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Steve Krenz

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Posts posted by Steve Krenz

  1. Jason,

    Yes, there's no time to start like today!

    After you finish the first session in Learn and Master Guitar then I would start to incorporate the Speed & Agility workout into your daily learning.  It will help your hands start to be more efficient when you play.

    Hope this helps and thanks for being a great part of our guitar family!

    - Steve

  2. giphy.gif

    Hey gang,

    I like to think that I have a good handle on things but I realize my perspective and your perspective can be different.  So, I wanted to see if you could help me out with something - a sort of, "...Help me - help you" moment.

    If you have a moment can you answer a few questions for me...

    What kinds of resources would you like to see us put out?

    What kind of guitar resource do you need?

    What are you looking for in your guitar learning that you wish there was a resource for?

    Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated to help me know if I'm on track for helping you as much as I can.

    Thanks,

    Steve

     

     

     

  3.  

    Tuesday May 8th, 2018

    Topic: Tips for Soloing with Dino Pastin & Collin Hill!

    7pm Central Time US

    You can watch the lesson HERE.

    Sorry about the late notice on this.  This live lesson has changed a few times.  But it looks like it ended up being a good one!

    We'll be discussing soloing concepts with the great Dino Pastin (Alabama, Barbara Mandrell) and we'll also have some fancy fingerstyle by our own Collin Hill.

    We'll be referencing two PDF's tonight.

    All The Things You Are.pdf

    Tune Up.pdf

    Lots of  Music, laughs, giveaways and more!

    Watch on our Guitar Gathering YouTube Channel HERE

    - Steve 

  4. Copy of Live Lesson Questions.jpg

    Tuesday May 1st, 2018

    Topic: Ask Your Guitar Questions PLUS John Mayer's New PRS!

    7pm Central Time US

    You can watch the lesson HERE.

    Don't let anything stop your learning.  What has you stumped?  Ask your questions in the thread below and I'll answer as many as I can tonight.

    PLUS Desi Serna (Guitar Theory for Dummies) will be stopping by to show us John Mayer's new PRS Silver Sky guitar - the guitar that broke the internet!

    Silver Sky.png

    Lots of  Music, laughs, giveaways and more!

    Watch on our Guitar Gathering YouTube Channel HERE

    - Steve 

    • Like 2
  5. Gotto,

    I'm not sure what bar you're talking about but In a couple of bars there is a Bm7 followed by an E/G#.  This is just an E chord with a different bass note. Whatever note is under the slash indicates the bass note.  In this case they wanted the third of the E chord, which would be a G#, as the bass note.

    Giving different chord tones as the bass notes gives a chord a different flavor in their sound.

    Maybe we can talk more about this in the next live lesson.

    Learn all you can!

    - Steve

     

  6. Hey all,

    I thought you might be interested in this.  I play all kinds of things during the course of a week or month.

    This week, I'm playing a small book signing with multi Grammy nominated singer, Michele Pillar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Pillar (Fun Fact: She was previously married to Larry Carlton.)

    A mutual friend gave her my number a couple of weeks ago and she needed a guitar player for just a vocal/guitar couple of songs during this book signing event coming up on Thursday.

    She sent me audio versions of the two songs we would be doing and I needed to write out the charts for them.

    Here are the two songs...

    And here are the charts I wrote out tonight. See if you can follow along!

    You Untangle Me.JPG

    Believe.JPG

    We've got a rehearsal tomorrow then the book signing on Thursday.

    I'll let you know how it goes. - Steve

     

     

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1
  7. Copy of Copy of Community Slider - Guitar Tool.jpg

    Hey gang,
    I've come across this handy little guitar tool from our friends at Music Nomad.  It tightens all of those little hex nuts on your output jacks, volume pots, even effects pedals. It saves me from having to use some clunky socket from my tools for the car - while panicking about whether one false move is going to scratch the finish of my guitar. 

    THE 8 IN 1 ULTIMATE GUITAR TOOL

    Here are some of the things it adjusts....

    GT Guitar Tool 2 Amp.jpg

    GT Guitar Tool 3 Pedal.jpg

    GT Guitar Tool 4 Side Pedal.jpg

    GT Guitar Tool 5 Input Jack.jpg

    GT Guitar Tool 6 Tuning Pegs.jpg

    GT Guitar Tool 7 Intonation Screw.jpgGT Guitar Tool 8 Strat Knob.jpg

    It's a handy little tool to have in your bag of cables or in your guitar case.

    I showed it to Greg Voros from Gruhn's and he was impressed with the functionality and quality.

    If you're interested, you can check it out HERE

    - Steve 

  8. Howard Alden Live Lesson.jpg

    Tuesday April 10th, 2018

    Topic: Jazz Guitar Mastery with Howard Alden!

    7pm Central Time US

    You can watch the lesson HERE.

    Tremendously excited to announce the great New York Jazz guitarist, Howard Alden will be joining us for this live lesson!

    Howard is one of the best jazz guitarists on the scene today.  One of DownBeat Magazine's "Top 75 Guitarists", Howard is one of the most respected jazz guitarists in the world.

    Here are a few clips...

     

     

    Great Music, laughs, giveaways and more!

