For years people have wanted to learn to play the guitar and have fallen prey to claims of
'Learn To Play Like a Pro in Only 2 Weeks'
or
'You Can Play Overnight!'
You get the idea. How many of them have you bought only to find 2 weeks later you threw your money away? Well, I've got good news for you. You can learn quickly if you're willing to work at it a little but you have to use the right method.
With this online interactive guitar instruction method... YOU WILL LEARN TO PLAY THE GUITAR AND LEARN FAST.
I'll show you how to play guitar using...
Real Videos of me playing the examples at normal speed and slowly and explaining them to you.
Guitar charts that move through each fingering of a lesson one note at a time.
Detailed explanations that are simplified so you can get it the first time!
Printable notation charts for offline use.
Play along audio. Like music-minus-one, it's the band without the guitar part so you can play along while you learn.
The Problem With Other Methods
Most traditional methods (with books, pictures, tab and sound files only)
just generally are not effective. Static
images and words aren't able to demonstrate many of the subtle things that can take weeks and months to figure out on your own.
A Guitar Learning Concept you must understand...
The many subtle things that make you a good player are NOT
hard to do.
However, in order to unlock the secrets of these subtle nuances & take
the mystery out of learning this great instrument, you MUST learn them.
For this
reason, most people end up reaching an impasse & giving up even after taking a few lessons from a guitar teacher.
Don't get me wrong, a good teacher can take you light years ahead in a short period of time, but...
it's not easy to find a good teacher!
I've seen many disastrous results from a bad teacher's influence.
In some towns, knowing how to play a few chords qualifies you to teach!
Arrrrg! A bad teacher can...
Discourage you.
Make you think you're the reason you
aren't progressing.
Allow you to develop bad habits that
come back to haunt you later.
Even if you do find a good teacher...
We have developed INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE, online learning tools like you'll find nowhere else!
When you become a member of the HotFrets Community of guitar players you get all of the following...
6-PART PREMIUM INTERACTIVE LESSONS
Each premium
lesson contains the following 6 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" which shows you how to play a cool jazz version of "Twinkle
Little Star." In fact, you can pick up your guitar and
learn it right now! (If you are an absolute beginner, you'll want to sign up and go
through all the beginner lessons first.)
click
the image to enlarge the screenshot
2. 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 a Jimmy
Page lesson.
Click this Listen Button Sample
3. The Info Page: This is one of the best kept secrets of the lesson system! 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.
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:
4. 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?
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.
If you're a beginner, don't let this lesson frustrate you. Just watch the videos and enjoy the fact that you'll be able to understand all this pretty soon if you go through the lessons that precede this one!
If you don't have the free QuickTime Movie Player get it here.
This is an advanced lesson.
If you are an intermediate or advanced player, 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.
5. 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.
You'll need the free plugin to view the Notation Example. Click the Scorch 2 logo below to get the free Scorch plugin.
6. The Play Along Audio Window: 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.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg!
You're annual membership also gets you...
TAB ALIVE! The Online Tablature Player & Guitar Learning 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 -The looping feature allows you to select a small amount of the tab and play it as a loop as slow as you need to. Check
out this simple example from the growing Tab Alive! archive that shows you how to play the opening riff from the Guns and Roses tune, "Sweet Child 'O Mine" and turn on the looping feature to loop the first section. Click the image to the right to see how to set the looping feature.
Playback
Speed Control - Playback control speed with a simple slider.
Works for the looper and for straight playback.
We want you to be convinced that this is the best deal ever.
So look at this! You're annual membership also gets you...
THE FEATURED RIFF ARCHIVE!
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 me 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. Click the image below to open a sample from the Riff Archive.
Learn to Play the signature riff from "Life in the Fast Lane " - ala - Joe Walsh
You Want More? How about the Coolest Guitar Tools on the Internet?
The Arpeggiator
The Arpeggiator is just a fancy name for an Interactive Chord Chart that maps out every note across the guitar neck for every possible chord configuration. There are literally thousands of chord possibilities in the Arpeggiator.
The Virtual Pick allows you to use your mouse to actually play the notes across the virtual guitar neck! Strum or pick the notes separately to hear the notes played sampled from an actual acoustic guitar. I sampled every note across the guitar neck of my old 1960's vintage Epiphone acoustic guitar. No cheesy midi sounds here. This is the real thing, baby.
The practice player actually opens a looping background track for you to play along with in various styles.
The Scale Creator
The Scale Creator is an interactive tool that allows you to pick a note from one drop-down menu and a scale type from another one. Then just click the create scale button and you've got the notes of any scale printed along the virtual guitar neck.
For example, say you want to know the notes of the 'E' major scale, you simply choose 'E' and 'Major' from the 2 drop-down menus. That's all there is to it!
Like the Arpeggiator, the Scale Creator includes a Virtual Pick allowing you to use your mouse to actually play the notes across the virtual guitar neck! Strum or pick the notes separately to hear the notes.
