New Course 52 R F &V.

The Reverend

Blues Newbie
Just received my new course. Don't really want to start until I get at least half way done with BGU-2.0. Funny I was reading how a lot of you guys don't finish one before you move onto another. Does this hurt you at all, or do you just jump back and forth to find what you need?
 

snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
As long as you're learning something new and continuing to move forward, I haven't had a problem with it. A lot of my reasoning for jumping to the next course is because that way my interest stays piqued a little bit. To me, that's the key...stay motivated to continue moving forward.

I found 52RFV to be more of a grab-stuff-from-this-as-you-need-it and not so much of a start-to-finish course. It shows you a lick and how/where you can use it. For me, I would say it was probably the 2nd most beneficial course that Griff has done (behind BGU).

I wouldn't use it necessarily as a main course so much as an excellent supplement to whatever course you're working on. If you're working on BGU, I'd work this one into your practice regimen along with it. Once you're past about Lesson 10 (once you're getting past the basics), start adding this one in...45 minutes on BGU and the last 15 minutes working on one of the licks from 52RFV. You'll quickly see how easily one flows into the other.
 

PapaBear

Guit Fiddlier
I bounce around depending on the area I’m focusing on improving, but I’ve been playing 30-40 years, if I were a beginner I’d probably move through them methodically
 

mountain man

Still got the Blues!
I generally have 2 to 3 active courses. Right now I'm working on Traveling Blues for acoustic and the Modes course for electric. I am also working my own version of Down to the Station from Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed. I also continually refer back to one of many riff based courses - all of which I have completed several times. The only course I started and have not got back to in the past several years is the CAGED course. I admit I lost interest in that one. I continually do daily lessons from Griff and several others for a refreshing change. I think it's a good thing to work on several things to stay fresh. Kinda like taking more courses in school than just English Literature.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
I started guitar about 6 years ago at the age of 53 after playing bass for about 4 years (2018 will be 10 years of this music journey I'm on :) ) Although I wasn't a raw beginner starting the guitar because of my bass experience I found that self teaching guitar was a lot harder than self teaching bass. I bought some DVD's and I try to trust the process that the teachers have developed.

I have, generally, stayed away from anything that teaches random techniques or just songs (like youtube) and have followed, and trusted, the methods as best as I could. With the exception of starting Pentatonic Power and BGU while I was only half done with Learn and Master Guitar I've done the majority of the courses I've purchased one at a time. Bouncing around, for me, wouldn't get me to where I want to be.

Where I want to be is to be able to meet any musicians and instantly be able to just start making music. Spontaneously. In my mind that requires understanding the guitar and also understanding music. Learning songs is fine if all the musicians know the songs but most of my friends that play can just start jamming in a multitude of styles and that is where I want to be.

Consequently, as a result of being methodical (that's my story and I'm sticking with it), I've been able to complete the following courses and have been able to retain an estimated 75% of the material (my estimate):

Gibson' Learn and Master Guitar (Legacy Learning)
Blues Guitar Unleashed (Griff)
Learn and Master Blues Guitar (Legacy Learning)
Learn and Master Fingerstyle Guitar (Legacy Learning)
Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed (Griff)
5 Easy Blues Solos (Griff)
Killer Blues Solos Made Easy (Griff)
Strumming and Rhythm Mastery (Griff)
52 Rhythms Fills and Variations (Griff)
How To Build Blues Songs (Griff)
Beginner Blues Rock Soloing (Truefire)
Shuffle Secrets (Truefire)
Blues Guitar Survival Guide Rhythm edition (Truefire)
Fingerstyle Blues Handbook vol1 and vol2 (Truefire)
Solid Strumming (Truefire)
Blues Bash (Truefire)
1-2-3 Bluegrass (Truefire)
Swingin' Rhythm Handbook (Truefire)
1-2-3 Country (Truefire)
Jazz Guitar for Beginners (Truefire)
50 Blues Rhythms You Must Know (Truefire)
1-2-3 Fingerstyle (Truefire)
Basic Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar (Homespun)
Beyond Basic Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar (Homespun)
Conquer the Challenge of the Steady Thumb (Homespun) - I recommend this course to anyone doing ABGU that has trouble with the thumb
Learning To Flatpick vol1 (Homespun)
Jazz Guitar (Rockhouse Method) ironic? :whistle:
The Need for Lead - Gary Hoey (Rockhouse Method)
Pentatonic Power (Bob Murnahan)
B.U.I.L.D. (Bob Murnahan)
Rhythm Guitar Tactics (Bob Murnahan)
Jazz Chords (Bob Murnahan)

The secret to completing courses is that when I did the work for one course completly the next one is easier and goes more quickly. And the one after that, and after that, and so on.

There are a number of courses I have that I started but didn't finish and have put them off until I retire. Mainly because they are more specialized and I'm concentrating on blues and finger style guitar right now.

Oh, and I've done Griff's Theory course as well as taking the college music theory requirements for an online music degree. I love music theory :)

Ho hum I'm sure I've bored you stiff if you've read this far :)

I suppose it all comes down to "want do you want from your guitar resources?" Some prefer smorgasbord. Some not so much.

