INTRODUCTION: So I’m not a fan of the biography genre. I’ve read very few of them. Probably about 10 in my 39 years on this planet. Most people don’t intrigue me enough to want to know about their background. Normally it’s trite experience anyways, regardless of skin color. It’s normally birth, shit happens, some people you meet are good, some are bad, other adversaries apply, maybe a lover or two and then the person is famous or dead, one of the two. I went wanting to know more of the psychology of Jimi Hendrix, since I’m learning his music, it only makes sense to get deeper into a man, whose music I’ve heard my whole life, but never thought to learn more about. So this is my first real biography review. Not really sure how to do one, but we will try.
WRITING STYLE: Fair. From my understanding the author isn’t a non fiction writer, he was a creative writer and did this as a favor to Jimi. However, I’m reading the kindle version and the slightly wonky style could be from a bad transfer. It’s not unreadable though. There is a small bias on the authors part, as they were friends. So keep that in mind as well.
lIFESTYLE: So this biography is different than no others, as it’s basic structure as above. To be fair, Jimmy was so unique that the basic structure works here. That’s not what I’m here for though. There’s going to moments you sympathize with him and the occasional WTF moments. If you like that, this is for you.
HISTORY:This book was written in 1978, and it shows. However, the author takes great detail in explaining to you the events of the era, so people like myself get an idea of the world around him. Not necessarily a unique trope for such, but necessary for future generations who will need this context to understand Jimmy or anyone really.
MUSIC: Now this is what I’m here for! Oh god did Jimmy and his family have amazing taste in music. Songs and people I’ve never heard of. Bad bad Wiskey, live, being my favorite of all the songs I’ve listened too.
Amazing!
CONCLUSION: if you’re coming here for something salacious, you’re going to be disappointed. Sure it has its moments of “very 60s” bullshit, however it’s a very conservative portrayal of such. If you’re interested in a man and how he developed his style, you won’t be disappointed. It also offers up and otherwise interesting perspective on Jimi’s death that should not be discounted as being accurate. That’s an article for a different time, though.
5 out of 5 for Jimi fans and 4 out of 5 for a person who may just want a biography of an otherwise, interesting person.
So you want to be a guitar guy,uh? Well, it’s a long way to the top of you want to rock and roll. Maybe you’re a bored teen and want to play heavy metal to vent your frustration, or maybe you’re middle age, have a great IRA and want to retire to become a hippie playing 60s folk songs, regardless of your reason for picking up a guitar, you made a great choice in expanding your horizons in musicality.
Remember, learning is always a positive and it’s never too late to start a musical journey. The rewards along the way are endless. From the joy of playing your first chord, to the joy of playing your first full song;the first time you’ve played a chord progression or note progression and felt the natural high of creating something more than yourself and that will give you the drive to continue.
You’ll meet some interesting people along the way as well. Some you meet may stay a while and others a short time, but it will hopefully help you grow as a musician as well.
This isn’t an entire guide to play guitar, but will it assist you in the beginning to become more than just a four chord, “baby baby baby” player. Unless you want to be Justin Beiber, nothing wrong with that. I’ll even help you,
A, D, E and G make up a backbone of a lot of music. Pick any one or more and you’ll be Bob Dylan in no time.
A Chord “rock version”
Place your index finger on all three, informally referred to as the rock star A or place you index (1) on the D string (third string down from the thickest string, AKA the “High E String”) middle finger (2) on G string and then your ring (3) on the B string. APEGIATE(pluck each string starting with just the string above the one your index, this is the A string. Once each note comes out clear, no muting, strum down. If that rings out clear, congratulations! You’ll have panties in your face in no time! *Claims of panty throwing, unsubstantiated*)
The E Shape
The E shape. This is going to play an important role when we look at barre chords. So your index goes where the single red highlight is. Then your middle and ring where the double red highlight is. Arpeggiate from the high string (thicc est one) down to the thinnest. All clear? Strum down on all strings. If that sounds clear, congratulations! You’re now two chords in. Justin Bieber will be running scared of your musical prowess and Zombie Elvis will come back from the dead to reclaim his throne.
