I have been looking at the following site for almost a year now and this past Friday, I was presented with some material from Rob Hylton, one of the guys behind http://teachwombat.com. I am not looking at this material as a means to teach but a means to learn. So far, I am thoroughly impressed.
You can get all the materials that you need to start or improve a Guitar or Bass teaching business in a single $15.00 download!
Over 250 handouts for Guitar and Bass Teachers to print or photocopy over and over again!
Minus the teaching aspect of this material, I am more concerned in being presented with material that will teach me. So far, http://teachwombat.com/ is doing just that...Teaching.
I will do more of a review once I have had more time to study this material.
I am not one to strut my guitar abilities to anyone except for maybe the Misses or my 4 year old son. But if I had the skills to shred, I would make sure to sign up for the Guitar Player (GP) Magazine's 2009 Guitar Superstar Competition. Competitions are a great way to make yourself known and to get your name out there in to the public light.
With Youtube, Twitter, Myspace and Facebook, guitarists are becoming more and more popular and so are the Competitions. Enter: GP's Guitar Superstar 2009:
Now Accepting Entries for GP's Guitar Superstar 2009
Share Your Instrumental Guitar Talent with the World!
This year's awesome Guitar Superstar event is September 12, 2009, and the Guitar Player staff is ready to pick the ten fabulous finalist who will showcase their techniques, tones, and hearts in front of a sold-out crowd and legendary judges. Past judges have included Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, George Lynch, Steve Lukather, Nuno Bettencourt, Elliot Easton, and Greg Howe, and former hosts have included rocker and radio personality Greg Kihn, Metalopcalypse creator Brendon Small, and guitar legend Andy Summers. Click to sonicbids.com/guitarsuperstar right now, and enter!
Needing to know a little more information and what sonicbids.com was, I headed over to their website. I found out that there were a lot of sonicbids.com artists entering these competitions and being selected.
Guitar Player Magazine's 2009 Guitar Superstar Competition is open to guitar players of all ages and styles who believe they have what it takes to earn the title of "Guitar Superstar."
This is the fourth year in a row Guitar Player has found its heroes from the Sonicbids community . Last year, Vicki Genfan was one of the 10 Sonicbids artists Guitar Player selected, and she went on to win the competition judged by Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, the Cars’ Elliott Easton, Dokken’s George Lynch and Brendan Small from Metalocalypse. ( Here is the story in the Wall Street Journal)
Ten finalists will be chosen by the staff of Guitar Player Magazine to face-off in front of sold out crowd and a panel of celebrity judges at the 2009 Guitar Superstar event on September 12, 2009 in Northern CA.
Two nights' hotel room/tax plus airfare will be paid for by Guitar Player for each of the ten finalists. Any additional expenses are the responsibility of the finalist.
One transcendent guitarist will be named as Guitar Player's 2009 Guitar Superstar, and will receive a feature story in Guitar Player magazine, free gear, and some other one-of-a-kind prizes (TBA).
Previous celebrity judges include guitar greats such as Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Elliot Easton, Nuno Bettencourt, and Greg Howe.
Please note: If you are a guitar player in a band, you may submit your band's EPK to be considered for the Guitar Superstar Competition. Regardless of whether you're a solo artist or part of a band, you will be prompted during the submission process to submit an mp3 of your best track(s).
Also brought to my attention is the fact that Guitar Player Magazine Editor Michael Molenda’s tweet, is reviewing some of the early applications. Why is this a big deal? It is because Guitar Player is one of the greatest guitar magazines and is very helpful to beginner guitarists like me.
…just another reason to keep up the lessons and the practice…for the competitions.
So, awhile back, I joined the Chuck Levin's mailing list and have been sent some choice emails. Besides, the great service and great staff, they have the best clinics.
The next on the list to attend is the...
Suhr Guitars Clinic
Suhr Guitars has embarked on a clinic tour of select US and Canada east coast cities and Chuck Levin's is excited to be one of the stops. More info...
When: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 - 6:00—8:00pm Where: Chuck's
I am not that familiar with the Suhr guitar but I am liking their line of guitars. Suhr Guitars: http://www.suhrguitars.com/. But it is a good thing that Chuck has these clinics to get an up and close introduction of Suhr and other great guitars.
A couple of days ago,I posted on the guitar games of GuitarGames.net. Well, now at work, this http://www.guitargames.net/ is blocked. Enter: http://www.fretzilla.net/. Yes - I work but when there is down time, I need a guitar fix and taking my favorite axe to work, is not going to happen. So, I need to find a way to keep my mind engaged and still learning on the guitar. I would love to explain how /www.fretzilla.net/ came about but the creator does that in their history of /www.fretzilla.net/.
"To me, it's really important that guitarists learn all the notes on all the strings on all the frets. Not just learn them, but assimilate them to where you can look at any fret and automatically, instantaneously know what note it is... I think it's an important springboard to becoming what somebody might say is musically free." - Eric Johnson
I completely agree.
I remember, as a child, putting tape on my guitar's fretboard and writing the notes under the strings to help me learn. (picture here.) I'd seen violin teachers do something similar to the violins of their students, and the method worked for me to some extent. But, I've found it is more effective in teaching notes on the violin, on which most students are classically trained and single note lines are a necessity. The guitar, in contrast, is easiest understood in chord shapes, and many guitarists are self-taught. For myself and as a teacher, I've tried to find a better way to make note recognition on the fretboard instinctive.
Originally, I developed the Fretzilla idea for my students and for personal use. I was studying jazz composition and classical guitar, and some of my students were just grazing the surface of improvisation. So, I created a FLASH instructional game for us to install on our computers. This program would evolve into Fretzilla.
