A hallmark of each of these lesson series is Anthony’s attention to detail and quality. It’s clear that he has put a lot of time into designing and creating these lessons. I don’t know about you, but I’ve purchased a number of lesson DVDs that appear to be nothing more than an artist sitting in a room playing while someone else comes in later to transcribe it with no real thought to how the lessons are laid out. Watching the artist play can be fun, and maybe you can get some licks out of it, but it really doesn’t qualify as instruction, in my opinion. Anthony’s lessons are the opposite of that. They are clearly thought out to cover the topics within each series without a whole lot of unnecessary fluff.

The series I want to focus on in this review is Essential Fretboard. In this series, Anthony provides a roadmap for beginning blues guitarists learning the fretboard. Basically, this series provides a fretboard map that illustrates the essential chords and soloing shapes for playing blues and blues-based music. If you’ve been playing blues-based music for a while, then much of what’s included here will be review; this lesson series is intended for beginning-to-intermediate-level guitarists. However, I think this lesson series includes a lot of great information for those new to playing blues music.

The Essential Fretboard series includes thirteen separate video lessons, broken down as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Building the Fretboard Map
3. E Form Bar Chords
4. A Form Bar Chords
5. Partial G Form Chords
6. The 5 Essential Boxes
7. Backdoor Pattern
8. Sliding Box 1
9. Triangles
10. 7th Chords
11. 9th Chords
12. Shuffle Patterns
13. Putting It All Together

The lessons are, for the most part, delivered in three distinct sections: theoretical illustration, practical demonstration, and exercises. In the beginning of each lesson, Anthony discusses the theoretical application of the concepts, but this doesn’t mean that he introduces a lot of music theory (this is a good thing). After illustrating what the lesson is about, he shows you what he is talking about by demonstrating the concepts on the guitar. He follows this in most lessons with some exercises that you can follow to apply the principles that he has taught in the lesson.

In addition to the video lessons, there are several supplemental materials. Backing tracks are included so that you can play along with the examples. Additionally, Anthony has included PDF files containing tabbed exercises and diagrams of the fretboard.

I really like Anthony’s teaching style. He is thorough enough to cover the concepts that he is teaching, but does not get mired down in the technical details like some other teachers can do. And, because Anthony plays and enjoys the style of music that he’s teaching, you can get a real sense that he’s enjoying himself in the videos, which makes for a more relaxed and enjoyable video.

I’d also like to point out a little something that isn’t necessarily related to the lessons directly, but which I think is almost equally important. You’ve probably seen other online teachers that try to sell you the “secrets of the pros” or some snake oil that will magically make you a better player. I’ve visited those types of sites before, and I always feel like I need a shower afterwards. Anthony doesn’t do that, and I appreciate that. Instead, Anthony’s site is geared simply towards providing information about his lessons and highlighting the latest free lessons. He even provides a flowchart to help you figure out which lesson series is right for you.

Over the years, I’ve taken a number of different types of lessons, including in-person lessons, lessons from books, and video-based lessons. While in-person lessons will give you the most feedback, I’m coming around to really liking video-based lessons. I’m more of a visual learner, and it’s nice to be able to rewind a lesson to revisit a particularly tough section. Fortunately, we live in an age where video-based instruction is as easy as opening up YouTube and typing “guitar lesson.”

Of the myriad online guitar lessons that are available, Anthony’s lessons at StevieSnacks.com are some of my favorite due to his approachable teaching style and well-thought-out lessons. If you’re looking to learn SRV-style blues guitar, I highly recommend Anthony’s lessons. If you’re just getting started with learning blues guitar, then I can specifically recommend Anthony’s Essential Fretboard series. You can view details about the Essential Fretboard series on StevieSnacks.com, as well as view some sample videos to see if the lesson series is right for you.

Johnson’s contribution is a 68-minute master class lesson teaching you how to play “Cliffs of Dover.” In the lesson, Johnson provides insight into his techniques, and there are 25 play-along sessions within the lesson. This looks like a unique opportunity to learn the song from Johnson himself. The On the Path app and the lesson (which costs $14.99) are available from the iTunes App Store.

The following video is a promo video for the app. In it, Johnson plays the piece with no bass or drum accompaniment.

