In response to a large number of enquires over the last couple of years about teaching and teaching resources. I have created a new video and slide based course which looks at some of the fundamentals of blues guitar as I use them. Designed to help guitarists expand their knowledge of the blues by learning to talk the blues. This course covers the five positions of the blues pentatonic scales, and looks at the underlying modal scales. The first five modules look at those scale shapes and the associated modal scales. The licks are taken out of those scale shapes. The final three modules take a look at a complete performance over a 12 bar sequence. That performance is the broken down lick by lick and presented as individual lectures. It has been designed to help you learn in the way that suits you best. The modular design of each video lecture allows you to take any lick from any module, learn it and apply it straight away. Alternatively you can go through the course in the sequence offered. The choice is yours. The lectures are short, with simple demonstrations of the lick played at normal pace, followed by a slide showing the notes used when I played the lick. Finally the lick is repeated in slow motion so you can see how it was played.. The course is available via Udemy at the price of 19.99 although it is frequently discounted. Feel free to visit the link below. https://www.udemy.com/course/blues-guitar-scales-and-licks/?src=sac&kw=blues+guitar+scales

There is a kind of irony that life sometimes throws at you. When you think you have done everything you can, or taken something as far as you think it can go. Something happens that falls completely outside of all expectations. Which when it does can re-energize long dried enthusiasm and optimism. Inspiring and reigniting the desire to move forward once again. After nearly 50 years as a musician such an event occurred to me. When I first started to play the guitar, the immediate goal was simply to learn the one string melodies from my guitar book. Next thing was to learn the basic chords. These were then framed into the building blocks that would form my fist attempts at writing songs. Moving on from that came the study of guitar solos. The idea to be the next guitar god can still see it now. The tours the crowds and the benefits of all that. Alas not to be, life got in the way and I stopped playing for nearly 10 years whilst working on the life path called a career. Which when that fell by the wayside I gravitated back to music. Where I spent probably the next 30 or so years playing and gigging in all types of bands doing all sorts of music. Having some brilliant times, and some not so good. It was during this time the idea of writing and recording some songs began to take root. The ambition was always to write and record my own album. Didnt matter what it was, just to say I had done it, that was the ultimate. On reflection looking back on what I have achieved with my music. The goals of then have long been replaced with the realities of now. Not just one album but 13 covering a wide range of musical formats. With two more in the process of writing and production. The thing is my voice has a limited range and Ive never liked it. In fact I was once told youll never make a singer. But of all the music I have written and published. It is the tunes where Im actually singing that get the most airplay and sales. Moving on from that was the hard won knowledge gained on how to record then how to publish and promote what I have created. This has been a process of evolution from day one. When I first started recording my music using two cassette players. Now computers and software have made it so much easier to record and edit music. I have got it down to a fine art in so much as it works for what I do. Promotion has become so much easier with the internet. What you need most to make this work is to have a large presence in as many places as you can get. There are now many websites which are dedicated to hosting music for musicians. Once you learn how to use them to work for you, this can be a brilliant way to create that fan base. Moving away from making music to actually starting to teach. I ventured into this after being asked to produce a basic course for my website and blog. These efforts have led to two best selling Amazon books and on this website a series of course based subjects I enjoy teaching. So after all this I felt there was little left for me to accomplish. Other than move into areas of the guitar which I have not really explored much as a player. Then came the unexpected event, I received my first ever gold record. Not for record sales, but for winning a competition into which I never knew I had been entered. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. So there you go, after all that, having achieved everything I ever set out to do with my music. There is always something more. The moral of this post. Never give up on your goals and dreams. Wishing you well in whatever you do Mark Reed