By now, your hands are feeling the burn! Unlike the 27 club you can’t burn out now. You got two more chords to learn!
The G Chord
It sounds heavenly and makes chord progressions in these 4 more rounded. It’s a tad bit awkward but once you get it down, you’ll be good. I put the numbers above. Once you place them and arpeggiate them for clarity and then strum down. Everything sound clear? Congrats! That’s three chords? *Richard Simmons Voice* Don’t you just feel like a pop star when you three chord?
The D Chord, the one ya momma loves!
The D chord! It’s bigger than Justin Bebier. More hit songs use the D even more than the G chord. At least the internet tells me. See the string with the redl line and use the numbers for your fingers to depress them. Arpeggiate from the string just above the index to the final. All clear? Now strum. If that’s clear, than you completed our first level of lessons. Like the Real Men of Genius song, here’s to you Mr 4 chord pop star. For giving us all, a slew of trite hits. This is also a moveable cord. Go up one, you get the D7. Keep going down and you get a plethora of others.
What we learned!
A, D, G and E chord. ✅
Arpeggiation ✅
How to strum ✅
The notes of the strings (E-thicc est, A, second thicc est, D, third thicc est, G, first thinnest, B second thinnest and the last one, E again. Good to remember it as E ddie A te D ynamite G pod B ye E ddie! ) ✅
Any questions?
*Raise hand*
What if we don’t want to be Justin Bebier and just pick up girls at the local bar?
KAGE: learn those for chords, then see INDEX (future link when full version releases)
Psst…now that the pop star posers are gone, we can have a real chat. You’re not like the Beiber guys, wanting to pick up chicks. You love guitar and you want to learn more, but you want to your rhythm to have a pair of balls? Well, you might not be a rock star, but at least it’s more than jeans and a top hat to get people to notice you. Not that there’s anything thing wrong with jeans and top hats, they practically built the 1980s. So buckle up and hey hey, you’re gonna be a rock star!
Right now you’re going to be having more 5th’s than 90 % of 1970s-1980s rockstars. Don’t drink to victory yet! We need to be more precise in playing.
The E minor chord. Kinda like a 5th.
So a 5th is any two notes you depress like the above. You can move this shape pretty much everywhere and it sounds powerful. When you strum, only hit the two strings that you depressed the notes on. Although not the full gambit of power chords, this will surely allow you to cut the line to clubs you never get in and maybe, maybe, even that person at the bar that everyone knows, will compliment you. That’s almost a celebrity!!!!! A 5th of a celebrity, if you will. (KAGE NOTE: This is why I didn’t excel in comedy. Also the fact I hate entertaining people, but, yet, I still like to be clever. 🤔)
The reason I point out the E minor, is two fold. 1st, phrasing is everything and telling you how to put your hands on minors will probably red flag you. The second is they don’t sound great on electric guitar and that’s why you’re here, to be a Jukebox Hero, with stars in their eyes…hopefully they’re stars, otherwise I might recommend a doctor.
If you made it this far you have learned
The A, D, G, E chords. ✅
You have learned to Arpeggiate ✅
You have learned to strum ✅
You have learned 5ths ✅
You have learned playing guitar hurts your fingers ✅
You have learned patience, my young padawan ✅
But most importantly, you learned the most 1980s hero movie lesson of all time, to believe in yourself and never give up til the freeze frame. ✅
In the end, they’ll see you how they want to see you. A pop poser, a punk leader, a rockstar or a pesudeo celebrity-Sincerely, The 5th players Club
Only shit, you’re still here? Woha! Here I taught you enough to have parties and sex with practically nobody worthwhile, but you want to learn more? You rebel you! That obviously because you’re unpretentious. You must be some, well, punk. Your music is going to end aprtihid. Save the whales and even make Micheal Jackson hold hands with random celebrities without gloves. damn!