    Watch on our Guitar Gathering YouTube Channel HERE

    - Steve 

    • Like 3
  9. Hey gang,

    So sorry about tonight.  Don't know what the technical problems were.  We'll run it down and have it worked out for next week.  We might even do the same show because there were some great things I wanted to cover.  Maybe I'll even get a chance to write out my examples.

    I sincerely apologize.  It could be our end, the storms Nashville is currently having or a host of other things.

    Thanks for your patience.

    - Steve

     

  10. Solutions to Boring Chords Live Lesson.jpg

    Tuesday April 3rd, 2018

    Topic: Solutions for Boring Chords

    7pm Central Time US

    You can watch the lesson HERE.

    Tired of playing the same old way?   Bored with your own playing?

    Let's learn some quick, simple ways to take basic chords and turn them into something memorable.  There's more to do than just strum along with a chord progression.  With a little help you can learn to create guitar parts that shine!

    There will be music, laughs, giveaways and more.  I look forward to seeing you there!

    Watch on our Guitar Gathering YouTube Channel HERE

    - Steve 

    • Like 2
  11. What an amazing album.  How many guitarists were birthed because of that album and listening to that song - a whole generation I suspect.

    Where are the guitar songs or artists now that captivate a whole generation like that?  But I digress...

    Peter works a lot in Nashville and with our good friend Gordon Kennedy.  It would be an honor to meet him someday.

    - Steve

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  12. 17 hours ago, sp_450 said:

    Hi,

    For those of you who purchased the learn and master song hits, What does this really teach?  Description is simply it teaches the songs, but that can mean a lot of things.  I am looking to learn instrumentals for the guitar, not vocals.  Trying to decide if this is what I want or not.

    Thank you

    SP,

    It doesn't sound like this might be the best fir for what you are describing.

    We developed the Song Hits course to give those going through the Learn & Master course extra tunes to work on while they are acquiring the skills.

    They come with Jam Tracks and weren't really designed to be a book of solo guitar songs.

    What styles are you interested in?

    - Steve

  13. Great post.  Thanks for sharing.

    Yes, there are many ways to play a G - each with different advantages that work better in this or that musical scenario.  You can live a long and happy musical life and never play a G as 3-2-4. 

    It's a huge stretch to have your 3rd finger on the 6th string and the 4th finger on the 1st string.  If you have smaller hands, then it is quite natural to bend the 3rd finger so much that it touches the 5th string and mutes it.

    But, never let that, or any other musical limitation, stop your progress.  Just go around it. Find other ways to play it and other ways to play cool things around it.

    Some players can use the thumb over the top of the neck and are able to do really cool things with it.  I could never do that.  But I don't dwell on that and have learned a ton of barre chords to do everything that I want to do.

    Don't overly worry about this small issue.  Just keep moving - and learning - and playing.  Figure out a way to play the G chord that works for you and never look back.

    - Steve

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  14. Martin Guitar Live Lesson.jpg

    Tuesday March 20th, 2018

    Topic: Martin Guitars with Greg Voros & Jay Myer

    7pm Central Time US

    You can watch the lesson HERE.

    Martin Guitars - one of the true legacy builders.  Starting in 1833, they have been the standard for acoustic guitars for decades.

    Greg Voros, head of the legendary repair department at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, and Martin Guitar Nashville rep, Jay Myers will stop by to discuss Martin, their guitars, and upcoming plans.

    There will be music, laughs, giveaways and more.  I look forward to seeing you there!

    Watch on our Guitar Gathering YouTube Channel HERE

    - Steve 

  15. 19 hours ago, BluzCruz said:

    If you're struggling to get faster, just keep doing the exercise every day, from the beginning and DON'T skip over the slow speeds. Those reps are important for building muscle memory, stretching, gaining control. Focus on playing extra clean at those slower speeds. Yes, it gets boring, but it won't be boring when you can shred. Listen to the tone of the picking, listen for other noise from other strings, etc. get your upstrokes and downstrokes to sound the same in volume and tone. Play it nice and clean, and slow. As you speed up, go as high in speed as you can play cleanly. When you hit the limit where it breaks down and starts to get sloppy, set your own metronome about 4-8 BPM slower and do the exericise at that speed for about 5 more minutes, without moving  the speed up or down. If you do that every day, you'll find before long you'll gain a little more speed. You can also try to ladder up....back off 15-20 BPM and then step back up in small increments of 4 BPM or whatever you metronome can do and slowly you'll get to where you can go to new speeds. 

    The other thing you can do that may help is simply to work on your right hand picking. It may be that you cannot even pick the strings at those faster tempos. Consider setting a 2 min timer and simply playing 16th notes on each open string for 2 min per string. Work up until you find your max tempo, if it's smooth, go up a little faster until you find where your right hand is breaking down. Then back off slightly and do it at that tempo for 2 min per string every day. within a few days, your right hand will get faster, and you may find the other exercise will pick up speed too.  

    It helps to analyze what is slowing you down, if you can. Is it your right hand? your left hand? Finger flyaway? Is it the shifts in the chromatic scale exercise? The stretch notes in the "main" exercise? Once you know you can isolate what is slowing you down and do other things to improve that aspect. But mostly...just keep doing the exercise and be patient and it will eventually come. Once you have it, it doesn't fade too much.

    Bluz, great advice! - Steve

    • Like 1

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