ACHIEVING A NICE FULL SOUND . . .

Your goal is to play good sounding music, address any study of the guitar with that aim in mind. You have a destination (playing music) and to get there you need a map -which you are now reading. The first and most important lesson in this book is this; everything you do, play and learn from this point forward is done with keen listening and sharp thinking about the way it sounds to you and your ear. In this way you empower yourself to be a maker of music and not a slave to trends or the opinions and judgments of others. Anything that truly clicks and genuinely sounds good and right to you will have that same appeal to anyone. The point is honestly and sincerely listening to what you play. Concentrating. Having played your music, you then evaluate it and think: “How did this music feel” Would I enjoy it if it were played on a recording or by a complete stranger? This is something that’s easy to miss in the early days -don’t make this mistake. Drawing on your inner knowledge and good senses you empower yourself to be a music maker. Realizing that your opinion is the only one that counts. Know that you have the ability to play well. Empower yourself to be a guitar player with clear thinking.

HOW LEARNING OCCURS . . .

A fantastic amount of progress occurs through Discovery. That means that true learning takes place only when students are guided to discover truths for themselves. This is more exciting than reading a text book, being force fed, or lectured to. Students experience wonderful results when they adopt the mindset of an explorer or pretend that they are the only person in the world doing what they are doing. Be a discoverer, a musical explorer.

After you learn to make discoveries build new skills and bits of knowledge on your discoveries, -this is called construction. Think about and organize anything new so it neatly fits in with and sits right next to or on top of what you already know. If your new knowledge won?t organize itself in this way its probably not the right piece of information for you at that particular time. Pick something else that makes you feel comfortable. Construct your new skills and new knowledge slowly, patiently and piece by piece -as if it were your new dream home.Reinforce your discoveries and constructions with practice. In addition to old fashioned practice one of the most powerful tools imaginable is recording. To me this means putting pencil to paper and writing about what you know as well as traditional, home made audio recordings of your playing.

BEING MUSICAL . . .

Musical people are easy to spot. They love and delight in music as if were candy for the ears and nourishment for their souls. Singing and dancing are excellent ways to become a musical person. Singing and dancing are the most effective ways to teach children (of all ages) music because it gets them in touch with the true spirit and joy of feeling music. Do all you can to participate with the music you listen to. Examples of this are playing air guitar, singing, dancing or drumming along to your favorite recordings -it really does pay off!

Being musical means you sing a tune nicely or can have fun and sound good playing rhythm instruments. Think of Disney songs, Beatle tunes or any other music you just can?t get out of your head. People learn to be musical by feeling rhythms and singing notes. This leads to the development of an artistic frame of mind or music making mood. This music making mood is all about having fun, feeling the beat, and freely experimenting. The name of the game is sounding good and enjoying the beautiful process of learning music.

THIS MATERIAL SETS REALISTIC GOALS

This material is organized in an innovative lesson format -each meant to be done within the space of 10 to 30 minutes. In this way you’ll learn to set and meet realistic goals which will get you closer and closer to your ultimate goal of playing the guitar. This sets you up for success!

This is a radical departure from any formless work books and old fashioned attitudes which may still exist (work, work, work until your fingers bleed)! The belief is that after a long, untold period of rigorous, boring and bland training students will somehow magically develop the ability to be music makers. Like you, this book avoids such situations.

This course imparts a good healthy work ethic by giving you the perfect amount of information at the right time. Then you learn how to apply it, discovering music for yourself. You learn by doing the very thing you want to be doing: making music.

PACING

Do 1 or 2 lessons at a time, making sure to follow all the directions and complete the exercises. Each lesson starts with an easy concept and then concludes with an exercise based on that concept with an interesting or cool little twist. You’re sure to have a great time with these lessons thanks for visiting with us and enjoy your own virtual guitar school.