But can you play guitar?

Kids these days.

Seems like every generation says the same thing about the younger ones. “When I was your age, yadda yadda yadda” is something we always hated to hear growing up, but now seem to find ourselves saying it more and more.

I’m not here to lecture anyone on sociology, the trouble with kids these days, every kid gets a trophy, blah blah. What I am here to talk about, however, is the responsibility I think we – as guitarists who have “been there and done that” – have to the younger players out there today.

Okay, so what am I really talking about here. Well, the way I see it, one of the things kids today – especially kids who want to be musicians – are lacking these days, are good mentors. No, I’m not saying good role models like you have to take them to church and encourage them to do their homework. I’m talking about showing the younger kids how to really master their instrument; getting back to the “good old days” where you learned by watching, listening, and emulating.

The Internet is great, backing tracks are cool, and there are certainly tons and tons of excellent books and DVDs on the market. But there is no better way to learn than by getting one-on-one attention from someone who has truly been there and done that.

Okay… So What Can We Do?

I’m putting a call out to all of you; all of us, really… the seasoned players that have had a guitar in their hands for a long time, to get involved. Get involved by showing the young guns what they need to know. Start a guitar community.

A Guitar Community?

Yes. Just think back to when you were coming up. How cool would it have been to show up to a session once every other week or once a month and jam with cats older than you, ask them questions, steal licks from them, and be so inspired that you went home and shed until your fingers bled? I know I would have.

In a time when our youth are being medicated for false diagnoses, we should be giving them an opportunity to benefit from our experience. Is it ADHD or just a lack of going outside and doing stuff instead of playing XBox and Facebook all damn day long?!?!

Okay, okay, I know… I promised I wouldn’t lecture, but the sad truth is that kids today really need our help.

How We Can Help

First, find some friends and talk to them about starting a guitar community. Just one day a month, get together and jam. Have someone come up with a topic and let them do a mini lecture. Get some jam tracks and play along. Talk to your community centers, Boy Scouts, and local music stores. Tell them what you want to do and encourage them to help you reach out to the young players.

Once things start to take off, and trust me, they will if you stick with it, you’ll reap rewards that you never though were possible. There is nothing greater than seeing the passion on a kid’s face when they are playing and really enjoying the guitar. You’ve been there yourselves; you know what I’m talking about.

So what are you waiting for? Start a guitar community!

Start a Guitar Community and Save the World is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

It's not easy to sing and play at the same time

For many people, myself included, the guitar is not just an instrument; it’s an accompaniment. I have always enjoyed expressing myself through music, in particular by singing. Not long after I really started getting interested in music in my teens, I decided to purchase an acoustic guitar at the age of 19. At the time, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to achieve. Naturally I started by learning basic chord shapes and progressions, mostly from my Oasis chord book (and still love a bit of Brit-pop today!).

Once I had a basic progression down, I would record it and then try to layer the lead sections over the top using my brother’s electric guitar – I was useless. My timing was always off and I couldn’t play quickly enough. Whilst this can be rectified in time through lots and lots of practice, it didn’t take long for me to realise that the most intriguing and ultimately satisfying part of playing guitar for me, was the ability to sing along with the chords I was strumming.

This was tough to master, and I would like to share with you five techniques which helped me learn how to play and sing simultaneously.

Try to Minimise the Pain

You can’t comfortably sing if you are struggling to play. Make sure that you keep your fingernails short and that the skin on the end of your fingers has toughened up. If you are in pain, you will more likely be concentrating on this than anything else, and I found that if there was something hampering my playing, my voice and timing would go to pot. Also, sometimes you need to step back and take a break. I was practicing for 4-5 hours at a time which was very intense on my fingers, posture and vocals.

Have a Conversation

What you need to do is separate your hand from your brain. When trying to sing and play at the same time, many people strum the guitar in emphasis along with what they are trying to sing. There needs to be a disconnect between your hand and your brain. To do this, start by just having a conversation with a friend whilst strumming. Concentrate on the conversation, not your playing. Don’t try to play anything in particular – just play what you know. This will help to sever that connection between your brain and your hand, meaning that neither is dependent on the other.

