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Tony’s Guitar Newsletter

 

 

 
 

Dear Friend,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

TODAY’S TOPIC – Newsletter Status Update

Hi.  This is Jim Todd. It has been a couple of months since you have received a Guitar Leads newsletter.   There is a good reason for this.  Tony has been unavailable.  I have been hoping he’d be back soon but it looks like it will be several more months.  After consulting with him, we both agree that I should begin sending them in again – even in his absence.  

Most of you have seen or heard my name.  Tony has been the musician behind the lessons, and I have worked with Tony as the marketing guy.

Don’t worry, I am not going to try and take Tony’s place and teach you guitar. However, what I hope to do is to provide you with some quality material from other guitarists I know.  Believe me I have plenty of things to do.. so I have no interest in wasting your time or mine with junk.

Let’s go ahead and get started:

The first guy who I am going to borrow some material from (with his permission of course) is Will Landrum.  Of all of the teaching guitarists I know… Will is one of the best players.  He has agreed to allow me to share with you some of the material he is using with his online students.  Below are two teaching videos from Will:

Palm Muting and String Silencing
http://tinyurl.com/7f2kcaq

Strumming and String Isolation
http://tinyurl.com/7zkpfta

If you are more advanced in your playing and what something more challenging, then I would recommend this video tutorial video Tony put together several months ago, on using geometric patterns to your advantage when learning to take solos.

Anchor Points and Geometric Patterns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B6GAPTp940&feature=related

Keep On Jammin!
Jim

James Toddd

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s.  Many of you probably know of my slow down software, Song Surgeon, which Tony has used and endorsed over the years.   We now have a FREE online Key and Tempo change service.  If you only have a few files you’d like to modify it’s a great tool.  You can find this free service here:

http://www.songsurgeon.com/page/ssweb.html

 
 
 

 

Tony’s Weekly Gutiar Newsletter

 

 

 
 

Dear Friend,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

 

TODAY’S TOPIC – Humbuckers or Single Coils Pickups

With the Christmas holiday just around the corner I thought I will would give you a little light reading on a very important topic: Humbuckers or Single Coils Pickups?

NIGHT & DAY Difference! Both fantastic! Both fill a need! The electric guitar is nothing without its pickups. You can’t hear any sound without them. The single coil pickup, traditionally thought of as being found on the FENDER STRATOCASTER guitar, is made in such a way that it has a distinctive, clean, crisp and thinner sounding tone than the Humbucker pickup. Some good examples of what Single Coils sound like are heard on the songs: “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” by THE HOLLIES, “That’ll Be The Day” by BUDDY HOLLY and many of the early songs by THE BEACH BOYS like “Surfin’ USA.”

The Humbucker pickups are typically thought of as being found on Gibson guitars, such as the Les Paul model and the ES 335 model. They have a fatter, more dense sound than the single coil pickup. Some great examples of what a Humbucker pickup sounds like, are found on CARLOS SANTANA’S “Black Magic Woman”, BLACK SABBATH’S “War Pigs” and THE DOOBIE BROTHERS’ “China Grove.”

Humbucker pickups were developed because of the way that single coil pickups were made and the problems that were inherent in their design. They would “Hum” when played near florescent lighting or if the amplifier was plugged into a wall socket that was noisy due to bad electrical grounding. Humbuckers are essentially 2 single coil pickups that share a large magnet at their base. Each coil of a Humbucker is wrapped differently, so that the RF (radio frequency) signals they create cancel each other out. The only purpose in creating Humbuckers was to “buck” the hum that single coils created. However Humbuckers did not, and do not, sound just like single coils without hum. Since a much larger magnet was used and there were 2 coils of wire, the Humbucker created a much louder signal.

Today, with the advances in electronic technology, we also find guitars that have single coil pickups that do not buzz (Fender Lace.) You can also find guitars that have a combination of both single coil and Humbucker pickups on them, such as certain Fender Telecaster models. This is a nice option that can give you many combinations of sounds. I suggest you go to your music store and check them both out before committing to one type or the other.

