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 :). If I had a donation from everyone who emailed and said how much more they learnt from this site than their "regular" teacher, or what amazing improvements people have made with their playing then I would have a lot more time to develop this site to cover more areas and make it totally rock. Rich people that use the site and don't donate should feel bad ;) BIG THANKS to all of those that do!

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 site map 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 Site Updates

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)
28-07-08 • New lesson on Slash Chords (and how to play them)
28-07-08 • Lots of little tweaks and corrections, and planning next ten or so vid lessons...
27-07-08 • Finished the web site for the orphanage in Ghana! See here.
22-07-08 • New vid and notes on The Minor Pentatonic - About
22-07-08 • New vid and notes on The Minor Pentatonic - Five Positions
22-07-08 • New song added - Wherever You May Go (The Calling)
22-07-08 • New song added - Hate To Say I Told You So (The Hives)
20-07-08 • Organising the translations... more added see Index
19-07-08 • Re-organising forum topics for each lesson (lot better!)
14-07-08 • New topics for each lesson added in forum
04-07-08 • Really Useful Strumming Techniques released for pre-order!
04-07-08 • Beginners Practice Guide Finished (finally...)
04-07-08 • Songs and Tabs added (Coldplay, Animals, Feeder).
04-07-08 • Scale comparison chart corrected.
01-07-08 • Q & A Session 1 Videos - Answers Parts 3, 4, 5 and 6 Uploaded to YouTube

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 - August 2008 Working hard...
I have no fun or exciting news this month, just working hard on writing, playing and getting new lessons done.

I am writing this while I wait for the new Stairway To Heaven Lessons to upload to YouTube, and it's taking ages... It was a long day yesterday, started in the morning by transcribing the whole song, making sure I got the parts right, slowing them down and double checking them. It is amazing how many things were different to what I thought they were once I had really listened closely and done the half speed thing. I first learnt it as a teenager and I really wonder what I was hearing, some of the chords were really different to what I thought, and a few obvious changes in position to the solo made it a whole thing a heap more correct. I'm pretty confident that I have it down now, and there was only one bit that still foxes me - but I am going to have to work out the drums to get the rhythm written down... the bit just before the solo, very strange rhythms going on...

After transcribing it all, then I had to play it a bunch of times to make sure I was getting it consistently right so I could film the lessons. I went and had some lunch and then came back to start but was plagued by stupid mistakes, forgot to turn the camera on once, the iMovie crashed, then the hard drive came unplugged - really frustrating... but on the third attempt it all went smoothly and I got all the rest done first take every time.

Then I had a couple of private lessons to do, and then settled in for the editing. I got the final vid finished at 3am, only managed to stay awake by reading Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski (amazing read, a prezzie from my Wishlist). I got a good sleep, had a little lay in and then the day started, doing the copying at The Guitar Institute and having a lunch with my mates there. And now I am chilling in thier office, waiting for my copying to finish, uploading the vids and doing this!

Looking forward to getting more recording done this week and finishing a new track I co wrote with Candytheif, called The Revenge of D. :)

Lots more cool lessons planned and we are working on a series of DVD's of all the lessons on the site (but not the songs) - should be out next month... if all goes well.

Hope you are all getting down and progressing well. Take care, J

 

Latest DVD release- Really Useful Strumming Techniques (RUST)
Is selling great and I'm getting some great feedback :) See it here...


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...

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 "tourture" 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