Eric
 

BoogieMan

Blues Junior
I started guitar about 6 years ago at the age of 53.

Consequently, as a result of being methodical (that's my story and I'm sticking with it), I've been able to complete the following courses and have been able to retain an estimated 75% of the material (my estimate):

1-2-3 Bluegrass (Truefire)
Jazz Guitar for Beginners (Truefire)
Pretty impressive list Eric! I've looked at two of the courses on your list (above). I would recommend the Bluegrass course which is fairly easy and gives you some complete songs to learn. I didn't like Bruce Arnold's beginner jazz course which I found to be quite dull and not really for beginners. I would recommend Frank Vignola's courses instead for learning jazz.

What I found impressive is your claim of 75% retention. My retention rate is much lower although I'm a bit older but I'm working hard at increasing it.
 
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Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
Bruce says a bit about why in the intro but the "freshman, sophomore, junior, senior" concept by Trufire was kind of a bad idea from the concept. A beginner to guitar can't start with an advanced subject like jazz but apparently he was contracted to do that and you can tell by his delivery that he was struggling with teaching jazz concepts to people who have no fundamentals. I bought it on a whim during one of their Christmas sales for $5 so it didn't cost much. Actually, almost all the Truefire courses I've picked up I paid $5 for during their Christmas sales. Except a couple of Robben Ford courses and a couple of Jeff McErlain courses which I got in pre-order 20% off sales. Their $5 sales are great bargains. Besides the dozen I listed above that I've finished I have about a dozen more that I've started and put aside or haven't started yet.

I did learn things from the Bruce Arnold course (simpler chord voicings and such) though I don't feel like I learned much about jazz at all from it. The same thing with the Learn and Master Blues. I learned some cool things there but after finishing the course I didn't feel like I knew anything about the blues except the 12 bar format and dom 7 chords, which I had already learned in their flagship course. All the other concepts were kind of glossed over or not explained very well. That's why I like Griff's courses for blues.

The 75% is because guitar is like math or computer programming. Patterns rule. Once you "see" the patterns learning and retaining is pretty easy. I think most people struggle with "seeing" the patterns. Or don't see them at all which is why they think its hard. Same for music theory. If you see the patterns it is pretty easy to learn. When I learn something new on guitar (a song or a riff, for example) I usually see the pattern and relate it to something I've already learned and that makes it easy to absorb.

Eric
 
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D. R. Miller

Good News Blues
I also jump around after getting the initial BGU 2.0 and going through most of the rythmn lessons I got involved in the November challenge and that steered me in other directions and other courses to expand my understanding of what Griff was wanting us to do. I have the 52 RF&V course also and have watched some of them but not gotten down to learning from them yet. I've been concentrating on solo's 1 & 3 of the 5 easy blues solo course and the the Killer Blues solo course. I need to get back to solo one on BGU also. I learned so much from the challenge that I'm just enjoying playing and learning all the time now. Griff's courses are awesome, they were just what I needed to motivate me to move forward in my playing and show me I could do what I heard in others playing with practice and a little help from Griff.
 

BoogieMan

Blues Junior
Actually, almost all the Truefire courses I've picked up I paid $5 for during their Christmas sales. Except a couple of Robben Ford courses and a couple of Jeff McErlain courses which I got in pre-order 20% off sales. Their $5 sales are great bargains. Besides the dozen I listed above that I've finished I have about a dozen more that I've started and put aside or haven't started yet.

The 75% is because guitar is like math or computer programming. Patterns rule. Once you "see" the patterns learning and retaining is pretty easy. I think most people struggle with "seeing" the patterns. Or don't see them at all which is why they think its hard. Same for music theory. If you see the patterns it is pretty easy to learn. When I learn something new on guitar (a song or a riff, for example) I usually see the pattern and relate it to something I've already learned and that makes it easy to absorb.
Like you, I picked up quite a few of the Truefire courses when they were on sale at $5/course!. And also like you, there are quite a few that I haven't even opened. I bought them with the idea that hopefully I will live long enough to work through them.

With regard to retention, I finally realized that it has a lot to do with working what you have learned in musical context.
 

Chuck

Moderator (One of the Men in Black!)
Staff member
It was a lot easier when I started learning, there was only Blues Guitar Unleashed at the time so I got through it without too many distractions.
Now, I jump around. I'm doing the Chord soloing now and getting the scales down. I jump in and out of the Soloing stuff when I need something new in my mix or a refresher.

I go back to BGU all the time for a refresher and kick in the pants.
 

Kommetjie

Blues Newbie
With regard to retention, I finally realized that it has a lot to do with working what you have learned in musical context.

I have to agree with your point about musical context . . . for me, discovering Griff's Virtual Jam Room has been invaluable in this regard.
 

mountain man

Still got the Blues!
Since I replied to this thread I have started one more acoustic course. I recently started Spent Money Blues. So now I'm working on these courses: Spent Money Blues, Traveling Blues, and the Modes Unleashed course. I am also working my own version of Down to the Station from Acoustic Blues Guitar Unleashed. A few years ago Griff mentioned that we should learn our lessons and then proceed while we continue on with the courses until we "own it". So that's what I do.
 
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