You'd like to be one of those players who can think it
and play it, right? Not so fast! That does take a little time but you can
learn to do just that with the tools available on this site.
The first thing you have to do in order
to grow as an advanced player is to embrace the fact that the only time
you'll reach a point at which you have nothing left to learn on this
instrument is when you're dead! So, open your mind to the fact that no
matter how good you are, there's still alot to learn!
The first thing you can do
to kick your playing up a notch is to approach it from a fresh perspective.
Another popular way of saying this is Get
Out Of The Box.
So how do you get out of the box?
You can probably play circles around most of your friends.
They even come to you for new riffs and licks. But, deep down you know that
there's a world of music you still haven't played that is well within your
capability. What you need to know in order to grow can probably be boiled
down into 2 categories:
Things that can help you make the most of your playing time
Subtle, often overlooked techniques and thought
processes that set the best players apart
Making The Most Of Your Playing Time There are some little things that you can do right now to improve
your playing inside one or two days. A week at the most! These things are so
simple that you won't believe you hadn't thought of them yourself!
First you
should read, no you should absorb the 5-Page Report
written by Carvel Avis, the founder of HotFrets, titled, "7
Keys To Becoming an Exceptional Guitarist."
This report reveals tips and secrets any one of which could kick your playing
up a notch. You'll learn how to make the most of your playing time when you
get this report. You'll get it as a bonus when you become a part of the HotFrets
community.
Learning the Subtle Yet Powerful Things That
Will Set You Apart
Static
images and words aren't able to demonstrate many of the subtle
things you have to know in order to advance your playing to the level
you wish to take it. It's
not that these subtle things are incredibly hard to do but in order to unlock
the secrets & take
the mystery out of improving your playing of this great instrument,
you MUST experience these little subtle things. Experience comes
from watching, reading and hearing then doing.
For this
reason, most people end up reaching an impasse & signing up for
lessons with a live teacher but if you're an advanced player (especially
one who lives in a small town), you're probably better than most of
the teachers out there.
So how do you learn these subtle things online? That's
where we come in. We have developed online learning tools like you'll find
nowhere else! When you become a member of HotFrets you get all of the following
tools...
Your HotFrets Membership Gets You All
This...
PREMIUM
LESSONS
Each premium
lesson contains the following sections:
1.
The
Main Tutorial Screen: This is where you'll find the interactive
part of each lesson. You'll see a guitar fretboard that displays each
fingering of the lesson and allows you to move forward and backward one
fingering at a time. Just below the fretboard diagram is the Tab/notation
for the lesson with a cursor that shows you where you are in the lesson.
Try it out!
Click here to
experience one of the tutorial screens from the lesson titled, "Jazz
Chord Melodies I" an intermediate lesson which shows you how to
play a jazz version of "Twinkle
Little Star." In fact, you can pick up your guitar and
learn it now! (If you are an absolute beginner, you might want to go
through all the beginner lessons first.)
The
Listen Button: Click this button to hear a high quality
audio file of how the lesson should sound when played correctly. Listening
is one of the most important things you can do to pick up on the subtle
nuances of various playing styles.
Click the listen
button to the right to sample the actual audio file found in the
lesson titled, "Building Solos With The Pentatonic Scale."
Click this Listen Button Sample
3.
The
Info Page: Here
is where you'll find all kinds of tips on playing-techniques as well as anything
else that can be explained in greater detail. Coupling this with videos and
interactive learning tools gives you a complete learning experience.
You'll find everything from small video clips, images, interactive flash files to detailed text explanations. All of this is to help you to gain a better understanding of the lesson.
To view a few sample INFO pages click the links listed below:
The
Hands Page: Ever
wish you could have a really good player who is also a really good teacher
just sit down with you and show you
how to play something and explain it too? Also, have them show you
again and again!
That's the purpose
of the HANDS page! Many of the lessons have QuickTime movies with a teacher
who has guitar in hand and explains and shows you how to play the lesson!
