Blog Entries

What am I Missing

smoothjazzman

Cm and Gm Oh man there must be something I am missing. What is the secret to making that stretch for Cm, and why is my Gm sounding like a G5 power chord.

Online Chat Lessons from Rick

albionfr

Sweet! Now that the guitar is set up and with online guidance from Rick I am learning to read TAB and found some Van Halen Tabs on the Web that now make sense. I am figuring out " Ice Cream Man" and I want to maybe see if I can find D.L.R. "California Girls" looks like it might be fun. some strummin chord changes.

I learnedhow to tune down a 1/2 step, and things are really making sense.

My daughter and I used The &q [...]

$300 Cheese grater (continued)

albionfr

WOW! what a difference. I no longer have to strangle the neck to get the right sounds.

Money well spent.

I am not sure if you can have someone set-up an electric the same way but I would think you can.

I would tell all newbies like me to at least have ther guitars checked and set-up if needed. A lot less frustration and maybe more folks would not give up if it was easier to play.

$300 Cheese Grater

albionfr

After practicing for the last few days my fingers are Raw. I felt something was wrong and I was having pleny of trouble with buzzing and deadened notes. I had a Firefighter friend that plays look at my Guitar and he showed me how high the action was and that the neck bowed in a valley shape. I got home and checked my daughters out and found hers was not bad but did have a hill shape to theneck.

My friend suggested I go see KING BEE GUITARS in Franklin,TN.

WOW! what a g [...]

Yankee Firefighter "Gone Country"

albionfr

I quit my corporate job and took my 18 years of Volunteer Firefighting and moved to Nashville to be a paid firefighter at the age of 40. (I should have moved here sooner). Now I love country music and have decided to learn to play guitar. (I did have an electric when i was 15, but i wasn't serious then- I think my dad bought it at a Sam Ash store around 1981.)

My 12 y/o Daughter wantsto play also. I bought 2 acoustics and some picks and books(extra strings and a tuner). I am 2 [...]

First few days

timothy_davidson

I am in day 3 and am starting to feel like I am accomplishing something. I guess the old adage Practice - Practice - Practice works.

Chord Progs Cntd

jeremylaursen

I hope every had a chance to check out the SAMI Chord Progressions map. If not, it is right on the front of the home page.

To those maybe a bit unfamiliar with chord progressions I can offer a simple idea for you. Open up the chord progression map to the key of C. Take the C chord and another random chord and start strumming those two chords back to back. Getfamiliar with the sound. Do the same thing with all of the chords. The point is to use t [...]

STUCK IN A RUT?

jeremylaursen

Have moments where you feel like you just keep playing the same thing? Here are some tips to help you to break the monotony:
Break your typical scale patterns. Many of us can get stuck in certain scale patterns that seem to lead us to dead ends. Change them. Try changing your scale patterns.
1 note per string scale2 notes per strin 3 notes per string4 notes per stingChange your chords. Do you always play the same barre chords or open chords?&n [...]

Rhythm

jeremylaursen

As a guitar teacher I am faced with many guitar-only issues but when it comes to rhythm I can offer a broader perspective.

Rhythm is just as important to a guitar player or a horn player as it is to a drummer.

A drummer must use his sticks or hands to beat a drum in rhythm. A guitar player uses picks or fingers and hands to strike the guitar strings in rhythm. I sax player has to press [...]

Writing A Song

jeremylaursen

Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, there is always a trick to be learned with your guitar. With this blog I want to touch upon a songwriting trick.

To get acquainted with songwriting I would like you to take a few steps.

1. Pick out a song that you really like. For the purpose of this exercise pick an easy one. Listen to it a lot. Get itstuck in your head. You should be able to play this song in your head while you are away from [...]

Line Vocabulary

jtaylor

Just an idea I wanted to share......

We all know that styles such as Blues, Rock and Jazz rely heavily on improvisation and the creative use of the concepts and materials you acquire through your practice.

What I wanted to talk about here, is simply a way to start structuring your practice routing to include a system that turns the theoretical and musical concepts you arelearning, into musical lines that will become your personal style.

Organization is key [...]

Over 1,000 hits! (Only 1 Comment?)

kaldune

First off, Thank You to everyone for showing such an interest in reading what I had to write in my "A Minor Pentatonic" blog entry. As of tonight (11-08-08) it has well over 1,000 hits. The question now begs - why? It's not much of a read, so please, someone, help me understand what attracted so many folks to it.

Also, there is no counter on the audio files, so there is no idea how many "readers" were also "listeners." And if the [...]

Listening

jeremylaursen

Hey everybody. I wanted to touch upon something that I think is very important to development. I play in many groups and there is usually an initial period where I need to learn their material and then often there are special occasions where many different songs are needed for a certain gig. Looking at 50-60 new tunes can be a pretty daunting task but there is a way that you canmake this easier on yourself.

Learning any new song, let alone ma [...]

I dont see it?!

my4gtrs

I watch the lesson Larry did with the Romantics song,but the pdf file/tab was nowhere near what he was playing. The tab starts on the second fret area,but larry is in the 7th fret area. Am I that stupid that i'm not seeing something? Am i the only one who sees this? Please help!!!

Is my wife a keeper - or what !

kaldune

I have always wanted a Les Paul guitar - a REAL Les Paul - a Gibson, not any other, only a Gibson.

Well, recently I was celebrating (or should I say suffering through) one of those "milestone" birthdays. You know, one of "The Big XO's" where your closest friends rent yard signs announcing to the world how old you are, send you cards telling you the number of candleson your cake are a fire hazard, and buy you presents like canes with rearview mirrors and slow movi [...]

How To Use The Site

jeremylaursen

Hey guys. I want to say a few words about using the site. To really get the most out of the site you really have to use all of your available resources for learning. They are:

Video Lessons

PDF Lessons

The Jambox

Live Teacher Chat

Email with a teacher

Posting and Answering Blogs

Posting and Answering on the Message Board

Casual playingaway from the site.

Learning guitar is just like riding a bike. You d [...]

Learning One Thing At A Time

jeremylaursen

Hey guys. Something I felt like mentioning. Sometimes I get to where there is maybe 5 or 6 things that I want to learn at once. When I have tried this in the past it may take a few weeks to really get this stuff to sink in. If I take on 5 things in maybe an hour then I really never get a good amount of time with anything. Lately I have been sticking to one thing andreally working on it. I try and incorporate it into my normal playing as well as my practice [...]

So what changed?

blavoie

So when the guitar landed on my doorstep last December, I went through the same process I had already gone through twice: Play songs using the A, E, D, C and G open cords until I got bored, stumble through others using barre chords until I get frustrated, and attempt to follow various lesson sites somewhat randomly until the guitar ends up in a closet and I'm on to something else. I got theguitar in December, and by late January I had given up...again.

Then in March I came acro [...]

Here we go again

blavoie

I turned 40 last year, and the most interesting gift I got was a second-hand Kay "Star*ter" stratocaster knock-off left on my doorstep by some friends. My wife and I were already in bed when they rang the doorbell and sped off, and she started laughing as soon as we heard it.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Go look," she responded, with equalparts amusement and resignation.

I had been casually mentioning that I wanted to take [...]

New Audio Upload - A Minor Pentatonic Solo

kaldune

I saw Don's lesson on the A minor Pentatonic solo highlighted as the "Featured Lesson" on the Home Page and just had to take a look since the A-min Pentatonic scale was the first thing I ever picked-out by ear listening to Eric Clapton albums (yes, the vinyl ones) back when they were "first editions."

I also thought I'd try a little experiment with it - I thought I would record a solo part for it perfectly clean (ouch - it is downright painful to listen to - [...]