Ben's Guitar Lessons

Hey everyone,
My student Alan and I were working on Root/V picking and I wanted to put up a video for him. It’s an intermediate lesson, and I highly recommend learning the technique. Before you start, review your C, F, and G chords and your C major scale. If you need help with these more basic ideas, call or email me through the “contact” link above, and get in for some one on one in person or Skype lessons. We’ll get you caught up.

Rock on!

Here’s a quick intermediate lesson on root/V picking. What is root/V picking? Well first make sure to remember in guitarist talk V stands for 5. Feel smart for knowing this, mot of the population only uses Roman numerals to figure out which Superbowl or Rocky movie their watching. OK, so root/V is the technique where you alternate the bass notes of your chord. The “root” part refers to the first note you play, the usual lowest note in the chord. For a standard open “C” chord that would be your 5th string third fret. Pick it and then strum the top four strings of the “C” chord. You’re halfway there!

C D E F G A B C

Ok, quick! What do we call the sequence of notes? If you said “A C Major Scale,” pat yourself on the back. If you said anything else, pat your self on the back hard enough it stings a little. Ouch! Consider that motivation to learn your scales.

The root is the “I” (1) note out of that scale, and the V would be G. So take your third finger and move it from the afore mentioned C note on the fifth string and move it down (remember down means TOWARDS the biggest string, it’s kind of backwards, I know, don’t complain about it, because this is a website and it won’t do you any good) to your sixth string , staying in the third fret. Pick this low G note and strum the top four strings. Repeat as necessary, and you’re almost a certified hillbilly guit-fiddler. Watch the video to get the 2 other chords down. Once you nail the progression, post a video of you playing on our YouTube channel, and I’ll mail you a certified piece of road kill to hang on your wall.

Well, I’ve been promising to get this done, and here it finally is. How to Change Strings for fun and profit!

Hey everyone! I took a short hiatus from the website while I tried to figure technology out. Well, try as I might, I gave up and bought an IPad yesterday. So, videos abound should follow now. I’ll throw a “how to change your strings” video up tomorrow. See ya soon!

Ben

Hey all, I hope you’ve shot over to Facebook.com/bensguitarlessons and “Liked” out page, since we gave one student a free hour long bonus lesson and one non student a free month of lessons! Stay tuned for more giveaways!

I have a little red book that is my schedule. You’ve seen it if you take lessons from Joe or I, since he has one too. I have to admit I tend to forget almost everything. I can remember the big stuff (take a shower) but small things tend to go right out the window. So I need to my book to keep me in line. Today I realized I blogged about the Jerry Seinfeild calendar and promised to put up the results. I did the calendar and it worked great, but of course I totally blew off posting it and tossed my scanner in the meantime, so you’ll just have to trust me.

Out of 31 days I missed 3 days total. One day in weeks 2, 3, and 4. The first miss was a Friday, then there was a Sunday and finally a Saturday. The days I missed I was actually out of town so I’m not gonna beat my self up too much about it. Anyway, I loved it and the calendar definitely got my butt in gear when it came to getting back into a steady practice schedule.

So, did anybody try it and beat me?

Whew, OK- summer and the festival season is almost done. I had to put the videos aside for a couple weeks while I got busy playing, but I’m back into full swing now. I’m still having some issues, but nothing that will stop me from having a video ready to go sometime this week. We’ll talk to you soon!

Ben

If you’ve been reading the site over the last couple weeks since I’ve revamped the site, you’ve probably noticed 2 things. My video shooting and editing this week is going about as well as Gerard Depardieu’s house training and I have a lot of opinions. On everything.

I’m still working on the video editing front but in the meantime I’m going to put my opinions to work for you. When you click on the “Store” link up in the navigation bar, you’ll go to a page where you can see all of the guitar products we recommend. Need a capo (or did your kids tell you they need one) and have no idea what one is or which one to buy? Go to the accessories section and staring you right back in the face is the capo I direct students to. I picked that capo because it works well, is inexpensive and is great for what most kids need.

Amazon has just about every musical product you can imagine (including beans, the musical fruit) so I’ve gone through and picked out the books and accessories we’ve been recommending for years. There’s even a section where you can see what Joe and I use for our personal gear. Going back to the hypothetical capo,, I used a more expensive capo then what I recommend to students because you can replace parts that may wear out over several years- so THAT is listed under my gear. Anyway, check it out.

And again, I know I keep saying it, but I’m going to get a video up soon. I’m going to record the audio separately to get rid of my syncing woes. Keep an eye out!

I mentioned earlier I went to a Guitar Center a few weekends ago. I don’t visit Guitar Center often- most of the guitars I buy are from other musicians. In the last 10 years, pricing has more or less become equal at big box stores like Guitar Center and smaller mom and pop shops. This is due to something called “MAP,” or Minimum Advertised Price. MAP is set by the manufactures (ie Fender) and stores can’t ADVERTISE a lower price. Ever wonder why some guitars say “Call for price” in mail order catalogs, or why you have to put the guitar in your germ free virtual shopping cart to see how many bones you’re gonna be throwing down? Welcome to MAP pricing.

Notice I said they can’t advertise below a certain price, but they can sell the guitars for whatever they want. Don’t forget that- ALWAYS ask for a better price when guitar buying from a Guitar Center. I don’t mind leaving 20 bucks on the table at a mom and pop store, but I’m going to squeeze every dime I can out of corporate America. So why even go to Guitar Center in the first place? I needed a little piece of the Gibson Guitar Co (which itself is a poorly run piece of corporate America).

I went into the Kirkland Washington GC and asked the counter guy if they had a Gibson Explorer Melody Maker. They didn’t have the Explorer but they did have the Les Paul version, which the guy assured me had the same pickup and neck. They let me plug it in right away and after bringing it back from whatever tuning is was(n’t) in the thing played and sounded great, with a clean, crisp tone and a thin neck. The Explorer is definitely on my short list, and I have a LOT of mods in mind for it. I’m thinking I’ll document the modding process on the site and show ya whats doin’.

To summarize:
Gibson Explorer Melody Maker gets an A#.

Musicians Friend gets a Cb, for terrible tuning!

Play on!

Hey all,
As always, I spent Monday running around like a chicken with my head chopped off (ironic, as I’m a vegetarian). Anyway, I got off my wallet and bought a new HD Webcam so I can do better videos. If all goes well I’m going to put up a video about the correct way to bend ASAP.

Play on!

I know, I know- I haven’t uploaded a video for the weekend. I have a good excuse though, Lindsay (my girlfriend) took her camera with her to a wedding in Idaho, so I’m camera-less. I’ll update with a video on Monday.

On a side note, I got to go see Shemika Copeland last night and it was awesome! I think I found some new inspiration. Have a good weekend all, I gotta go practice.

Play On!