Hopefully this little intro to the differences in these two pickup configurations, will encourage you to audition the two styles. With Christmas coming I suggest you hurry out and make your choice! I also would like to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Holy Christmas season and New Year.

Last Few Days of a Very Special Promotion on Learn2Jam

 My Learn2Jam is truly a unique course. It is built around the premise that if you can learn to play 4 songs, you can gain the necessary skill and knowledge to take a solo to any song. We have been running a special in advance of Christmas that is a real “sweet” deal. The normal price for this course is $149 but I have reduced it by 40% to $79.

In addition, I am sweetening the pot even more to help you say yes to what is already is a great deal…I am going to throw in a 2 GB Mp3 player (valued at $49) to all purchasers. 

But that is not all… I have one more thing that makes this a fantastic offer and a fantastic gift or yourself or any other guitarist for Christmas… I am throwing in the Guitar Leads Master Volume… this is a library of 425 interactive guitar solos/segments from some of the most popular rock songs of all time…

Here is what you will get:

~~> Learn2Jam                               $79       ($68 savings)
~~> GL Master Volume                   FREE.   ($97 savings)
~~> 2Gb Mp3 Player                       FREE      ($49 value)

That is a whopping $214 in discounts and free gifts.

To get this entire package you MUST use this special link below. When you click this link the page you land on will display a window showing you the FREE mp3 player

http://guitar-1.com/sc/order/  

If you don’t see the picture that means our inventory of this item is depleted and  though you still get the 40% discount and FREE copy of the Master Volume, the MP3 player won’t be included.
 

Keep On Jammin!
tony sig file

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s. In order to try and get this to you by Christmas, we will end this special on Monday, December 19th, and all orders will be shipped no later than Tuesday, the following day.  
 
 

 

Tony’s Guitar Newsletter – The guitar player in the 5th Division Army Band

 

 

 
 

Dear Friend,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

 

My Guitar Playing Changed in 1975..
It Took Me 40 Years to Understand What Happened

This will be the last e-mail before the Thanksgiving Holidays and I want to get you some juicy info to chew on while you’re off from school or work for a few days. This newsletter was not supposed to be a story about me, but after I did some comprehensive research, I was jumping out of my own skin and knew I had to write what you’re about to read.

As I began to search for a really good topic for this week’s newsletter, I thought I would take a look at what the other guitar courses are saying out there. I even checked out “i-phone/i-pad” and “Droid” guitar apps. Quite frankly, what I learned was stunning and sad! You see, there’s only so many ways you can package and re-package the same old guitar instruction. For example, you may have heard of the “CAGED System” of understanding chord/Barre chord usage. Once you have learned that concept, you’re done learning it. Once you learn how to play a hammer-on or a pull-off, you’re done learning it. Once you learn the notes on the fretboard or are able to play complicated chord fingerings, again, you’re done.

While that stuff is important the question is: What do you do with these techniques and knowledge? Do you become frustrated because you have to go through months of theory in order to play the lead to “Mary Had A Little Lamb (the nursery rhyme?) Where have you gotten? What’s the real goal? What’s the next step?  

After learning the basics referenced above, it will normally take years thereafter for a guitarist to get to a point where they can think on their feet fast enough to learn how to improvise when taking a solo.

And….  THAT IS THE NEXT STEP 

Even if you learn the lead to “Hotel California” (a lead I absolutely love to play and respect as one of the best) it will not help you take solos on your own. So you see it’s just not any solo or song, but 4 very specific ones.

So, how can you learn to play improvisational solos in THE QUICKEST AMOUNT OF TIME? The answer to that question is simple but not obvious to see.  It took me 40 years to understand something that I knew back in 1975 and then a couple of additional years to develop it into a simple soloing system.

You see, I’ve played and continue to play as a full-time, professional guitar player/singer. I’ve played 1,000′s of songs. And after almost 40 years of playing and taking solos, a BOMBSHELL of a realization went off in my head a couple of years ago..It was this fact:  There were 4 songs that have LITERALLY changed my life.

