The Open-D Guitar Spot

The JumpKatz folded as of the end of 2006. I am now pursuing a solo thing, both acoustic and with backing tracks. Of course, I'm always looking to jam, but forming a band does not rate high on my priorities for right now. The Katz were a four-year run, with hundreds of (paying) gigs. There will always be something else coming along, I'm sure.

http://www.easierguitar.com

I've decided to take the plunge and develop supplementary lessons for my guitar learning system, Guitar-eze.

I've resisted doing this, as one of the primary marketing thrusts I've used is the simplicity of the program does not require it. I still believe this. In my 50-page book, which includes a CD with recorded examples, along with the Chord Book, there should be plenty to get anyone going on the system.

I believe also that my niche lies partly (or mainly?) in the "frustrated novice guitar player" category. Presumably these folks have had some previous background, either in books, online resources or guitar teachers. For the most part, they would have received a primer of some sort - and had little or less success than they wanted. For this type of candidate, what's included in my books should be more than adequate.

However...

I repeatedly get requests for "lessons". My guess is that people like the structure of a lesson path. It's sort of like the routine of heading to the music school every week at a designated time for a half hour. I can appreciate this. Offering lessons (which I plan to voice-record onto CD with printed examples, etc.) allows me to expand on certain points I feel could use it, and offer the encouragement students sometimes like and need.

I'm basing all this on my previous experience as a guitar teacher.

So, if lessons you want, lessons you shall receive. There'll be about thirty by the time they're all complete, along with a special 5-pack of "Kid-tar-eze" lessons for extra young or fragile beginners.

Please take a look at the revamped site. If I do say so myself, it does look a tad more sophisticated, and I have a testimonial and comment page.

I take comments from here too, so feel free to leave one.

Got to get more regular with posts here!

Have this on my book site, but feel I should post here:


INTERESTING NOTE ON MY GUESTBOOK!!
If you take a look at my guest book, you will see an interesting entry, from Dec. 17/06. I just noticed it myself and thought I should comment, but first, here it is reprinted in its entirety:

"To the owners of this site: you guys have really outdone yourself, created a $1 book and selling it for $35, you can't learn how to properly play a guitar in open tuning, and you really are just exploiting people who gave up because their fingers hurt... hey, play me a major pentatonic scale in this tuning and then tell me how well it works compared to standard. oh wait, how about you tell me how to look as cool as frank foxx"

I will address these concerns step by step, as I feel it is important to do so.

1) "a $1 book selling for $35" - if you can find a book on guitar for $1, I would urge you or anyone else to buy it. Books of any type cannot be produced and delivered for a dollar, no way, no how. As I point out in my FAQs, even an e-book would cost you a lot more - to print on an inkjet costs about .25 per page, so a 60-page book such as mine (with chord book) would cost about $15, just to print out, and that doesn't include the price of paper. The CD I provide, alone, costs about $2-3, copied and put in an envelope! One thing I've learned from this site is - I'm definitely not getting rich off it.

2) "you can't properly play a guitar in an open tuning" - if that's the case, I guess Joni Mitchell, Keith Richards, Muddy Waters, Ry Cooder, Bo Diddley, Elmore James and I are not playing guitar properly. But gosh, we have fun at it.

3) "you really are just exploiting people who gave up because their fingers hurt" - fingers hurting tend to be the least of people's frustrations with guitar, in my experience. The difficulty is usually mastering all the fingerings and memorizing positions. Depending on how far you want to take it, and the quality of your guitar, your fingers can hurt like heck no matter what tuning you're in. I've never viewed teaching people to play guitar as an exploitation.

4) "play me a major pentatonic scale in this tuning and then tell me how well it works compared to standard" - well, I did just that. I've never had a use for a major pentatonic scale, but just to see, I transcribed one off a poster I have, and by golly - IT'S ACTUALLY EASIER TO PLAY in open-D, especially on the higher strings! Does one need to play a pentatonic scale in order to enjoy guitar? I'd never needed one in 20+ years, but just in case, they're there in open-D and very playable, as, I would imagine, any other scale out there.

5) "oh wait, how about you tell me how to look as cool as Frank Foxx" - ummm..... impossible!

