Acoustic Guitar Lessons - Play The Music But Don't Get Bogged Down With The Theory

So, if you're at the point where you think that your guitar might be more useful as firewood just hang on a second before you get out the matches and turn that lovely guitar into a pile of ashes.

Mike, You were there at the right time, with the right song, presented in the most wonderfully "learnable" way. You seem like such a great guy and what you've done for me and others I'm sure will stay with us forever. I'm full of appreciation and just wanted to tell you how much you've touched my life. John R. CA. USA

I thought to my self "wouldn't it be great if I could make these videos showing the hands on-screen from the same angle that you see them in real life".

I reckoned that shooting the videos this way would make it a lot easier and quicker for you to learn them.

I wasn't sure how my customers and subscribers would like that idea so I made a really short snippet of video in the new format and sent it out to get some feedback. Anyway to cut a long story short....everybody really liked the idea.

So all the videos made since then, have been shot in, what has become known as, Over-The-Shoulder-Vision.

This means that when you look at the video on-screen, the view you see of the fretting hand is from the viewpoint as the player.

As you follow the on-screen action you simply move your hands and place your fingers exactly like you see them on the screen.

This 'players eye' view is not 100% perfect yet however (especially for left handers) but it does give you a new and unique way of viewing our video guitar lessons.

I suppose I should also tell you about a really odd side effect too.

As you progress with any particular piece and can play it close to normal speed something really crazy happens.

It's hard to describe the effect but it is something like virtual reallity. You can see the piece being played on-screen but it is almost like YOU are controlling the action. I guess it is a bit like the new games consoles (I think you know which ones I mean)

A few people told me about this strange, and very useful, side effect before I tried it and I couldn't wait to try it for myself. Within seconds I could see exactly what they meant.

So, the original experiment turned out to be a great success in more ways than one and all new material is now made this way.

The next development is to get the same 'guitarists eye view' on the righthand. This is a bit more tricky but we are near the end of the experiments and should soon have something so totally unique it will blow everybodys' mind.

Using this method definitely makes these acoustic guitar lessons....even easier to learn

here is a big problem for people learning new pieces on guitar that doesn't happen with most other instruments.

I am sure you'll recognise the problem, It goes something like this:

You start learning the new piece and everthing is going fine until.....you get to the bit that is way beyond your ability.

It could be the sudden introduction of a barre chord that you may not have learned to do yet.

Or may be some enormous stretch that takes years of practise to perfect. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but whatever it is, it spoils the piece and makes it unplayable for you which is a shame.

This is not a new problem however. It is something we all encounter when we are first learning to play acoustic guitar and the good news is, with a little bit of thought and experience there is almost always a way round the tricky bits.

All the videos you'll get from us will have had the Mike Herberts 'Work Around' treatment if there are any difficult sections.

This means you'll have a much better chance to learn the pieces ALL THE WAY THROUGH.

Who knows, with any luck, we might get you to the point where the next time someone says 'what can you play', you'll be able to play them something all the way through, instead of playing the first 30 seconds of six different pieces.

You'll start to feel a lot more like a guitarist instead of just someone who messes around on guitar.

How good is that going to make you feel?

3. No Theory and Scales   Why we don't do any theory or scales.

re you here because you want to learn theory . . . . . or because you want to learn guitar?

There is nothing wrong with learning theory of course, if that is what you want.

The thing is, probably 99% of people are not intending to become the next Eric Clapton. For that reason we simply don't bother trying to teach you any theory or scales.

In my opinion, the best way to get you fired up and learning fast is to show you how to play some of the pieces you've always wanted to play.

Once you've got a few great pieces under your belt, and if you really think it will help you, then there are loads of excellent websites that will give you a deeper understanding of the
theory of music.

We just want to help you get those first 50 or 60 songs into your repertoire so that you can then decide what direction you want your playing to take.

Now, I am sure there are many people who disagree about 'staying away from theory'.

All I'm saying is, it didn't help me in any way when I started playing and that is the reason I teach you the way I do.

One thing I know for certain is, I have had a lot of success doing it this way. At the time of writing, the website has a total of 52,061 subscribers . . . . I hope you would like to join them, since being a subscriber gets you a ton of my videos to download, and the best bit is . . . it's completely free.

4. Learning With Tablature You can think of tablature as a picture of your guitar fretboard.

ablature is a very important element in your future success as a guitarist and we have a couple of great tools that we use to help you progress.

You can think of tablature as a picture of your guitar fretboard.

It shows the six strings as if you were looking at them whilst holding the guitar. (If you're right handed)

If you hold your guitar in playing position and then lean forward and look down you'll understand how tablature (tab or tabs for short) works.

So looking at a tab we'll see the thinnest string (1st of high 'E' string) at the top, and then the other strings get thicker (and sound lower) as we look down, until we get to the thickest string (the 6th or low 'E' string)

If we were to see a number 1 shown on the top string (High 'E') this means 'play/pick/pluck' the thinnest string whilst fretting it (pressing your finger on it) just behind the first fret

If we then saw a number 2 on the 2nd string, that means 'play/pick/pluck' the second string whilst fretting just behind the second fret.

So what we have here is a literal view of the fretboard and a system that tells you exactly which strings to hit and which fret to hold down.

This is much easier than having to read music and means you can learn much more quickly.

For most of the videos we make, we will supply a tab. Even better than that, we also supply some free software that will actually 'play' the tab right in front of your eyes.

You just install the free software and open the tab file we supply and you can see and listen to the piece being played.

As if that wasn't good enough, you can also slow down a section. You can highlight, and have a section repeat.
You can play the same measure over and over again at slow speed until the way to play it is memorised to perfection.

Using this software (it's called TefView if you were wondering) along with the video lesson increases your ability to learn new pieces at an astonishing rate.

Tefview is so well used around the world that you can also search online and find 1,000's and 1,000's of .tef files of other guitar pieces that you might want to learn.

Oh I almost forgot: We'll also give you a printable version of the tab so you can learn anywhere, not just while sitting in front of your computer screen.

Just print off the song and put it in your guitar case so that you can take it wherever you go for that sneaky little 10 minute practise session.

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