Learn and Master Guitar

A good example is Playing through the Blues. It's a digital product that isn't intended to be a complete, end-all, never need another, guitar learning course. It's (obviously) intended to be educational material to teach the blues, and it does that well. Don't let me mislead you though, it does do a good job of teaching lead guitar well, but it mostly concentrates on the Blues genre.

Here's a quote from the author's site. I believe it sums up the course very accurately.

Playing Through The Blues - A Guide for the Lead Guitar Player is the most comprehensive, easiest method to learn blues lead guitar. You don't have to mess with driving back and forth to private lessons, you don't have to alter your schedule around your teacher, and you don't have to devote hours out of every day to a tedious practice schedule.

You will learn every amazing lick, scale, technique, and cool trick that you'll ever need to know ... and that's just the beginning. You'll learn what guys like Eric Clapton, BB King, Buddy Guy, SRV, Angus Young, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Robert Cray, and so many more have amazed audiences around the world with.

I've also recommended, and still highly do recommend, the Musicnotes.com Guitar Guru method of learning.

Again, it's not meant to be a complete learning course. It's very specific in what it helps you accomplish. If you haven't checked it out yet, you really need to if you're just wanting to learn some specific songs very quickly. For just learning songs without going through the extremely painful, mind-numbing process of record (guess it's CD now) copying, Guitar Guru can't be beat.

I've got some programs that slow down the songs (while keeping them in key), but that's not the same. Guitar Guru will allow you to slow down the tune, but it has a graphic keyboard that also shows you EXACTLY which notes to play. Additionally, every song has printable music (and TAB) that shows the guitar parts. You couldn't ask for more if you're looking for the quickest way just to learn specific songs.

Musicnotes also has a great library of some classic songs for Guitar Guru, and it's growing more nearly every day. It's a great, huge library, plus they show an info. box at the bottom of the GG page shwoing what tunes will be released soon, and actually allow the customers to suggest which songs that they would like GG sessions for. The cool thing about this option is...THEY ACTUALLY LISTEN!! I can't say enough good things about Musicnotes and their incredibile Guitar Guru software, but read below.

You want to hear what is quite possibly the best testimonial for a company ever ? A while back I had made a very sizable (financially) purchase on some Guitar Guru sessions. I was printing some of the sessions and had a problem (mine, not Musicnote's). I wasn't sure exactly what to do so I called the toll-free number and actually talked to the CEO directly!! She was extremely nice, very helpful, and told me to call back if I had another problem.

You think I don't place this company in high regard ? 

Now, back to Learn and Master Guitar. This program is released by Legacy Learning Systems. If you're not familiar with them, do a little research. Most likely what you find out about Legacy Learning Systems will be enough to sell you on Learn and Master Guitar. What ? That didn't quite do it ? Ok, in case you haven't heard of Steve Krenz, then have a look at his bio.

This guy is the real deal and is the author and instructor of the course. He's worked with the best of the best in the music industry...people like Eric Clapton for example, and is a fantastic communicator and a pleasure to learn from.

I'm not going just reproduce everything here that you're going to see on the Learn and Master Guitar site, there's no reason to. However, I will say, for a program that now (new for 2008) includes 20 DVDs, plus the additional play-along CDs, printed material, student support site, as well as the community site (with over 6,000 active members!), you must have a look at this course if you're serious about wanting to play the guitar.

Look at it this way...for just the price of several weeks of private lessons, you can actually own this complete course. The videos are always there to review anytime that you want.

You could take lessons from a music shop 'instructor' that probably doesn't really even have the credentials to justify the costly lessons, for several years, spend thousands of dollars, and never learn a fraction of what Steve and his outstanding course will provide.

Which way would you rather spend your money ? The more you use the course, the less the lessons cost...think about it.

Just go have a look, view the demonstration and you will be hooked.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention...this course actually won two Telly Awards for excellence in the categories of Education and Use of Music. That's very impressive recognition.

Underground Method of Learning the Guitar Fret Board!
By Samuel Malama

Many have come and gone, they have seen and conquered; yet there is one thing they have failed to achieve-knowledge of the guitar fret board (found on the top of the neck with metal bars across it)! Unfortunately whether you believe it or not, knowing your frets is the key to success.