So here is your sobering lesson. It’s the F chord and no, I won’t teach you the hacks. You’re already proved momma didn’t raise no quitters. Get your index finger ready, cause it’s going to be used more than a lesbians.
The E chord, again. This time, you need to visualize your finger as the white part on the neck (aka, the nut, oh no, you know a dirty word and If You Know, You know!)
So essentially the chord is the E shape, down one fret to put us away from the nut. place your index near the fret. Find what’s most comfortable to you. Your finger is acting as a sorta capo/nut thing. You’re really going to feel this one, but no pain, no gain. Other basic barre chords follow similar shapes to the open chords. just get the index part down now, it’s the most necessary part of these chords.
Arpeggiate and check that each one rings out clear. Unless your like me, where one is almost always muted and gives it a percussion like sound, you show them strum from
If you find yourself getting the percussion fx, try laying down with the guitar. I’ve gotten perfect bar chords by doing this. Then try to adapt it to sitting up and then finally standing.
Once it’s clear playing consistently, move up a fret and get it perfect again until you run out of frets to move up. Hint, that’s fret 12, unless you want really cramped fingers.
And unlike Bieber fanboy, still playing What’s on OnlyTabs….er, UltimateGuitar, you can try this list of songs
Cult of personality -In Living Color
Strawberry Fields Forever-The Beatles
Smells like Teen Spirit-Nirvana
Shenna is a punk rocker by the Ramones
As a few examples.
So here’s what you learned.
A, D. G, E chord ✅
5th chords ✅
If you’re just a pretentious dick or a real guitarist ✅
Indexing technique, plus using open chord shapes with it to make new chords. ✅
Dealing with an insufferable sarcastic bastard like myself. ✔️ ☑️ ✅
Congrats! thank God, that much like YouTube, guitar playing has no real formal authority like real organizations that give credentials to relevant people. Closest we got is a music theory degree, but that has less to do with an instrument. So you’re getting what you pay for.
However, since you have stuck with it this far, you are now a guitarist. Sticking with it or any instrument is what matters. Here’s to show the world you officially made it, ma.
Mama always said life is like a Xbox achievement, you never know what you’re gonna unlock.-Forrest Gump, maybe.
Now some unsourced, internet words of encouragement that may or may not have actually been said by the musician.
“Some days playing guitar is going to suck, but if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded”-Jimi Hendrix
And now that you made it this far and are officially a guitarist, I guess ima have to teach you what Biber boy forgot, which is, tuning. Ugh! Probably should’ve put this in the beginning. Besides, some ass clown out there is saying “but Jimi Hendrix didn’t tune!” He did, in fact, tune, and made a rousing joke of having Clapton doing it for him too. That said, you’re not Jimi Hendrix and neither am I!
These things are called tuners. Sometimes three to a side or all going up at an angle.
So we need to 1. Buy a tuner from a place like Sweetwater, Guitar center or Amazon, which would the recommended way to tune or 2. Go to the App Store and find the fender or another free version you are comfortable with.
There is a 3rd way, until you develop the ear for it (note, been playing since I was 12 and I’m 39 now and still not great at ear tuning.) use a piano, find the notes and tune the pitch to the piano. This will help develop your ear.
And now, here’s what you won! A free link to Google looking for videos on how to restring!!! Harley Quinn Voice: Woha! Ain’t you the lucky one, eh?
Psst, go to Google and type it in like the picture. Stay away from those other types of sites though.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk the last piece of the learning puzzle. Pedals! They used to be expensive and now they’re affordable. So affordable in fact, that I’m contemplating quitting the cigs just to get more, especially if certain people aren’t mad though.
It’s not necessarily to use them, but they are kinda like stimulants. They can enhance the mood of your guitar playing if you will. However, you don’t need to buy them to get good at guitar. Just play ”from your fuckin heart“-Bill Hicks
Thanks for coming to my Kage talk. Hopefully you learned something. If not, well 🖕you too!
