Sunday, March 15, 2009
Free Guitar Lessons Online
That's a hot one.
How can they possibly do it - give away free lessons on guitar?
There are several answers, and none of them are particularly inspiring or refreshing to me:
1) Most "free" lesson sites are exceptionally limited in what they actually offer free. I've seen the most silly "lessons" out there, from holding the guitar, to listing off the parts of the guitar, and on and on. It's obvious why the lesson is "free" - it's virtually pointless and could be found anywhere free.
2) This makes their "free" offerings a teaser strategy to get you to sign up for - what else - paid online lessons. Let's face it - the "com" in .com stands for commercial. They all want to sell you something. Even if they are giving all their lessons away, they probably want you to buy something else of theirs on the same site.
3) In the rare instance where the lessons may all actually be free and comprehensive in scope, then the site it likely cluttered with all sorts of advertising and other offers - from Google AdWords to banner ads, to pop-ups, links and anything else trying to grab your attention away from what your were seeking - which was free guitar lessons.
4) The reason for all those banners, AdWords, and pop-ups is that the owners of the site get paid for displaying them. So their generous nature is actually a front for a money-making venture of another type, designed, really, to distract you away from their site so they get paid. Nice.
At Guitar-eze, at least I'm fairly direct at what the site wants you to do - which is buy Guitar-eze. I offer up a lot of information about what the method is all about, what you get when you buy, how open-D will help open up the world of guitar for you, but I don't hide behind a facade of "free" anything. I'm also happy to report that to date, I have resisted all forms of outside advertising on any of my pages (except a very limited links section at the bottom of my Testimonials page). I hate all that stuff when I'm surfing (as I'm sure you and everyone else does), but particularly on guitar sites.
Maybe in some future post I'll rant about how generally pointless it is to try and learn guitar while sitting in front of a computer screen...
So, to conclude, "free" anything online should be taken for what it generally is - nonsense - and nowhere is this more true than the wonderful world of guitar on the internet.
How can they possibly do it - give away free lessons on guitar?
There are several answers, and none of them are particularly inspiring or refreshing to me:
1) Most "free" lesson sites are exceptionally limited in what they actually offer free. I've seen the most silly "lessons" out there, from holding the guitar, to listing off the parts of the guitar, and on and on. It's obvious why the lesson is "free" - it's virtually pointless and could be found anywhere free.
2) This makes their "free" offerings a teaser strategy to get you to sign up for - what else - paid online lessons. Let's face it - the "com" in .com stands for commercial. They all want to sell you something. Even if they are giving all their lessons away, they probably want you to buy something else of theirs on the same site.
3) In the rare instance where the lessons may all actually be free and comprehensive in scope, then the site it likely cluttered with all sorts of advertising and other offers - from Google AdWords to banner ads, to pop-ups, links and anything else trying to grab your attention away from what your were seeking - which was free guitar lessons.
4) The reason for all those banners, AdWords, and pop-ups is that the owners of the site get paid for displaying them. So their generous nature is actually a front for a money-making venture of another type, designed, really, to distract you away from their site so they get paid. Nice.
At Guitar-eze, at least I'm fairly direct at what the site wants you to do - which is buy Guitar-eze. I offer up a lot of information about what the method is all about, what you get when you buy, how open-D will help open up the world of guitar for you, but I don't hide behind a facade of "free" anything. I'm also happy to report that to date, I have resisted all forms of outside advertising on any of my pages (except a very limited links section at the bottom of my Testimonials page). I hate all that stuff when I'm surfing (as I'm sure you and everyone else does), but particularly on guitar sites.
Maybe in some future post I'll rant about how generally pointless it is to try and learn guitar while sitting in front of a computer screen...
So, to conclude, "free" anything online should be taken for what it generally is - nonsense - and nowhere is this more true than the wonderful world of guitar on the internet.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Open-D Recordings Now Available
I have decided to show the world what I have done with open-D tuning, recording-wise. It occured to me that I have some remaining stock of recordings made with my two bands, the Highway Hepcats (1993-1999) and the JumpKatz (2003-2007) Both bands recorded original material, the vast majority of which was played, by me, in open-D tuning.
The recordings, I feel, chart both the versatility and fullness of sound when playing in open-D, as well as my personal growth and development as a guitar player (and vocalist).
I'll have them on offer on the site, until they're sold out.
The recordings, I feel, chart both the versatility and fullness of sound when playing in open-D, as well as my personal growth and development as a guitar player (and vocalist).
I'll have them on offer on the site, until they're sold out.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Playing By Ear in Open-D Tuning - Part 2
The other way open-D tuning is superior for the ear player is in the area of experimentation.
Now, for the experienced (standard tuning) guitarist, experimentation may not be a big deal. After all, for those folks, with the background, the theoretical knowledge, the experience with chords, harmony, etc., experimentation is readily achievable, with all that you already know (surprisingly it does not apply to all experienced guitar players).
But for those inexperienced, novice, frustrated guitar types who feel like they have music in them, but just cannot get over the hump of priming needed in standard tuning, open-D tuning offers a nifty by-pass. The neat thing about a tuning such as open-D is that you need virtually no musical background out of the gate. Your guitar is tuned to such a user friendly starting point - a beautiful, common, usable D major chord - that the door is held wide open for you to get playing guitar, by ear, right away.