Get Your Playing Down

My timing naturally sucks, and this tip can be useful to all musicians – practice with a click track (metronome). If you never play with a drummer, there is a good chance that your playing is not consistent with anything other than itself. This isn’t good if you’re performing a solo song. Practice both playing and singing individually with a metronome, which will help to train your natural rhythm. This, in time, will make playing and singing simultaneously much easier.

Work on Your Vocals Independently

To complete the singer/guitarist package you need to be expressive in your singing. Strengthening your voice is a great way to improve vocal projection. Take in deep breaths and release slowly 10 times in a row. Do this in the shower to take in the steam and air out your lungs. Lie down on the couch with a weight (i.e. a large book or similar) on your diaphragm and take large breaths… in and out… this all helps to strengthen the muscles which control your voice. Obviously this is the tip of the iceberg, but I encourage you to look further into vocal training as this will make you a better all-round performer.

Jam With Others

Sometimes this can be hard to orchestrate and no, a drum machine or metronome is not the same! Find people to play with; guitarists, singers, bassists, drummers… Humans make mistakes and have ideas just like you, and having a jam session with other musicians can be a really good way to train your skills. You don’t need to be the best guitarist in the world; you just need to have a passion and desire to progress your skills. Who knows, you may even decide to form a band of your own some day!

Learn to Play Guitar and Sing at the Same Time is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Have you made your resolution yet?

Yes, it’s that time of the year again; the end of the year. That time when we start to drool with anticipation and count down the days to see if our loved ones got us all of the guitar goodies we asked for. (And I know one of those things was our Scale Mastery eBook, right?)

The big day arrives, you get all of your new gear and toys, and you spend the next week or two shredding up a storm and sending the neighborhood pets running for cover. It’s a great time to be a guitarist, and you’re loving life.

But after that, then what? You probably tuck your new toys in the closet with the rest of your stuff and don’t pull it out again for a month, right? Life getting in the way of life and all that stuff.

Every year, millions of people try to set goals for themselves – things they want to accomplish or change about themselves – in an effort to improve their daily lives. It’s a noble cause, but unfortunately it’s also one that 99% of us stick with for about a month and then give up on. And yes, we all know the world is going to end in some Mayan apocalyptic catastrophe that would make Mel Gibson proud, but until that happens we’re going to help you set a guitar goal for 2012…

Notice I said a guitar goal, and that is the crux of it; we’re going to set one single goal and work on it for the entire year. Why? Because we all know you’re not going to get through an entire list. But, if you give yourself one goal and work on it while doing all of the other music stuff you like to do, the chances of you actually sticking with it and achieving what you set out to do becomes much greater.

To give you a head start, here are some examples/suggestions you might want to consider to get your brain flowin’:

• Master the melodic minor scale
• Learn 20 new chord voicings
• Memorize a favorite solo
• Stop listening to Nickleback
• Improve alternate picking
• Learn to sight read
• Write five songs

You get the idea. As you can see, I didn’t write “learn every scale” or “practice every day for five hours a day” or something insanely implausible. First and foremost you need to be realistic. My goal? Well, mine is very easy:

• Become better at improvising over ii-V-I and iii-VI-ii-V-I progressions in all 12 keys.

What’s great about this goal is that there are 12 keys to learn and 12 months in the year. Spread out, that means (obviously) I can work on one key per month. Granted, this goal is a bit open-ended in that I can easily get carried away by adding different scales, arpeggios, substitutions, etc. But I’m not going to do that. I know what I already have in my improviser’s toolbox, and so I’m going to focus on what’s already there. I’m also going to focus on what I know but cannot naturally implement. I know the melodic minor scale. I know how to play extended arpeggios. I understand how to use the minor pentatonics over each chord.

But I’m not as good as I want to be with them yet.

And so that’s my goal; one month, one key. Really nail those changes so I don’t have to think about them at all anymore.

What about you? Do you have something in mind? Comment below and let me and the other Fretheads know what you plan to work on (the ONE thing) next year.

Have You Set Your Guitar Goal for the New Year? is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Greatest band ever!