A riff that goes heavy. Iron Maiden were probably the ones that popularized the metal gallop in guitar, however, Heart used it, in this 70s hit, combining that with high strings, you got something iconic. Apparently it’s based around a Nazareth song. There is slightly a bit of truth that they sound the same, but legally they’re vastly different. This one definitely gets the nod for giving you a dank riff to satisfy that metal craving.
4.) Neil Young, Hey Hey, My My
Moody, atmospheric and dark, this song is a key change away, or a distortion pedal away, from being one hell of a metal song.
3.) One more time, Brittney Spears
Ok hear me out before you scoff. New Found Glory already showed this song could fit into the rock category, but could you imagine the chugging with distortion on the opening beat? It would have made nu-metal dudes creaming their pants.
2.) Taylor Swift-Look what you made me do
Leap Frog Studios already proven this song could go hard as fuck! That how I even found out this song existed. The dark lyrics with straight up gansta vibes, would be having people starting mosh pits in the streets. definitely should have been in the genre from the start.
1.) Coolio Gangsta’s Paradise
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this song was never rap and always in line with the metal genre. Gritty realism, deaths, loss and more and you got a song that sounds like it could have been part of the Melodic Swedish death metal music. plenty of YouTube guitarist have proven this correctly.
I’m not a professional musician. Fuck, I don’t even aspire to be. I love playing guitar, even if it’s badly. I’ve been blessed in this life to be pretty good at 99% of the things I touch, so maybe it’s helpful to me to be more intrigued by things I can improve upon vs things that you could say “come naturally.”
I learn fairly fast too. Guitar though, isn’t something I just became even moderately good at overnight. I had to keep at it.
However, I’ve deeply learned by shit when it comes to this and think that knowledgeable is relevant. Insert Giamo(sp?) a dude who wasn’t even on my radar until the autistic brigade made him a even bigger star by bitching about how successful he was. They complained his videos were mimed, as if anything short of a live recording has never been super authentic. one watch of Money Talks by AC/DC when Angus Young was spinning around the stage would help put it to perspective for you.
So someone faking a guitar video means shit to me, because you need that type of content to be a more seasoned musician. If you’re a guitar player and you didn’t know his videos were mimed, you probably not as good as a player as you think you are. I didn’t get a chance to observe him prior to this, so I didn’t get to make a decision one way or the other on that.
What I do know is that 99% of the music industry, since the 90s, is fake as fuck, so why do we care about the rando YouTube vid? This dude fits into the music industry and “Generation Fit in or Die” is mad out of professional jealousy. Otherwise he be praised for being a fraud. Which he was, until he cut into the autism brigades profit margin, whilst exposing YouTubers for being equally as fraudulent.
I normally sit out of this Bullshit, because YouTube isn’t the real world. It’s mostly misfits who think they’re cool and they’re not, hoping beyond hope their “popularity” will fill a hole inside them, because they filled with nothing but short comings. However, since I’ve seen this bullshit one too many times before, especially in my teenage years, which caught these assholes a beat down and deservingly so.
So here is the most damaging charge. He ripped off other people’s music. Ok, that is pretty bad, however, there is an insufficient amount of evidence to this claim. One video used to slander this man, was someone pointing to a Japanese Keyboard player that ripped off a 80s pop tune and added one note. That’s not how this works, that not how any of this works.
Here’s a list of mis used terms in music and what they actually mean.
Sampling: To lift the tune to another’s work and use it to reconstitute a new song. Famous examples of this are Ice Ice Baby vs Under pressure.
Lick: a small amount of music, that uses a scale of notes, that are open to be used by multiple musicians because they are public domain. Famous examples of this are nearly every song from 1940-2025.
So some people are saying he stealing licks, which seems impossible from what I’ve taken time to understand on music in general. It’s like chord progressions that Ed Shareen was famously sued for, but acquitted because they’re common as all hell.
I like Kirk Hammett, but a lot of this solos haves ripped off a dozen other musicians, even by his own admittance. Enter Sandman uses Hendrix Foxy lady in a small part. Master of Puppets uses a lot of classical licks. Non of these are rip offs. Except for maybe The Unforgiven being a large majority of classical gas. How about Slayer, raining in blood which uses In The Hall of the Mountain King as an opening riff? Hendrix also used licks. However, by YouTube logic, a part of all proceeds of his music are owned by Vox, simply because the way his way pedal filtered it.
