Favorite parts of Complete Guitar Course

[Doug Marks]

I’m in the process of writing scripts for 3 videos.  The course is being divided into 3 groups: Beginner (Weeks 1 – 16) Intermediate (Weeks 17 – 32) and Advanced (Weeks 33 – 48). It would be helpful if students from these three different groups would share favorite parts of the course.  Be specific if possible.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[MotleyCrue81]

I believe it’s in the advanced weeks, but learning parts of some Hawk songs was definitely cool. 🙂

Bring hair metal back!

[superblonde]

Very easy.. the part with the backing track ;-D

Heres my quick picks

ACDC Thing. (which I famously and fabulously made a cover of on my youtube channel ahem ahem)

Pattern 1 diatonic scale.. believe it or not (finally forced to do a full scale and improved my ear a lot)

Cant Buy Me Love (I probably didnt mention this but I attempted to learn this by ear off the radio long long ago only to give up in frustration and now I see that it was 14/4? geez made it easy, huh?? lol)

Another intermediate(?) pick would be, the 4 note lead lesson / BB Box (these are separate lessons but they go hand in hand to me). And also, the pentagram lick lesson. Cough I mean pentagon lick lesson.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[stanzelr]

In the beginning section, I thought it was ingenious to have students doing some cool solo-type riffs early. In my opinion, this really engages the early learners and gives them the power to show off a bit. I wish when I was a beginner, I had have learned in this way as it would have shown me how to take simple and make it sound cool.

[superblonde]

Yea I second that too, I have easily clocked hundreds of hours playing Ex 1 – Riffin It Up in Week 4.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[Doug Marks]

Download this. It’s a complete chapter list for the course.  If you would, give me specific locations if I might be able to capture a quick video clip.  Thanks.

(Revised 3/23/2017) Table of Contents

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[Charvel67]

Just starting again with the new format. I like how it is broken up and gives you enough to work on during the week. Finally learning all the pentatonic positions after many years of “playing”. It’s a big step up fron the old cassette days…..although I did learn enough from the vintage course to play in bands through college. Thanks Doug, I will help you with feedback as much as I can.

[Doug Marks]

I’m looking forward to your help.  There’s a lot to be done but I’m looking forward to all of it.  I’ve received so many requests for help with practice routines that I’ve been thinking about that for the last hour.  It’s important to strike the right balance of fun and accomplishment and that’s a challenge.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[CWG1972]

Doug,

I never received the second part of course.  When I purchased you were still writing it and I thought we would get a notification when the second part was released.  If it’s out please send it my way and then I can answer your survey.

 

thanks

"For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

[Doug Marks]

I’m not real clear about this.  Did you already pay for the second half of the course?  If so, fill out the contact form on the Metal Method home page and we’ll take care of you.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[CWG1972]

Doug,

Yes I bought the whole course. At the time of my purchase you had about 25 lessons and the rest was to be sent once completed. I did fill out the form on the home page as well.

Thanks

"For those about to rock.....We salute you!"

[vik]

Favorite parts:

Overall it is just cool. Your laid back, yet insistent, attitude is perfect. The humor is also appreciated.

Touching on more complex subject matter while noting it will come up later in the course serves to let one know that this is the course that will get them there   but will not bog one down with it prematurely. (It’s not missing, but your not ready).

Using pentatonics as finger exercises is killing two birds and keeps the boredom factor down.

Structure, structure, structure! Similar to the previous complete course, there are defined objectives, metrics, and goals. This sets MM apart from most of what I’ve seen out there.

Jams! The little bits of you showing your skill keeps the student wanting to emulate and showing the possibilities.

 

 

[Anonymous]

As a student of both the 2006 version and the 2016 version I found progression in 2006 be much more steep. Instinctively I would try to sit through as much of the lesson as possible. By the time I arrived to the fifth DVD I got stuck at the first part of the solo. Even when the lesson warned not to attempt it at full speed, I felt as if playing it at full speed was too far fetched, instead of something challenging but attainable with enough practice. After a small hiatus, I restarted with the 2016 version. The first lessons were understandably easy but served as a good refresher and source for new exercises. I’m in lesson 10 at the moment (still in the Beginner group).

What I have liked the most is how by dividing each lesson in a separate video, I no longer feel the need to go through more material. By keeping lessons shorts and to the point, I end up practicing more. I might do a single lesson a week and practice the exercises in the lesson the whole week, before moving on. From the lessons so far the one I enjoyed the most was week 6 “ACDC Thing” as it’s right my alley and it’s a great sense of accomplishment being able to play what seems like a “real” tune first in Guitar Pro slowly increasing tempo, and then with the backing tracks. If you compare it to other weeks, it’s not quite the same. For instance in week 9 there’s “Southern Guy” and in week 8 there’s “Cool Metal Jazz” and both are cool and complement the lesson quite well, but again in my opinion they don’t feel like a complete song. Maybe it’s because they are too short, or just the reviewed chord progression and nothing more.

[pipelineaudio]

Week 4 6:39 – exercise 1. INSTANT gratification, playing at a level few teachers’ students are able to play at before several months. But with your course they already have the fundamentals by then to do it.