I have a profound distaste for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It would be fair to say that I think it’s a joke, a disgrace, and nothing more than a way for a select few music executives and critics to get together once a year and circle-jerk while they tell each other how great they are. But despite my misgivings, there are those who believe “the Hall” has some legitimacy to it. To those people, I have to ask why.

Take a look at a sampling of some artists who have been inducted:  The Flamingos, The Kinks, Lovin’ Spoonful, John Mellencamp, The Moonglows, The Pretenders… I could go on.

You can obviously get where I’m going with this given the title of today’s post, so it’s not like the drum roll leading up to my argument is as dramatic as usual, but I truly have to ask:

Why is Rush not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

How can an entity expect any pretense of legitimacy when it consistently fails to recognize one of the most important rock bands of the last 30 years. Whether you are a fan or not, as a musician you cannot overstate how important they are. I present to you the following list of points as to why Rush should have already been nominated and inducted:

Consecutive Gold Records

Only two bands sit higher on the list of groups that sold more consecutive gold records than Rush – The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. I think we can all agree that is no small achievement. Out of every single group that is currently in the Hall, only two have been more consistently successful.

Inspiring a Genre

Talk to virtually any progressive rock musician that started playing music from the late 1970′s forward and they will mention how influential Rush was to their musical upbringing. Monster musicians such as Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, and Kirk Hammett (among many others) all sing the praises of the Canadian trio.

Not only at the group level, but individually they have all been tremendously influential as well. Take drummers, for example. I would be very comfortable saying that if I interviewed 1,000 professional rock/metal drummers today and asked who their influences were, Neal Peart (pronounced like “peert” by the way, in case you were wondering) would be on 99% of those lists.

Their long form, epic songs pushed the boundaries of songwriting, especially at a time where there was no computer recording, auto-tune, or drum quantizing.

Their Influence Compared to Others

Neal Peart - easily one of the most influential drummers in the world

Given the aforementioned inspiration for other musicians, can the members of the Hall induction committee really justify how artists like Dusty Springfield are in and Rush are not? Let’s take a look at some of this year’s noiminations:

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Laura Nyro
The Small Faces/The Faces

Who?
What?
Really?

I mean, who the fuck is Laura Nyro? She wrote one song, apparently, that The Mommas & The Papas sang. The Small Faces? I have absolutely no clue who they are. Joan Jett? Maybe I can see it, but I can’t think of one person she or The Blackhearts ever inspired.

Alex Lifeson - just to keep it "guitar"a

I don’t know what it is about Rush, or about the genre in general, that creates such a negative reaction. People said the same thing about hip hop twenty years ago, and yet Eric B. & Rakim are nominated this year. Genesis was only inducted in 2010; Miles Davis in 2006 and he’s not even rock! To my knowledge, Genesis is the only “prog” band that has ever gotten in, as I wouldn’t consider Pink Floyd prog.

Neal Peart vs. Hal Blaine?
“Tom Sawyer” by Rush vs. “Sincerely” by The Moonglows?

I concede that perhaps I’m not making my best argument. I’m also not saying that Clyde McPhatter and The Everly Brothers shouldn’t be in. But I’m having a very hard time swallowing the pill that the corporate music mavens make me swallow. I thought is was bad enough when the Grammys awarded Jethro Tull the “best hard rock/heavy metal album” honors over Metallica, but even they eventually admitted their mistake and made up for it.

I would like to hear your opinions. Especially if you think Rush deserves to be in, please leave a comment. I doubt that the knuckleheads at the Hall will ever get wind of my piddly blog rant, but the #OccupyRush movement needs to keep pushing forward.

Xanadu!

Why is Rush NOT in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Gibson's new Firebird X Computer Guitar

It’s not a mystery that the line between analog and digital has been getting smaller and smaller over the years. I think Line 6 was the first company to truly innovate and show us what was possible. With modeling now taking such a prevalent position in the music product industry, it was only a matter of time before a guitar company came along and shoved a whole mess of computer equipment into it. Line 6 had the Variax, and Brian Moore added USB to their iGuitar series.