The other part comes in that he is tabbing other people’s music and selling the tabs. Watch out ultimate guitar, you’ve been doing that for years. A lot of YouTube teachers will be out of work without that as well. Cause there’s no money in teaching open chords. Tabs is not selling the music as your own, it an interpretation, normally a very wrong one, at that. If he’s talented enough to make Tabs, he is clearly got musical instincts. So you have to give him that.
So unless there is some real damaging evidence that I’m missing, I have to assume that this isn’t about the music, because you don’t really care for music, do you? No, you care that Giamo was getting pussy, one of which was probably a celebrity that the autistics felt entitled to, and it nerd raged you into killing his career. Hopefully he lawyers up and sues each YouTuber for all .25 cents of their earnings, like Diddy to Sting for the next 20 years of your Pathetic lives.
So back in 2004 I got this from the local Walmart. We were spending the summer “camping” from place to place. What really happened was the landlords were atrocious alcoholics, and were about to go through a horrible divorce that my family and I got accidentally caught up in. So I spent my 18th year listening to a lot of music that summer. This is what is left of those and what I bought up until 2014.
Insane Clown Posse Hell’s Pit.
I found ICP, accidentally in the 90s. Never a big fan of rap, but I enjoyed the styling they did. I’ve had most of their albums over the years. This one was awesome. 4 stars
Coolio Gangsta’s Paradise
Bought this just for the title track. Gangsta’s Paradise is a metal song done in rap styling. The rest of the album is so-so. I don’t like rap much and the LA vibe was even worse than the east coast. Never been a fan of laidback sounds for the most part. Misfits and Black Flag are an exception to this rule. 3 out of 5 stars
Ozzy’s greatest hits
I had we sold our soul for rock and roll in the 90s, and I even saw the reformation of Sabbth in the 90s when my family and I went to OzzFest 99 for my 13th birthday. Naturally, the prince of darkness was right up my alley. I loved the 2001 album he did with Dreamer. This is all the best in one place. 5 out of 5
Dream 2001
Ok, So pop isn’t my thing. However, back in 2001 Sprite had points. You saved so many you got something. Well, after upteen nose bleeds from Sprite up’ing my blood pressure, this was the only album they had that seemed ok. It wasn’t worth it, but it’s not a horrible album. I haven’t had a sprite since then for a reason. 3.5 out of 5
Rob Zombies Hillbilly Deluxe
Second time I bought this album. Loved it in the 90s, dug it even more in 2004. Saw him at Ozzfest 99 and he upstaged sabbath. Not an easy accomplishment. 4 out of 5 stars.
Iron Maiden Number of the beast.
First heard of Iron Maiden thanks to the Tony Hawk games. Bought this in 2004 and loved it. Sadly I haven’t listened to this album since, just Run to the hills and Number of the beast. Interesting side note, We were at the Wendy’s in Saco, Maine and I had this album playing. I turned around while my family was ordering the food and when I turned back around, a bunch of ambulances were across the street. In between the time I started listening to the album and turned about some guy on a bicycle was hit by a semi truck. Horrible tragedy and still sticks with me to this day. 4 out of 5 stars on the album though.