Many guitar players always find it difficult to do so. One would think rocket science is a walk in the park just by the way they go about it. Frets are exactly that, frets! There is no need to fear them. After all, if one has no knowledge whatsoever, how do they expect to play chords?

Yes, you heard right, chords…one of the most petrifying words in guitarville. Frets and chords go hand in hand, if guitar is your thing, better learn or die a slow death. There are different suggested ways of gaining better knowledge of frets, the highly proclaimed being mentally.

MENTALLY

This employs the method of learning away from your guitar. You can learn a fret at a time (in your mind), memory cards or games, mnemonics. They all work; you just need to find which one is the easiest for you. Let us look at all these in detail starting with the mind method.

Learning With Your Mind

The mind is capable of a great many things; humans underestimate it way too much. The best way to go about this technique is to take each fret at a time. Make sure to know all the six notes (if using a six string guitar) on the fret by heart before moving on to the next. Keep doing this 'till you are done.

Memory Cards

This is a great way of going about it; you can even get someone else to hold up a different card each time. Each card has the number of a fret, for example the number three. When you get this card you have to say out the notes G C F A# D G respectively. It goes on like this until you get all of them.

By the way, you don't have to go and buy these cards; you can simply make some at home. No need to spend unnecessary money. (After all, we have too much to worry about with the high gas prices).

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are a sure fire way of learning to some degree. Mnemonics are simply assigning words to correspond with the various letters. An example of this would be the positions of the planets; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

This would become; My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nice Potatoes, get the point? You can assign each note with any word that you can remember.

What Next?

What next is that you go out and put what you have just learned into action. Knowing your frets will take time, but it is very doable. Don't be afraid of it, it is just the fret board and nothing else.

Article Source: http://www.affsphere.com/Entertainment/Musical-Instruments/Underground-Method-of-Learning-the-Guitar-Fret-Board.html

If you had to guess what kind of music you might use the blues scale in, I'd bet you'd probably say the blues. Bingo...but, the cool thing about the blues scale is it's versatile. Of course it is used extensively in blues music, but it can also be used in other styles of music. The best thing to do, is to memorize the scale formula, and try it out when you're soloing. The added blue note creates tension, and can be very useful when soloing.

The blues scale, in case you haven't noticed, is a minor pentatonic scale with the addition of a single note...the 'blue note', as it's often called. The added note is a flatted 5th. So if you're playing the the key of 'C', you count up five (counting the C) to the 'G'. In the minor pentatonic, you already have the 'G', but to the scale, you now add the Gb (flat). The G flat being the blue note.

In the diagram above, the blue note is depicted in, yep, blue.

It's advisable to remember the blues scale, as well as the other scales, in all the positions.

I'm probably a little older than many of you reading this, and in my early days when you (I) wanted to learn a solo to a song, it was a matter of getting the LP (remember those ?), setting the turntable on (161/2) rpm

(half speed) and spending many long hours trying to pick out a few notes, lifting the needle, setting it back to where you where able to copy to, then repeating, over and over again.

Obviously, with the state of current technology there are both hardware and software remedies to overcome the old 'record copying' burden. I know most that are available and have used many. Most of the hardware solutions are expensive and some of the software options are okay, but not as complete as what sells sheet music and they're a great resource. However, when I first saw the Guitar Guru software and what it does, I was blown away. For a reasonable fee, you purchase the song you want, print the sheet music so you always have a hard copy of the complete song, but you also get the Guitar Guru file to play via the free player. Obviously it has to be a piece of music that has an associated Guitar Guru file. If you purchase a Chopin classical piece there would be no Guiatr Guru file for it.

As far as music goes, they have an extensive selection and are constantly adding more. I grew up on what is now known as 'classic rock', (God I'm Old) and have a special fondness for bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, The Beatles and Led Zepplin, just to name a few. I've bought many of the songs that I spent untold hours on trying to learn the solos to. There's also many different genres and artists to choose from. Now it's a matter of loading up the Guitar Guru file and watching it being played at whatever speed I want. It doesn't get any better than that.

Well, it's a little late to make this a short post, and although I can't say enough good things about Musicnotes.com and their Guitar Guru software, I'll close by saying, please do yourself a favor and go check it out, I guarantee you won't be sorry.

Oh, I almost forgot, they also have TAB, music for the bass, voice, drums and piano, plus lots of other great resources available.