DVD Guitar Chords & Scales Lessons

August 2013 and I have a store up with my Guitar Lessons DVD for Starter Guitarists with EASY CHORDS AND SONGS for GUITAR.

There are other DVDs as well. I've made 4 in total in the last 3 years, so go check them out!
http://www.freewebstore.org/Marc-Store/index.aspx?pageid=1935954&clear=1&preview=1
where you can purchase Guitar Lessons, Studio time and DVD lessons!

Also.....Remember, you can take private guitar lessons with me in West Haven, CT - Madison CT and online though Skype of Facetime! I also teach bass, singing, songwriting and production! So if you want to learn about any of those, get in touch with me here!

EMAIL ME HERE!!

Guitar Company Closes. This is Goodbye.

2013 is off to a weird start so far. I've gotten some bad news in multiple ways. Nothing that's going to kill me, or make me ill, but some that are just stressful and annoying. So I'm going to just wait for things to fall the way they must, while I hustle my ass off to get things going, like I've always done.

This week one piece of sad news is the end of HAMER guitars. A few people have asked my opinion about the news. I'm bummed.

Hamer guitars gave me love when a lot of other guitar companies would never take a shot with a guy with a Mohawk and an orange singer. It was awesome that they did. That first guitar I got from them is still one of my favorites. I play it daily and it's beat up pretty good. Every once in a while, someone sees it and is curious if it's new. Then I show them the back and we laugh. I abused it, on purpose. It's still one of my daily players...and it's comfortable to me. Like an old hoodie with the sleeves all frayed.

When people oogle up the guitar I tell the story on how I got the guitar, how I called and called and wrote and talked and finally I got the endorsement deal. And then I sent videos and pics of myself playing every show that gave that guitar a showcase. Then I got more guitars from them, that they picked out....and those guitars were awesome, too! I felt more love! They knew what I liked. 

I remember bringing every guitar I owned to Coretez Rehearsal in Union City, NJ. Every week I'd bring a new guitar. Finally someone said...The black Hamer is you. Just use that.

It started with my 97 Black Gibson Les Paul DC. It looks like the Hamer body shape and that's when It was mentioned to me that I should check out the Hamer Guitar by the then Hamer Rep.

Last year at the NAMM show I noticed the Hamer guitar display was so small, that I knew it wasn't going to last long.  I thought it would be more than the year, however.

I met a lot of Hamer fanatics when I toured with those guitars. So I know I'm not alone when I say I'm bummed.

Thanks to all at Hamer past and present for helping me! I truly appreciate all the support you gave.

-Marc

Steve Lukather and my Guitar

Life is odd. I haven't heard about Steve Lukather in a while, nontheless how people feel about Toto.
But in the last 24 hours, I've heard Steve's name 4 times, and I have heard about Toto twice. Nothing bad about the man, both bad about the band. I'm not really sure why. I mean...the band had some good songs...one of them being Rosanna. And remember Africa? Good stuff. And the band members could play circles around most bands.  Licks off the keyboards, a really solid rhythm section. A kick ass vocalist who had great power and range and Steve Lukather on guitar.

Lukather was one of those not seen guitarists. I was an advocate of reading Guitar Mags and I don't think Steve was in many articles. I remember him being in one with Bob Bradshaw. Going over his gear. Then again I remember how I loved to look at the racks, and see all the knobs and figure out what they did. But by the time I was 20, I hated effects. I sort of saw them as more things to break. I took a page from the Chilipeppers book after I went for their audition in Los Angeles. I was told to not stop playing by the auditioning team. But they said i probably wouldn't be the pick for the band. However.. I was curious about the little bit of  gear on the floor ~ a wah wah and a pedal switcher for the mesa rectifier. I thought that was pretty much how I liked it. Lean. I think it stayed with me, because I saw less use for all the xtra stuff.

I didn't know much material on the RHCP either. My bass player at the time gave me the Mother's Milk cassette and I learned some stylings from it, but I wasn't amazing at it. If my cousin didn't catch the article on the news, I wouldn't have even known about the audition. She called me , I called them, got a call back that was so arrogant from the agency I wish i kept it somewhere for today's collection of things on youtube.

Anyway...Steve Lukather...I tried learning the solo at the end of Rosanna with my teacher when I was taking lessons. I wasn't a huge fan yet, but he was. So I took his lead and I listened to the solo, thought it wasn't hard until I started running those licks. DAMN! That was fast! I learned it. In the process I learned all the phrases by heart too. I can sing them to you today. And I loved playing it. Til this day it might be one of the only songs I enjoy listened out to through the full fade due to that solo. There's that chromatic decending run that jumps back and forth between the descending and another stationary note. really great phrasing.

I saw Steve Lukather is out on the road touring in Europe supporting his new CD. I'm gonna have to go check that out.

Thanks for reading this far!! Browse around and write some comments.

-Marc

Guitar Practice tricks

Warming up on my guitar makes it a more pleasing practice session (pleasing...should read...distorted guitar, with lots of shred & chunk). I've found if I can do a 40 minute warmup in the daytime, I get a great day of guitar playing. Who has 40 minutes?

This is what I try to do;
Some simple exercises on the guitar. A couple fingers on every string with alternate picking.
Then I go to scales. Depending on the day I make them different...but one scale type across the neck...all 5 forms with a steady time and sometimes with a metronome. I also like to do 3 note or 4 note patterns with those scales. The whole "back and forth" over the scale notes really helps my hands (and brain) to remember them when I'm trying to get them out at lightning speeds. (it's the most fun to play FAST)

I also like to try some chord discovery. I usually take a song I wrote and change the chords to sound "cooler" for the song. Sometimes, open chords work, sometimes power chords or little 2 or 3 string chords.  Not every part of the song needs power chords (wait...did I really just say that?)

I hope this starts your practice days off right.

TIP: need more hours in a day to practice....quit something else...because guitar is awesome!

Happy New Year!