About The Book
About the Right Brain Guitar Method Book
The Right Brain Guitar Method is designed to give you a full and comprehensive ability to play anything in any style on your guitar. This method teaches by way of the right side of the brain using concepts and techniques based on patterns. Music is made up of repeating patterns and when you start to recognize these patterns you learn the song or piece of music much faster.
People are drawn to music because they respond to it emotionally. They like a song because it makes them feel happy or sad or energized or relaxed. These emotions and the creative process begin in the right brain and therefore I believe teaching music through the right brain is more effective than through the left side reading dots on lines and spaces.
First you should take a look at the Lesson Breakdown list. It will describe what each concept and technique addresses, giving you an overview of what is covered in this method.
If you are just starting out with the guitar I suggest you start at the beginning and do a lesson at a time. You don’t have to finish each lesson in one day because some things will be harder to learn than others. It’s most important to take your time with each lesson and fully absorb the information and then check the “DONE” box. You will, in time, integrate it all into your playing and come away with a vast knowledge and ability to play guitar.
If you’ve played guitar for awhile and just want to learn some new techniques you can look through the breakdown list and pick a new technique or concept at random or find something specific you’ld like to learn and work through those lessons. For instance if you want to learn about “D Tuning” you can flip to the section on D tuning and work through those lessons and you’ll finish with a solid knowledge of what D tuning is and how to use it in your playing. Or if you want to know how to get into those “jazz” chords, go to the section on “Extended Chords” and work on that. You’ll come away knowing how those work and how to make them.
There are also a number of concepts and techniques that I have devised over the years to help me understand the guitar and how it works, like the section on “Shape Shifting” or “1-4-7-min3-5-1” . And oh yeah, if you want to learn how to read “standard notation” there’s a section on that as well.
It’s important to understand that you don’t have to do a lesson a day. All of the concepts are broken down into 7 steps and you can do 1 a day or more if you’re comfortable with that OR you can spend more than 1 day on a lesson. It’s up to you and whatever you choose to do is correct! There is no wrong way to do this!
I hope you enjoy the method and I’m sure you’ll get ALOT of valuable information about how to be a better guitar player and musician. Feel free to email me with questions. I’m REALLY interested in how it works for you and I can always use testimonials.
Thanks very much!
Concept Breakdown
1) A Very Good Place to Start – shows how to read tablature, introduces the 6 “SEED” chords, introduces counting, and introduces the 1-4-5 progression. If you already know how to read tab and understand 1-4-5 progression, it’s still important to grasp the“SEED” chord concept.
2) The Root of All Chords – here we review the 6 “seed” chords and that they are rooted on the 6th, 5th, and 4th strings and also explore derivative chords of these 6 seed chords. You’ll begin to see how and why there are so many chords but that they all derive from these 6 simple chord shapes.
3) Strumming 101 – this lesson breaks down how strumming works, which direction to strum and why, what NOT to strum, and teaches basic counting.
4) The A B Cs of Counting – teaches you how to count music, what note values are, and how rhythms are written. The ear is really good at picking up and repeating rhythms and understanding them in more than one way greatly increases your musicality.
5) Those Pesky Bar Chords – most of us know that bar chords are difficult to do in the beginning and this lesson brings you into them slowly and methodically with minimal exertion, pain, and frustration. Being able to play bar chords multiplies every chord you know by 12. You’ll instantly know 12 times more chords!
6) Anatomy of a Chord – explains what a chord is and how it’s made. It’s very good theory knowledge to have.
7) Fingerpicking 101 – This series of lessons is the foundation for fingerpicking. With this technique solidly in your hands you can easily learn ANY kind of right hand technique. It’s VERY easy to learn and is essential to playing good guitar. You’ll also pick up some more theory in the lessons.
8 ) The 4 Next Door – This is one of my concepts I devised to help me get to chords faster with more choices. It also exponentially increases your chord knowledge and reinforces the “1-4-5” chord progression that is SO prevalent in music.
