TG Newsletter - October 5th , 2009
What's Going On?
This week I would like to offer a special welcome to all the new
visitors who have started to add posts to the Forum. There has been
a flurry of activity, much of it by people who have been members for
a while but never really got involved, or started threads before.
As many of you know, we really try to respond to our community's
suggestions and concerns and the more input from you, the better.
A particularly interesting category is the Please Introduce
Yourself Here thread. This is where people tell us a little about
themselves and everybody gets a chance to know something about
their colleagues here at TotallyGuitars. There are some examples of
recent posts below.
A warm welcome to all! Please Introduce Yourself here
http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... t&catid=84
Songs Added To The TARGET Program
As promised (a few months ago!), I finally got around to finishing
one of our most requested songs, Old Man by Neil Young. This is a
really fun song to play and a great example of his style, which
could almost be called claw hammer, which is a technique commonly
used by banjo players that incorporates some melody playing with
strumming chords.
Old Man is a full TARGET lesson, presented in 9 parts that include
all the usual segments- Play Through, Preview, Theory Talk, Right
and Left Hand close ups, Break It Down, Slow It Down, and a
Conclusion, as well as the occasional but rare addition of a Sing
Along segment. Every once in a while I get a little carried away
and decide that in my student's best interest, I should suck it up
and sing the darn song. I'm sure it is beneficial to the learning
process.
Old Man is also available for single purchase to all our members,
as are all of the TARGET songs. If you are thinking of joining but
are a bit on the fence about the monthly membership, for just
$14.95 you can have complete access to Old Man, or any other song
for that matter. Some of the shorter lessons are a little bit less
as well.
Old Man TARGET http://www.totallyguitars.com/target-songs/134/3526
Old Man Free Site TARGET Preview
http://www.totallyguitars.com/classic-a ... et-preview
Old Man Pay Per Lesson
http://www.totallyguitars.com/online-gu ... &band=-130
This month we are also running a special deal where if you buy 2
songs you get a 3rd free. Be sure to check the Master Menu for the
full list of available Pay-Per-Lesson opportunities.
Pay Per Lesson Sale
http://www.totallyguitars.com/online-guitar-lessons/
We also brought out a Campfire Version of the Santana classic, Evil
Ways. This was on their 1st album, simply called Santana and is a
lot of fun to play, especially with a group of friends where
everybody can practice improvising a lead over a 2-chord
progression.
Evil Ways TARGET http://www.totallyguitars.com/target-songs/134/3513
Listen To The Original - Amazon Affiliation
One of the most important things a student should do when they are
learning a song is listen to the original version. I generally push
this pretty hard and now we have made it easier for you to track
down the recordings. Each lesson now includes a link to the Amazon
page where you can buy the song or album that includes the song.
This is a great way to increase your music collection as well as
streamline the learning process.
Sample:
On The Ukulele Front
Our resident ukulele expert, Michelle Kiba has updated her profile
with a little more information about herself. She is also working
on some new lessons for our members, which should be ready in a few
weeks. Pretty soon we will also be bringing you some of her albums.
More about Michelle: http://www.totallyguitars.com/community ... erid=24049
The Next Competitions
With the end of September upon us, our Video Competition is now
over. I would like to thank and congratulate everybody who went to
the effort to produce and upload a video. We are still working out
the logistics of how you can vote on them so keep an eye on the
Forum and the Blog for details on that.
September Competition Entries:
http://www.totallyguitars.com/competition-entries
We have also started some new competitions for October, the 1st
being to design a T-shirt for TotallyGuitars. There are already
dozens of entries that people have posted to the Forum. Be sure to
take a look at them when you can and get to work on your own if you
are so inclined.
October Contest Entries:
http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 3&id=14677
TG Live!
This week we took a break from TG Live, which may stretch out for
another week or two as we settle into some of the new things we are
working on. I'll try to let you know as soon as possible about the
next episode.
Uploaded Videos For Review
A few students posted videos for review this week and I was able to
add responses to them Check out some of the tips on Who'll Stop The
Rain and Down On The Corner.
href="http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 6&id=15190
http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 4&id=14544
The TG Forum
This is where we are working on most of the changes and additions
to TG this week. We are revamping the Forum and trying to make the
categories more related to music playing, but of course keeping
some of the fun Off Topic stuff.
I would also like to welcome one of our first members who has been
keeping us informed about many things musical, Chasplaya. Chas has
been keeping a series of posts on musicians' birthdays for a while
and recently has added a weekly column about historic happenings.
These threads can be found here.
Link 1 http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 24&id=7945
Link 2 http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 4&id=14172
Here are some other recent threads that you might find interesting.
Favorite Lyrics: Great Lines In A SongMaybe you've been influenced
by a song's lyrics. Maybe you've heard a line in a song that just
said it ALL at the right moment for you. Maybe you've found your
thoughts turning round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel
within a wheel, never ending nor beginning like an ever spinning
reel, after hearing a song. Or maybe you've been plagued in a near
death situation like the British mountaineer stuck 7'000 meters up
an Andes mountain, left for dead with no water or provisions but
with a broken leg lying in delirium thinking he was going to die to
the irritating tune of Boney M's Brown Girl in The Ring playing
incessantly in his head (I seriously hope not!!). Let us hear about
the lyrics that mean something to you or just sound so good.
Click here to check out the answers.
http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 4&id=15310
Most Emotional Guitar PlayingHere is a spot where people are
posting videos of tunes and player who really moved them
emptionally.
Click here to check out the videos.
http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 4&id=15383
Ask Neil
A recent Q&A
Pentatonic vs. Blues ScaleHowdy,
1.The sixth position pentatonic E scale demonstrated in Green River
includes G as the 2nd note instead F#, flat 3rd vs. 2nd note of the
scale. That makes this scale a hybrid blues scale right?
2.With regard to blues scales played down the neck, do you
recommend using the same technique as demonstrated for pentatonic
scales i.e. use the sixth string to find any note in the blues
scale and play off of that.
3.Are there excercise that demonstrate blues scales up/down the
neck posted on the site.
Thx,
Michael
You can see the responses and my answer here.
http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum?fun ... 4&id=14593
Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying TotallyGuitars,
Neil
P.S. - Feel free to get back to me on the blog and on the forum to
let me know what else YOU would like to see in this weekly
newsletter!
Not A TARGET Member Yet? Check TARGET out here Join today before
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http://www.totallyguitars.com/playguitar
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