Summer Guitar Camp

Hi everyone,
We had a great time at the June guitar camp here at Music Ala Carte, the kids learned 10 songs in 4 days and rehearsed them for an excellant show at the end of the second week. The camp is geared for beginner and intermediate guitar students from the ages of 7 to 15 years. We welcome acoustic, bass and electric guitars and the main focus will be on learning to play together in groups. We will have music put together and place the student with the part they will do best at so the perfoming experience will be fun and rewarding. We have one session left for this summer; July 11th through July 22nd, there will be a recording session in both sessions and a performance at the end of each. The first camp was a lot of fun and the second camp promises to be a very good time also so please check your schedules for the Music Ala Carte summer guitar camp.
You can register online at Summer Music Camp Registration or you can contact me gtrteacher@robertswinton.com and I can email you the registration form.

Hope to see you at the
Summer Guitar Camp.

Hi,
This is Robert Swinton and I wanted to invite you to listen in on my interview on Celebrity Internet Radio. My relative and good friend, Sonya Swinton, is the host and we had a great time with the interview. We talked about many of my adventures over the years and she plays lots of my music throughout the show. The show starts in a minute after the recording starts.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/internet-celebrity_magazine-tv/2011/04/05/robert-swinton-musician-and-recording-artist?&utm_source=remail&utm_medium=listener
I hope you enjoy the show  and I also would like to invite you to go to my video online guitar teaching studio at www.gtrteacher.com and take a look around I think you'll enjoy this also.

Thanks,
Bob Swinton

The Very Best of the Season to You

I wanted to wish everyone

Happy Holidays!

I hope the season is going well for you.

This year I wanted to give you some thing

that I thought would fit with the times.

More Free Lessons

I have added several more items

to the Free Lessons tab on

Music Ala Carte.

It starts with the introduction lesson followed

by lesson 1 notes on the 1st string

and then lesson 2 notes on the second string.

Then comes our NEW Video 2 Minute Song lessons.

With these you can get the chords, basic strum pattern

and a practice session all in 2 minutes.

You will also get the printable chord and lyric sheet

and the mp3 to play along with me.

Right after that are the Christmas songs for the season.

You can play and sing these favorites along with your friends

and help raise the holiday spirit.

And to finish up we have 4 more songs to learn. As alwys you get the

chord and lyric sheet and the mp3 to play along with.

I hope you take advatage of my holiday gift and stop by

Music Ala Carte and take a look at the Free Lessons.

Remember, Video Online Guitar Lessons at

Music Ala Carte

make a great holiday gift.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!!

Bob Swinton

Six String Music is Good for the Soul

Improve your chord and strumming performance

I've worked for many years helping students learn to play the guitar.Each student is different and learns at their own pace. It seems one the most challenging methods to master is the ability to play and change chords and strum along to a song. Learning to play a single chord can be difficult, the student must place multiple fingers on the fret board and press down firmly so all the the notes will ring when they strum the chord. This takes practice not only to perfect the chord but also to strengthen your hand. Then the student will learn several chords and begin to master the art of changing one chord to another. The final accomplishment in playing rhythm guitar is to strum and change the chords to the beat of the song you are playing along to.

All of this can seem a mighty task not only if your just learning chords or have already learned a few chord and have tried your hand at rhythm guitar. I have developed a method to help you with your chord and strumming performance.  At http://www.gtrteacher.com/ I have put into action a method I also use in my private studio to help the student improve their rhythm guitar playing.

In the Learn Songs section of Music Ala Carte each song has a video to help you with; chords, strum pattern, practice session and then an uptempo video for the finish. Once the student has learned the song there is an mp3 and a song library so they can play the whole song along with me. Also there are down loadable chord and lyric sheets along with strum patterns you can print out for each song.

Chords
This video will show you the chord formation and how to finger the chord properly. Be sure to go over this video until you are fully familiar with chords and how to play them.
Strum Pattern
This video will show the student the right hand strum pattern and help them keep the rhythm as they play along to the song. Be sure to go back, use the practice tabs in the table of contents, until you are comfortable with the strum and chord patterns.
Practice Session
In this video I play sections of the song at a slower pace so the student can practice what they have learned at a tempo that will be easier to achieve. In my private I have used this method of playing along  with my students to help them learn the rhythm parts to a song. This has proven to help the student accomplish the chord and strum patterns. Using the Practice Session of the video as another guitar player the student is able to play along and master the chord and strum patterns of the song.
Up-Tempo
In this video we use the same procedure as the Practice Session only at a faster tempo. The idea of using the video as another guitar player is still the same. Just as before, go back over this section until you are very comfortable with the chord and strumming patterns of the song and feel ready to play it on your own.
As with all new musical information mastering the song depends on your practice time.
MP3
When the student feels they have accomplished the song there is an mp3 to play the entire song right along with me. You will find the mp3 for each song right under the videos and in the Song Library under Lesson Resources.

