I’m quite far in to creating an online course of guitar lessons for not quite beginners. I might just call it that. It’s aimed at people who maybe learned a few basic chords a while ago and have now decided they’d like to progress.
Maybe work, life or something else got in the way. Or maybe, like me, a lack of knowledge or guitar playing friends led to mothballing the whole thing for a while. In my case after learning the basics, I bought ny first electric guitar and found it too painful to play. The action was very high and the strings too heavy. I had no idea both these issues could be easily fixed.
So my aim with “Guitar Lessons For Not Quite Beginners”, is to be like the mentor that brought me back into the fold and that I wish I’d met sooner. Not only did he show me how to make my guitar playable but also how to play it my own way.
Since then I’ve played in a number of self formed bands and several others. It’s how I met my partner. Playing guitar has taken me through many adventures in songwriting, recording and live performance. Like many many others I’m part of the “almost famous” brigade but I’m not bitter. It has always been about the joy of playing for me. I’m hoping the knowledge and experience I’ve accumulated over the last 40 odd years will be helpful to others.
Just A Touch of Theory
Although I did some classical lessons and basic classes when I was very young I never learned musical notation or musical theory. For the kind of music I liked and wanted to play I just never needed it. I have picked some of it up over the years and have defined what I feel is useful in a course of guitar lessons for not quite beginners.
So I’ll cover:
- The notes on the guitar fretboard and how to use them to form chords and play scales anywhere.
- Tablature – The guitar specific musical notation.
- The Blues scale – probably the most widely used simple scale in blues, pop and rock guitar playing
- The Caged system – How to play the five basic chord shapes and their corresponding scales anywhere on the fretboard. Also a fabulous way to visualise the fretboard.
That is as much theory as you need to be a versatile guitarist. It’s more than a lot of very famous guitarists had at least when they started. Bear in mind that I come from the punk era where many 3 chord bands were formed and signed to major labels. Some of them are still around nearly 50 years later.
Expanding Your Rhythm And Lead Playing
Loosely speaking guitar playing can be divided into rythym and lead playing. You’ll come away from my course with a pretty good grip on both. Although I don’t go into scales or modes in this course I do cover a great many rythym and lead techniques. Applying those even to just the lowly blues scale has made many a guitar hero. My plan is to provide a really solid foundation to build from and to encourage students to mould the raw ingredients into something of their own.
Using text, diagrams and video Guitar Lessons For Not Quite Beginners aims to get you past that ole crossroads you’ve reached. Nothing wrong with strumming Tambourine Man at parties but if you’re ready to move on some then this could be just what you need (and you won’t need to make a pact with the devil) We cant all be the next Jimmy Page, Joe Satriani or – insert favourite guitar god – but we can all start where they did and take it wherever we want to. Subscribe to my newsletter and I’ll let you know when the course is ready.
