Like a lot of guitar players, I probably spend way too much time surfing the web and looking up all things related to guitars. I like to see the new shiny gear. I like to hear the guitar talking heads talk about whatever they’re talking about. And I like to see what I can learn from some of the online teachers.
I’ve followed a LOT of the online folks at some point for at least a little bit over the course of the last however long. Marty and Justin and Doug Seven and Stevie Snacks (now Texas Blues Alley) and Bob Murnahan and Corey Congilio and Jim Lill and Edina Balczo and so many others. Quite a few of them I’ve even bought lessons from once or twice. And that’s not even counting Truefire and some of the other bigger sites. I’ve got enough lessons that I could probably make a full time job just working my way through them for a couple of years.
There are two that I currently follow because either their style of teaching or what they’re teaching seem to resonate with me. So here are two or three paragraphs on each of them.
Griff Hamlin and Blues Guitar Unleashed. I found Griff in either late 2009 or very early 2010. I bought my first course from him in January 2010 after I stumbled on his 4 Note Solo video. I’ve followed him closely ever since. When he opened up what he calls his All Access annual subscription, I jumped on it, and I’ve never looked back. His style of teaching fits my style of learning. He’s also a great teacher.
His flagship Blues Guitar Unleashed course is the first one I bought. It’s also the first course I actually sat down and spent weeks, even months, working through until I got distracted. I made it probably 3/4s of the way through it. Granted, by my own admission, a lot of what I had learned was still really shaky, the first half was a good enough basis that, adding it to what I already knew, I could continue to build on it over the coming years. The first half of the course laid the foundation that you need to play blues and, arguably, most styles of modern music. The second half is a collection of 6 solos that are used to solidfy and ingrain what you learned in the first half. I got distracted after the 3rd solo because the solos became beyond my ability to play. I really should go back and learn them now.
When I bought that course, Griff had 2 courses. That one and a course for brand new players. It didn’t take long before he was putting out 2 or 3 courses a year. I would buy them when he released them. Now he has All Access, and, to me, since I like him and his way of teaching, it’s something that I will subscribe to as long as I can afford to do so. All Access is exactly that…gives me access to every course he produces.
I’ve also had the privelege of meeting Griff, attending some of his jams, and I’ve taken a few face lessons with him. He’s a stand-up guy.
Jazz Guitar Online. This one is a bit newer to me. I think I found them 2 or 3 years ago. I found it mostly because Griff doesn’t have a jazz course. In one of our face lessons, he had pointed me a direction that I really enjoyed using a Herb Ellis book, and that made me want to dive a little deeper. I heard a couple of arrangements of some songs that had that jazz sound but didn’t sound over my head, so I found where they came from and downloaded them to learn. They came from this site.
I downloaded those couple of songs. Then I downloaded their Beginner’s Guide to Jazz. I think that course was free. Admittedly, I’ve looked through that one once or twice, but I never really started into it. However, on a whim, I recently bought their Complete Chord Melody course and started working through it. Like that original BGU purchase, this one has me working my way through the whole thing. I sometimes struggle with some of the theory in it (I’m a blues and rock player at heart – theory? we don’t need no stinkin’ theory!), but the voicings and stylings the course have been showing me are just super cool. They make me feel like a jazz cat.
This course isn’t like BGU where a teacher talks you through everything in the lesson, then gives you a play along, and then let’s you play it on your own. It’s primarily a read and follow the examples course. And, since I’m a monkey-see-monkey-do learner, it’s taking me a bit longer to try and read my way through. But the subject is super interesting to me right now, so it resonates because of that.
Talking about these two is not me trying disparage the others in any way. The others have all been good, and I can probably point you to something that I’ve learned from each one. I just think these two are the standouts.
What about you? What online teachers have you used with success?