Tomorrow, Gibson will officially release the Firebird X for sale. Having “enhanced an already outstanding instrument to unbelievable performance and creative heights” Gibson aims to set the bar higher than any guitar manufacturer before by including a wide range of new features from electronic tuners to 3rd party apps.

As intriguing as this all may seem, I can’t help but wonder if we, as consumers and musicians, have finally gone so far over the edge, so far down the path of having everything in one small package with ten million options immediately available to you, that we’ve actually killed the guitar.

Is the Gibson Firebird X signaling the death of the guitar?

I won’t go into all of the specific details about the Firebird X. I think Gibson has done enough work to warrant you taking a look at their website if you want every piece of information available. But I have to say I’m really on the fence. As some of you know I’m not really a huge effects guy. I’ve always been a “plug it in and play it” kind of guitarist. Effects are cool, but kind of like baseball it’s only cool in small doses. Where I can see some advantage to the automated tuners for live musicians, at this time I just can’t see why you need a guitar that has 3rd party applications you can install into the actual guitar!

I get that it’s still an analog guitar and only the audio signal is being modified, so in essence it’s not a midi guitar or modeler where your actual performance may have to change due to technological limitations, but to me in many ways the guitar is supposed to be pure.

Pilfered from Gibson's website

On the other hand, I also get that most people don’t have the money to buy all kinds of different amps and pedals and other gadgets, so having a guitar that can do all of those things is a plus.

Yes, I get it. But I don’t necessarily agree with it.

I’ve been thinking about all of my favorite guitar players; all of the guys that have really kicked my ass through the years. And you know what? Most of them don’t usually use a ton of effects. Players like Wayne Krantz are using them more now than in the past, but I still love their “pure” stuff better. Guitarists like Oz Noy, who use tons of effects, I just don’t get into that much.

Anyway, I’m reserving final judgment until I can get my hands on one of these monstrosities and can check it out first-hand, but I wanted to get your opinions; are we going too far in the other direction where we risk losing our musical creativity to circuits and signal chains, or are we opening the doors for new innovations that will inspire and truly bring the best music out of us?

Chime in and let me know what you think?

Is the Gibson Firebird X the Death Of the Guitar? is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Stop the Madness!

If ever there was a crutch that would forever stunt the musical growth of guitar players throughout the history of time, that crutch would be the Pentatonic Scale. Thousands of potentially great guitar solos have been spoiled by that little sequence of five notes that simply will not die. More disturbingly, millions of potentially great guitarists have languished in Pentatonic Purgatory.

I have taken up arms and put the call out to my fellow Fretheads to stop the madness. We may not be able to get the government to stop bleeding the middle class dry, but we can certainly stop musicians from making our ears bleed.

The Pentatonic Scale Has Been Banned!

It hit me after watching a few episodes of That Metal Show on TV. For those of you not familiar with the show, it’s a talk show of sorts that, obviously, focuses on rock and heavy metal music. It’s a great show and I like to watch it when I can (which is very rarely). One of the added bonuses is that every week a famous guitar player will sit in and do some shredding leading into the commercial breaks.

And that’s when I noticed it:

Every. Single. Friggin’. Guitarist. Played. A. F*&$(#@*ING. Pentatonic. Scale!

Every single one. It’s like they all read from a wall chart of approved-for-TV licks, or they of a sudden got stage fright and couldn’t come up with anything creative. Up and down the neck as fast as they can like hamsters on a wheel. Completely useless, sounds like shit, and is impressive only to the most uninformed. And when I thought about it more I realized that in every single jam session I’ve ever attended, or any  backyard part that had a band, that same damned Pentatonic Scale reared it’s ugly head and just would not go away.

Now before you start to hand me a bunch of B.S. about the great blues players, it’s a great beginner scale, most people just want to play guitar for fun, blah blah blah… I will tell you know that I’ve heard it all before and I’m still banning it. Sure, when Derek Trucks or Warren Haynes uses it, it sounds great. But they use it in addition to the twenty million other things they have in their bag of tricks. It’s not the only thing. The word “sparingly” comes to mind. But when it’s the only scale or sound a person knows — which seems to be the case for 99.8% of the world’s guitar population — it really makes me want to get out my Guitar Police identification badge, go door-to-door, and confiscate everyone’s guitars.

