Guitar Lessons - Music Instruction Blog by Scotty West

Private Guitar Lessons vs Video Guitar Lessons

    I guess everyone would agree that these are tough times.  We are in a major global economic crisis and the price of energy is going through the roof dragging everything else right along with it.  Folks wonder how they're going to get through this winter with skyrocketing fuel costs.  Food costs here on the east coast have gone up dramatically.  People are losing the homes they have worked so hard to purchase

     It's tough for folks to justify expenditures for leisure time activities like sports and music.  My private guitar lesson business is way off right now ... down by almost 30%.  This is sad as many of my students tell me that their music is the one thing that boosts their spirits when times get rough.  The last thing they want to give up is their guitar.  Parents find it hard to come up with cash to continue their child's private guitar lessons but are conflicted about depriving them of the creative outlet and satisfaction it brings them.  They wonder if there are alternatives to expensive private lessons.

    More and more folks consider turning to video guitar lessons and the internet but wonder if these are viable options.  I believe that they are as long as you pick the right program.  There are a lot of bad guitar teachers out there ... on video as well as in person!

    I think it's difficult to learn guitar from the short little clips you get on say YouTube.  Music education doesn't seem to lend itself to the short "sound bite" approach.  You can learn some interesting things  ... songs and riffs and such ... but it's difficult to get "The BIG Picture" ... an integrated vision of the art of music and how it applies to the fretboard of the guitar ... and that's what you need in order to do the truly creative stuff like soloing and composing.  Many other web based guitar lesson programs feature short streaming lessons that only leave you wondering what comes next.

     Many of you have already discovered that just learning songs by rote is not the road to a satisfying guitar experience.  You're beginning to see that UNDERSTANDING how music works is the only real path to true musical expression.  Music is a LANGUAGE and it takes knowledge and experience to master any language.  These things simply can't be learned in a haphazard fashion.  You need a comprehensive, organized and integrated approach.

     So can you get this kind of holistic vision from video guitar lessons?  I think you can.  We worked for nine years to put our Absolutely Understand Guitar Video Home Study Program together ... and now after almost nine more years of global internet sales, we still retain a 100% satisfaction rate.  All of our students have enjoyed and benefited from our video guitar instruction and they call and email us evryday to tell us so.

    So our guitar instruction DVDs might be just what you're looking for in this difficult economic climate.  We also pride ourselves on taking care of our students by offering personalized support via email or phone.  You can contact me anytime if you're confused or need help.  It just might be BETTER than your average private guitar lessons at a FRACTION of the cost.  Check us out at www.absolutelyunderstandguitar.com .

All the best,

Scotty West 

     

     

Pentatonic Mythology - Become a Better Guitar Player

     It happened again the other day.  I was reading an article on how to play guitar like Eric Clapton. The sentence read "Start with a Pentatonic Scale and then add this note and this note and this note" and I'm thinkin' to myself "Well it ain't a Pentatonic Scale anymore then, is it?"

     I'm not quite sure where all these myths about the Pentatonic Scale got started but it's all pretty silly.  Yes ... there are many Rock and Blues Guitar riffs that are based on Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales, but the notion that these are the primary or ONLY scales you need in order to SOLO is ridiculous.

     Anybody who knows anything knows that MUSIC IS A LANGUAGE with 12 notes in it's alphabet.  Pentatonic simply means "5 notes".  People who play pentatonically are only using 5 of the 12 notes.  Why would you think that's a good idea?  Why would you want to ignore those other 7 notes?

     Some folks would say "Those 5 are the easy notes to use.  I have trouble integrating the other 7 notes" ... and that may indeed be true ... but maybe that means you just need to work a little harder to learn how to use those other 7 notes ... that is if you're serious about becoming a REAL guitar player.

     Diatonic Scales (like "Do - Re - Mi - etc) utilize 7 of the 12 notes and historically represent the true benchmark of Western Music theory.  Scales and Modes like the Natural Minor, Mixolydian, Dorian and Lydian are absolutely essential to smart soloing and melodic composition.  More modern and sophisticated music (like Jazz) is more CHROMATIC ... that is it utilizes all 12 notes.  This level of playing requires a deeper knowledge of music theory and better trained ears, but the rewards are very real.

      This doesn't mean that I'm advocating blowing off a whole bunch of stupid notes ... over-playing ... showing off.  I'm just suggesting that you have more options available to you then you may realize.  Why would you ever want to paint a picture with 5 colors if you could use 12?  How could you ever write a short story using only 10 of the letters in the English alphabet?  That's very much like what Pentatonic guitar playing is like.

     Free your mind from all this Pentatonic hype and begin to see the bigger picture.  We're here to help you anyway we can.  Check out our awesome guitar lesson, music theory and ear training home study program at www.absolutelyunderstandguitar.com .  You can also email or call me toll free anytime if you have questions.

All the best, Scotty West