On p. 21 we are given the 3rd Minor Pentatonic Scale to learn. Unfortunately, we are not told anything about the scale, nor are we given any licks from the scale. Giving musical tools without also giving an application of those tools is a capital mistake in teaching, but seems to be a common way of going about teaching the blues.

Players Posting Blues MP3's, Getting Feedback!

A fine group of players, working to improve their blues playing skills is sharing their knowledge and experience right now in our Blues Forum.

It is a great opportunity to get help from other players, as they work to apply The Principles to the study of "Blues You Can Use".

Visit Our Blues Forum

Read a review of "Blues You Can Use"

It was not uncommon to run across statements such as "Thank you Jamie for making my dreams come true", and "The Principles have made me believe I can find the purpose of my life, and "you have basically given meaning to my life"! In addition, there were many specific accounts of plans to play professionally, and plans to pursue dreams long denied or thought unattainable.

I am thrilled and honored to see that my work is having such an impact on people's lives, and I profoundly appreciate everyone who wrote having shared that with me. I will do my utmost to keep all of us moving forward in a powerful way.

But of course, we had to pick a winner, so we got tough and went to work! Even so, we had a tie and had to declare 4 winners instead of the intended 3! Okay, so it costs us another T-shirt!

The winner, Steve Martin, got our vote primarily because his opening paragraph summarized so well the feelings of someone finally finding what is so impossible to find in the field of guitar instruction: the real answers to the problems of learning to play! As I read his account of first reading The Principles, I felt so strongly the actual lifelong frustration that made me write the book, as well as my quest to discover the answers myself.

His expression of thankfulness for finally finding what he needed made me very glad, once again, that I had written the book, and that we do what we do here at GuitarPrinciples.

Of course, the other writers were also saying the same things in a number of different ways, and we want to thank you once again for the time and trouble you took. You can read the essays of the other winners here What The Principles Have Done For Me!

Our winning essay is below, followed by a contribution by yours truly, on what the Principles have done for ME! Yes, I am continually grateful myself for the realization of my own dreams of playing the way I have always wanted to play, which is at the level of the greatest classical virtuosos. I mean, is that too much to ask!??

I have posted a little sample of some fearsomely difficult passages from the classical repertoire, passages that I know are problems, often life-long problems, for classical players.

For those who wish to get a fashionable GuitarPrinciples t-shirt the easy way, without having to write an essay, you will find a link down below!

First Prize Winner Steve Martin: "What The Principles Have Done For Me"! Shortly after September 11, 2001 I placed my order for the "Principles". As I began reading Jamey's book I could barely get from one page to the next without shutting my eyes, leaning my head back, and saying, "Thank God". It was like someone had been watching me and had calmly prepared a journal explaining what I was doing wrong and what I needed to do to start doing it right. You see, I fell in love guitar when I was 23. That was 1987. I could never be without my cheap six-string. I would learn and play the beginning to songs. But I never got past that. Read the rest of Steve's winning essay, as well as the essays of our other winners!

What The Principles Have Done For Me: So Far! Fearsomely difficult passages I have conquered with The Principles! click here to see the music Jamie is playing As you can see from reading Steve's essay, The Principles apply to all styles of music. My love is classical music, so here are some excerpts from famous classical guitar pieces. The first clip is from "Recuerdos de la Alhambra", featured on my CD, the next two are from the Villa Lobos Etudes, mastery of which is one of the ultimate goals of all classical guitarists. Recuerdos-Hammer/Pull The hammer/pull in the 3rd measure, done with 2 and 4 while 3 is down, AND the right hand is busy with the tremolo, is quite challenging. I was once told by a teacher that he recommends his students to not do it, but simplify it (I forget how). Well, I was not interested in that solution! After all, haven't I heard great players do it. They didn't have to simplify it! In Frederick Noads' popular method for classical guitar, he tells us that the tremelo must be done at 132 to be effective, although some players can do an incredible 176. Well, because of The Principles, I am playing this at 176 bpm.

Villa-Lobos Etude#11-6 Note Arpeggios I had to discover the secret of playing sextuplets up to the highest virtuoso levels on my own. Years of study and questioning with some of the worlds top players yielded no insight into my problems with them, which were considerable. That is why I made sure I set the foundation for this skill in the exercises for the right hand in The Principles. Wrong approaches used in trying to play something like this can cripple a player. I am quite happy I figured it out, because I sure do love the sound of this section of Villa Lobos Etude # 11! The difficulty here is increased because the thumb is playing two strings, and the left hand is stretched out considerably as it moves all over the neck, including up to the 14th fret (on a classical neck!).

Villa-Lobos Etude#7-Fast Scale   Ah, yes, there is nothing quite like the sound of a fast scale on the guitar! There are many ways to finger this, some easier, but I liked the training my hand gets from using 2 and 4 and playing in open position. I use rest strokes for a vigorous sound.

The GuitarPrinciples T-Shirt-Wear It Proudly!

 Stretch Marks & Elbow Room: powerful info on making stretches with the index and that pesky pinky!

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience: would you like a handbook to achieving success and happiness in all things in life? Here it is, read Jamie's reveiw!

Climb Every Mountain: from car mechanics, to dentists, to guitar players and teachers, why is the world so full of mediocrity? Find out why, and make your choice!

Trouble Strumming & Singing?: often, the trouble lies in not knowing how to deal with SYNCOPATION between he strum and the voice. Don't worry, GuitarPrinciples has the answer!!

Just because I feel like I am inferior, or unable, is no reason to assume I actually am; that would be a very dangerous belief to adopt on such dubious evidence. And so, the Master sets aside these feelings, and sits, and studies. The Master becomes so involved in the process of communing with the conditions of the plateau that the desire to leave it becomes secondary to the interest and adventure of learning all of what is there.

Because of this, the depth of understanding of the Master increases, and the rising to a new level of ability appears automatically.

All of what you see in The Principles is the result of my time spent, sometimes many years, on my own plateaus. Or, it is from the study of the plateaus upon which my students have found themselves. I have never seen a plateau from which I or my students could not eventually rise.

Because the Master does not allow frustration and despair to obstruct the flow from the inside to the outside, he or she is led to relate in the best and most appropriate way to the level of awareness called "the plateau". And so, no obstructions form from the outside to the inside either occur either. The so called "plateau" becomes the teacher, and instructs the Master/Student in the wisdom that is necessary to rise higher.

And so it goes, and so it goes.