9) Getting Started Soloing – Everybody wants to be able to “riff out” on a song and this set of lessons teaches how to get started doing that. This is a very powerful technique to have in your guitar knowledge and will serve you well.
10) Hammer-ons and Pull-offs Unite – teaches you what they are, how to do them and the great potential they offer. Hammer ons and pull off are what allow “shredders” to play so fast.
11) 147Minor351 – This is one of my concepts on understanding the fingerboard. It will help you find many kinds of chords without having to move your hand up and down the fingerboard as much. ECONOMY of MOTION is key to faster playing. It also greatly increases your chord choices and helps you identify chords MUCH faster.
12) With Six You Get Sixty – This lesson picks up from “The Root of All Chords” and explains in depth the concept of the “6 seed chords” and how these chord shapes morph into hundreds of chords.
13) The Major Scale & How To Use It – Here you’ll learn the structure of the very foundation of “western harmony”. You’ll learn how to play scales on the guitar in the most effective ways.
14) 4 Fingers To 4 Frets – This is one of my concepts that I’ve gleaned from watching players for 40+ years play the guitar. It puts a structure and foundation to the idea of “positions” on the guitar neck. It helps to take the guesswork out of fingering positions.
15) The Minor Pentatonic Scale – This scale represents the “Big Bang” from which millions of rock and blues solos have come. This lesson teaches you all the ways to play it and you’ll also pick up more theory as you go.
16) Dropped D Tuning – This lesson teaches you this tuning and the many ways to use it. It’s an extremely useful tuning and offers some very exciting possibilities. With this tuning you can practice your fingerpicking AND impovised soloing at the same time!
hence the “dopey” title. It has always amazed me to watch different players hands in action. I always noticed how jazz players’ right hands looked “closed” as they blew through changes. This lesson explains why.
18) Music Mantra #2- This is the key to how chord progressions work. Everything in our music comes from the major scale and all chord pregressions come from chords built on the notes in that scale. This mantra will implant that foundation in your brain and you can build your musical infra-structure on top of it . It’s the concept that the Nashville number system is built on. Just memorize the mantra, it’ll pay-off big time, I promise.
19) Flatpicking 101- Part of the design of this method is to be able to go to a technique that you want to learn, learn it in short order and then integrate it into your playing. This lesson introduces the technique of flatpicking and gets you well on your way to those Bluegrass chops.
20) Double Stop Junction- This lesson unlocks those 2 note progressions that you hear EVERYWHERE! They’re the intervals of 3rds, 6ths, and 10ths, and with this key you’ll never get lost while you’re riffing with them.
21) Shape Shifting- This is one of my concepts that exponentially increases your chord knowledge. In the way that bar chords gives you a “vertical” palette to choose from, shape shifting give you a horizontal palette as well.
22) Strumming Level 2- picks up from level 1 and introduces “cross-picking”, addresses 3/4 time and also introduces the concept of “swinging notes”. It’ll also make you a way better rhythm player.
23) Fingerpicking Level 2- introduces “squeezing” notes and expands your right hand technique. By the end of this lesson you’ll be playing fingerstyle guitar.
24) Nashville’s Got Numbers- Nashville studio musicians are famous for this “shorthand” technique of playing songs they’ve never heard before with numbers based on the degrees of the scale. This lesson will teach you A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT of theory without ANY pain. And you’ll be able to sit in with anyone.
25) Double Secret Tuning- This is a really great tuning that I use all the time but I’ve never heard anyone else using it (except a couple of my students). It’s simple and really versatile.
26) How Do I Practice- This lesson will spell it out for you and address many of the questions guitarists have about practicing effectively.
27) Arpeggiate This- Shows you the WHAT, HOW and WHEN of arpeggios. A great technique to add to your arsenal of techniques.
