myOnlineGuitar.com

How to Destroy ALL of Your Guitars - In One Easy Step

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:43:53 +0000

I woke up on sunday morning to the excited cries of my six-year old son: “There’s a lake in our backyard!”. I wasn’t too worried about it. Sometimes when it rains a lot we get a couple of puddles of water in the back and the kids call it a “lake”. A nasty storm had passed through the night before and it had been raining heavily all night so I assumed the puddles had appeared again.

But when he came running into my room screaming, “The lake comes all the way up to our house” I started to worry. I asked him if he had looked in the basement. He looked down the stairs then came back to report that the basement looked like a place where the creature from the black lagoon would live. That didn’t sound good…

I went down to check it out for myself. The first thing I noticed was one of my guitars gently floating by near the bottom of the steps. Things were getting steadily worse.

I had nearly a foot of water in my basement. That is especially bad news since I keep ALL of my guitars in the basement. I built a little closet to hold them about six inches off of the ground. But that wasn’t enough to keep them safe.

I brought all of my guitars upstairs and dried them off. The Taylor 414 and the Les Paul Standard that you see me playing in the videos on myOnlineGuitar were among them. I held the hollow instruments over the sink and let the water pour out of the sound hole. Then I set them out to dry and headed back down.

My next concern was my recording studio. Between research, contruction and equipping the room, it took me about two years to complete. Having a high-quality home studio had been a dream of mine for years. Finally, in 2007 I had completed it.

But in 2009, it was destroyed.

At least partially. I lost some important equipment. The nearly-soundproof walls which I was so proud of had been damaged. All the wood laminate flooring and subfloor had been destroyed. My Marshall half-stack, my Fender Blues Deville amp and my Pro Tools PC were all partially submerged. They still need to dry out some more before I’m going to turn them on to see if they still work.

There is a whole list of other things that were destroyed but it hurts the most to see my instruments and music equipment in such bad shape.

To top it off, my insurance company is paying me nothing for my claim. Because this was a flood and not a sump-pump backup they will not pay me anything. Ouch.

All in all it hasn’t been such a bad couple of days. My two little boys are safe and they had a great time playing in our new lake. I decided that instead of dwelling on everything that I had lost it was better to be happy that I had two little boys out there having the time of their lives. After all, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to go swimming in your back yard.

I hope…

What do you want to learn about the guitar?

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:35:19 +0000

I want to make this site useful for the entire community. I’d really like to hear what it is that you’d like to learn about the guitar so that I can create lessons that are useful for you.

Are you interested in learning…

technique?

tabs for songs?

playing solos?

learning chords?

What style of music do you like best? Who are your favorite artists?

Feel free to leave comments to this post to tell me what you’d like.

I also created a survey which takes 2 or three minutes to complete. Click Here to take survey

I’m looking forward to hearing from you,

Brian

Jamorama Review - Guitar Course for Beginners

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:17:34 +0000

Jamorama Review - Learn how to play the guitar

In this article I take a look at the Jamorama Guitar Learning Kit. I purchased it for myself to see what it was all about and to see if it was a product worth promoting to my students.

I expected to find a watered down, cheaply produced and overpriced course like some others that I have evaluated. But, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is the real deal. There is enough material here to keep beginning guitarists busy for quite a while.

The package comes with a money-back guarantee and a lot of nice bonus materials including:

148 video samples and exercises

26 Jam Tracks in a variety of styles to play along with

Two books packed with tips and tricks that professional guitarists use

Five pieces of free bonus software and ebooks including software to tune your guitar, a metronome and an ear training package.

Get an inside look at the software with my video overview below:

But What About a Private Teacher?

Based on experience with my students, the most effective method would be to use this course in conjunction with a private instructor. By having the self study course and being able to work with a real live person in front of you, you will make the fastest progress.

You will actually save money on guitar lessons by learning everything you can with Jamorama and then bringing your questions to your instructor. The cost of the software is equivalent to about two guitar lessons but you’ll learn much more here than you could in just two lessons.

However, if you do not have access to a guitar teacher the course stands well on it’s own. The diagrams and video are clear and understandable.

Overall Impression

This package is a nice introduction to the guitar. The included video and audio clips make learning easier than just reading a dry instructional book. There is plenty of material here to keep you busy for quite a while. The low price and money-back guarantee make this a safe purchase. It’s now a product that I recommend and promote.

Want to Learn More?

Click here to order or learn more

Guitar Trainer

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:09:43 +0000

I found a nice web site today that will help you if you’re trying to learn the names of the notes on the guitar. It’s called Guitar Trainer. It will help you learn notes on the first twelve frets of all six strings.

If you’re trying to memorize the fretboard it might be helpful to spend a few minutes on this site everyday.

Brian

New Guitar Lesson Page on Squidoo

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:41:30 +0000

I created a couple of guitar lesson pages on Squidoo. You’ll find links there to some of my free guitar learning resources and some of the courses that I’ve created.

Here are the links:

Beginning Guitar Lessons

Free Guitar Lesson Podcast

Erik Mongrain - Airtap

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:11:29 +0000

I found this video of Airtap by Erik Mongrain on youTube a while back. What a great guitar player. I was really moved and inspired by it so I decided to buy the CD. I believe this “CD” is only available in MP3 format. It’s great listening. This guy is loaded with talent and is a great innovator. I think we’ll hear a lot more about him in the future.

You can get his mp3 album here.

Help With Playing Bar Chords on Guitar

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:40:04 +0000

Learning to play bar chords on guitar is not an easy task. Your fingers are forced to contort into positions that they would never normally be in. You need to hold them in that position for the duration of the chord. And it takes a lot of hand strength to do it.

Here’s a video I made that will hopefully help you play bar chords a little more cleanly.

Brian

Percussive Rhythm Guitar

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:16:54 +0000

This video demonstrates how to do right-hand (left-hand for lefties) percussive muting while playing rhythm guitar. This is a great technique to help drive the rhythm and add interest to your playing.

The video is a supplement to the Beginning Guitar Podcast

Miles Song

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:40:48 +0000

This is a song I wrote for my first son when he was just a few days old. It was the first song on guitar he ever heard.

Learn the Notes on the Guitar

info@myOnlineGuitar.com — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:07:55 +0000

I came across some free software that some of you might find useful. It’s called Fretboard Warrior.

It’s a simple little game that shows you a note on the fretboard and then you need to identify it. When you are done, it gives you a score so you can see how well you did and so you can track your progress over time. It has a nice-looking user interface too.

I think this could be pretty helpful as you are trying to learn all of the note names on the guitar. Plus you can’t beat the price!

You can download it here.