They changed my life because after I learned them, I was able to IMMEDIATELY gather what I needed to solo on any song I wanted. And because of that, I auditioned for and got the spot as full time lead guitarist for one of the nation’s busiest Rock groups. Because of that, I’ve travelled the country playing with and opening for acts such as: The Beach Boys, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, The Pointer Sisters, Edgar Winter, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Ray Charles, The Dixie Chicks and on and on. Because of that, I have over 13 released CD’s and live my childhood dream of being a full-time musician — All because of four songs.

You know what else??  I knew these songs and was already using this system back in 1975 – I just didn’t know that’s what I was doing. That’s how I ended up being the guitar player in the 5th Division Army Band instead of an Avionics mechanic that I was drafted for. 4 Songs!
 
What do you want to do as a guitarist? Would you like to be able to just sit in your house and jam along to a CD? Would you like to get good enough, quick enough to join a band and be their lead player? Or maybe you just want to learn these four songs to catapult you into the next level, as I was blessed enough to get to.

You need the knowledge/tools and you need the chops to do it and then when the opportunity comes…you’ll be ready.

So, if you want to play solos that you make up yourself, if you want to take what you know already and use it to its maximum potential, don’t waste another second. Commit right now to take that NEXT STEP to getting where you deserve to be as a guitar player. It took me 40 years to figure out that just 4 songs can change your life. It did for me and now I want you to have those actual songs and the instruction to go along with them so that they will change your guitar playing life too.

See the barnburner of Black Friday special I have put together for you below.

Black Friday Bombshell of a Special Offer

Learn2Jam is truly a unique course. It is built around the premise that if you can learn to play 4 songs, you can gain the necessary skill and knowledge to take a solo to any song. The normal price for this course is $149 but I am sweetening the pot, by reducing it by 40% to $79.

But wait there is more…

In order to help you say yes to what is already is a bombshell of a deal…I am going to throw in a 2 GB Mp3 player (valued at $49) to all purchasers. 

Here is what you will get:

~~> Learn2Jam                               $79       ($68 savings)
~~> GL Master Volume                   FREE.   ($97 savings)
~~> 2Gb Mp3 Player                       FREE      ($49 value)

That is a whopping $214 in discounts and free gifts.

Learn2Jam will make a great gift for you or another musician in your life, and you can either KEEP the Mp3 player for yourself, OR include it as part of the gift and make a BIG impression.  

To get this entire package you MUST use this special link below. When you click this link the page you land on will display a window showing you the FREE mp3 player

http://guitar-1.com/sc/order/  

If you don’t see the picture it that our inventory of this item is depleted and  though you still get the 40% discount and FREE copy of the Master Volume, the MP3 player won’t be included.

 
Keep On Jammin!
tony sig file

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s. Learn2Jam comes with a 100%, 90-day, money-back guarantee. 

p.p.s. An unsolicited customer comment:

Just want to say I enjoyed the Learn to Jam Course. I have a lot of CD courses from others. Some I picked up and played once or twice and they are still sitting on the shelf. With yours I’ve played the CD’s so many times now, I feel like I know you.

I’m an intermediate player but I think your course is very unique in that you approach the subject so that even a beginner can understand. I love the old school rock and roll and blues. In fact I have the SG just like the one you are playing.

Just a note to say thank you for a great course. If you should come up with a follow up course let me know, I will be interested in purchasing it.

R. Robinson

 
 
 

 

Tony’s Guitar Newsletter

 

 

 
 

Dear Guitarist,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

 

TODAY’S TOPIC – Creating Customized Lessons

In last weeks newsletter I provided a video on the importance of musical tools, things that can assist you in learning more quickly.  If you missed that video you can find it, along with new video tutorial for this week using the link below:

http://songsurgeon.com/cab_music-tools.html

This week’s video takes the concept of tools which we discussed last week and shows you how you can use one of those tools to create customized lessons for yourself. Instead of buying the next guitar lessons course that happens to land in your in-box, you might want to give this approach of creating your own some. I know money is tight for many, and this might be a way to save some dollars over the long run.