28) 5-1-4-7-2-5 -picks up from “1-4-7-minor 3-5-1” and uses the concept starting on the A string. Again, it will greatly increase your chord knowledge and ability to figure out what chords you’re playing.
29) Harmonizing a Major Scale- This teaches you what a chord scale is, how they work and how to play them, a bunch of them. This lesson greatly increases your chord vocabulary.
30) G-Tuning- is one of the 2 most popular “open” tunings on the guitar. This series of lessons will show you the what and how, and give you full command of G tuning.
31) Muting- muting is essential for playing good guitar. It is a major factor in what gives many guitar players their “sound”. This lesson teaches lots of ways to mute with both right and left hands.
32) The Classical Right Hand- a different right hand technique is used for classical and flamenco music. It is different than fingerpicking but is not difficult. This lesson will give you the nuts and bolts of the technique including tremolo and rasquedo, (that really fast strumming done in flamenco music.)
33) Fingerpicking Level 3-the rule of thumb- what does the thumb do when fingerpicking? What CAN it do? This lesson will explain that fully.
34) Extended Chords- This lesson explains how we get “9”, “11”, and “13” chords. It’s a continuation of the “Power of the Seventh” lesson. It teaches you how those jazz chords are made and how to make them on guitar.
35) Slash Chords- Slash chords are chords that have a different note than the root in the bass. They’re very common AND very simple to understand. A great technique to add to your repertoire.
36) Practice Practice Practice- This lesson digs deeper into how we practice and how to maximize your practice time. It’ll give you more clarity on how to design the right practice schedule for you.
37) Octaves Made Easy- This lesson will give you all you need to know to play those “octaves” anywhere, anytime you want.
38) Minor Leagues- This lesson will forever unlock the mystery of minor chords and minor scales.
39) D Tuning- D tuning is the other one of the 2 most popular alternate tunings.This lesson will give you full command of this tuning including how to find all the chords, how to play the blues, and introduces slide guitar and fingerpicking in this tuning.
40) Moveable Chord Feast- This lesson shows you the most commonly used chord shapes that guitar players bounce up and down the neck with. It’s a continuation of the “Prehensile Sensibility” concept.
41) Sweep Picking- This is a technique of strumming arpeggios that makes you sound like you’re playing SUPER FAST lead lines. A must have technique for all guitar players.
42) The Power of the Seventh- This lesson digs deeper into what happens when we put the seventh into our chords. It is fundamentally what jazz is all about, chord-wise.
43) Get in the Cage- explains the “Caged Method”, how it works and how to use it. It’s a super powerful technique to have in your repertoire.
44) Modes Operandi- Many guitar players have heard of modes and querie over them. They’re VERY simple and this lesson will give you full knowledge of them.
45) Visualize to Actualize- Visualization is used by many of the greatest guitar players. It’s a powerful tool to use. This lesson will show you how to do it.
46) The Boogie Woogie Way- Boogie Woogie is one of the coolest (and most impressive) styles of guitar you can play, and in fact it’s quite simple and REALLY fun! This lesson will teach you how to play it.
47) The Ninth Realm- This lesson explains “ninth” chords in-depth. How they’re made and how to use them.
48) 11 Chords and How to Use Them- Like the lesson on “9” chords this explains in depth, “11”chords, how to make them and how to use them.
49) Explaining Thirteen Chords- This lesson does the same with “13” chords
50) 2-5-1-4-6-2 - This lesson carries on from “5-1-4-7-2-5”. It focusses on creating chords and logistics of chords rooted on the D string.
51) Walkin’ The Line- This lesson teaches you how to do “walking” bass lines. It’s a continuation of the boogie woogie lesson but walking bass line is not “style specific” It’s a powerful and impressive technique to use in lots of styles of music.
52) Oh Come On Just Try It- OK this is a lesson in reading standard notation. It’ll teach you how to read music and is a left brain exercise. The more tools you have to understand music, the better you’ll be as a musician and guitarist. What the heck, you may as well