There's also a practice player that plays a looping background track for you to play along with in various styles.
TAB MAKER PRO with Sound
TabMaker is a simple, easy to use tab creator. Tablature is one of the most popular guitar notation methods on the Internet. If you're not familiar with tablature, click here (opens in a separate window) for a quick flash movie that gives you an overview of tablature.
One of the reasons tablature's popularity on the Internet is the fact that all it takes to create tablature is a simple text editor like notepad. Problem is, notepad and other text editors force you to enter multiple lines of dashes for every note you place on the tablature line. And you can't just copy and paste a single string line. It gets pretty tedious.
That's why we developed TabMaker Pro. TabMaker gives you a point-and-click interface to create tablature fast and it's easy to learn. For a quick start guide click here (opens in a separate window). The guide is an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file and is approximately 214K in size. To get the free Adobe Acrobat Reader click here (opens in a separate window).
The Progressionator
Learn how to play all the most common and some rather uncommon chord progressions in every key. This simple formula approach to chord progressions will have you understanding how these chords fit together quickly.
Or, how would you like to be able to write your own song? How about trying to transpose a chord progression to another key?
No Problem!
Simply select a key(like 'C' or 'D'), a chord progression pattern and a playing style. Then click the "Generate Progression" button. In an instant you've got a sample of hundreds of chord progressions to play and listen to.
Again, no cheesy midi here. These are real guitar sounds. Styles are listed as 'Power Chords', 'Syncopated Electric', 'Finger-Picking', etc.
The Chord Finder
You'll be saying, "I don't need no stinking chord dictionary!"
With the Chord Finder you'll have an incredibly easy to use chord guide. It tells you the names of each note that makes up a chord and maps them all out across the guitar neck. Then, using the vertical chart, you can scroll through several fingerings for the various ways of playing any chord.
Because it is an extremely organized way of presenting chords, you'll quickly begin to see the relationships between the different ways of playing each of the chords and the common shapes you encounter.
Simply choose from 3 drop-dwon menus and click the 'Get Chord' button and you're in business!
Interval Madness
Interval Madness is a great learning game for the guitarist. You'll hear and see a random combinations of 2 notes. You then have to quickly identify the 'Interval' (this is something you'll learn using the HotFrets learning system).
Identify it correctly and you get points, get it wrong and you lose points. The more you play, the more familiar you'll become with your guitar neck. The top 100 scores are posted on the high score scoreboard. If you get a high score yours will post to the board until someone knocks you off!
There are keyboard shortcuts for entering the correct answer so you can go very quickly. You'll be graded as a Novice, an Apprentice, a Teacher or a Master at knowing Intervals on the guitar.
Every guitarist should learn to hear pitches and tune to them. Automatic guitar tuners are a good thing and I even have one myself. However, you should develop your ear.
The HotFrets Tuner is a tool you can download and use on your computer desktop or even on your website. Click a string or type a string number to sound the correct tuning note and then tune your guitar.
It's as simple as that.
Want more? Ok, How about one of the simplest yet powerful approaches to music theory for the guitar available?
The Members Theory Area
For years guitarists have avoided understanding music theory because the resources available to them for learning it were so stinking confusing! That's just not necessary. There are some incredibly valuable concepts and nuggets of music understanding that can catapult your playing to the next level.
If you are an intermediate or advanced player and feel like you're stuck in a rut, you'll love what this area does for you. The blinders fall from your eyes and there is one "aha!" moment after another.
You'll find interactive screens and sound in this area as well.
Knowledge is power in the guitar world and you'll have it!
Ok, This Is Getting Crazy. You Want More? How about perpetual Discounts on thousands of book titles from the HotFrets Mega Music Bookstore?
BOOKSTORE
DISCOUNTS!
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.
For now i'm keeping the price for all the above at only $50 for an entire year's access. I've had several marketing consultants to tell me I'm charging way too little for this.
I will be going up to $97 very soon. Once I go to $97 you'll never see the $50 price again but...
by acting on this now you will be able to renew at $50 every year until you cancel your membership.
You know you can
pay anywhere from $40 to $100 per month for a live teacher good or
bad and get maybe 30 minutes to an hour once a week. Remember,
a good teacher is a good thing but your HotFrets membership is only
a fraction of the cost of even a bad teacher. For right now the annual membership
is only $50 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 per week. That way you can keep your good
teacher and get all this for pennies a day.
Many students have
a tendency to become extremely nervous during their lessons with a live
teacher resulting in great frustration. If you have or have ever taken
lessons from a teacher you've probably experienced this in some form
or fashion. You can experience the interactive lessons and learning tools
here in the comfort of your own room and on your time schedule. As a
matter of fact, many of our members have seen an improvement in performance
and confidence in front of their teachers after spending a few months
as a HotFrets member!
