In the proud tradition of GuitarPrinciples we once again present to you THE definitive and essential Foundation Course in yet another style of guitar, one that is near and dear to all our hearts -- Electric Rock & Blues!

I have been teaching electric guitar for almost 25 years, but it was not the style of guitar I started with. As a matter of fact, I was giving classical concerts before I ever bent my first string! But as my teaching practice kept expanding in those early years, I had more and more students coming in with electric guitars, and wanting help playing their favorite music. At first, I tried to help them just from my knowledge of classical guitar, but it soon became evident to me how limiting that was! I knew I would have to make time in my busy teaching and personal practice schedule for learning how to play electric guitar. Somehow, I would have to make room for Rock next to my Bach!

One personality quirk of mine is that, contrary to what people might think, I actually have no discipline whatsoever. I simply cannot make myself do something I don't want to do, and I never want to do something unless it feels like fun. Well, one day I had a student come in with his electric guitar, and he also brought his distortion box. I had never really played an electric guitar with distortion before, and when I took that guitar, and hit a note and bent that string (as best I could, I still had to learn how to bend properly), it was a new and glorious experience - an actual sustaining tone from a guitar, just like a violin! That was something new!

So, I took the plunge. I bought lots of books, and went through a series of rock teachers, and also started studying the playing styles of all the famous players. I developed a newfound respect for the virtuosity of Eric, B.B, Jimi, Angus, Stevie, Eddie, Randy, etc, as I worked to get the sound they were getting. I learned a lot from my teachers, (some who were younger than me, and shocked that I, a concert classical guitarist, wanted to take lessons from them, on rock guitar!), but what I didn't learn turned out to be just as important for my own teaching work.

As I studied, I realized how extremely important the idiomatic techniques of the style were. The subtlety of B.B. Kings bends, or the control and energy in Eric and Angus's vibrato: that is what made these players sound so good, and it was precisely these techniques that were so hard to develop. I had an especially difficult time with vibrato. I asked all my teachers about it, but, aside from demonstrating it, no one could break it down for me, and tell me how to get from where I was - a bad vibrato - to where they were, a nice controlled vibrato.

As the years went by and I continued to study and teach the style, I discovered many vital things that no one seems to talk about, but all the good players were doing. I also discovered that there was no systematic, comprehensive and effective course available for students, one that could really provide a solid foundation in the style. . Learning rock and blues guitar was truly one of the most haphazard learning processes in the world of guitar, and it was no wonder that there was a whole of bad playing going on!

Most instructional materials assume a ridiculously unrealistic competency on the part of the student, teaching advanced licks and calling them "beginner" licks, as students who don't even know how to do a proper bend struggle to "get it", and unfortunately, it "gets them" instead, as they build in dangerous and debilitating habits of tension. Every practice session takes them further from their goals, and their music remains in an amateurish state.

In the many decades that have gone by, even with the incredible increase of instructional materials, I still see the same deficiencies, over and over again, in the students that come for lessons. Huge gaps in knowledge of what the Pentatonic Scale system on guitar is about, huge gaps in knowledge of how to use scales, and locate them on the neck, and how to make the licks they happen to know sound good. Most students have trouble with the basic things like bending and vibrato, and the material out there to help them is, frankly, pathetic. I have never seen anything that actually explains what vibrato really is, and how the arm/hand/finger works together to produce it. Also, I have never seen a systematic way of teaching the arm/hand/finger to do a good vibrato. In our new course, however, that is exactly what you will see, and much, much more!

I have wanted to put this course out for many years now, as I am constantly reminded of the imperative need for it every time an electric guitar student walks in my studio. It has been a vast undertaking to collect all of this information, and also to expand it, and I feel a great sense of satisfaction and relief now that it is done and available to people. Now, as with the material in my other books and courses, I no longer have to keep repeating everything, I can just point to this course!

This is the most complete course in Rock & Blues Electric Guitar ever created. There is nothing remotely close to it, and in fact, that is why it was created! Here is your chance to get what you really need to get good, and keep getting better, on electric guitar in Rock & Blues. Here is a sampling of what is contained in the course.....