Check out the 2
HANDS videos from the advanced lesson entitled, "Building Solos With
The Pentatonic Scale." That's right! There are two videos for this lesson.
They're a little big though, so give 'em a little time to download.
This
is an advanced lesson. Talk about getting out of the box,
check out the INFO page linked above titled, "Building
Solos With The Pentatonic Scale" before watching the video. That'll
give you a head start on understanding what the teacher is talking about
in this lesson.
If you don't have the free QuickTime Movie Player get it here.
The Notation Window:Click the Notation Button and you'll see a midi powered notation window pop open with the ability to play back the lesson at any tempo and in any key!
We use Sibelius 2 and G7 from the Sibelius company to create our notation files. You can play them back using the free Scorch 2 plugin. Click the Scorch 2 logo below to get the free Scorch plugin.
The Practice Player:This is another very cool part of each lesson. You can actually use this as a jamming tool! Click the Practice Button and up pops a small window with 2 buttons- Play and Rewind. Click the Play button and you'll hear a short count-in followed by the background music for the lesson.
Most of the Practice player files contain drums, bass and rhythm guitar depending on the lesson. And, this is actual audio of drums, bass and guitar, not cheesy midi imitations!
You can play along to your heart's content because the music loops up to 50 times before it stops. If you get lost, just click the Rewind button and start over! We've had several members tell us that this is one of their favorite parts of the site because they'll many times open an old lesson just to jam with!
Click here or the screenshot image to the right to sample
one of the practice player files.
The
Online Tablature Player & Practice Aid Tab Alive! is an awesome new tablature
tool that allows you to paste tablature straight from notepad or
any tab file into a simple web form and, with the click of a button,
immediately view it on a playable guitar-neck interface!
See and Hear each note of tablature
on a guitar graphic! - As a cursor moves from note to
note (or chord to chord) you'll hear notes sounding (including
bends, etc.) and see the corresponding notes on a guitar neck graphic!
Real
Guitar Sounds - We recorded every note, hammer-on, slide-up,
slide-down, pull-off and string bend on an old vintage Epiphone acoustic
guitar made in the 1950's. None of that cheesy midi junk here. More
guitar sounds coming soon including several electric guitars!
Shows & Plays
Common Guitar Techniques such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, string-bends
and slides! - Again, these are real guitar sounds so you
can enjoy learning any tab you want! Get tab all over the Internet
and then just paste it in and convert it to real guitar sounds!
Full
Control Over Playback - Step through your tab one fingering
at a time, select an area to indefinitely loop, or play through each
section from start to finish. There's also a speed control for the
loop and play feature!
Looping
Feature - Check
out this simple example and be sure to turn on the looper. Click
the image to the right and follow the simple directions to try it
out right now!
Playback
Speed Control - Playback control speed with a simple slider.
Works for the looper and for straight playback.
Your membership also gets you 24/7 access
to the complete HotFrets Riff Archive! Sometimes you just want to learn
a cool riff quick. The HotFrets Riff Archive has many very popular song
riffs. Each riff uses the interactive HotFrets interface and includes a
video of someone actually playing the riff!
Most of the videos include close-up views of the riff
played slowly and then at normal speed. Below is a link to a riff from
the archive.
Every membership gets an automatic discount
on every item in the bookstore!
there are over 40,000 items in the bookstore including
Book/CD packages, DVDs, Videos, music software and more! If you are planning
to purchase instructional videos and other items, your membership might
just pay for itself in bookstore discounts! Here is a brief list of some
of the areas you might be interested in checking out.
The
annual membership is only $50.00 which comes to less than $5 per
month. You have access to all the members content 24 hours a day, 7
days a week for an entire year. That's less than $1.00 per week. As
an advanced player, you can use some of the beginner and advanced content
here to get ideas for teaching your students.
But if you're still
not convinced, we have weekly, monthly and quarterly memberships available
for $5.00, $9.95 and $15.00 respectively. Try it out for a week, a month
or a quarter.
Get your membership
now!
"The More You Learn, the Easier it is to Learn More!"
So
you're looking for a challenge...