Thanksgiving Newsletter

Next week is Thanksgiving. There is a chance we won’t get a newsletter out to you.  In case we don’t let me be the first to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.  Enjoy your days off, spend some extra time with your family, eat some good food, and have some fun playing your guitar. God Bless.
 
Keep On Jammin!
tony sig file

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s. If you have any topics you’d like me to cover in future newsletter
please contact me at info@guitar-1.com.
 
 
 

 

Tony’s Guitar Newsletter

Dear Guitarist,

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

TODAY’S TOPIC – Musical Tools

Today’s lesson is about tools, musically tools.  The video below approaches this topic, not from the standpoint of a musician, but from the viewpoint of a market researcher.

When you take a look at people that are successful and good at what they do, and analyze why this is so, there are several factors that can be identified.  Talent, dedication, experience, education, hard work and practice are all important components.  But another one, often overlooked is tools.  Tools can play a much bigger role that you might expect. If you don’t have the tools you need, things just takes longer… sometimes much longer.

Take a look…(click to go to video)

Video Thumbnail to play video

New Lessons Format

In the last newsletter I provided an example of a new video lesson format we were considering—and asked for your input.  I appreciate the feedback we received.  Based upon your comments we have gone back to the drawing board because most of you thought that example lesson need some substantial changes. I hope to get back to you within the next month with some additional ideas. If you have any suggestions or ideas for lessons, tutorials, instruction or products you think would be valuable, please don’t hesitate to contact me at info@guitar-1.com


Website Recommendation

Occasionally I come across a website that I think merits your attention.  I would like to draw your attention to a site called Guitar Backing Tracks. (www.guitarbackingtracks.com).  This site has nearly 7000 backing tracks, all free.  Take a look.

Keep On Jammin!
tony sig file

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

p.s. If you have any topics you’d like me to cover in future newsletter
please contact me at info@guitar-1.com.

Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

 

 
 

Dear Guitarist,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

New Website and New Lessons – We Need Your Input

This may be one of the most important newsletters of the year. Why? Because you and I are going to be building a web site together. Not just any website though. It’s going to be a web site that will offer all guitar players the opportunity to learn, play and then improvise off of some of the most amazing licks, riffs and solos ever recorded.

As I am sure you know they are several excellent website that offer video guitar lessons and have thousands of lessons.  It is not our intent to try to complete with these folks. Why duplicate what is already available?  What we will be doing is providing something that is NOT available on any of these other websites.

How would you like to learn solos to songs by AC/DC, Kansas, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Yes, The Almann Brothers and more? And then how would you like to learn them with the tabs and actual guitar audio recordings (by me, not some synth) at full and half speed, both sitting side by side?

Perhaps most importantly, I plan on going – a step beyond that. And it is this step, this part, that will make this new website different from ALL of the others.

The lesson format will ALSO contain video of me explaining how to use these Classic Rock songs to create your own improvised solos –similar to what I did in my Learn2Jam course. So we’ll be using this classic songs and legendary guitarists as springboards to help you become a better guitar player and a better soloist.  

I am going to be trimming away the fat and leaving only the red meat by recording “a video of TAKE AWAY LESSONS” for each song. Bottom line: you will not only learn and be able to play the actual artist’s solo riffs’, but then be able to take the rudiments and concepts and use them to create your own solos.

It’s going to be like taking lessons with Angus and Kerry and Jimmy and Duane and Steve and Don and on and on. What’s better is that you will be taking these lessons in your own home. You won’t need to pay $30 for a half hour lesson to learn part of a song, leave and then wonder if you got it right or not. You’ll have a library of songs at your fingertips, whenever you want. And I’ll be there to walk you through the learning process.

Remember, first we learn the licks, then we use the “concepts” within the licks to create solos together. It’s “A TO Z” lead playing!

Now here’s the best part to me. In our Beta testing phase, we came up with this great format of being able to work with the tablature, the guitar audio and the “TAKE AWAY LESSONS” improv video, all on one page just by clicking on tabs. I love this. You won’t have to go to different web sites to learn different aspects of learning a solo because it’s all here for you with just a click of the mouse. I am also including a “Practice Tips” section that gives you great suggestions as to what will help you to move forward when learning these licks.  Use the link below to see this lesson format –and get this lesson with a 20 minute teaching video.
Click the image below to go to this lesson.

