You will find lots of useful guitar lessons and information here - it works on an "honour system". If you can afford to pay for the lessons then please donate for what you use - imagine it was a pay site. If you can't afford to donate it is no problem at all - the site is free for you :). Updates and new material is pretty much donation dependant. Donations give me more time away from paid work to develop this site and make new lessons and features. BIG THANKS in advance :)

Donations keep the site free for those that can't afford to donate!

Click here for details on how to donate or contribute to the site. Thanks. J

Please register in the space on the left. I won't send you many emails (like once a month max), just news of new lessons and updates, my gig info and maybe special offers from those few companies that I endorse - but the emails will come from me, I won't pass your email address on to anyone else - and you can unsubscribe automatically on any email I send you.

Wishing you love, peace and happiness (and many years of guitar fun!)

Justin

Come from YouTube???If you have come here after seeing a YouTube video and you want to find the accompanying notes then check out the Lesson Index and find the lesson code at the start of the video.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL - I HAVE JUST DROPPED OUT OF THE TOP 100 (GLOBAL) :( Shallow I know, and I shouldn't care, but I do :( Simply go HERE and hit the orange subscribe button. Thanks.

BLOG

If you are looking for my blog on GHANA and my other random personal posts - click HERE or on the BLOG button at the top of the page (blue pick!).

I do read ALL my comments on myspace (I personally have to approve every one) so that is good way to say hi!!! I do read ALL emails that are sent in, but can't reply to them all. I really wish I could, and I do try... but it's hundreds a week now...

What am I up to???

Latest 10 Site Updates (This list does not include TRANSLATIONS... see the Lesson Index)

30-09-08 • I Shot The Sheriff song and video added, use those triad shapes!
30-09-08 • Killing Me Softly song and video added, great for beginners.
17-09-08 • THREE new vids on Triad Chord Shapes and how to use them.
30-08-08 • TWO NEW DVDs RELEASED - Technique Lessons 1 and Blues Lead Guitar 1
30-08-08 • FIVE new Blues Lead Guitar Lessons, with video and tabs and all that!
29-08-08 • Vibrato and Bend Vibrato lessons and 3 vids added.
26-08-08 • TAB for Blues Licks added (finally... done the next batch too - new lead lessons up v. soon)
18-08-08 • Rolling Technique lesson updated and TAB added.
05-08-08 • Stairway To Heaven uploaded, SIX videos and tab!!! :) I hope this is popular.. took ages! lol
28-07-08 • New video on How To Tune Your Guitar (advanced) (using harmonics)

Brian May digs justinguitar.com!

Brian May It is a real honour for me when someone I have a huge amount of respect for likes what I do, and little while ago the legendary Queen guitarist, Brian May, mentions my site in his online blog, Brian May's Soapbox. It took me a while to add a link here, because I thought it might make me look a bit full of myself, but hey, I'm proud of this! Click here to go to his web site and see it (it was posted on 29th May 2008) or click the image on the left to see a pic of it!


Latest News - October 2008 So many toys, so little time...
The last few weeks have been lots of fun for me. The last couple of years I have been playing mostly acoustic guitar, of course some electric on tours - but I wasn't really feeling playing electric for fun... But then I was down at my favorite guitar store (Charlie Chandlers Guitar Experience) and I started using an amp to try out some effects, it was a Divided by 13 amp, and I was blown away. I like the Mesa Boogie amps, but they are very cold and this thing was just burning. So it kinda inspired me to get back into electric guitar and I went on an amp quest, trying out loads of different amps. I ended up not getting the Divided by 13 (even though it was an awesome amp) because I discovered another made by John Suhr called the Badger 30. Blew me away with an awesome crunch sound, really pure, that blend of clean and crunch that is just... wow. You gotta try one.

The day I took delivery I was feeling really inspired and spent pretty much a whole day playing really loud :) just experimenting with the sounds and checking out different guitars and effects and leads and all that - working out what was rocking my sox. But about 11pm I noticed that my fingers were not feeling so good and I noticed I had taken all the skin off my 3rd finger, it was kinda red and I could see blood!! Ahhh. So sucked. Stopped me using my 3rd finger for a few days which was not much fun. Lesson: No matter how excited you are, don't try and do too many big bends on the same day!

And then I happened upon a week off, no Kung Fu training (term break), most of my private students were on holiday, and I had no sessions in. I wanted to get away from the UK and try and catch some sunlight, but decided instead to hang in the studio and spend a week exploring effects pedals and my new addiction to electric guitar tone :) It was So much fun, felt like a kid in a candy store! I borrowed a couple of Electro Harmoix pedals of my friend Pete and spent ages playing with those (Memory Man and a Pog). I bought a Mk I Rotosphere and that pedal is just amazing, really sounds like a leslie cabinet, love it. I also got hold of an old Morley Phaser pedal from another friend, which blew me out too. How much fun can a guitar player have??? That then inspired some new songs and I started exploring an electric vibe for my own material, which is coming along well.

I also did a "Wah-off". I borrowed every wah-wah pedal I could from all my friends and tried and recorded them all. I filmed a lot of it and will make some vids out of it sometime soon. It was lots of fun. The winner was the Budda Bud-Wah, amazing wah pedal. Beautiful with clean guitar and really let the tone through in crunch or rock settings. The Keeley modified Vox wah was also awesome, but coloured the clean sound quite lot.

So that has been my month really. It's been a gear month... Discovered a few cool thing that you might dig too - an awesome magazine called Tone Quest (full of cool boutique gear reviews and advice), another mag called Tape Op (which is more studio based, but it is a free subscription magazine). And I am also reading an AMAZING book by Analog Tom called Analog Man's Guide To Vintage Effects. I'm learning so much about all those old pedals I love. I plan to get a good set of pedal links done soon - as much for me when I am hunting for gear.

