The Guitar Virtuosity System

Books, Software and Misc. Resources

dramatically improve your playing, and break free of technical problems and limitations that had been holding you back for years.

Note that talent is often suppressed by poor teaching methods, improper practice habits, and inadequate understanding of the true secrets of guitar technique. I can show you a way out of this frustrating, self-defeating trap, as I have already done for hundreds of students.

Instruction is offered by our master teacher, who has 40 years of guitar experience. He is a full-time professional teacher, curriculum director for one of the nation's top private guitar studios, public and radio performer, and author of numerous books on guitar technique, interpretation and music theory.

The Carcassi course described below is for classical and fingerstyle guitarists. The personalized instruction, however, applies to the left hand for both pickstyle and fingerstyle. General instruction includes musicianship, interpretation and theory tips that also apply to either method of guitar playing.

Electric guitar playing, which typically involves lead improvisation or comping/rhythm, is not covered in the system.

The essentials can be learned in the Carcassi Crash Course in Guitar Technique and Musicianship. This course allows you to quickly master the essential techniques and musical building blocks required for the majority of the classical guitar repertoire. You will also learn how to produce a beautiful, varied sound, which is the major difference between professionals and amateurs.

instruction is customized for each online guitar student by carefully reviewing their musical goals, and choosing appropriate material from a vast library of the studies, exercises, repertoire, and books on musicianship, interpretation and music theory. Modes of online personal instruction include:

Often, answers to a few critical questions about guitar technique can help you overcome barriers to beautiful, expressive playing that have held you back for years. Also, because of our master teacher's vast experience helping students play like pros, his advice is powerful and far-reaching. The fee is $1 per minute (typically a total of $15), which includes evaluating your e-mail questions and a response by phone. The latter is essential because it allows immediate back-and-forth communication.

This is the next step up in effectiveness, and can root out musical limitations that you are unaware of, and therefore, incapable of changing on your own. The fee is the same as above, and the response will be either by phone or e-mail. Videos are preferred because your technique can also be evaluated.

Attend a "Play Like a Virtuoso" Workshop. Individual and group workshops available.

Our Master teacher has such powerful, far-reaching guitar learning knowledge that even a two-hour workshop can dramatically improve your musical life.

This book unravels the mysteries and myths surrounding guitar tuning and establishes a solid foundation for beautiful playing.

Many guitarists don't know how to properly tune their guitar, or don't recognize when it's out of tune. They may also be unaware that the two most popular methods, unison tuning (matching strings at the 4th or 5th frets with open strings) or harmonic tuning (matching harmonics between adjacent strings) are either wrong or highly error-prone. Usually, the resulting tuning problems are minor. Nonetheless, the outcome is numerous slightly "off" notes and note combinations (intervals and chords).

Thorough knowledge of the fingerboard is a must to avoid mistakes and learn new music quickly. It also makes composing, improvising and arranging easier. This software program will teach you all the notes on the fingerboard in 1-3 months.

A simple, yet powerful chart that allows you to easily identify where the notes of any guitar solo are on the fingerboard while you are working from the score. It also provides specialized training that helps "unlock" the fingerboard. This is not a typical fingerboard chart.

A three-octave chromatic scale exercise and practice notes are included on the reverse side. Laminated.

A concise, 40-page guide to the most important music theory facts and concepts. A must for teachers and students, who need to understand the building blocks and structure of music. This knowledge will allow you to play the guitar more beautifully and communicate effectively with other musicians.

Reveals all the major secrets of creating professional-sounding chord progressions and voicings. Includes a system for categorizing and constructing virtually any chord, an explanation of how the Circle of Fifths relates to chord usage, the importance of "color" tones, and harmonic analysis (determining the name, inversion, and function of chords in music).

An easy-to-learn system for creating beautiful, original, crowd-pleasing solos from any music consisting of melody and chords (lead sheets, fake books, piano-vocal-guitar books, etc.).

With this system, you can expand your repertoire of performance pieces indefinitely. Once it is mastered, new solos can be created in a matter of hours or even minutes. The most experienced guitarists will be able to improvise chord-melody solos at sight.

Creating chord-melody solos is also a fabulous way to master the fingerboard and the art of voicing chords (rearranging the notes of chords for the best sound individually and in combination with other chords.)

A collection of 10 of my favorite pieces from the Baroque Period. Includes the Minuet from Sonata No. 12 by Weiss, an intermediate piece with one of the most beautiful melodies I have ever heard.

After developing incredible technique and control of sound with my system, you need a repertoire to showcase these skills. Like me, you may be dissatisfied with standard anthologies, which are full of over-played or unimaginative classical/fingerstyle guitar music.

After years of searching for satisfying repertoire, I discovered that the most creative and attractive guitar solos are published as single works or in small collections. Others are available for free only on the Internet. A small percentage exist in standard anthologies, but the average guitarist doesn't have the time to play through dozens of dull pieces in these books in order to find them.

My list of the Top 100 Classical Guitar Hits will help you build a repertoire of memorable, crowd-pleasing solos that will keep you in demand as a performer and recording artist.

The greatest delight for me in finding this music was the sense that I can now play pieces rivalling those for the classical piano in terms of beauty and creativity.

For a beautiful sounding, affordable, professional-quality classical guitar see: