HELPING GUITAR PLAYERS ONLINE SINCE 2009
HELPING GUITAR PLAYERS ONLINE SINCE 2009
HELPING GUITAR PLAYERS ONLINE SINCE 2009
HELPING GUITAR PLAYERS ONLINE SINCE 2009
HOW A 66 YEAR OLD RETIREE LEARNED A SIMPLE BLUES GUITAR TRICK, THAT HAD HIM RIPPING UP AND DOWN THE FRETBOARD LIKE A TEENAGE GUITAR PLAYER!
(Part 2 of 3)
HOW A 66 YEAR OLD RETIREE LEARNED A SIMPLE BLUES GUITAR TRICK, THAT HAD HIM RIPPING UP AND DOWN THE FRETBOARD LIKE A TEENAGE GUITAR PLAYER!
(Part 2 of 3)
“Okay, let’s get started.
So…Bill, which path would you rather take?
PATH 1: The one that takes a very long time and is full of pitfalls, frustration, and setbacks…
…or
PATH 2: The one that gets you playing killer solos within the next 30 days?”
Bill laughed…
“I’ll take the second one please!”
With a smile, I leaned forward in my chair.
“Great! Now, here’s the important part. Playing guitar is a huge adventure.
You can study the guitar your entire life and there’ll always be room to improve, and new things to discover…
…And that’s why it’s super important for you to ignore what everybody else says about guitar learning…
And focus on this one thing we’re going to work on today.”
What Bill didn’t yet realise, is that because the guitar is such a huge subject, it’s all too easy to become overwhelmed.
When you try to get good at everything, you get good at nothing.
What was working in Bill’s favor was that he had a goal. He wanted to play cool solos, and experience that true fretboard freedom he’d seen in other guitar players.
When you have a defined goal like that, it becomes easy to lock out all the noise, ignore all the time wasting stuff, and zero in on that one thing.
“Bill, if you want to start playing cool solos, within the next 30 days, then there’s one thing you need to do first.”
I could see Bill getting excited that he was finally going to learn the secret he’d been looking for this whole time.
“We’ll start with a fairly common piece of advice…
But, the way we’re going to approach it is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT to what everybody else is doing…
Bill, did you ever learn your pentatonic scale?”
He looked a little deflated.
“Yeah, I know the first pattern, and I kinda know the 2nd pattern a little bit, but again, I could never get them to sound any good.”
I smiled.
“Don’t worry, that’s absolutely normal. You sound like pretty much every guitar player that walks through my door. They learn a couple of shapes, but never really know where to go from there.”
I leaned forward.
“Here’s what most guitar players like you don’t know…
And, this might sound a little crazy, but hear me out…
The pentatonic scale is a lot like Disneyland.”
Bill looked at me like I’d just stepped out of a madhouse.
“When you take the kids to Disneyland, they don’t wanna hang out in the parking lot all day, that’s no fun for anyone. They wanna get in there and jump on the nearest roller coaster. That’s where the FUN is at.”
He frowned.
“Let me explain…” I said.
“This is what nobody else will ever tell you about the pentatonic…
There are 3 “hotspots” in the scale where nearly all the GOOD SOUNDS are hiding.
The other parts of the scale are like the parking lot at Disneyland.
You need to use the parking lot in order to get to the fun stuff, but you don’t wanna spend much time there.”
I could see Bill starting to get the idea.
“To put it simply, some parts of the pentatonic you don’t really use all that much…
Some parts of it you pass through occasionally…
And some parts you hang out in most of the time, and the parts you hang out in most of the time are the 3 hotspots.”
Bill smiled.
“Nobody has ever explained this to me before. Whenever I play, I just find myself wandering around the neck aimlessly.”
I laughed.
“Tell me about it!
“So many people are so wrapped up in doing things ‘by the book’ they miss the shortcut right before their very eyes.”
Even a lot of great players don’t even realise they’re using the 3 hotspots, when that’s exactly what they’re doing.”
I spent the next few minutes taking Bill through my Power Practice™ method for learning the 5 pentatonic shapes.
Power Practice™ is my unique approach that allows you to master your scales with short 10 minutes per day practice sessions.
Once he was comfortable with the new scale shapes, I showed him the 3 hotspots.
Then I started playing a gentle 12 bar blues groove and asked Bill to try playing around with Hotspot #3.
He looked a little nervous, then placed his middle finger onto the 14th fret of the G string, and started to play.
Within seconds Bill broke out into a huge grin, and blurted out…
“PARDON MY FRENCH, TOM, BUT HOLY S***!”
I started grinning myself.
This is my all-time favourite thing about teaching guitar.
When you open your students eyes to what they’re really capable of achieving…
And you see that huge smile on their face, there’s no other feeling like it…well apart from maybe playing a killer solo, like Bill had just done.
“Tom, I’ve never been able to make sounds like that!
How come nobody has ever told me about this before?”
I shrugged, and winked at him.
“Easy when you know how, huh?”
The truth was, for Bill, the real fun was about to begin.
He could look forward to a new life filled with new discoveries and new sounds every time he picked up the guitar.
No more struggle and frustration, just that awesome feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment where you KNOW you’re making awesome sounds.
“Congratulations man, you’ll remember this day for a long time to come, but…
The real fun is only just beginning.”
He grinned from ear to ear.
“One last thing, Bill…
You’re going to need my “secret recipe” to really master this stuff.
If you follow the recipe instructions to the letter it can give you incredible results almost overnight.”
I smiled back at him.
“Would you like to know my secret recipe?”
