Guitar for Beginners and Beyond Newsletter - February 15, 2008
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Hi, it's been a while since the last Newsletter. Christmas / New Year came and went, happily I trust, so has Valentines Day. We down here in the Southern Hemisphere have been having a nice wet summer, so the drought is well and truly broken in most parts of Australia.
Remember that you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time by logging into
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum/ and going to your UserCP > Edit Options and unticking the 'Receive Email from Administrators' check box or by simply replying to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field.
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Kirk's Weekly Lessons
I've done three new ones since the last newsletter, for the Beyonds. I'll get back to doing some beginner's lessons asap, but as I mention often, so long as you're not brand spanking new to playing guitar you should give these a try. The end goal in all of them is to make those fingers obey, and since the tab shows you exactly where and when they should go, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to learn these. It may take a long long time, but that is the nature of learning to play a musical instrument. I used to sit for days on end just learning one short passage.
The first lesson is Johann S Bach's beautiful "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring". You may not recognize the verbose title, but I'm sure you'll know the tune. It's probably his most well known piece, and I've come up with a fairly simplified arrangement for it.
I did it in two parts:
Part I:
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
Part II:
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - part II
The second lesson is a little Bluesey/Ragtimey ditty I came up the other day I called 'Rainy Day Blues'. It's got all kinds of things going on and will keep you busy for a while for sure.
Rainy Day Blues
They're free, but you can for a modest fee download the high-resolution movie versions (which includes the animated virtual fretboard and half speed movie) and you also get the midi files, the mp3, the Guitar-Pro file, tab and notation, all in a very user friendly PDF format.
The two downloadable Bach lessons also include right and left hand fingering tab.
The Rainy Day Blues downloadable lesson includes a new movie angle. I bought a third camera the other day and I've set it up so you see the fretboard from the player's point of view, or close to it, making it very easy to see exactly which fingers are doing what. There's a screen shot of it on the free lesson page.
You'll also be helping to keep the site afloat by buying the downloadable lessons. With over 60,000 members now, and about 110 joining every day, our hosting/bandwidth bill just gets bigger and bigger.
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You can also now buy all my finger style lessons on CD (not including these latest), all in the nice PDF format. It's cheaper and of course you don't need to download and have files scattered all over your hard drive. You will also be supporting the site and making it easier for me to continue putting these lessons together for you. Check it out here:
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...p?pg=cdlessons
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Guitar For beginners And Beyond Community
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum/
Over 60,000 members now! Come and join us in the discussion forum if you're not already an active member. Don't be shy. If you're just starting out, you can ask questions about any aspect of playing guitar, buying guitars, amps, how to restring, recording tips ... literally anything at all. We're lucky to have a bunch of very experienced players, writers, theorists -- you name 'em -- willing, able and eager to help out. You can also showcase your own recordings if you've reached that stage.
We also pride ourselves on being the most civil forum out there, so if you have kids that are interested in the Wonderful World of Twanging, they're safe with us.
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PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book >
PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book
My book/DVD PlaneTalk continues to reveal the simple 'trick' to seeing the entire fretboard -- from nut to 25th fret -- as familiar, friendly, well worn territory. If you're still finding it difficult to venture up there in that scary no-man's-land, I'm here to reassure you: there's nothing different about it; it's all the same thing. The only tricky part is organizing it all mentally so that you can 'see' it.
PlaneTalk the book describes the simple mindset that I call 'the trick' to doing just that; the Guitar
Slide Rule graphically crystallizes it all and the hour long DVD demonstrates it using real pieces of music.
I can confidently assert that the lesson it teaches will be the most powerful guitar lesson you'll ever learn. I say because hundreds of customers have told me that themselves, customers who are now regular visitors and contributors to the PlaneTalkers' Forum, a private discussion board where we banter on about the PlaneTalk mindset on a daily basis.
The technique is especially handy if you like to improvise. I'm sure that you've read countless times that you must learn all the scales and modes in order to do that, but there's another way, a way that never fails no matter what the chord progression is. Watch the two movies on the home page (
PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book ) which are good examples of melodic improvisation without once thinking of a scale or mode.
To find out all about it, go to
PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book ... if you want to bypass what I call the 'hard sell' home page, go straight to
PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book
Read some testimonials here:
PlaneTalk Testimonials
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Slide Guitar in Standard and Dropped D tunings
Check out the video showcase at
Slide Guitar Web Ring - Bottleneck Guitar to watch a bunch of my slide videos, all played in standard and dropped D tunings. I did spend a few years in open tunings -- the traditional way of playing slide -- but found it impossible NOT to sound like everyone else and so went back to standard tuning. What I found was a very rich environment for playing slide, a tuning that is in fact a bunch of mini open tunings all living side by side. All chord flavors are there for the twanging ... all you need is to know here to find them. I show you everything I know about the art in my 70 minute DVD, so there's no need for you to spend the years it took me to refine it all.
Visit
Slide Guitar Web Ring - Bottleneck Guitar for more info and to order. You can also buy one of my beautiful custom brass slides.
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Donations
If you're wondering why some members have stars next to their name, it's because they've made a donation. It's so easy to do, just go to this page
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum/billspaypal.php and enter the amount you decide. We have no official sponsors and we do rely on your generosity to keep this site up and going. If you don't want to buy the tangible products, like the lesson CDs or the Chord Slide Rule, then perhaps you don't mind parting with a few bucks that go will toward the rather large bills that need to be paid every month to keep the site online.
And, as always, thanks to all our starred members!
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That's it for now,
Kirk Lorange
PlaneTalk - Bottleneck Guitar - Guitar for Beginners and Beyond
