This year has been very interesting to say the least and I’ve accomplished a lot but haven’t really got a chance to make any new lessons yet. As the site progresses things take much more time then they used to as there is so much more involved when I create the premium lessons these days.

I also have to keep up with the marketing and maintenance of the site as well to make sure that everything stays up to date. This is very time consuming as well and this year I’ve put in more hours than any other year previously up until this point.

New Design

So I’ve been trying for some time now to get rid of the white background that all the content was sitting on. In the last couple of weeks I’ve been experimenting with many different options and feel that I have come up with something that will make the website more attractive and most importantly easier to navigate and find what you are looking for.

Having so much white space can make it very difficult to notice the important sections of the site.

I feel that the pictures and video on the site need to be the main focus and having the gray/black background accomplished that in my opinion.

Also, the link color has been changed to gold to make it very easy to know where the links on the page are located. Previously the white page with light blue links were a little bit difficult to see.

As of now the whole site will go into continuous testing to see which factors could be enhanced even more, removed or modified.

The menu for the site on any Mobile Phone has changed as well to make it easier to see. For me to continue to bring amazing lessons, I need to continually update the site as technology and design trends keep changing. I know it’s a long way from making guitar lessons but I think these changes will prepare me to stay in business much longer. I’m not really a web designer or coder, but have managed to hack things together throughout the years. :)

New Lessons

In addition to all this design work, I have also been working on Blues Method 2 which is coming along pretty nicely. I’ve also upgraded 2 video cameras to make these lessons the best looking video I have ever done in my opinion.

In addition to the looks of the video, I’ve prepared no less than 50 New Fretboard Maps for the concepts I will be teaching in the new course.

Tentative Lesson Index for Blues Method 2

Lesson 1 – Thirds

Lesson 2 – Patterns for Solos

My Girl Pattern
F Chord Pattern
9th Chord Patterns
6th Interval Patterns

Lesson 3 – Using Bass Lines on Guitar

Lesson 4 – The Box Concept and application

– Pentatonic one
– Albert King
– BB King Box
– Clapton Box
– Betts Box

Lesson 5 Turnaround Transitions

What is a Turnaround and how to use it to transition

Lesson 6 Improvising

– Changing scales to the chord
– Chord tones to end on over each chord
– Thinking of chord tones over the key or over the chord you’re playing over
– Swing sixteenths to move the beat
– Fast soft picking
– Applying approach Notes below and above
– Applying box patterns and mixing concepts over each chord in the 12 Bar Blues

Lesson 7 10 Example Licks

Not much video has been recorded but I have been working on getting the tone very diligently and what I have come up with is a little variation on a T-Bone Tone. :)

Here’s some example licks to give you an idea of what I’m trying to teach in this course.

Mixing Lead and Chords

In addition to Blues Guitar Method 2 I am also working on a lesson on how to combine soloing with chords.

Listen to the solo you will learn below.

These 2 courses will hopefully be coming out within the next couple of months but there is no official release date yet.

If you have any comments let me know what you think below.

Thanks,

John

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7 Practice Tips Video

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25 Comments

  3. The ‘new’ website looks much better. The darker background is way better to navigate and better on the eyes too.

    A suggestion on a special course – playing with others. Playing blues to me is really when you play with others.

    Introduce a second player such as 2nd guitar and/or bass – chord and note harmonies.And if you can, especially drums. Drums in blues is so fundamental.

    Keep up dem blues.

    Guy P ……….. from Downunder

  4. John – love the concept of the “mixing chords with lead” — and really digging that jumpy rhythm and tasty rakes. Totally up my alley. Can’t wait. BTW, your sweet, mellow tone on this demo is beautiful — sounds like an ES maybe on middle position? Would be nice to see all the gear & settings (in the course itself, of course — I’m not looking for handouts — you usually address this in your premium lessons, but just a reminder in particular for this one.

    I personally find negative text (white on dark background) a little hard on the eyes, but it does look attractive. Good job.

    1. Cool. Glad you like the tone. It’s actually on the neck pickup but those Eminence Speakers really made a difference.

  6. Great new look! Web design like learning guitar… practice makes perfect!

    Congratulations John! Looking forward to the new courses.

  7. Hi John,
    An older guy here—the grey and white is very hard to see without a whole lot of blurring. Very little contrast between background and script. I very much preferred the old format. I understand that some may find the white background overpowering but the contrast was so much better. Perhaps a black background instead of the grey would be much better (as is the top of this page)

    1. Hi John,

      Sorry it’s hard to read, but a black background is the hardest on the eyes. I’ll try to adjust some, but I don’t plan on going back to the white background. I just can’t please everyone. Thanks.

  8. John,

    Keeping the site fresh is great thing to do and and continue with a few times/year!

    I’m seriously looking forward to the new Blues Method 2, to take in more of your vision for the re-vamped blues method (the new method 1 was great so I expect this to be great too). Lastly, I think the idea of a solo/chord course is fresh and new. I’ve not seen it made available before (at least not a good one, my in person instructor even had a hard time teaching it) and It’s a skill I’ve always aspired to get goo. So that one is also highly anticipated!

  9. Hi John,
    The new darker grey background is much easier on the eyes. Much better contrast. Well done!!! Very classy and up market looking.

    1. Thanks John! I believe you made the comment earlier so I tried to darken it up a bit. Glad you like it. This stuff can be exhausting.

  10. Hi John,
    The new darker grey is so much easier on the eyes. Much better contrast. Well Done!!!

  12. Great looking website, very classy. Great to have those links up top (Home, Store, My Gear, etc). Gold for all the in line links is also a great idea.

    Were’nt you playing a Fender single coil, possibly a Strat on those samples you posted? When Alex posted calling your instrument an “ES”, did he mean something like a Gibson ES-335?

    I too play a lot of chords with my melody. I’m always interested in seeing other people’s ideas on that, so I’ll be buying that course for sure. Your new Blues courses sound interesting too.

    1. Thanks Dave. All the samples were played on a Gibson 335 with the Eminence speakers. Love those things.

      1. Tone is a funny thing, isn’t it? But wow, I LOVE the tone you’re getting.

        I bought a Gibson Les Paul a month ago, so it’s tone must be in my head, lol (I usually play a Fender Strat through a Marshall DSL40C).

        This is the fourth LP I’ve bought in my life. The others suffered from string binding at the nut, which nobody could figure out how to fix, so I took them all back to the store soon after I got them. They just wouldn’t stay in tune.

        I was told Gibson recently got a new quality control guy, and now the factory nuts, and the specs handed out to techs and luthiers seem to work. And my ES-335 has a new nut and finally stays in tune, too!

  13. nice improvement John, i really like it, way better than the previous version.
    one thing though, the top menu items are changing whenever you either click “Store” or “My Account”, i think it’s more user-friendly and easier to navigate if the top menu always stays the same.

    1. Thanks Pat. I’ve changed the menu to be exactly the same except the cart icon in the store. There’s no way to put that everywhere as the Store is a separate database.

  14. Hi. I’m new to the site. Looks great. Looking forward to checking out some more of the lessons you have on here.

  15. Hi John,

    Nice work for the site. Looks functional, clean and sharp overall.

    By the way, any chance at wall that we might get some blues material one day from Les Paul masters Mike Bloomfield and Peter Green?

    Cheers and keep on the great work.

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