The idea to make it part of web browsing was entirely an accident of my neurosis. I have a habit of forcing ridiculous self-imposed rules to better myself. For example, I walk around with body weights (most people don't notice this), I refuse to take the elevator (which was rough when I lived on the ninth floor!), if I misspell/misuse a word in an email, I have to include that word in my next three emails, I do three pull-ups upon entering my room, and two upon leaving... you get the idea; I'm not well in the head.
This ridiculousness extends to all aspects of my life, including guitar. I play extraordinarily thick strings to strengthen my fingers. I have a rule to always play my blue guitar with my eyes closed to keep my playing instinctive. I'm not allowed to use a pick when playing my red guitar to improve on my plecado and tremelo techniques. I type with only my left hand to increase dexterity and brush my teeth with my left hand to help my vibrato. Lately, I've been avoiding playing the tonic note while improvising to open my ear to the different modes... again, you get the point.
Anyway, after creating the fretboard training game, I, of course, needed to make some ridiculous rule to force myself to use it consistently. Since I spend half my days browsing the Web, and my default homepage was Google, I thought, "Scripting a text field to act as a Google search is easy enough, so why not add that to my little fretboard game and force myself to 'win' the game before I do any Google searches?"
I sent the new evolution to some friends who thought tying it into Web browsing was a great idea, so I expanded its capabilities even further to include an address bar and a drop down history that mimics a browser. Fretzilla was born, and, since then, my goal has been to tweak it into a true homepage for guitarists by making it work just like a browser, except you need to name a note or two rather than just hitting the “go” button. There's room for improvement, but it's getting there.
I love playing and teaching guitar, and becoming more familiar with the fretboard has really opened up avenues in my composition and improvisation. I developed Fretzilla.net with the hopes of expanding those avenues for others.
Basically, go to http://www.fretzilla.net/ and enter your destination. Let's go to Rock House Method's site...so we enter in http://www.rockhousemethod.com/ and click the enter or return button.
The default level or experience is beginner, but this is easily changed from the buttons or selectors on the bottom right hand corner of the screen. There, you can also change the color of the guitar, the fretboard inlays and even rotate the fretboard for you lefties. Next start guessing what note is marked by the RED dot
C, C#\b, D, D#\b, E, F, F#\b, G, G#\b, A, A#\b, or B
Guess right 2 times in a row within the allotted time frame and you get to advance towards your intended browsing destination. Guess wrong and you need to keep guessing until you have answered 2 correct times. If you are a beginner, I would still recommend setting it to the harder setting and making the session last longer. So at work, there is no more excuse to not practice your guitar lessons.
Do a Google search on "fretzilla" and you will find the following:
Guitar Hero this and Rock Band that. I want to learn the guitar and music theory on a REAL guitar. But finding time to do that is slowly becoming a job in itself. Enter GuitarGames.net and Guitar teacher William Wilson:
Guitar teacher William Wilson created the site as a means of competing with video games for his student's attention. "I got tired of hearing students come in and telling me 'I didn't practice, but I played Guitar Hero, does that count?'"(Source: LINK)
Music Courses Teach Guitar Notes and Music Theory With Video Games
GuitarGames.net announces three online courses which teach the fundamentals of music through music related video games. The courses cover finding guitar notes, music theory for beginners, and developing a practice routine.
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) June 18, 2009 -- GuitarGames.net announces the release of three online courses that teach guitar playing and music skills with video games. The course topics include Guitar Notes, Music Theory for Beginners, and Developing a Practice Routine. What makes the courses unique is their use of GuitarGames.net's online video games. Students learn the note names by playing a game called Note Squish, a kind of "whack-a-mole" music notation hybrid. Notes on the fretboard are covered by a game titled "Birds of Fretopia", where the object is to shoot an alien bird with the correct note name. The courses also make extensive use of light-hearted pneumonic devices and whimsical stories while covering traditional music education topics.
Minus the practicing of my lessons from Rock House Method and my teacher, Tom Lawrence, I will be checking out GuitarGames.net as part of my lesson plan. I don't expect to be able to play better from sites like this but I expect learn the guitar faster or at least know where the notes are located....faster.
***************************************************************** Charvel® News U.S.A. Production Models - 5th Batch Custom Colors June 17, 2009 ***************************************************************** Dear Guitar Lover,
Charvel® Guitars has just released the 5th installment of U.S.A. Production Model limited run custom colors. All three new colors will be available at your Charvel dealer beginning Friday, July 3.
NOTE* THIS IS THE LAST BATCH OF SAN DIMAS® STYLE 2 IN THIS CONFIGURATION!
Visit www.charvel.com for pics, specs, video, and our global dealer list.
I began the guitar at age 50. With research and guidance from expert players I was able to make up for lost time. As an aging rocker I refuse to go quietly into the night!
As a 37+ year old beginner, I am trying to make up for 20 years of lost time. However, what made me continue to read his blog is a recent posting on the use of the metronome.
VintageP writes:
The big discovery was that using a metronome for pacing in a practice session made the playing a lot more enjoyable and consistent as it removes the opportunity to hesitate before a jump.
So, tomorrow start your day by flossing, throw in some servings of fruits and vegetables and then dig out that metronome (I know you have one). You'll be glad you did!
"[The] metronome ... made the playing a lot more enjoyable and consistent." I am not playing but I am practicing and maybe my practices can be "more enjoyable and consistent." Maybe they can be even longer with the use of the metronome...? I still have not purchased that metronome but I may have to do it and soon. Do I need a new guitar toy? - Yes and get one ASAhfP...!
I have been following Storm for a while and now his channel on Ustream.TV should help this older beginner. Check out Storm on his http://www.ustream.tv/guitarteacher page.
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