If I was a marketing genius I would use this opportunity to plug my first eBook, Scale Mastery, in an attempt to get the world to see past the five note hell we’re being subjected to. But, I guess I’m just not that savvy.

Ladies and gentlemen, the time is nigh. There’s more to music than the same friggin’ thing being done over and over and over and over again. The definition of insanity comes to mind. Add another note; even just one more will do. Put in a b2 or a 6th, for goodness sake. Just do something! So many wonderful things, so much beautiful music, that can be created if one would just take a peek outside your tiny musical hole. Just dip your toe in the water; take a very tiny sip of that funny looking drink. It won’t kill you, I promise.

Hell, you may even like it!

The Pentatonic Scale Has Been Banned! is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Volume 1: Scale Mastery

We hinted about it here — and was a bit more blatant about it here — so it’s not really a surprise announcement by conventional standards. But, we (Fretterverse) are quite pleased to announce the release of its first eBook — Scale Mastery.

Over a year in the making, Scale Mastery takes you way beyond the typical scale-learning methods available on the market today. I promise this eBook to be an original solution to an old problem.

Whether you are a beginning guitarist just starting out, an intermediate player having trouble getting certain sounds under your fingers, or even just a player who’s bored with his playing and wants a fresh approach, Scale Mastery will open up your eyes and ears to new possibilities.

The best part is, we’re selling the eBook (along with accompanying audio backing tracks) for $10. Yes, only ten dollars USD. That’s a bargain.

Please visit our Products page for more information about Scale Mastery, as well as a link to purchase and download the eBook instantly.

Buy a copy, tell your friends and family, or just buy them copies, too!

Fretterverse Releases First eBook in Series is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Challenge!

If ever there was a day of the week when motivation simply does not exist, Hump Day would be it. It’s still a wee bit too early to get excited about the weekend, it’s never a paycheck day and, as much as you really want to sit around and do nothing, you know you can’t. To make things worse, the summer is just about over, the vacation days are pretty much all used up, and now begins the push for the holiday marketing and 2012 business strategy sessions are starting to take hold.

Good times… good times.

I mean, a guy would have to be some kind of nut job to think that people would be motivated to actually sit down and practice guitar on a day like this, right? I mean, the sheer gall to ask someone to do more work when they are already mentally spent with two more work days to go!

Who would be so much of a jerk that they would issue a challenge on a Wednesday to try and see who has the moxy — the balls — to challenge you to get off your ass and show what you’re really made of?

I would.

That’s right, slackers. Today is the Hump Day Challenge. There are no excuses, no reasons why you can’t, no if’s, and’s, or but’s. Today is going to make you a better guitar player. If for nothing else because you got off your butt and put in the work. I am a firm believer that you make the most progress when you are the least motivated but show up and put in the time anyway. The gains may not show up immediately, but they have been made and you know you feel better having done the work when it’s over.

So, today I am giving you three things to work on. Do all three and good manna from heaven and all that other stuff will happen. (It’s true; I’ve seen it and stuff.)

1. Chord Inversions

Using the 1346 string group (low ‘E’, D, G and high ‘E’ strings), play all of the chord inversions for the following chords: EMaj7, Em7, E7, Em7b5. If you need help with the fundamentals, read about them here and here.

I specifically chose this string group because it’s uncommon. What kind of challenge-maker would I be if I gave you easy stuff? There will be some odd stretches. Too bad; work ‘em out. You might find some very interesting chord voicings that you like.

2. Learn Eight Bars of a Solo

You’re probably thinking, “This isn’t too bad.” I didn’t tell you what kind of solo or in what musical genre to learn a solo from. It doesn’t even have to be a guitar solo. But here’s the kicker:

You’re not allowed to use your index finger.

