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. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
If I didn’t spend any time working on the site design and layout, here’s an example of what this site would still look like.
2010 and 2014 Comparison
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
New Lessons
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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.
Screenshot of the New Course Footage
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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
The post New Site Updates appeared first on The Learning Guitar Now Blog: Blues Guitar Lessons.