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Online Flamenco Guitar Lessons |
Great Online Flamenco Lessons are hard to come by and usually you are left trying to learn from online tabs. Jason “El Rubio” McGuire is changing all of that with his new online Flamenco lesson service Flamenco-Lessons.com. You can finally have multiple tempo video, sheet music, commentary and right hand and left hand views all online for each lesson! At the time of this writing I counted fifty seven lessons multiplied by six for each video in a lesson that’s over three hundred videos. Ranging from beginner to expert and covering all the major Palos and Dance/Cante accompaniment all of the videos become accessible with your membership!
One of the greatest things about my job is the ability to see how the two things I enjoy the most Flamenco and the internet are merging more and more each day. Jason “El Rubio” McGuire has pushed the combination of Flamenco and the internet to the next level. Jason has created an online Flamenco lesson service that is neck and shoulders above his competitors in the online space.
The heart and soul of this service is the online videos that provide several angles and speeds as well as commentary. Using the familiar QuickTime software, very clear high quality videos are streamed that are easy to rewind, pause and play. Normal tempo videos provide you with an example of how the entire lesson is to be played and sound with no talking just Jason playing awesome pieces. Slow Tempo gives you the ability to see, hear and play along at about half speed making it much easier to practice and again no talking just playing. Notice a trend? Jason in fact never says a thing in his videos unless you click on the Commentary video for the corresponding lesson. There he explains the lesson and some interesting insights about Flamenco. This in my opinion gives the student an uninterrupted lesson and distinctly separates the “focus on what I am saying” and “focus on what I am playing” leading to a better learning experience.
Also included in each lesson is a Counted video which is the same as the Slow Tempo described above except with Jason counting out the compass. And last but not least is the Left Hand and Right Hand videos for each lesson that give you a great close up view so you wont be left wondering or squinting trying to figure out what that chord or note was. Did I mention that each lesson comes with its corresponding sheet music? Using the Scorch plug-in you are able to see and play along with both musical notes and tabs for each lesson!
Jason McGuire also makes himself very accessible to his members as he checks in daily to the member only online forum. Here you can feel free to make suggestions, ask questions and have discussions with Jason or other members of the site.
Flamenco-Lessons.com brings together several key factors involving auditory and visual learning often overlooked in other online Flamenco lesson services. The days of paying super high prices for DVD’s and lesson books are counted. Online services like Flamenco-Lessons.com are setting the pace and currently providing high quality content that is easily accessible any where in the world! No more PAL versus NTSC! Now you can say “Just let me learn Flamenco guitar at my pace, when I have time and where ever I am”.
For more information on Online Flamenco Guitar Lessons visit: http://www.flamenco-lessons.com
Nice review! Thanks for giving us the heads-up on a cool place to learn flamenco online.
No thank you! Glad to be of service!
I am currently a member of flamenco-lessons.com and i can recommand it to anyone who is interested to learn flamenco guitar.
For both beginners and also more advanced players.
If you dont have a good teacher (and i mean good FLAMENCO teacher and not only someone show shows you how to play some Rumba chords!) where you live, then online lessions with Jason is the best solution IMO.
I also have DVDs of other good guitarists like Moraito, Chicuelo, etc.
The problem with DVDs is that you can not ask questions or request additional informations or get any feedback from them. You can just try to learn their falsetas and thats it!
Jason adds lessions/videos each month to existing lessons and there is also a Forum for members where you can ask all your questions, make suggestions, etc. and as far as i have seen, Jason checks his Forum daily, so you get your answers very fast.
Another good thing is that you can make a video of yourself and your playing of what you have learned from Jason and post it and get feedback. Jason will then tell you what you can make better etc. So it is almost like having a “real” teacher sitting together with you.
All you need is a cheap Camera to film yourself.
It is better to have a fast internet connection because the lessons are only available online and not for download.
If you dont know about Jason, then watch this Video and you will see how cool his playing is!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmcjAGJOPR0
I have to agree… One of the things that I enjoyed seeing was the feedback Jason provides to his students. It is of tremendous assistance especially when taking on Flamenco guitar. Not only do you learn from your own questions but all the question asked by the many other students. Tapping into that collective knowledge of all the previous questions asked is a great value for this service.
I think flamenco-lessons.com is amazing. I think we are so lucky that Jason Mcguire is divulging all the secrets of flamenco like this. If you are serious about learning flamenco, the only alternative that can compete with this is having a world-class flamenco player teach you in person. But that would cost you upwards of sixty dollars per hour whereas flamenco-lessons.com costs thirty dollars a month. And really, how many world-class flamenco players are there at this level if you don’t live in Spain?
For me, flamenco-lessons.com is actually better than any other option because I just need to practice the rhythms and techniques and learn new material. I don’t really need to always be paying so much money to see a teacher in person. I just need someone to spell out for me what to learn in a very clear and easy way so that I can go hide in my room and work on it at my own pace until I’ve got it right. This site fills in that gap for me. If there are certain points that you need feedback on, Jason is always answering questions on the site and will gladly give you feedback if you just record yourself playing and have him see it.
Even if you already know a lot of flamenco, this site is still extremely useful. I know there are already a lot of expert players who are members of the site, and Jason is constantly putting up brilliant modern flamenco falsetas that he composed himself. In addition, he has a cante accompaniment and dance accompaniment section! You can practice this stuff all day every day and never run out of things to study because he is constantly adding new material. It’s totally worth the money.
Finally, if you aren’t familiar with Jason Mcguire, check out his youtube videos, and go here: http://www.6moons.com/worldmusic/distancias.html where they call him America’s very own Vicente Amigo.
This sounds like a good deal….I will try it myself since I am learning how to play flamenco.
Good luck with learning Flamenco guitar! Stick with it and come back and let us know what you think about the online lessons!
i like flamenco very much………. u r d best.
Anything I’d want to write about this wonderful site has already been written. It’s the best web site I’ve ever seen for learning flamenco guitar. A definite must for anyone missing a teacher!
Thanks John and Massaim. I have some great new material on the way really soon. 2008 is going to be a great year for http://www.Flamenco-Lessons.com
I am a 43 year old guitar player starting to learn Flamenco. Jason’s site is priceless to me- I can tune and pick from any style or Palos any time I want, and there is a range to suit everybody’s level I would say. The site is better than ’static’ learning from books and videos. Especially good are his commentaries and best of all you know that El Rubio is true Flamenco and his love of the art-form comes shining through.
P