Guitar Lessons by

There are some main objectives in this Course of Guitar Lessons to be considered and remembered throughout practising and studying.

(1) SOUND is what you are learning to control and project, so forget terms like gigs, performance, posing, amps, guitars, pedals etc, and concentrate on SOUND.

(2) The art of giving 100% of your concentration to sound is vital. Concentration must be CRYSTAL and focused 'laser-beam' like on SOUND.

(3) To awaken and use the latent faculty of the mind of SEEING SOUND. The mind perceives sound in wave-forms and colours.

(4) To control your personal musical progress along a fixed time line by using practise schedules that are based on directing your mental energies to maximise learning power. This is a Prime Objective in my Guitar Lessons

(5) IMPROVISATION - whether it be rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, stylic or technical.

(6) To improvise ATONALLY i.e. being able to improvise with no restrictions on key, rhythm, harmony or melody. ATONAL IMPROVISATION, chromatic playing and chord substitution are directly related.

In any type of musical situation understand that both the audience and performer are inspired by SOUND. MUSIC is an awareness. MUSIC is the meeting place of all sciences. MUSIC is an EMPIRICAL SCIENCE i.e. it can only be learnt by experience. A simple term can be given to this course, it is LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION.

  If we assume that SPlRIT-MIND-BODY work best when evenly balanced, then the following has been observed in connection with music. SPIRIT can be replaced by the word ”FEEL” or the phrase "playing with heart". MIND involves intellect, memory and of course, the BRAIN. In essence SPIRIT is always the source of improvisation, composition and creativity. The MIND specifically involves theory and rhythm. Although rhythm is felt or reflected in body movements, when you are learning a rhythm pattern your MIND has to register it intellectually first then memorise it before you can actually play it exactly as heard or written. BODY is simply left and right hand technique. Perfect co-ordination being the ideal. SPIRIT involves on a musical level, inspiration, intuition, instinct and interpretation. MIND involves theory and rhythm both of which are reducible to pure mathematics. BODY involves in practice, scales, arpeggios, chords, lead, etc., and any physical playing time, (jams, plonking around etc).

The THEORY section in my course of Guitar Lessons will cover all the principles of FreeForm Jazz in approximately 36 lessons; it must be understood that details of music theory will not be covered initially - principles only. This is to give you a general total awareness of the UNIVERSE OF MUSIC in as short a space of time thus enabling you to realise that the beginning and end are within reach and full view. Most forms of music education spread the principles over a period of years thus keeping the student in constant mystery and causing much confusion and more than often low-grade practical results. Classical music, as the term states teaches mainly old methods. Classical must still be fully appreciated, as still today all Western Music has its roots in classical. Jazz is also an older form of music although it it relatively more modern than classical. Traditional Jazz has a fixed approach theoretically towards improvisation. Todays music is rooted in styles such as Rock, Reggae, Rap, House, Hip-Hop, Country, Funk, Disco, Pop, Punk, New-Wave, Jazz-Rock etc., all of these are still in the process of being fused. Country and Blues are obvious additions.The main confusion point of any inexperienced player is THEORY. THEORY is a fixed mathematical formula, whether you like it or not! THEORY comes under the heading MIND and it is here we must take time out to understand a few basic principles about the mind that have been scientifically researched and proved to be true. These few pages are to be viewed as a plan and should any difficulties arise, it would be useful to refer back.

In a book published a few years ago entitled "Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain", it was stated that a school in Bulgaria was able to reduce a 3-year learning programme on any subject to 2 or 3 months with next to no effort from the learner, and with instant recall up to 6 months later. The students were asked to put on some headphones and relax to some soothing music. Meanwhile below the volume of the music a voice fed out the necessary course. This was done over a time period of 2 months. Upon testing the students memory it was found that it worked best on necessity and interest as opposed to desire or remembering for the sake of it. The principle behind this mode if learning is that as long as the conscious mind is open and in a positive receptive state, information can be fed into the unconscious and stored in the memory permanently. The key to learning is in the memory receiving knowledge in natural progression. Most self-taught musicians learn their facts in a totally haphazard manner and thus confuse themselves later. The BRAIN is the best computer around. As long as facts to be remembered are understood once, then the memory stores them permanently. If the memory stores a 1000 facts it can only recall them one at a time. If too many things are asked for simultaneously then an overload occurs and confusion sets in with negative results and dispersed concentration. When playing CONCENTRATION must be pure and crystal-like focused on SOUND. The MIND is the area that negatives pass through when playing, i.e. Is my tuning out? I don't like the tone on my amp, the acoustics in this place are terrible, I'm too loud, the sound isn't right, my leads are crackling, there's a heckler in the front, I don't like this song, what scale should I be using? The list is endless!

 So what do we do to clear CONCENTRATION. For you to clear your mind totally so that you can give 100% to delivering the SOUND in your MINDS EAR INSTANTLY it has been observed after personally teaching 25000 or so students that the BRAIN REDUCTION PROCESS is as follows:

LANGUAGE > NUMBERS & SYMBOLS > PATTERNS > SOUND

Language, in this case English, takes up physically and psychically more space. We must next reduce this to Numbers and Symbols which is what an improvisers tools are (Cmaj7th, Perfect 5ths, sus4 etc). Once the mathematical progression in theory has been fully understood in all its permutations and combinations then the BRAIN reduces down again into even simpler terms to PATTERNS (lines, circles, triangles, i.e. GEOMETRY).  By patterns I mean MENTAL THINKING PATTERNS as well as PATTERNS on the guitar. Once you can think in terms of patterns then this is the beginning of SEEING SOUND, this being no exaggeration but a latent faculty of the brain. You are then clear to hear, see and perceive SOUND in its true LIGHT. It must be stressed that music theory must be at the fingertips for the PRACTICAL IMPROVISER.