Well that's enough news from me, hope you are well and happy.

Take care, be safe and be kind, J.

Need more lessons than you find here?

I have seen pretty much every guitar web site out there and there are not many that I recommend. I was approached by JamPlay.com and had a good look around their site, and I gotta say that I'm impressed. They have a wide range of lessons and styles and many different instructors. I try and give you a lot here, but there is only one of me, and I'm sure that many of you need some lessons from somewhere else too! So the good people at JamPlay.com have given you a coupon code, exclusively for justinguitar.com users, so that you can go and check out their site FREE for 7 days. Of course after that you have to pay a monthly subscription, but it is reasonably priced and there is a lot on offer, worth a look - just click this link to get your free 7 day voucher code.

Sounds I make with the help from...

Justin plays Maton Acoustic Guitars, TC Electronic Effects, The Gig Rig Pedal Switcher, Mesa Boogie Amplification, AER Acoustic Amplification, DR Strings and Jim Dunlop picks. Thanks. Check them out, all seriously great tools for making happy sounds in your ears!


Politics and Religion I know I will get a lot of stick for ranting about the state of the world, I am just a guitar player, but I also care deeply about the state of the planet and maybe I can introduce you to some things you are not aware of, or just things that I care about. So take time to read the articles if you are interested, otherwise just turn the page and ignore...

Go Obama Go
Lots of people ask where I stand on the US election. I would have thought it was pretty obvious. An war hungry old man, supported by a red neck fem-bot? Or the chance for the great US of A to show the world they are ready for change, ready to elect a black man as President, ready to stop the crazy war mongering and greed of the current administration. I would vote for Obama just because the old man McCain doesn't look that fit, and Palin is just a disaster - she has no idea about politics, is way out of her league - and shit, she has a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter, and a son about to sacrifice himself in Iraq and she likes shooting. That is what the world does not need. McCain is undoubtedly a hero (and seems like a honest dude) and has a lot of foreign policy experience, but he is old school - back in the world of wings and spies. He has old attitudes. The world (not just America) needs a change in the US. The WORLD needs Obama.

I know it is a lot more complex than this - but I am tired and want to get to bed! but my full support is behind Barack Obama. If you want to help the USA become a friend of the world again: Vote for change, vote Obama. Please.

FILM - "Taxi To The Dark Side" - scary stuff - USA breaking the Geneva convention...
While training in Spain my mate Dave played me an amazing film called "Taxi To The Dark Side". It is the story of a taxi driver who was wrongly taken into custody in Iraq and tortured and killed in prison. It shows many interviews with politicians and some creepy dudes that did the torture that killed the taxi driver. Most scary is the way the GWB and his other evil scum bag friends (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell) proposed a law (passed by congress) that allows the US to break article 3 of the Geneva Convention, and absolves the government and officers from war crimes - it does it by allowing the US to make definitions of words for ANY international agreement that it signs. In this case they define "torture" in a most unusual way. Guantanamo Bay is also discussed, as well as the torture techniques they use. It is a really shocking film that I would urge everyone over 18 to watch. See the trailer HERE and wiki info HERE. I really can't believe they get away with this... Outrageous... This should not be happening in the 21st Century. Most people would object if animals were treated like this. Ahhhh it makes me feel so mad... This is not me bashing the US - there are many places with a poor human rights record... but this is the same US that "fights for other people's freedom"!!!!

Zeitgeist - The Movie
I am sure that this is not the whole truth, but it is certainly interesting, and if you have not seen it then you should certainly check it out. If 10% of the film is true then we live in a very scary world indeed.... A very thought provoking movie. It talks about religion, 911 and the way that we a ripped off by governments. Take money from the poor (tax) and spend it on war (corporations). Be prepared to re-think some things... Watch it here!

Ghana
As some of you may know, I have been in Ghana working in an orphanage over Xmas and new year. I raised quite a lot of money through this site and it really helped the kids, but they still need our help! The local school really needs some computers so I am still taking donations and I am trying to get enough to buy a half container of computers to be donated not just to the school in Kpando (in the Volta region) where I was, but to be distributed around many schools in Ghana. If you would like to help - then read more about my charity work here.

Darfur
A few months ago now I was reading my copy of New Internationalist magazine and was shocked (nearly in tears) reading about the horrors that are happening there and I am disgusted that we can sit and watch this genocide happen and do NOTHING. There is about sfa all we can do as individuals but put pressure on our governments to try to pressure the Sudanese governments to allow the UN peacekeepers in and stop arming the Janjaweed militia.

Please check out the following web sites for more information. they estimate between 200,000 and 400,000 dead and over 2 MILLION people displaced... That is just wrong. The world swore that after Rwanda that it would never happen again and it is... We must act or live ashamed to be human. Please act if you can. This should not be happening in the 21st Century. Check out these links and see if it doesn't screw your head up like it did mine...

See what you can do to help at:
http://www.genocideintervention.net
http://www.darfurgenocide.org

I really can't believe that crap like that is happening while we all sit around on the internet learning guitar...

 


This site is free for peace loving people - let's make this world a happy and safe place!

 

 

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism.
Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.
Noam Chomsky

 

You can find the REAL news (not the rubbish that the big media evils show us) by visiting:
The Information Clearing House

 

Morality is doing right, no matter what you are told.
Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
H L Mencken

 

If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for reward,
then we are a sorry lot indeed.
Albert Einstein

 

Many people die with their music still in them.
Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.
Before they know it, time runs out.
Oliver Wendell Holmes