What do I mean by this?
Consider it - you strum your guitar, and you have a common major chord, with no fingers to fret. All it takes to create a second usable chord is to add one finger to one fret - and it matters not which - any string, any fret (heck, even any finger!). You have another new chord. An actual, playable, legitimate chord - and you really don't need to know the name of it (although Guitar-eze does get into a minimal amount of theory for those who may desire it).
Add to this the fact that a single finger can replicate that starting D major chord all the way up the neck of your guitar, creating Eb, E, F, F#, etc., and you have opened up a world of guitar, with an absolute minimum of technical or theoretical knowledge. For an ear player, or experimenter, or intuitive guitar player, it's heaven.
That's what open-D tuning is - heaven.
Now, for the experienced (standard tuning) guitarist, experimentation may not be a big deal. After all, for those folks, with the background, the theoretical knowledge, the experience with chords, harmony, etc., experimentation is readily achievable, with all that you already know (surprisingly it does not apply to all experienced guitar players).
But for those inexperienced, novice, frustrated guitar types who feel like they have music in them, but just cannot get over the hump of priming needed in standard tuning, open-D tuning offers a nifty by-pass. The neat thing about a tuning such as open-D is that you need virtually no musical background out of the gate. Your guitar is tuned to such a user friendly starting point - a beautiful, common, usable D major chord - that the door is held wide open for you to get playing guitar, by ear, right away.
What do I mean by this?
Consider it - you strum your guitar, and you have a common major chord, with no fingers to fret. All it takes to create a second usable chord is to add one finger to one fret - and it matters not which - any string, any fret (heck, even any finger!). You have another new chord. An actual, playable, legitimate chord - and you really don't need to know the name of it (although Guitar-eze does get into a minimal amount of theory for those who may desire it).
Add to this the fact that a single finger can replicate that starting D major chord all the way up the neck of your guitar, creating Eb, E, F, F#, etc., and you have opened up a world of guitar, with an absolute minimum of technical or theoretical knowledge. For an ear player, or experimenter, or intuitive guitar player, it's heaven.
That's what open-D tuning is - heaven.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Playing By Ear in Open-D Tuning - Part 1
What does it mean to play guitar by ear? Different things to different people, I suppose. I apply the term differently, even to my own personal situation.
On the one side, I play guitar by ear. That means I don't need to read music notation (which I can, actually), or tab (which I can't for the life of me)to play my guitar(s). I can figure out chords, chord progressions, melody lines, solos, all without the aid of written music. I generally learn from recorded versions of the songs I like.
Open-D tuning has been a true door-opener for me in song learning, especially by ear. The versatility of this particular tuning is well documented (if greatly under-utilized) in the guitar playing world, but generally not for learning songs. But open-D tuning is a terrific way to unlock your favourite tunes. For example, just getting the basic "roadmap" of a song down - that general progression of chords, verses, choruses, codas, endings, etc. is achieved with relative ease in open-D, because at the start you can just use your lowest D string, or even the three low (D-A-D) strings, to parse out the basic chords. At first pass, you may not get all the nuances (majors, minors, sevenths, etc.), but you will be able to quickly pound out the basics of the song, and then go back and refine. During this refinement stage, open-D tuning once again shows its adaptability. In no other tuning can you "feel" the chords of a song out like open-D. If you've got a song in the key of G for example, and the the progression moves from a G to an A chord, it is quite simple to discern whether that A chord is a major or a minor, with a simple finger movement. Because the strings in open-D are tuned to a major triad, things like minors, etc. tend to jump right out at you.
So that's one side of ear playing that open-D can really help bring out. For a working musician, who learns songs to get paid with, or just to perform in general, it is a genuine guitar playing aid.
There's another type of ear playing that is just as exciting and perfectly suited for open-D tuning as well. I'll get into it next post.
On the one side, I play guitar by ear. That means I don't need to read music notation (which I can, actually), or tab (which I can't for the life of me)to play my guitar(s). I can figure out chords, chord progressions, melody lines, solos, all without the aid of written music. I generally learn from recorded versions of the songs I like.
Open-D tuning has been a true door-opener for me in song learning, especially by ear. The versatility of this particular tuning is well documented (if greatly under-utilized) in the guitar playing world, but generally not for learning songs. But open-D tuning is a terrific way to unlock your favourite tunes. For example, just getting the basic "roadmap" of a song down - that general progression of chords, verses, choruses, codas, endings, etc. is achieved with relative ease in open-D, because at the start you can just use your lowest D string, or even the three low (D-A-D) strings, to parse out the basic chords. At first pass, you may not get all the nuances (majors, minors, sevenths, etc.), but you will be able to quickly pound out the basics of the song, and then go back and refine. During this refinement stage, open-D tuning once again shows its adaptability. In no other tuning can you "feel" the chords of a song out like open-D. If you've got a song in the key of G for example, and the the progression moves from a G to an A chord, it is quite simple to discern whether that A chord is a major or a minor, with a simple finger movement. Because the strings in open-D are tuned to a major triad, things like minors, etc. tend to jump right out at you.
So that's one side of ear playing that open-D can really help bring out. For a working musician, who learns songs to get paid with, or just to perform in general, it is a genuine guitar playing aid.
There's another type of ear playing that is just as exciting and perfectly suited for open-D tuning as well. I'll get into it next post.