Van Halen Best of both worlds
Can’t pick between Hager and Roth? Well, now you don’t have to. Besides, no one bought this album for either, well, if you’re a guitarist anyways. You bought it for Eddie’s guitar playing. Great album. Fun fact, this album almost had a tour for it. Roth and Hager could not get along, so even though I had the money to go, it never manifested. Leaving me with a 80s style sad musical story instead of the “I was there one.”4 out of 5
Lynard Skynard Thirty
I never listened to much Skynard back in the 90s. I knew of them because my parents liked a few of their songs. So expanding my musical horizons, I bought this. Lots of really good tunes and a few are more fun to play on guitar than it might seem. 4 out of 5
Best of The Rolling Stones
Another I didn’t listen to much in the 90s. Great stuff. 4 out of 5
The Ramones Greatest hits
My sister bought this and she ended up giving it to me because she got another copy. It’s the Ramones, do you really need a reason? Nothing but bar chords and down strumming on every song, but it paved the way for the genre. Gababa hey! 4 out of 5
Life after Death, BIG
Big up to Brooklyn! Gave this a listen back in the 90s, bought it again in 2004. Not a horrible album and a dark concept is so metal. Haven’t listened to it since though. 3.5 out of 5
Dre 2001
Listened to this a couple times in 2001. Not horrible, but i also haven’t listened to this or many tracks out it since. My favorite being Murder Ink, for sampling the Halloween theme. John Carpenter is great even in Rap. 3 out of 5
Rammstien
It’s a Rammstien. Du hast is an epic song! Couldn’t understand any of it back then, and now that I know German, thanks to Duolingo, it’s even better. 4 out of 5
Marylin Manson Smells like children
First Manson album I ever bought. Not the last. Sweet Dreams was dope. Kinder grinder remix went hard as fuck. If you weren’t moshing, you weren’t paying attention. 5 out of 5
Marylin Manson Antichrist superstar
Another album I bought twice. Worth it in every single way. Varies from Smells like Children, but interesting nonetheless. 1996 is my favorite from the cd. 4 out of 5
Marylin Manson Mechanical Animals
The cover was worth buying this to see the look on the Best Buy employees face. First got it for my 12th birthday in 1998, along with a copy of Parasite Eve that I would play on my brother’s PlayStation. Good album, but not his best. 3.5 out of 5
Eminem The Eminem Show
One of the very few rappers I actually have enjoyed over the years. Eminem’s various stylings in the key of rap has always made for him to be relevant and interesting to us non rap folk. 4 out of 5
The Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium
Never been a fan of the RHCP. It’s was too laid back for my taste. I did like Flea from Back to the Future. Caught a single off the radio in 2007 and bought this. My first and only RHCP album. It’s a magnum opus. Nearly every song is a hit. Still a 5 out of 5.
Lord The Arocklypse
They won Eurovision and boy was it amazing. Naturally I had to run to eBay and buy some of there albums from Europe. This is the 2008 American Release that I bought day one. 5 out of 5
Van Halen 5150
Police code for a crazy person. Had this on vinyl as well, which I picked up at a yard sale. Got it on cd too. Very good, albeit pretty retro synth. Still fun. 3.5 out of 5
{OG text. I’ll update this later with the link as my phone is running super low on battery.}
Not pictured because I lost them over the years, Metallica The Black Album, Guns and Roses Greatest Hits, Tom Perry’s Greatest hits. Bought all those around 2004 and I bumped The Black Album the most and now I can play a majority of the album on guitar too.
Overall an interesting time frame.
Edit: minor update to the text, corrections and added said link.
So I’ve mentioned before that I got my 1st guitar at 12 years old in 1998. It was a Christmas gift and fantastic! Interestingly enough, my parents accidentally bought me a left handed guitar, not a right handed one. Since Jimi Hendrix was the biggest reason for learning, that didn’t deter me from trying to learn.
I ended up selling that guitar when we moved to New Hampshire, which is interesting, because it was originally purchased in New Hampshire. The internet was still in its infancy and there was no good resources around to learn anyway. Not like I could have started a band, as I come across so few people in my age range that know how to play any instrument, never mind the typical metal quartet of Drummer, Bassist, Rhythm Guitarist/Lead Guitarist.
Fast forward to 2004, I bought a nice guitar off eBay for about $80 dollars shipped. It was pink and goth style, but it looked so killer. I got to play around with some things here and there, like a wash pedal for the first time. I got tired of just being able to emulate certain things I had seen Rock Stars do, but not really understanding what I was doing. I wanted to really be a musician and not a hack that could chug and play the odd one finger power chords.
