So this post comes in two parts:
1) I know this site has only been up for a few days, but I really want to thank all of you for taking the time to check it out and for all the feedback I've received so far. It has been incredibly helpful, and I will definitely use it to try to make the site better as time goes on.
2) The second part of this is not music related at all, but rather a challenge for all of you guys. Say thank you to someone today (preferably to someone who doesn't expect it, but anyone will do). Thank the lady that holds the door for you when you go into the store. Thank the guy that bags your groceries. Thank someone close to you for something they did last week that really helped you out. I don't care who you thank or what you thank 'em for...just look them in the eye and say thanks and really mean it. It may not seem like a big deal, but it is to them. Trust me on this one.
That is all...more shredding to follow! =)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Better Quality Videos...
No big deal...but if you'd like better quality (HD) versions of these lessons, head over to YouTube and search BeejGuitar26. That is all. ;-)
Lessons....Lots of 'Em!
Just a quick heads up...this site (and hopefully in the near future, a bigger and more intensive lesson site of my own) is dedicated to sharing a little bit of my music knowledge with you guys. After teaching for almost 10 years now, there are many common tendencies, bad habits, and good habits too for that matter, that I have seen in a lot of my students...so, I hope to shed a little light on the learning process for you, and ideally, with some work on your part, to help you become the player that you want to be.
Keep checking back, I intend to upload some videos as regularly as I can...and keep in mind that this is intended for all levels of players, so I will be posting things for absolute beginners right up through advanced players, from how to play basic chords, right up through how to bring large buildings to the ground with just your minor arpeggio sweeps. (Try it!)
Anyhow...I should have a couple of lessons up later today...one beginner lesson and one intermediate/advanced lesson on how to make the pentatonic scale a little more interesting. Keep checking in...and tell all your guitar playin' friends too!!!
Keep checking back, I intend to upload some videos as regularly as I can...and keep in mind that this is intended for all levels of players, so I will be posting things for absolute beginners right up through advanced players, from how to play basic chords, right up through how to bring large buildings to the ground with just your minor arpeggio sweeps. (Try it!)
Anyhow...I should have a couple of lessons up later today...one beginner lesson and one intermediate/advanced lesson on how to make the pentatonic scale a little more interesting. Keep checking in...and tell all your guitar playin' friends too!!!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Person You May or May Not Know (but probably should...) Of The Week: GREG HOWE
So for the first installment of the Person You May or May Not Know (but probably should...), we're gonna take a quick look at guitarist Greg Howe. Greg is an outstanding "fusion" guitar player, although his music truly does defy strict categorizaion. Ultimately, his playing is deeply rooted in funk, rock, and blues, but he has a flair for "outside" playing, using jazzy extensions and color tones over some less than standard progressions. In addition to his own solo instrumental releases, Greg has toured as a sideman with many huge pop artists from Michael Jackson to the Backstreet Boys (yeah, yeah, I know...it doesn't sound cool, but you've got to be a consummate professional and a monster player to land gigs like this!)
I was blessed with the opportunity to study with Greg for almost a year and a half, driving down from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania for long weekends, taking a handful of lessons here and there, and I can only say that his teaching ability rivals his musical talent. I expected to be overwhelmed, and shown lots of advanced skills/tricks/etc. The truth is, these lessons helped me more than any other single thing in my playing career, but not by hitting me over the head with advanced concepts and crazy ideas. We did work on some pretty intense material, but Greg was always able to make me feel comfortable as a player, while still pushing the limits of my ability. His goal was never to make me a "Greg Howe clone", but quite the opposite, he wanted to share some of his insight into music with me and make me into my own player and musician. C'mon...how many teachers really strive for that? He even took time out of his busy schedule to buy lunch for me after one of our lessons and just hang out and chat about music and life. I can't say enough great things about this guy.
So....all of you young players out there...get your hands on some Greg Howe albums (his 2003 release Extraction, with Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers is a good place to start...also, an older album, Parallax, has some pretty mind-blowing playing on there). In addition, check out YouTube, he's got plenty of videos, including some lesson material. You won't regret it!
www.greghowe.com
I was blessed with the opportunity to study with Greg for almost a year and a half, driving down from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania for long weekends, taking a handful of lessons here and there, and I can only say that his teaching ability rivals his musical talent. I expected to be overwhelmed, and shown lots of advanced skills/tricks/etc. The truth is, these lessons helped me more than any other single thing in my playing career, but not by hitting me over the head with advanced concepts and crazy ideas. We did work on some pretty intense material, but Greg was always able to make me feel comfortable as a player, while still pushing the limits of my ability. His goal was never to make me a "Greg Howe clone", but quite the opposite, he wanted to share some of his insight into music with me and make me into my own player and musician. C'mon...how many teachers really strive for that? He even took time out of his busy schedule to buy lunch for me after one of our lessons and just hang out and chat about music and life. I can't say enough great things about this guy.
So....all of you young players out there...get your hands on some Greg Howe albums (his 2003 release Extraction, with Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers is a good place to start...also, an older album, Parallax, has some pretty mind-blowing playing on there). In addition, check out YouTube, he's got plenty of videos, including some lesson material. You won't regret it!
www.greghowe.com
Thursday, April 15, 2010
How To Be Amazing At Guitar...Step One.