That’s right. No 1st finger allowed! You have to learn the entire eight bar solo using only your middle, ring, and pinky fingers. And no, you can’t show me how strong your middle finger is if you know what I’m sayin’…

A solo with bends in it or a fast bebop solo would be ideal, but your choice of solos is ultimately up to you. Just remember, there is no quiz for this challenge, so the less work you put in the more your flaws will show up later.

3. Ten Minutes of Rhythm

Using your metronome, pick a comfortable tempo. Find a fretted note on your guitar — it really doesn’t matter which one — and for ten minutes straight (no stopping!) I want you to play the following one right after the other:

• 4 quarter notes
• 8 eighth notes
• 12 triplets
• 16 sixteenth notes

The quarter notes fall on the metronome beats. Immediately follow that with eighth notes (two per beat) and then divide the beat into triplets. Then on to 16th notes (4 per beat). Continuously repeat this pattern for the full ten minute time period. Concentrate on:

• Consistent timing
• Hand/pick coordination
• Dynamics

This is not easy. It’s boring, repetitive, and will get on your nerves.

That’s a good thing.

If you can go the full ten then you are a maverick among slackers.

I urge you all to take today’s Hump Day Challenge. It’s good for your playing, good for your brain, and good for the environment. Al Gore personally sponsors this exercise to help prevent climate change. (It’s true, just ask him.)

Good luck, Fretheads!

The Hump Day Guitar Challenge is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Whatcha cryin' aboot?

You know, there are those times, though few and far between, when I really wish I didn’t have a guitar blog.

I think it pretty much goes without saying that if you have a guitar blog you’re more or less relegated to writing only about guitar, right?  I mean, who in their right mind would visit a guitar blog if the blog didn’t talk about guitar?

You see, by having a guitar blog, I’m generally not “allowed” to post about incredibly cool and awesome things unless it’s guitar related. Normally I’m only allowed to talk about scales, pedals, cool guitars, picks made out of petrified dinosaur snot that make you play like SRV; if it deals with other stuff, other cool things I want to share with the rest of the Fretterverse, I’m screwed.

Things that move me. Things that make me want to shake my butt (not that you needed the visual).

Things like this, for example…

Some days you just have to forget about the guitar and appreciate kick-ass musicianship, with guitars or without. Happy Friday!

Some Days I Wish I Didn’t Have a Guitar Blog is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.

Hear ye! Hear ye! This eBook will revolutionize the world!

It’s taken me a year to finally be able to make this great announcement.

I’m happy to tell you all that I am now putting the finishing touches on the first volume in the Fretterverse Guitar Concepts eBook series, which will be available for sale very soon! Volume 1 is called “Scale Mastery” and, obviously, details a new method for learning scales and modes.

Surely, there have been hundreds of books, videos, and Internet websites dedicated to learning how to play scales. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone has a “trick.” So what makes this one so special? Why should you check out my eBook when you’ve probably already spent way too much money on everyone else’s?

If you really want to know, keep reading…

I’m not going to give away the farm just yet, but what’s important to know is that Scale Mastery is first and foremost not a book with a list of scales showing pictures of all of the available notes on the fretboard. (That, in my opinion, is not a good way to learn scales.) Nor is Scale Mastery a book of licks that hints at a certain “sound” that you can throw into your bag of tricks. Licks are great – everyone should have some – but again, not a great way to learn scales correctly.

No, Scale Mastery is a system of exercises that will teach you how to Deep Learn a scale; how to really get the sound in your ears and under your fingers so you can use it freely as opposed to shoving into your favorite line. There are no tricks, no secret hints that can shorten your learning curve so you sound like Pat Metheny in two days. No tricks, just a method for honest, hard-working guitarists to become better players and better musicians.

I will be releasing more information about the book in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. I promise it will be good, and I promise it will be more than affordable.

If you like reading Fretterverse, please spread the word. Sales of the eBook will help support this blog and keep it running.

Cheers!

The eBook is Coming! The eBook is Coming! is a post from: Fretterverse.com: Guitar Blog | guitar news & reviews, amps, effects, guitars, music theory, guitar lessons. If you are reading this on a site that is not Fretterverse.com, it's been ripped. Please come to the real Fretterverse.com.