The real book jazz guitar DVD is presented for the aspiring jazz guitarist. Corey Christiansen is backed by an all-star band including Danny Gottlieb drums, Per Danielson on piano, Christian Fabian on Bass. Learn the melody and harmony while Corey shows you common chord voicings for these jazz standards as well as common chord substitutions. All the classic intros and endings for these tunes are presented in an easy to learn way.
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Nov
2008
Learn to improvise music with licks and small musical ideas
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments
Learning to improvise music without beating yourself up over the right notes or fumbling for the right fingering is something we all work towards when learning to solo over chord changes. Some musicians are uncomfortable with the idea of using licks because they fear it will inhibit their creativity. But learned correctly licks can enhance [...]
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Nov
2008
Introduction to Spelling chords
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments
Introduction to Spelling Chords By: Dennis St. Germain In this music lesson I want to show you how to spell chords and understand the component parts of a chord. You don’t have to even read music to learn to spell chords. All you need to know is the first seven letters of the alphabet. In [...]
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Nov
2008
Chords found within a Major Scale
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments
I’m trying to post something that everyone can take away. Even at the early stages of someone’s musical path, you run into a major scale. Remember Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do well, that’ a Major scale. Let’s talk about what chords are found in a Major scale. For example I’ll use the [...]
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Sep
2007
How to learn a new piece of written music
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music, music lesson
The following is a process designed to get your brain to assimilate new musical material. This system will let you memorize music fast and help you reprogram your mental synapses and learn music the right way rather than relying on muscle memory only. This process applies to all music and all instruments and assumes that [...]
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Oct
2008
Learn all the note names on Guitar in 4 easy steps
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner
Here is a very cool trick to learn all the note names on all 6 strings on every fret in 4 easy steps.
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Apr
2009
The Growth Process When Learning an Instrument
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music, music lesson
The key thing is that you don't have to be a genius to play music, all you need is an interest in music and commitment to a life long learning of your instrument also known as a passion for music.
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Jun
2009
Learn the Note Names on Guitar in 4 Easy Steps
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, Music lessons for all instruments
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Jul
2009
The Real Book Jazz Fake Book
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music, music lesson
Get the best jazz fake book around. Learn lots of jazz tunes with the real book.
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Aug
2009
Understanding Chord Symbols
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music lesson
With the growing interest in Jazz and other forms of music, I find more and more people asking about chord symbols and chord construction. While there are many books out there on the market, there is very little explanation of how chords symbols are interpreted. I’d like to share some of my insight with all you music enthusiasts.
Continue reading...My new video guitar lesson called cool chords shows how to create your own chords and understand how to construct chords. It builds on the concept of learning a little bit of chords but knowing a lot of chords. All Chords in this tutorial are movable chord forms. Using chords built with the ROOT names on the 6th, 5th, and 4th strings.
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Nov
2009
Thelonious Monk’s Advice 1960
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music, music lesson
Just because you're not a drummer, doesn't mean that you don't have to keep time. Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play. Stop playing all those bullshit notes.
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Jan
2010
You Know You’re a Musician When:
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments, music, music lesson
You realize that the cheers from the audience after a particularly difficult passage are for a sports play on the big screen TV over the bar, and that in fact, no one is listening to you. When the gig you drove 200 miles for to make $100, and had to pay for a hotel room, [...]
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Jul
2010
Guitar Chords and Their Construction
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, learn music, music lesson
Guitar chords as well as piano chords can be easily figured out by using this handy chart that shows the scale step numbers measured from the Root.
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Jul
2010
The recording industry association’s media war, What’s your take on it?
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music Biz, Music lessons for all instruments
The recording industry is complaining about how much they are losing through file sharing but the blame isn't exclusively on file sharing.
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Jul
2010
7 Steps to playing chord melody guitar.
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, learn music, music, music lesson
These days I tend to play nylon stringed electric guitars, for chord melody guitar playing. I’ve grown more into nylon stringed guitars so they don’t tear my fingernails apart and I’m able to play chord melody guitar easily. I generally swap between pick style and finger-style within the same tune which is why I like [...]
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Jun
2010
Taking Unpaid Gigs and what’s exposure.
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music Biz, Music lessons for all instruments
Musicians get calls to play unpaid gigs all the time for parties, benefit gigs or fundraisers, jazz gigs or rock gigs and even venues that are having like 5 bands playing and you get to play a 30 minute set. So what do you do? Do you take the gigs?
Continue reading...Getting your band booked in the local club scene can be a challenging task to say the least. It’s hard enough to get your email or press pack noticed by the club booker, but once you get your foot in the door, there are still numerous factors that can dictate whether or not you actually get a gig. It’s [...]
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Jun
2010
If your band is an opening act then read this!
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music Biz, Music lessons for all instruments
I read this great post by Glenn Boothe owner of the Local 506 and 250 capacity venue in Chapel Hill NC. Glenn also worked for Island Records, Epic Records, Caroline Records and Sony Music Distribution. He talks about the etiquette musicians should adhere to when their the opening act somewhere. I found this to be [...]
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Jun
2010
GRITtv: Are Musicians Laborers or Entrepreneurs?
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments
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Jun
2010
Why Learn To Play An Instrument and Take Music Lessons?
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music, music lesson
Research shows that young people who take music lessons have significantly better developed brains then those who have never learned music. There a countless articles and discussions on the topic of children's music lessons and the development of the brain.
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May
2010
Chords Found In A Melodic Minor Scale
By Dennis St Germain. Posted in Guitar Corner, Music lessons for all instruments, learn music, music lesson
The melodic minor scale is a very powerful scale when used with the correct chords. Many jazz musicians used this scale as a foundation for improvising.
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