[Doug Marks]

Thanks for the feedback.  As you continue through the course you will find several “full songs.”  You’re correct, some of the “songs” are really just chord progressions.  I learned a lot a couple of years ago by teaching from the 2006 course to students on Skype.  I found that I expected students to cover too much in a single week.  Of course this leads to frustration and feeling like you never quite accomplish the lesson in the allotted time.  3 somewhat challenging exercises is the limit.  I often include 5 but these include review and such.  Keep me posted on your progress.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[rightonthemark]

the pentatonic zone.
love the lead that’s taught & how it gets the student using all five patterns.
that five week series is a great set of lessons all on their own…as is the three week five note lead series.
but the pentatonic zone is where it’s at.
\m/ \m/

rock and roll ain't pretty; that's why they picked us to play it.

[Sonic]

Currently on week 15 and 16. I like to work on 2 or 3 lessons in parallel for a month or so and to jump around between them if I get stuck on a particular group of exercises.

I enjoyed the rock n roll exercises from week 12 and everything from week 13. The prequel to ‘massive destruction’ is hilarious and so true!

I have also previewed week 17. This is perhaps the most eye-opening lesson so far. Amazing what you can do with just 4 notes when the appropriate playing technique and some rhythmic variation is applied. I mean the demo at 12:40. A casual rock fan and listener would probably think that this is a full-blown solo…

However, I have spent most of the time on the more tedious exercises. For example, pull-offs are really difficult for me and I do not ‘enjoy’ practicing them. But obviously they are important on the path to a smooth legato playing style. Well, we all have to go through it, don’t we?

[superblonde]

Yea pull-offs are yuck. Skip ahead to week 31 for a day and get the fingers bleeding. Literally.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[Doug Marks]

Pull-offs are challenging to perform correctly.  I see many accomplished players that can’t perform pull-offs correctly.  Hang in there because it’s worth the fight.  I like your method of studying several lessons simultaneously.  That’s a good idea to minimize boredom.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[Sonic]

Doug, by the way: initially I thought certification is silly. No need for a framed diploma on the wall if you want to rock out, haha. But now I realize that I need your objective assessment and criticism. On the day you tell me that I have entered the intermediate zone I will have a big smile on my face! And I will double my efforts to reach advanced. So please go for it.

[stanzelr]

Hi Doug,

My feeling is that promotion is everything. Like a great sales manager once told me, ‘even if it’s garbage, convince them that they want it and it’s worth its weight in gold to them’.

First off, your product is GREAT, no two ways about that!! However, I think it could be better promoted.

For instance, it doesn’t take much time to discover that there are a number of guitar lesson products on the market. But when I search ‘guitar lessons’ on FB, I didn’t see Metal Method. Why not take the forum here and get it going on FB? Customers get to join the group to ask questions/answer questions about any number of topics.

Also, as I indicated in an earlier post, show prospective customers how easy it can be to play with your method: the pentatonic section (sorry no time to see which week this is) along with the backing tracks: ‘sounds great, easy to play and impress friends, imagine how good you will be if you complete the course…’

A minor point, while I love the name MetalMerhod, the term ‘Metal’ may scare a number of prospective customers that would benefit this. This course, as far as I’ve gotten (mid way), is more comprehensive then metal.No proposals here, but just an idea for your consideration.

Kind regards,

Roger

[Doug Marks]

(Reply to Sonic) It’s good to have a well defined goal.  I’m looking forward to this myself.  I probably won’t be comfortable doing the evaluation but in the end it will serve the purpose of the student knowing that previous lessons were actually accomplished.

I’m not currently giving Skype lessons but will probably start that up again before long.  I found that many students went through the material too quickly and would get stuck at some point because that hadn’t truly mastered the previous lessons.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[Doug Marks]

Thanks Roger, we’re on the same page.  I have a FB business page but not a group.  I have been planning to start a group for the reason you mentioned, promotion / social.

Promotion is incredibly important.  For over 25 years I spent over two grand a month on magazine advertising.  There will be no shortage of promotion, that’s the next phase.  One thing that I’m doing is creating some very successful YouTube videos that are attracting a lot of guitar players to the site, Forum, and newsletter. I currently have 38,000 subscribers and have added 1500 over the last 28 days.  So, that’s on track but happens in the background.  It is making this grow.

Through the years I have gone back and forth between  Metal Method and Rock Guitar.  In my ad copy I explain what was Metal in 1982 is Classic Rock today.  Still, the branding is misleading.  On the other hand, the lessons were huge in the 80’s.  I really didn’t have any competition initially.  It was me, Star Licks and Arlen Roth.  I was Metal.  I own RockGuitar.com.  If you put that in your browser you’ll see that it takes you to The Complete Guitar Course.

Very soon RockGuitar.com will be our streaming site (if I follow through with this).

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[superblonde]

MASSIVE DESTRUCTION!!!

Locked in the bedroom and cranked up!

Week 13 14:20 – 15:20

😀

And, OSTINATO WITH GOOD HYGIENE!

a) Week 42 00:54 – 01:04, 01:52 – 02:00
b) Week 42 02:26 – 02:54

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[Anonymous]

Hi Doug,

My favorite part, so far, of the CGC course is the interface with Guitar Pro, this was a fantastic idea and really helps me with my playing. I responded that my practice has been sporadic. That in no way is a knock on your instruction or the quality of the CGC course. I have sifted through many of the on-line and you tube instructional videos and Metal Method is by far the best, you have put a lot of effort in producing a stellar product. My problem is I seem to be stuck advancing beyond a beginning player, I have been “Almost There” for a while now but I am not giving up! Hope my feedback is helping.

Jeff

 

[Doug Marks]

Your feedback is very helpful. To move beyond your current level whether your a beginner or intermediate player usually requires working with others.  Jamming once a week with friends or even forming a band is the remedy for sporadic practice.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[Author]

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