wHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Lead guitar
Here is a short example of some lead guitar techniques. Tapping (using both hands on the fretboard) is a flashy looking technique, but not as hard as it appears, and I can get you started unleashing the Eddie Van Halen inside you!
The same goes for a host of other techniques including legato, harmonics, picking (alternate, sweep, economy, hybrid), slides, bends and many more. Most importantly, I'll show you how to put them all together to make great solos.
Rhythm guitar
This video shows some heavy metal riffing. This style is all about speed and accuracy, as illustrated in this dual guitar example. This of course is just one style of rhythm. I can also show you the ins and outs of rock rhythm, strumming patterns, funk rhythm, and various fingerstyle techniques.
Rhythm is the bedrock on which all other techniques should be built, and a strong foundation in this will pay dividends in the rest of your playing.
Live Performance
This clip was taken back in my days on the local band circuit. Taking playing from the practice room to the stage can be a daunting prospect, and it's something I've had to deal with many times. It got easier over time as I developed systems to mentally prepare, as well as guitar exercises designed to get me to the stage with my skills at their very best. These are all things I can show you too.
Theory
Another unnerving aspect of learning guitar is music theory. The benefits of knowing just a small amount of theory are many, however it's often taught in a stuffy, boring and frankly offputting way.
I'll be introducing you to theory based on the songs YOU want to learn, so you'll get the enjoyment of playing your favourite songs, and at the same time learn what's going on under the hood. This knowledge can be used to improvise your own variations on your favourites, or taken to be used in your own original compositions!
About the Face to face lessons
Home Studio Setup
Lessons are conducted from my home studio. I take care of any amplification needs, so all you'll need to bring is your instrument and enthusiasm!
Each lesson involves the use of backing tracks to jam to, metronomes for practicing, as well as tabs of songs we're learning and a whiteboard I use to convey some of the more complicated concepts we'll cover.
Professional Quality Tabs and Audio
There's nothing worse than suddenly having a mental block after leaving a lesson and forgetting everything you learned! There'll be no danger of that here.
After every lesson (face to face or online) you'll receive an email containing professional tablature of every practice routine, lick and theory concept we've covered, as well as audio so you can hear what you're supposed to be playing.
Note: This service does not cover full transcriptions of songs being taught. I can however provide this through my new transcription service. Scroll down to learn more about this.
About the Online lessons
HD Quality Video
Not only will your lessons be streamed to you in HD, but they will also feature close up views of both my hands so you'll never miss anything. There will also be diagrams on screen when needed, that I can annotate during the lessons to aid in the learning process.
High Quality Audio
Conferencing software can play havoc with audio sometimes, and it's hard to learn when you can't hear what you're being taught! I've got around this by routing my guitar directly into my streaming software. This means uninterrupted audio, that's as high quality as the video.
About the transcription service
Professional Quality Tablature
Tablature (or tab for short) is the guitar-friendly way of notating music. It shows which strings you should play and when, as well as the frets you'll need to hit. It's simple to understand and read, and it's the best way to learn songs when you're starting out on the instrument. There's nothing better than having your favourite songs in tab form, which is where my new service comes in!
I can provide professional quality tablature of any song, melody or lick required, even for things not originally played on a guitar! I use Guitar Pro 8 - an industry-leading transciption program, to produce your tablature, and a number of different formatting options are available, so you get the tab you want, looking how you want it to!
All I need to give you a quote is a video or audio track of what you would like tabbing. The better the quality, the better (and cheaper) the transcription will be! Prices are per minute of music to be tabbed (the minimum being one minute, including shorter pieces) based upon the complexity of the music
About the business card
Choices, choices...
These diagrams represent the three different "flavours" of minor scale. The top is the natural minor scale, followed by the harmonic minor and the melodic minor at the bottom. Now this may not sound like much, but these diagrams actually hold the information for a whopping 252 different scales!
How to read them
In this zoomed in view, the capital E is the low E string, and the lower case "e" is the high E string of the guitar. The filled in circles are the root notes of the scales, and the dotted circles outline the notes of the tonic chord (basically the tastiest sounding notes in the scale!).
So, if you wanted to explore the A minor scale for example, simply follow the top fretboard, lining the root note circles with the note A. If you wanted to be a little more adventurous you could use a different note from the scale as the root. For instance, if you line up the dotted note above the root note with A, it will give you the notes for the A major scale! Lining the next dot up with A will give the notes of A phrygian - a less well-known scale. Contact me to arrange a lesson if you'd like to learn more about this.