 If it takes you 10 seconds to speak what the notes in a Dmaj9th are it will lake 5 seconds to get to it when playing. So we are aiming at being able to answer any question on music theory within 3 seconds thus in practise you can be a second ahead of yourself if necessary when improvising. Eventually you will be into THE NOW in which event the MUSIC is playing you! In this case no thought is required and the MIND is totally by-passed and SPIRIT and BODY work simultaneously.This is why it is not necessary to know one iota of theory but still be possible to sound good and enjoy yourself and still produce good music. The theory in this course is presented in mathematical natural progression so as to aid memory storage.

 To give simple proof of the way your mind perceives sound ask anyone (whether they play or not) to imagine a very high note and a very low note in their mind. FIRST ask them to tell you the COLOUR of the 2 notes in terms of bright and dark. ALL will answer that HIGH = bright and LOW = dark. SECONDLY, ask for FORM, i.e.fat or thin.. ALL will answer HIGH = thin and LOW = fat. THIRDLY, an abstract concept – TEMPERATURE - which is hot? and which is cold? The majority will answer HIGH = hot and LOW = cold. This is basically obvious, or is it?

  We are not being educated in terms of SEEING MUSIC even though we perceive SOUND in this way. Most forms of music education over-emphasise the intellectual side. The concept of seeing music is ancient and classical composers such as Debussey spoke of such COLOUR-SOUND relationships and also The Italian School of Opera Singing also taught how to see columns of SOUND while singing.

 It would be of use to us to Study the lives of such people as PYTHAGORUS, GALILEO, LEONARDO DA VINCI, SIR ISAAC NEWTON and EINSTEIN. All were musicians as well as scientists. It will be proven in the course that the beginning of MUSIC THEORY is also the beginning of GEOMETRY.

  The course is based on PYTHAGOREAN PRINCIPLES. To be in his school it was necessary to be initiated by having studied Astronomy, Astrology, Geometry, Mathematics. Philosophy and Music. It was Pythagorus who gave out and originated the doctrine of the MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.

 When improvising at its highest level you arc 'tapping' or 'aligning' yourself with the energy behind the Music Of The Spheres. It is observed that inner space (atoms, molecules, etc.) and outer space (planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc.) are both built on the same physical structures and both are based on energy and vibration. A sound is created by a frequency and depending on the rate of vibrations per second (oscillations) the PITCH of the sound is determined. The human ear and eye can't hear or see all frequencies even though they exist. Infra-red and ultra-violet rays can do much damage although you cannot see them. The point made, you don't have to see to believe - understanding is what is required. Now using this as an example it would seem logical that since our Sun, Moon, Earth, etc. all rotate as atoms and molecules do then each has on a larger scale a frequency or NOTE. Although our ears cannot hear these notes they nevertheless exist. Therefore our whole physical universe is built on Energy, Vibration and held together by some force by the laws of MUSIC and HARMONY.

  If you tune your guitar up to concert pitch and strike a tuning fork through the pick-ups (say an A-440 fork) and then take the tuning fork away and stop it vibrating you will note that the open strings of the guitar i.e. the A harmonic on the 7th fret, 4th string, and 5th fret, 5th string are still ringing having been started by the empathy with the A tuning fork. Using this analogy, we can attune ourselves to The Music Of The Spheres. When we have achieved the understanding of this principle the CREATIVITY is literally endless. In philosophy it is an axiom that ENERGY FOLLOWS THOUGHT. Our minds and bodies are basically, on a physical level, energy generators or batteries. We are physically constituted of 90% water and chemicals, the simplest battery operates with positive and negative terminals dipped into chemicaliscd water. Using this analogy it must be understood that musicians usually overload their capacitors and blow the resistors in their minds by dealing in too much theory and not enough practical. Because of the maths in music theory, you are literally charging up energy when you learn something new. Therefore you could equate studying to charging up and playing, teaching, gigging etc. as decharging. Beware of mental overload. This could explain why many musicians need drugs as a channel to dissipate energy mentally at the price of body.

Remember that progress flows from negative to positive too. Negative being STAGNATION, BOREDOM and DEPRESSION.

 As you can see from the following chart, the more you absorb intellectually (usually theory) the higher the understanding, which will eventually stop until you have absorbed the new level. This absorption time will appear as stagnation, frustration, etc., until you then start swaying back into the positive. Each time you complete a cycle, progress has been consciously made.

  On a practical level you are aiming at a PRACTISE schedule which for the first year might take a solid 50 hours spread over 3 months. In time you will take maybe 5 hours for the same technique development done in two days. When you practise technique do not try to "Get Off' emotionally or otherwise, it is purely to build up physical strength in your muscles to give you playing stamina. Remember SPEED is irrelevant and all technique exercises must be played in perfect meter. Chord changes are to be practised without right hand rhythm first then , and only then, must the right hand be introduced for rhythm. You do not know a chord until the left hand lands on the notes all fingers simultaneously. If you have problems with the chord ignore the open strings and take the shape down to the first fret and go up chromatically (one fret at a time) with the chord shape being played in arpeggio form first. A chord must SOUND like crystal on its own without any effects on it. Once you can play the chord, add as many effects as you like.

  This course is also a course in COMPOSITION in sketch-form. You are learning to be a MUSICIAN first. Once you have achieved this your guitar work will automatically be better. Once you feel like musicianship is happening then work on COMPOSITION (songs, etc.).

Everything in the course is an ideal to be worked for but remember in reality there is no limit and once you have learned the PRINCIPLES and apply them practically it is my job to prove to you that:

THERE ARE NO RULES IN SOUND. IT'S EITHER GOOD OR BAD TO YOUR TASTE. GOOD LUCK!