Hope this answers all the issues. I will leave that entry in the Guest Book for all to see, but I will but in an entry directing readers to this blog entry for my response.

Thanks from Guitar-eze... oh, and any and I mean ANY questions and comments are welcomed and appreciated!

I was only joking on the last post, with regard to "snotty teenagers", etc. My daughter happened to standing over my shoulder, bugging me to go on the compu, so I told I was busy and let her read as I typed.

She is truly interested in guitar (and bass), but also truly doesn't want me to show her how, in open-D! I can always teach her in standard tuning. We have a slew of axes around the house also.

Guitar is the most wonderful instrument in the world, no matter how it is approached.

Thanks for the comments, well intentioned all.

I believe on the whole that young people are probably more open-minded to stuff like alternate guitar tunings, and the like. Experimentation happens to be the backbone of the way I play. Guitar-eze is the manifestation of my experimenting.

Love the comments.

http://www.easierguitar.com

Those snotty teenagers, always thinking they know everything.

I have a fifteen year-old at home who wants to learn guitar, but insists, "my way" isn't "real guitar". Instead she wants me to pay for guitar lessons. For her!

Forget it kid. Learn to play in open-D like your old man.

http://www.easierguitar.com

...but here I am.

The mother-site has been humming with inquiries and orders and such, and one thing has come up specifically which bears mention here too. Several inquiries lately as to whether or not I exist!

Yep, it's actually me, Frank Foxx, founder of the Guitar-eze guitar method, based on the alternate guitar tuning of open-D. The site tells in detail about the history of Guitar-eze, but to tell you a bit more about me...musically, that is -

I developed my system because I wanted to play guitar. I played bass successfully since I was 17 (along with trombone and baritone since age 10), and although I had access to a guitar since about age 6, nothing came of it - I didn't get it. Once I discovered the secret I am now sharing, a whole new musical world opened up for me. Though it took me several years to develop the chops and self-confidence to actually play guitar in a band, for money, I eventually made it. By the time I was about 21 or 22 I had the rudiments of my system down. I practiced like heck and by the time I was about 28 (yeah, it took about 6-7 years!), I felt confident enough, and knew enough material (instrumentally and vocally) to front a band. This happened 1993, in Toronto.

For the next seven years, I led the Highway Hepcats, a 3-piece roots rockabilly band. I also did side gigs on both guitar and bass, in many different styles of music.I relocated to Windsor, Ontario in 1999 and struggled to form a new band in this smaller town. I bounced from side gig to side gig, but finally got a 3-piece band together in 2003, whiched evolved into my present outfit, the JumpKatz.

In 2004-2005, I revved up Guitar-eze and started offering private lessons, which allowed me to refine and develop my system further. So there you have it. A real person. A real music lover. A real guitar lover. Frank Foxx.

http://www.easierguitar.com

How many times I've heard that war cry.

Whether it's Sweet Home Alabama, or Home on the Range, or Bo Diddley, or Whole Lotta Love, or whatever, so many of us just want to play guitar. We don't want to have to learn to read music, or learn harmony, or learn theory. We don't want to follow tab.

We just want to play guitar. It's a sentiment expressed from ages 4 to 84, by men, women, boys and girls, all over.

So they buy a guitar (usually red for guys..(?)), and some slick music store owner signs them up for a bunch of lessons. ...and they get nowhere with it. So guitar gathers dust in the corner, or in the case, or in the furnace room. Or worse - it gets SOLD.

A tragedy played out every day across the world.

Okay, I'm getting a bit maudlin here.

The reason is that the music shoppe is probably not out for your best interests. They are out to make money. They make a ton of money selling you the lessons (never mind the guitar, if they get get $1,000 a year out of you - 50 lessons at $20 a pop). Multiply that by a few hundred students and you start to see why they are in the teaching business. So don't get me started on music stores. I turned down a job offer from one once.

So they start you off slowwwwwly. With theory. With goofy exercises. With useless single string stuff. For those students it doesn't hopelessly confuse, it bores the living daylights out of. Sound familiar?

What if you could play a chord right off the bat - strum something that sounds like something right away? Would that motivate you. That's what you get with Guitar-eze. Browse the rest of the site.



http://www.easierguitar.com