So I sold that guitar and picked up a $60 dollar acoustic guitar at the pawn shop and said “I’m becoming a musician”. 2008 would be a year that would drastically change my life for the better.
From 22 to 25 I played that thing non stop. Morning, noon, night. I didn’t care, I spent at least one hour a day learning.
Then like most people I hit the learning plateau that stops progress. So I took a short break from playing, so I could access the problem and find a way back to getting better.
Back then, you didn’t have all the fancy YouTuber’s you had now. You had Justinguitar.com and Marty had only just Started his YT channel. Basically you’re alone on this journey and for me, I would not have had it any other way. I mean, did Jimi have it easy? No, so why should I? I may not become a rock god, but I would become a musician. The latter is the most important part.
So the reason I write this is because I got offered a job interview at guitar center to teach guitar in Portland. I was the only one who applied, but due to conflicts with scheduling of bus routes, could not make it. Let’s be honest, it was a welfare gig from the start as most people learn online.
Hell, when I first started at 12, finding anyone to teach you was a pain in the ass, prior to the internet. My dad managed a band, locally and I could have asked there, but I didn’t want someone to take time to teach me, when it could service them better to make music. Regardless, like I posted above, I preferred the harder route, like many successful guitarist before me had walked.
So you know I would have probably been fired from Guitar Center before Christmas even showed up, unless they needed one more sales man, which I doubt. This isn’t to knock Guitar Center, rather understand the current climate we’re in and that local teaching isn’t exactly appropriate nowadays, since, as I said everything is driven by the internet.
Let look at the whose who of online guitarist
Justin Sandercroe
Marty Swartz
Music is win
Brandon
Rick Beato
And about a million in between all of those. The smart idea would be to build a curriculum on those people and branching out into certification for people who have passed their prerequisites in order to accommodate for people who cannot have access to these people personally like when they first started there channels as the volume, no pun intended, is probably a logistical nightmare.
My style for videos is very concise, too concise I would argue, as my entire series would probably only have about 10 videos total.
However, there is a list of things I noticed over the years that I wish I had known when I started playing in the first place.
Anchor fingers is something I wish I had in the 90s. I might have become a decent player sooner. Look at Justinguitar for more one that. My favorite take away from his lessons.
Music Theory. I never liked the name, as I’m a science guy and was an idiot who was like “if there is evidence for it, then it’s a theory.” As it seemed like the name was used informally. Since the guitar is over a century old, it should be music pragmatism. However, some understanding would be helpful. It helps creativity and doesn’t dash it.
Finding a way to make analogies to the notes on your fretboard. This is a must in the beginning!
Knowing what notes make up a chord. It be simpler to make chords on the fly than rote remembering them all. Also Don’t get bogged down in BS like the caged system.
Tabs suck! If they work for you, all the power to ya. Learning by ear has been so much more beneficial to me than tabs ever have been. I only feel like my ear has recently become well developed and needs to be more attenuated . I have started, recently, learning Hendrix by ear and have made real progress. Something I would not have dared do in the early days of guitar playing.
That’s a small but very important list.
So, here is my structure for learning guitar since 2008.
Kirk Hammett
David Gilmore
Slash
Jimi Hendrix
The idea was to start at Metallica and learn what we could from Kirk. In this case, light solos, a decent pace to strive for and really good for developing your ear. I learned more Metallica accidentally than I ever did intentionally.
David Gilmore is the next logical step. Very long solos, use of whammy, learning when to slow down and when to speed up.
Slash is up next, as he is undoubtedly the hardest to play on this list, before Jimi. Dexterity and speed are very important here.
Once you learn from them, we would approach Jimi Hendrix, the man himself and this would be close to a Ph.D in music in my mind, for those learning on the outside of a musical theory course.
The point isn’t to be able to play all their songs perfectly, but rather develop the muscle memory to be able to play better. You can replace any guitarist on the list with your personal preference for players.
I’ll leave it here for now. Good luck with your own musical progress. Rock on!
Best in Your Girl 