Yes, these are the official dates. 2018 Fall Fingerstyle Guitar Retreat Tuesday October 30- Friday November 2nd, 2018 (The peak of Fall colors in the Nashville area.) I'll get the registration page up soon. We have room for 20 people. See you there! - Steve