Here comes your part in the development of the site. I want to tailor this site to you, to what you want, to what makes this most useful to you. To facilitate this, we are going to do two things.  Firstly, after reviewing the above lesson, please email me and tell me what you think: Likes, dislikes, suggestions, etc.  We really do want your feedback so please overload my mail box with your emails. Send them to:

info2@guitar-leads.com
 
Secondly, after receiving your feedback, we will follow up with a survey or questionairre in a future newsletter asking for your additional input.

My vision is to set up this great subscription web site that you can have access to 24/7 and learn as many songs/riffs as you want, this way I can continue to add new songs/licks and they will be automatically available to you.

BBQ Hero Guitar Bundle Promotion

The BBQ Hero Guitar Bundle continues for about another week.  I mentioned this special promo to you last week.  If you haven’t yet taken a look – I would suggest you do so.  I

f you don’t buy that’s fine… but I just don’t want you to NOT BUY because you didn’t take the 30 seconds necessary to review it.  They’ve got all the biggest names in the business, such as Jamplay, Songsterr, SongPond, Singing Success, and Song Surgeon. They are offering and incredible package that gives you all of these tools for your toolbox at a 75% discount.


The BBQ Hero Guitar Bundle

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s. If you have any topics you’d like me to cover in future newsletter
please contact me at info@guitar-1.com.
 
 
 

 

Be A BBQ Hero Rockstar Guitarist

Please Enable Images
space Song Surgeon
space


The Barbecue Hero Bundle

Hi Guitarist,

I know I don’t usually send out promotions like this, where we are not involved in some way, but I’m so proud that Song Surgeon is part of this amazing Barbecue Hero bundle. My buddy, Jim Todd is the owner of that terrific product.

He was contacted a few months ago by some guys who decided they wanted to pull together the ultimate collection of lessons and tools for people who want to bring playing music back into their lives, and who want to be able to lead sing-alongs with their guitar at backyard parties with friends and family.

They have certainly achieved that goal, and more besides. What they have put together is a collection of lessons and software that can take you from absolute beginner through to as far as you want to go musically.

The guys have done a beautiful job of laying it all out for you here:

The Barbecue Guitar Hero Bundle

They’ve got all the biggest names in the business, such as Jamplay, Songsterr, SongPond, Singing Success, and, of course, Song Surgeon.

As far as I know a collection of this scale with a discount this large is completely unprecedented.

Jamplay alone has over 2000 guitar lesson videos from over 40 professional teachers covering beginner acoustic and electric guitar right through to genres like Blues, Metal, Funk and Classical. They even have at least 8 hours of real, live, online guitar lessons every day!

Add to that SongPond, who have step-by-step video lessons teaching you how to play some of the greatest songs ever written by artists like AC/DC, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi, Cream, Dire Straits, The Doors, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones.

… and Songsterr; the best guitar tab website by a country mile… 70,000 songs, with printable music, and a host of other features like playback of every song so you can hear how it should sound.

… and finally, Singing Success; the course taught by one of the world’s most sought-after vocal coaches, Brett Manning (just Google the guy to see the list of amazing performers he’s coached and you’ll see he’s in a league of his own!)…

With everything that’s included in this bundle, you’d end up paying over $400 if you wanted to buy each item individually. But, from today (7th October) you can get all these products for just $99! (Or just pay $79 if you don’t need help with your singing).

If you’ve been meaning to grab a copy of Song Surgeon anyway, you get all the rest for just $40 more!

Here’s the link you need. It’s got videos included so you can see how everything works:

The Barbecue Guitar Hero Bundle

I think this bundle is going to sell like hotcakes. It’s only available for a short time. I’ll keep you posted on how we get on with it. I know my friend Jim at Song Surgeon is pretty pleased and proud of how it’s turned out after all these months of background work on it.