So for my first lesson post, I wanted pure awesomeness. You know....three octave sweeps, the virtues of placing tasteful diminished arpeggios in the chorus of every pop song you play on (trust me, at some point, I've tried), perhaps how to two-hand tap through an entire four minute song...amazing musical attributes such as these, littered with explosions, car chases, and licks that will make your guitar literally combust on the spot!
But.....then I realized I may have my priorities in the wrong spot (realize I said "may" - I could still be convinced otherwise). Instead, we are going to learn notes! Cool? Not really. Exciting? Not exactly. However this could potentially be the most important guitar lesson you've had.
Here's the deal...you gotta learn your instrument. Not just how to play some power chords, or the cool new solo you just heard on the radio. All great things in their own right, but simply add a little understanding of how your guitar actually works and you'll be miles ahead of everybody else...and quickly at that. So hang in there for a second and trust me on this one.
I've seen this presented a lot of different ways, but this (to me) seems to be the most concise, and the easiest to understand. So check it out...
In music, you can kind of divide notes into two groups...like the normal ones, and the not so normal ones. The "normal" ones are going to be called natural notes...and these are literally just the letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. That's it. The others, the "abnormal" ones are called sharps and flats (Sharp, the #, just means to move a note one fret "higher" and Flat, the b, just means to move a note one fret lower). So for example, A#, Gb, C#....these are all in the "abnormal" category, and they are called accidentals.
Hanging in there? It's kinda boring I know, but we're almost done. For our sake, we're just going to deal with the natural notes. Now, to find/figure out any note on the entire guitar, here's the big rule:
ALL NATURAL NOTES ARE TWO FRETS APART EXCEPT: B-C and E-F (these are always back to back).
I'm serious, this is huge...and all you really need to know to figure out all of your notes. Follow me here...let's say you want to figure out the 8th fret on the A string. Start with the open string and follow my rule:
The open string is obviously A. Now like we said, all natural notes are two frets apart...so it's two frets to get to B (we're now on the 2nd fret). B-C was the exception...these are back to back, so only one fret to get to C (now at the 3rd fret). Two frets to get to D (5th fret). Two frets to get to E (7th fret). And finally the other exception E-F are back to back, so it's one fret to get to F (8th fret). There ya go...the 8th fret on the A string is an F.
We'll just deal with that for now (the in-between notes are your accidentals...if it's one fret lower or behind a natural note, add a flat to the letter name, and if it's one fret higher or above a natural note, add a sharp to it). If that doesn't make sense, let me know and I can clear that up for you, but for now, get out your guitar and try to figure out some notes. What's the 10th fret on the E string? 4th fret on the G string? 15th fret on the D string? Let me know how it works for you...
Anyway, back to the burning guitars and explosions for you in the next lesson...I promise to follow up with some ridiculous sweeps, but for now...keep me (and your teacher) happy....I'm sick of telling you to play the "third fret power chord on the E string." Heh heh heh...LEARN THOSE NOTES!!!
See ya soon...
-Beej
But.....then I realized I may have my priorities in the wrong spot (realize I said "may" - I could still be convinced otherwise). Instead, we are going to learn notes! Cool? Not really. Exciting? Not exactly. However this could potentially be the most important guitar lesson you've had.
Here's the deal...you gotta learn your instrument. Not just how to play some power chords, or the cool new solo you just heard on the radio. All great things in their own right, but simply add a little understanding of how your guitar actually works and you'll be miles ahead of everybody else...and quickly at that. So hang in there for a second and trust me on this one.
I've seen this presented a lot of different ways, but this (to me) seems to be the most concise, and the easiest to understand. So check it out...
In music, you can kind of divide notes into two groups...like the normal ones, and the not so normal ones. The "normal" ones are going to be called natural notes...and these are literally just the letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. That's it. The others, the "abnormal" ones are called sharps and flats (Sharp, the #, just means to move a note one fret "higher" and Flat, the b, just means to move a note one fret lower). So for example, A#, Gb, C#....these are all in the "abnormal" category, and they are called accidentals.
Hanging in there? It's kinda boring I know, but we're almost done. For our sake, we're just going to deal with the natural notes. Now, to find/figure out any note on the entire guitar, here's the big rule:
ALL NATURAL NOTES ARE TWO FRETS APART EXCEPT: B-C and E-F (these are always back to back).
I'm serious, this is huge...and all you really need to know to figure out all of your notes. Follow me here...let's say you want to figure out the 8th fret on the A string. Start with the open string and follow my rule:
The open string is obviously A. Now like we said, all natural notes are two frets apart...so it's two frets to get to B (we're now on the 2nd fret). B-C was the exception...these are back to back, so only one fret to get to C (now at the 3rd fret). Two frets to get to D (5th fret). Two frets to get to E (7th fret). And finally the other exception E-F are back to back, so it's one fret to get to F (8th fret). There ya go...the 8th fret on the A string is an F.
We'll just deal with that for now (the in-between notes are your accidentals...if it's one fret lower or behind a natural note, add a flat to the letter name, and if it's one fret higher or above a natural note, add a sharp to it). If that doesn't make sense, let me know and I can clear that up for you, but for now, get out your guitar and try to figure out some notes. What's the 10th fret on the E string? 4th fret on the G string? 15th fret on the D string? Let me know how it works for you...
Anyway, back to the burning guitars and explosions for you in the next lesson...I promise to follow up with some ridiculous sweeps, but for now...keep me (and your teacher) happy....I'm sick of telling you to play the "third fret power chord on the E string." Heh heh heh...LEARN THOSE NOTES!!!
See ya soon...
-Beej
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