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Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 280
Location: Waterloo, IL | I just have to stick my nose in here once in a while and ask another question. With all the great store houses/heads of knowledge in here, I am bound to come up with a good answer somewhere along the way. Of course, I will probably get some remarks about my nose as well due to the first sentence in this one. :) I tend to sign up for newsletters that I think may be interesting at the time. Most of them have some form of advertising to help pay for them. One on guitars has lessons on dvd on Guitar principles. Here is their url:
http://www.guitarprinciples.com/cart/index.html
Has anyone here heard of this one or know if it is worth the money? Inquiring minds want to know!
:rolleyes: |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | Hi Chuck:
Jamie Andreas has a lot of free material available on the web, but most of it is just a clever way to get you to buy his stuff. He seems to have some kind of Zen philosophy that he's adapted to guitar practice. Personally , I wouldn't buy it. Mr. Andreas has very aggresive advertising once you provide him with your info the get the free stuff and the emails that he sends are well written to get you to to buy. I'd stay away from it, but it's your $30.
If you really want to get better, take lessons. If you don't have the time or inclination for lessons, the best CD/Book lessons that I've seen are by Mark Hanson for fingerstyle guitar. There are a number of them available. His transcriptions and CD instructions of Leo Kottke's material are very good. |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 623
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | I purchased these books and his dvds a while ago when I was teaching. I haven't read the books cover to cover, but read sections, glanced through others, and watched one of the 2 dvds.
He's got some really tremendous ideas. I just don't know that it's for everyone. If you're really looking to master guitar, check it out. If you're into banging three chords out, this might not appeal to you-it's kind of intense and a little bizarre. I'm somewhere in the middle and found it interesting.
His approach to guitar has to do with becoming very aware of tension in the body, and how it affects your playing. Essentially, some players set themselves up for failure prior to even playing a single note, as subtle tension in the neck, back, shoulders, arms, wrists, and the hands destroys the flexibility needed to execute good technique. Most of us aren't even aware of this tension after years of becoming accustomed to poor guitar posture. If someone told us to "relax" while playing, we might not even know what that really meant-there would still be all this tension in our muscles.
Some students of mine that were new to guitar were gripping the neck for dear life while playing chords, and it was creating problems in fluidity of changing from one chord to another. I was looking for some ways to help them around that, to teach their muscles how to apply the correct tension needed, and find a comfortable position that worked for them. As far as I can tell, when you're first learning guitar, someone can teach you a chord, but learning how to make your hand and body work to play it comfortably is where the learning really happens. That's where you connect with the guitar. He had some good suggestions and exercises that were helpful to them.
He says that some guitar players rehearse the same thing the same way, practice and practice, but never really advance without ever knowing why. They make the same mistakes, and re-enforce them by practicing them over and over. His theory is that undedected muscle tension creates stumbling blocks, and that by using proper postures for different guitar styles, and following certain exercises we can overcome years of dabilitating guitar habits.
Like I said, it's not for everyone. The exercises are done slowly...really slow...and he gives specifics for each hand's "posture" (how to hold pick properly, correct fingerpicking motion, left hand stuff...etc), plus discusses breathing. Perhaps a little too "out there" for some. If you're looking to become the next Yngwie or Dimeola, perhaps it's really worth persuing.
I've never really found any lessons on the physiology of guitar playing before, and I find it pretty interesting, but that's just me.
He's got a lot of free lessons available on cyberfret.com if you want to look into it further.
Johnny |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Uncle Tim's is a good site that has either books/cd or online lessions. The lessons are divided into 4 semesters with I believe 8-12 weeks of lessons in each semester.
This is nice because you can start at whichever semester matches your currently level of understanding and ability.
http://www.uncletim.com/
I have some of his books and find them to be very good and easy to understand. |
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Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 280
Location: Waterloo, IL | Right now I have three possible jobs, but nothing that is putting money in the bank yet. If one of the jobs works out, maybe I can start taking lessons in a few months. That is really sounding like the best option. Always nice to be able to check with others that have been there already, and either learned the hard way or just got lucky. :) |
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Lesson question