All the best bringing the music back,

Tony Aja
Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing Systems
Guitar Leads Master Volume

P.S. I heartily would recommend this bundle to anyone who wants to learn to play and sing all the classics and be the life of the party!

Please Enable Images


Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

 

 
 

Dear Guitarist,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

TODAY’S TOPIC – Leaving holes and spaces in your soloing

FINALLY! An end to my summer touring! This summer’s travel was pretty rough, jumping between 11 states in the month of August with 15 gigs. BUT the gigs were great and I made many new friends and fans of music from the 60′s and 70′s.

To cap the summer off, my fellow band-mate and Texas Blues guitarist, Hadden Sayers of Houston, TX. released his 6th original CD called “Hard Dollar.” Hadden truly is a fantastic blues guitar player who writes, plays and sings his own music. While attending his CD Release party last week, I had ample to time to sit back and listen to what makes him such a special guitarist. Not only does he have a killer guitar tone, his writing anything but predictable and his chops and technique up there with the Best of the Best….but his solos contain an element that is so, so, important to playing leads, and I’d like to tell you about it.

One of the most important performance rules is: “What you don’t say is every bit as important as what you do say.” In other words, leave spaces! Leave holes! Leave room for “dead air.” Let it Breath! What do these phrases mean? Well, when I take a solo, I think about what I want to play based on what my brain is telling me. Usually, my brain is telling me quite a bit and so I play it as I hear it. However, while I was listening to my friend Hadden’s solo work, I can tell his brain was also feeding him what to play. But there was one big exception: he left alot more space in between what he was saying in his riffs. He’d play a phrase and then pause. Sometime the pauses were longer than others, but I found that he was creating “tension.” The tension left me wanting more!

Now, I have heard and played with this technique from time to time, but I never realized just how effective it was from a listener’s point of view, instead of the soloist’s point of view. So, what I am going to encourage us all to do is take time to think in between phrases as you play a solo. It can range from fractions of a second to a second or two. This will allow us all a little more time to form our ideas before playing them. (Kind of like taking time to actually think about what you’re going to say before actually saying it.) In this way we will actually be creating better sounding solos. I would encourage you to try this technique. It will be another weapon in your guitar soloing arsenal.

It’s good to be back at my computer and writing newsletters again. Thanks for your patience and allowing me to tour the country doing what I love to do. Talk to you next week when I will share another soloing tip I have learned having to do with “building.”

Miscellaneous – New Product Offering

Now that the blistering pace of the summer gig season is over, I have more time to work on a new product concept that I would like to tell you about.   Many of you are familiar with my Guitar Leads Master Volume set which contains 425+ practice segments, each with full and half speed audio, and tablature. 

Many of you are also probably familiar with my newer, Learn2Jam course, where I teach you how to solo by using four cornerstone songs as a foundation.

The new product on which I am working is a combination of the both of these concepts.  You see, every song is a teaching tool. There is something that can be learned from it. So what I am doing is creating a new lesson format that will contain full and half speed guitar audio and tablature just like Guitar Leads, but in addition, these lessons will contain video in which I discuss the takeaways from each song, and what we can learn from them that helps us become a better guitar player.

I hope to have an example of one of these lessons completed within the next 1-2 weeks. When I do, I will share it with you and ask you for your comments and feedback.  Please stay tuned.

BBQ Hero Bundle

We have been approached by a firm in New Zealand that is assembling a package of  guitar related products for a special promotion they call BBQ Hero.  I presume this is a take-off of the ever so popular Guitar Hero.  

This promotion will contain $500-$1000 of music related products that will be offered for sale, as a bundled package, for an unbelievable 83% off.  I have seen a sneak preview of the bundle and it is contains some tremendous products — and the pricing there are talking about is UNHEARD of — I honestly don’t know how they are doing this.

This is going to be a great opportunity to grab some of the best products available to help you become a better guitarist, a better musician — and do it for mere pennies on the dollar.  This probably will be the best deal you will see this year – and at pennies on the dollar you definitely need to give it a look.. heck.. perhaps even buy it as a Christmas gift — it is October and it won’t be long before we begin the think about Santa.

I should have more info later this week and when I do I will get it out to you.

Keep On Jammin!
tony sig file

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s. If you have any topics you’d like me to cover in future newsletter
please contact me at info@guitar-1.com.
 
 
 

 

Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter – 17 gigs

 

 

 
 

Dear Guitarist,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

 

TODAY’S TOPIC – It’s A Crazy Month!

I am really sorry about the newsletters this month.  It’s just crazy. With 17 gigs in the month of August – and I don’t have time to compose a proper newsletter. I am actually sitting in a hotel room and dictating this to one of my assistants to get this out the door to you.

By the way, I have listed our schedule below. If you live in or near any of the following cities and would like to say hello, feel free to stop by.  To find the specific venue in each of these cities, use the link below.  http://tinyurl.com/3bwxd6c

  • ~~> Bay City, MI
  • ~~> Clio, MI
  • ~~> Kenton, OH
  • ~~> Centerville, OH
  • ~~> Malone, NY
  • ~~> Mt. Vernon, OH
  • ~~> Portage, IN
  • ~~> Wise, VA
  • ~~> Delpho, OH
  • ~~> Mt. Gretna, PA
  • ~~> McHenry, MD
  • ~~> Beckley, WV
  • ~~> Chicago, IL
  • ~~> Weyauwega, WI
  • ~~> Crossville, TN
  • ~~> Mohegan Sun Casino, Ct

Once we get passed Labor Day, things will slow down a lot, and I expect to get back to a normal newsletter schedule.

What I decided to do for the remainder of the month of August, during my absence, is to run a 2-fer-1 special on Learn2Jam and The Guitar Leads Master Volume.

Buy  ~~> Learn2Jam

And I will GIVE you a copy of  ~~> The Guitar Leads Master Volume
 
And to sweeten the pot even more, I will knock the price down of Learn2Jam by 50%.
So instead of paying $149, you can grab it for $74.50. Both products run on Mac and Windows OS.

http://guitar-1.com/sc/order/

It’s a crazy deal for a crazy month and should more than make up for the absence of newsletters during the remainder of August.

 
Keep On Jammin!
tony sig file

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s.    I  have provided a brief description of these products below for those of you that may be new to this newsletter and don’t completely know what these are:

Learn2Jam – Learn2Jam is a truly unique system that teaches you how to jam or take a solo by working with you to master 4 songs.  That’s it… just 4 songs!!

These four classic rock songs, once learned, will give you all of the skills, techniques and rudiments required to jam or take a solo to any song.  

This system is something I developed over his 40 years of playing the guitar– it’s a practical hands-on approach that I use every time I perform -- all 17 times this month — so it’s a real world system that works… not some musical theory that sounds good but is not grounded in reality.

Guitar Leads Master Volume – This is my original Hear It, See It, Play It course that features over 425 practice segments from more than 80+ classic rock songs. This lessons are bundled in flash files, which allows continuous playback at either full or ½ speed. Each audio segment is coupled with accurate tablature that allows you to follow along with the audio I have recorded and then, when you are ready, to tackle each of these licks yourself. 

This is a MASSIVE, must-have library, for any classic rock guitar enthusiast.

http://guitar-1.com/sc/order/

 
 
 

 

Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter – Developing Speed

 

 

 
 

Dear Guitarist,

 

Welcome to the Tony’s Weekly Guitar Newsletter

 

 

TODAY’S TOPIC – I Feel The Need For Speed!

It’s time for another Newsletter and a discussion on playing with accurate speed. About a week ago I received a question from a player who purchased my Learn2JAm Guitar Soloing System. I thought it was so good that I decided to make it the subject of this week’s newsletter. It reads like this:

“…Why is it difficult to find a teaching course that stresses mechanics of playing, that is, tricks to help develop speed such as that exhibited by George Benson, Jay Soto, Albert Lee, Tommy Emmanuel and others.  I know about sweep-picking, hammer-ons, pull-offs, hybrid picking, etc. – maybe the “secret” is to use these techniques along with endless repetition until the whole mess is drummed into my head and fingers.  The problem is in my opinion, no one teaches these speed techniques.  Could it be that these are not taught, for example with video, by the pros because that would be giving away too much. After all, there are millions of guitar players out there.”

