If a friend did foward this to you and you like what you read, check out the free lessons and subscribe at

www.learn-guitar-online.com.

1) Tales from the gig. Monthly feature with a lesson we can all learn from.

2) Readers questions. Answers to your questions concerning guitar related issues.

Tales From The Gig

I also had the great pleasure of playing for and then listening to Muriel Anderson. For those of you who don't now about Muriel check out her web site at www.murielanderson.com. She is a former winner of the National Fingerpicking Competition held each year in Winfield Kansas. There is a great book and cd set that contains a selection from each of the winners from 1979 -1994. You can check it out here.

Winfield Winners: National Fingerpicking Champions 1979-1994 edited by John Schroeter. For Guitar (Fingerpick). solos. John August Publications. All styles. Level: Intermediate-Advanced. Book/CD Set. Size 8.75x11.75. 104 pages. Published by John August Publications. (95678BCD) See more info...

Muriel was in town doing a concert at another venue and the organizer brought her in to catch the end of the show I was playing. He happens to be the head of the Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar Club and he invited me to open another show here in November. Just goes to show you that you should always be prepared for the unexpected. You never now who might be sitting in the audience at your next show.

Reader Questions

Thanks...Kenny

Hi Kenny,

Wow! What a question. I don't think your missing anything except mileage. You have to put in the effort and get the experience necessary to become an accomplished lead player. I know you probably don't want to hear that but that's the way it is.

In your statement you mention...teachers want me to play scales till my fingers fall off. Now I don't know your practice routine but that remark makes it sound like you are not into practicing scales. I would encourage you to put the time in and do practice your scales.

You don't want your fingers to fall off but a regular practice routine will help you reach your goals. Take a look at the back issues number 4 and 5 of this newsletter. Review the well formed outcome and apply it to your situation.

In the meantime here is some practical advice that I hope you can use right away to help you in your lead playing. If you donÍt know the pentatonic scale go the website and learn the pentatonic scale. Go through the lessons I have posted so far and learn the licks that are there. I will be adding new lessons soon to help answer your question in more detail.

Here is something else for you to do to gain some more insight. The following tab represents the first two strings on the guitar. The notes are taken from the A minor pentatonic scale.

---------------------5------8------ There are 256 ways
------5------8-------------- to combine 4 notes.

One way to make your solos more cohesive is to develop little themes and variations. This makes your ideas flow and sound like there is some logic to what you are playing. You can have melodic themes and rhythmic themes or a combination of the two.

To develop a melodic theme play a short melody and follow it up with something that is almost the same but not quite. Here's an example.

----5---------5-----8----5------ First idea.
---------5-----------------

---5----------5-----8-----5---------5--- Second Idea.
--------5-----------------------8-------

Notice how the second idea restates the first one and adds a couple of notes. You can play these any way you want to rhythmically. Remember that there are 256 ways to combine 4 notes so there are still lot's of possibilities. Here are a few more.

--5------5-------8-----5-----
------5------8----------------

--5---------5---------8----------------8-----5--
-------8---------5--------8-----5---------

---5----8----5--------5----8--------------5------
-------------------5-------------5-----8----------

There are many ideas that you can build from just these four note. Have patience and experiment. Be sure and look for future lessons at learn guitar online.

Good Luck,

Bob

NLP allows you to uncover the structure of your own and someone else's internal thought processes. By understanding the structure of how another person is able to accomplish something, whether it's how to spell, speed reading, writing a book, etc, you can model that

and produce a similar result yourself. One of the main uses of NLP has been developing accelerated learning strageties.

I recently came across a book that uses the principals of NLP to help you learn guitar. This is not another book full of scales, chords, etc, but a book about how to use your brain to help you streamline the way you learn guitar. The information in this book, if put to use, will be an effective aid in helping you to learn to play the guitar. You can check it out here.

Turn that knowledge and passion into an income stream on the internet. Even if you know nothining about programming, html, meta tags, etc, its possible to be successful at making money on the net. To see how others are doing exactly that and what tools they are using go here.

I really appreciate any comments both good and bad that you might have.

If you have any comments at all let me have it right between the eyes.

To your guitar playing success.

Best wishes,

Bob