I would like to invite you to give this song learning method a try. Just go to http://www.gtrteacher.com/ and under the Free Lessons tab you find several songs to try. The Song Library under the Lesson Resources is also free so what have you got to lose.

Six String Music is Good for the Soul

Robert Swinton

Free Online Video Guitar Lessons

When you start to look for guitar lessons on the web the first thing you realize is that you have a lot of choices. There are DVDs for sale, there are web sites with video lessons at first and then they want you to buy DVDs, you will find web sites and DVDs dedicated to electric guitar and the same for acoustic. Some lessons start from the beginning and other teach nothing but songs, the later would be more for the student that has some experience. Some of the web sites will tell "you can play your favorite songs tonight", some say "you be playing in a couple of days" and my favorite " Play Now, Learn Later". Most people when beginning to look for guitar lessons are looking for a bargain if they can find it and I certainly don't blame them. Many web sites offer free lessons which show you how to hold the guitar and give you the name of the strings but don't really show you how to play the guitar until you begin to pay for the lessons. However one of the best places to find free instruction on the guitar is http://www.youtube.com/ here you will find all kinds of different ideas, songs and styles to choose from and they are all free.

I would like to introduce you to Music Ala Carte, video online guitar lessons. The first information I want to give is that learning guitar is not an over night process, it takes time to strenghten your hands, learn techique, develop your rhythm with the guitar and just get comfortable playing your guitar. I teach on the acoustic guitar but the beginner lessons will work for acoustic or electric.

The Guitar Lessons start right from the beginning; the introduction lesson shows you how to hold the guitar, talks about the music staff and the names of the lines and spaces, shows what time signatures mean and how to count them, introduces the parts of the guitar and much more.

The first lesson is on the notes of the 1st string in the first position and includes 3 exercises to work on and the second lesson is the notes on the 2nd string and 3 exercises to go with it. All the lessons have easy to follow videos and printable resources to read as you go through the lesson. As you go through the lessons if you find that you need more work on a certain part of the lesson you can go back to any part of the video and go over it again until you feel comfortable with the information.

All three of the first three lessons are offered in the Free Lessons at Music Ala Carte, you can go there, start you guitar lessons and take your time as you go. You can go the the web site and the free lessons any time 24/7 when it's good for you. These three lessons could take a month to accomplish but you will get a good idea of what it will take for you to learn the guitar. Also on the Free Lessons are examples of the Song Lessons and the NEW 2 Minute Songs for you to take a look at and see the other fun you can have with your guitar.

I hope you stop by Music Ala Carte for a look around,

Bob Swinton

Guitar Lesson Studio on the Web

Hi,
      I designed Music Ala Carte, video online guitar lessons, to simulate the experience of being in a private studio for guitar lessons. I crafted the "Guitar Lessons" videos exactly as I teach in my private studio, in fact, I use the web site videos at my studio. I find the web site Guitar Lessons an excellent course and the perfect practice tool at home. The videos help the student practice properly and allows the parent the opportunity to share in the experience of learning to play the guitar.
In the "Learn Songs" section I crafted the lessons to be learned by players from beginner to intermediate and beyond. I tried to target the player who wants to play along for their own enjoyment or relax with friends and share some new songs with each other. I use most of these songs in my own performances so I recommend these song videos for those at the performance levels also.
Once you Log In to Music Ala Carte you can use the "USER MENU" which has many functions. I want to point out the Ask a Teacher" button, when you click here you are able to send me an email with any and all questions or comments you may have. I will answer as quickly as possible creating an on going dialog between student and teacher. I feel this is critical when teaching an instrument.
I hope you will stop by Music Ala Carte at http://www.gtrteacher.com/ and take a look around, give the Free Lessons a try and see if video online guitar lessons are right for you.

Thank you,

Bob Swinton

Learning Songs

One of my students recently asked for advice on learning songs. Her question was if learning one song at a time would be best or should she work on several all at once.
I thought this was a very good question so I wanted to share my response;
We all search for our own best way to practice. We want to find the best way to use what we know to learn what we want. However it is also a good idea to create avenues to further learning which can lead to the opening of more opportunities for new music. I suggested to start with a couple of songs with possibly the same or similar chord patterns but with different strum patterns. For example if you go to www.gtrteacher.com 
and click on the
Free Lessons tab
then scroll down and pick out the songs "Under the Board Walk" and "When the Sun Goes Down",
download the song information and listen to the videos you will be learning 2 different styles of songs but with similar chord patterns.
As you learn more songs you will become comfortable with the chord and strum patterns you have learned so when you choose a new song with similar patterns the learning will come much easier. At this point it's time to choose some thing new to begin to work on,  possibly a new chord pattern.
You will also find "Let It Be" at http://www.gtrteacher.com/ under the Free Lessons and here there is a new strum pattern along with the new chord pattern. Again, download the song information and start to work with the videos. Some times the new songs takes a little more work but this is how we learn and expand our playing and our song list.
Don't be afraid to try some thing new and if you have questions or just want to comment please let me know.

                 Six String Music is Good for the Soul
                                  Bob Swinton