First of all, let me say thanks to “Moe” who sent me his question. I think he has hit the nail on the head. I myself have purchased a few instructional videos by Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, David Gambale (Chick Corea’s Electric Band), etc… and although each one taught different methods of playing particular soloing styles, none of them taught the components of what it takes to accurately play the licks they play at full speed. David Gambale teaches you how he plays his scales and plays from slow to lightening fast, but doesn’t offer any help on how to anchor your hand or how to flat pick through the strings, for instance. Lukather shows you his solos to a few songs but again, doesn’t offer any means to playing the notes at speed.

I believe there are probably a few reasons for this lack of information of which I offer here. Like my friend Moe, I believe there’s a certain amount of “This is who I am and I’m not going to show you everything I know” going on here. There is also a certain aspect of them perhaps taking for granted that if we’re watching a video for intermediate or advanced players, that we better come prepared to be able to play at the speed necessary to cut it. And there might also be an aspect of the fact that soloing is such an individualized component of playing (wrist/finger/palm/pinky positionings) that it can’t be shared effectively. I personally believe it’s a combination of all of the above and maybe others not mentioned here.

In light of the lack of available teaching tools out there, let me propose something.

How about all of you who are reading this e-mail, go to my blog (http://blog.guitar-leads.com) and leave a comment offering your experiences and technique for playing in proper time? Everyones comments will then be available for all to see.    

This will be a great way to share what we all know in response to learning how to build up speed while taking solos, whether we are beginning, intermediate or advanced. I will go ahead and read them and in my next newsletter, condense the best ideas and offer them to all of you. This will be a blast and has to lead to improvement for all of us. I will also add my personal techniques for speed soloing. (I’m not a speed monster, but I will tell you what I know and do to perform.)

Variable Speed Backing Tracks (cont. from last week)

Now, before I go, let me offer you one new, fantastic piece of info. I mentioned it in last week’s newsletter, but I really didn’t have the time to examine it in detail.  Over the weekend I had some time and wow…it will blow your socks off.  I have a friend of mine who has been working on this great way of jamming to a background track. It’s called a cPod. It is a file that houses a song backing track, including real vocals, bass, guitars, etc…  These background tracks are fully recorded and fixed for you BUT my buddy at his company called Song Surgeon, has devised this ingenious way of inserting a background track and then allows you to adjust the backing track to whatever tempo or pitch you need to play to for your comfortability. So, you can learn to solo over the track in any key and tempo. Hey this can help us build up the speed we’ve been talking about! Here’s the address to grab these 10 backing tracks, completely free. (These will work ONLY on Windows OS’s, sorry Mac users)

http://songsurgeon.com/page.c233.146.html

You can even share the tracks with anyone you want so that they can also learn how to solo.  This stuff is great and can’t wait till you check out its full potential!

Special Deal for Those Interested in cPods and Song Surgeon

I also asked him if he could give my subscribers a special deal if any of them were interested in buying Song Surgeon, the product that takes a fixed speed backing track creates these variable speed and tempo tracks.  He has agreed to extend a special promo he was running on the site that expired on July 31.

This promotion entitles you to a FREE, 2GB mp3 player ($49 value), when you purchase Song Surgeon… but to get this free gift you must use the link below because it is available only to my subscribers, and it is not available to the general public. 

Here is this special 3 Days Only offer:

http://songsurgeon.com/page.c233.147.html   

Have a great week and I’ll be checking in with you as soon as I can. I have 17 gigs in the month of August and it’s going to be crazy… so if I have to skip a week you will know why.

 
Keep On Jammin!
tony sig file

Tony Aja

Learn2Jam Guitar Soloing System
Interactive Guitar Leads Master Volume

 

  p.s. If you have any topics you’d like me to cover in future newsletter
please contact me at info@guitar-1.com.