(via JP Holesworth)

The “Albert’s Influence” lesson series contains over three hours of lessons. Between the two solos, Anthony illustrates and teaches 73 licks that span 108 bars. In addition to the licks, Anthony teaches timing and phrasing, which is especially important when playing Albert’s style of blues. A nice feature of the videos is a progression bar that follows along on the screen showing you what bar the lick is being played in.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn this style of blues guitar playing, I would recommend this series. You can buy the series as a download ($55) or a set of two DVDs ($65).

Check out a free lesson taken from the series below:

Productive people often use to do lists. Sometimes using a to-do list is a great way to create a practice schedule. But super-efficient guitar practicers don’t just have to do lists. They have stop doing lists.

I find myself making some of the mistakes he warns against in my own practicing. I won’t spoil his advice, so go check out the article.

These updates make an already excellent music learning tool even better. If you have a Mac and play guitar, I highly recommend checking the Capo app out.

Ever sat down to practice and though, “well, I wonder what I should do today?” We’ve all been there. A practice log takes the questions out of the equation. What did I have trouble with during the last practice session? A practice log can help track these issues and focus your practice session in on them

Guitarist Chuck D’Aloia has recently released an instructional lesson set titled Blues with Brains. Unlike other blues lessons that try to teach you basic pentatonic blues licks, Blues with Brains teaches you how to add a different element to your blues playing.

While you do not need to know music theory in order to benefit from the lessons D’Aloia provides, I think you’d get the most benefit from the lessons if you have a basic knowledge of blues progessions (I-IV-V) and a basic knowledge of the pentatonic scales. This is the foundation that D’Aloia starts with, and he then shows you how to take it in a different, slightly jazzier direction.

He starts off with a basic blues progression in A minor and discusses how the notes work over the chords. Some notes work better than others, and D’Aloia discusses which ones work and which ones don’t. After going over examples slowly, he then plays over a jam track to illustrate his ideas. Not only is it helpful to see Chuck play the examples, it’s just fun to hear Chuck play.

After explaining how to work with pentatonic scales, Chuck talks about dominant 7 blues and the diminished scale. Throughout all of the lessons, Chuck’s teaching style is warm and infectious. It’s clear that Chuck enjoys the music he’s playing and that he enjoys teaching it to others.

There’s a LOT of information packed into the 1:15 of Blues with Brains. I think it’ll take a number of run-throughs of the lessons in order to fully grasp the concepts Chuck is teaching, but I’ve already got some new ideas to explore.

In addition to Blues with Brains, Chuck has recently released a CD of jazz/fusion music titled Circle 7. Chuck’s playing is very tasteful and illustrates many of the concepts he goes through in Blues with Brains.

You can purchase Blues with Brains directly from Chuck as either a DVD or a download. Here’s a video sample of Blues with Brains.

Also check out reviews of Blues with Brains on TGP’s Webzine and Guitar Gear Enthusiast.

At 15 pages, it’s a relatively short book, but it’s not short on content. Chris provides relational maps on how the notes fit together, which can help you better visualize the fretboard. I recommend checking out Chris’s book if you’re trying to learn the guitar.

Not long after I started playing guitar, I was fortunate to have a friend show me the basics of how to straighten my guitar’s neck and adjust the guitar’s action. Ever since then, I’ve been doing my own setups. However, even with that help I still didn’t have a full grasp of the basics of guitar setup. Enter the Fret MD: Electric Guitar and Bass Setup and Maintenance DVD.

Fret MD, which features luthier Al Malarsky, provides an outline for and illustrates the basics of guitar setup and maintenance. Malarsky lays out a five-step plan for maintaining your guitar. He also gives tips and tricks that he has learned through his years of guitar lutherie.

1) Neck adjustment
2) Nut adjustment
3) Action adjustment
4) Bridge adjustment
5) Pickup adjustment

For each step, Malarksy explains and illustrates the adjustment. He gives just enough detail for each step to teach you what you need to do to adjust the guitar. It would be easy to overwhelm the viewer with too much information, but Fret MD avoids that while still providing an excellent amount of information.

The DVD also features some extra features, such as how to clean a dirty fretboard and how to clean potentiometers. Additionally, Malarsky provides some bass-specific pointers for adjusting bass guitars.

Even though I knew a fair amount about guitar setup, I learned quite a bit from watching Fret MD. If you’re interested in learning how to set up your guitar, the Fret MD DVD is an excellent starting point.