Category Archives for "Blog"

13 What do you want to learn next?

We’re planning out our roadmap for the next little while, and we want to create guitar lessons that help you get where you want to be.

Would you help us out? Simply vote in the poll, AND either comment or email us your ideas. We really appreciate your help!

We’re considering doing a course that would spotlight a particular artist, and dig into how to play like that artist, with an emphasis on soloing. With that in mind, which of the following would you like to see featured?

PS. In case you’re wondering, YES, Ultimate Blues Stage 4 will be released soon – we don’t have a date yet but it is in editing.

Have Another Idea?

If you’ve got a different idea for a course you’d like to see from Riff Ninja, please let us know in the comments below. We’ll read and consider every comment – if you see your idea mentioned already, please just ditto it so it gives us an idea that more people are interested in that same topic. Thanks!

0 Interview: The Ultimate Blues Course

It’s Time To Learn The Blues!

Colin and I (Jonathan) started working on a blues course way back in 2011… and only now is it finally coming to fruition. Along the way we learned a ton about lots of stuff related to creating courses, and especially about how to write a course book. Too many learning curves to mention, really, but suffice to say that in the end, everything was completely re-done and re-worked, and today it is ready for daylight.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrtzcvVvfco

Click here to learn more about the Ultimate Blues Course

Overall, the Ultimate Blues Course is going to be broken into four distinct “stages” that will build one upon the other. The first stage covers chords, chord theory, chord substitution, how to play chords… everything you need for a solid foundation on chords is in Stage 1!

Stage 2 digs deep into the scales end of things – both diatonic and pentatonic – with a focus on the things you’ll really use in the blues. That said, these are the same scales (and chords) that you need to play ANY music, so even if you want to be a rocker or a country player, these courses are relevant.

Stage 3 is a biggie, and covers rhythms and progressions. Colin personally created six jam tracks specially for this course, with multiple tracks of rhythm guitar and all that fun stuff. In Stage 3, we’ll dissect exactly what he played on each of those tracks, giving you a truly solid understanding of how to play rhythm guitar across a range of blues styles. Now you’ll be really applying all those chords and rhythms to real music – this is where the rubber meets the road!

Stage 4 is the capstone of the whole course, and of course it is what most people really want – it’s the cherry on top: soloing. The solo is the blues player’s ultimate voice for expression. To solo with the best, you’ll need to really understand everything that comes before, the chords and their construction, the scales, the rhythms and underlying progressions… plus you’ll need some sweet blues licks, which we’ll provide in abundance! In Stage 4, you’ll learn a ton of licks, but even more importantly, you’ll learn how to string them together into solos. In fact, you’ll even learn a bunch of specific bar-for-bar solos that you can play over top of the jam tracks, to get you started.

Click here to learn more about the Ultimate Blues Course

87 Vote For Our T-Shirt Slogan

We’ve had a few requests for Riff Ninja “swag” like t-shirts and other cool things that members can wear. Well, we’re just about ready to take our first plunge into that, and we thought the coolest way to do that would be to get YOU involved in choosing the design!

So, we’ve come up with a list of possible slogans to put on our t-shirt, and we’d love it if you’d take a second to vote for your favorite. Alternatively, perhaps you have your own slogan that you think would be cool on the shirt – if so, tell us in the comment section. If your slogan gets chosen as the winner, we’ll hook you up with a free t-shirt!

103 Ask Riff Ninja Your Guitar Question!

Alright guys, we’re getting set to do another round of YouTube videos here at the studio, and we thought why not ask YOU for ideas on what we should cover next?

So here’s the deal – ask us your guitar related questions in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to address them in a short YouTube video. Keeping your question as clear and concise as possible will really help us out.

To clarify, we won’t be answering your questions here, on this page, but rather by YouTube, however as the answers are posted we’ll try to come back and reply with the appropriate link to the question.

Please take a moment to read through the comments and answers below, as there is a decent chance your question has been asked and answered already.

So that’s pretty much it – the doors are wide open! What’s on your mind?

Note – you might want to bookmark this page and check back often in the coming weeks as new answers are being posted nearly every day.

[box type=”info” border=”full”]TIP: Checkout the YouTube playlist here that contains all the answers. You might find it easier finding your answer there than looking through the comments below.[/box]