Mik’s Mindstorms

I wanted to blog about this already for quite some time, but somehow all the time something interfered…

It’s now already I think about 10 years ago that I’ve started to play guitar. If I remember correctly it was somewhere during November 1997, that after a admiring the beautiful instrument and especially some friends playing it, Pieter, an old-time friend of mine, taught me to play my first two rifs ever: the intros of one and fade to black, both songs of Metallica. After that, followed a period of enormous addiction which lasted until this day. I also still remember the days of struggling in the first couple of years; trying to teach myself to play the notes without buzzing, open chords, and finally the general-pain-in-the-arse of barre chords which took me something like a year to master. While I’ve come a long way already on my own, sometimes my enthousiasm was really lacking, just because there was no one around that could help me further with some of the techniques, and I had to figure it all out by myself. Partially, this of course was my own fault, because I’m too damn stubborn to go for music classes and prefer to teach myself. Now, finally, I’ve found some resources which, I feel, are really helping me further as a guitarist, and more importantly, have really sparked an even greater enthousiasm for playing that beautiful instrument.

The first resource is a webpage, by what I consider, a complete genious, called justinguitar.com. This website is maintained by Justin Sandercoe, a London-based guitarist and guitar teacher, which was a member of the band of Katie Melua before. Along with a lot of text-based lessons, Justin also regurlarly updates his youtube websites with video lessons. These lessons range from beginner’s level (basic chords) to more complicated stuff (scales, CAGED system, blues and jazz licks, etc.), all brilliantly filmed, very easy to be followed, and even better: completely free! Next to that, Justin also provides a youtube channel with explanations of how to play a range of popular songs, and, more recently has started reviewing some guitar equipment for the more serious electric guitar player. For those that cannot get enough of his online websites, he even sells his own books and dvds, which I hope to be checking out soon too. So, if you’re a guitar player or always wanted to start playing, I really suggest you head over and start! Unless you’re waiting for my second resource, that is…

A book…or more precisely, three books, called Fretboard Logic Volume I, II, and, how remarkably, III, all written by Bill Edwards, whom at the time of writing these must have something close to a revelation; the books are just brilliant. I think I found these books about a year ago, and ever since I read them, the guitar is or starts a lot more making sense to me. These books, I think, should be owned by every serious guitar player. Best thing is, they are not that expensive either, I think I got the combined Volume I and II for about 20 euros, and the Volume III for about 15. So, stop raving, and please tell me what makes them so special, I hear you think…

well…it’s the following: the books, starting from Volume I, describe the CAGED system, in increasing complexity. The CAGED system is a system that describes how the 5 basic open chords (C,A,G,E, and D) are organised on the fretboard and how they relate to each other. In Volume I, these basic chord relationships are described, along with their relation to the pentatonic scales, and lead patterns. Volume II starts with extending your knowledge of the basic chords, by describing how to build minor, diminished, augmented and all kinds of 7 chords from these basic chords. After that, it continues to describe more difficult scale types and modes, like for example the major and minor scale, in comparison to the pentatonic one. The book then describes some additional lead patterns and finally concludes with arpeggios. Volume III (which I haven’t read yet), teaches you how to combine all these basic elements to be really able to use them in your music and, in the end, to become a better guitar player. What do you need more?