News - Summit Guitar School

The 80’s are back with a vengeance and we love it.

Let’s face it, John Mayer is a genius. Is he capitalizing on people’s fascination with all things 80’s? I certainly think so, and it’s amazing. John Mayer is one of the most amazing modern songwriters and guitar players out there. If you’re reading this you probably already listen to John Mayer’s music but have you tried learning any of his songs on your guitar?

Not every John Mayer song is as difficult as you might think. He does have songs that are more guitar centered but there are plenty of songs that you can learn as a beginner or intermediate guitarist. Don’t let his amazing blues playing keep you from attempting to learn one of his great songs. Sure, he has songs that only experienced guitarists can pull off but there are plenty of great songs to learn that are not incredibly difficult.

Here is a short list of some of those great tunes.

There are so many more, the list above are just some of my favorites.

John Mayer’s latest release Sob Rock is definitely a good album. Everything on it including the album art is a complete 80’s throwback. Who doesn’t love the 80’s ? The fashion, the bright colors, and now the music.

Here are the 3 reasons you need to learn this new John Mayer song.

It’s not terribly difficult. The chords and the strumming patterns are perfect for most players
It’s super catchy and fun to play. It’s always great to add new songs to the list of tunes you already know how to play.
The 80’s duh! Our societies fascination with the 1980’s is coming full circle. It’s time to jump on the bandwagon and get the nostalgia rolling. Thanks to John Mayer, we can make that happen just by learning this song.

Here is a song tutorial one of my favorite songs off of John Mayer’s latest album. This song is called Shot In the Dark and it’s a great tune that isn’t too difficult. I even teach the song on my acoustic guitar to make it easier and more accessible to everyone. I hope you enjoy the lesson and leave a comment below to let me know what other John Mayer songs you’d like me to do a video lesson on.

Thanks guys! Here is the chord chart as well.

If you get started on this lesson and you find that it is just too difficult. Check out my FREE Strumming Pattern Essentials course. It will walk you through all of the most common chords and strumming patterns used in most modern music. If you just want to learn how to get started on the guitar sign sign up for the FREE Beginner Guitar Cheat Sheet Here.

When I started my TikTok account I had no idea that #guitartok would be a thing. I started the account because I wasn’t sure if TikTok would blow up and I wanted to be on the platform if and when it did blow up.

Well, it did blow up, and in a massive way. For me it has been a place to post short lessons without having to worry about all the production techniques needed to post a good YouTube video. In short, I like it because I didn’t feel the need for perfection which is a big barrier in many different platforms.

Here is the thing, there are awesome guitar lessons and guitar teachers on TikTok. The cost of entry is literally a phone and $45 dollar ring light.

As a guitar student you can find tons of cool and short guitar lessons on TikTok. Now, it’s up to you as a student to save them and actually practice what the teacher taught in the lesson.

The bottom line is, if you love guitar and cool guitar lessons, you should get a TikTok and start following some of your favorite #guitartok teachers. No one said you had to post anything, that’s totally up to you. I honestly think there are some great guitar teachers and guitar players on TikTok and you should consider checking them out. BTW you should definitely consider checking out my TikTok and give it a follow for some great lessons.

Here is a short list of some of my favorite guitar lesson accounts on TikTok.

Summit Guitar School, of course
Tucker Mckee, this guy is just an all around nice dude and has great lessons on TikTok!
John Mayer, yes, this rockstar posts lessons from time to time!
Gregs Guitars, this guy gives you the run down how to build, set up, and maintenance guitars on the daily.
Intermediate Level Guitar, this account has a really unique way of teaching you songs. As the name suggests, it’s mostly for intermediate level players.
Strattyplays, is a great account for learning chord based songs and he always includes chord diagrams.

That should be enough to get you started. Once you follow a few of these the TikTok algorithm will take over for you!

I hope you enjoyed this quick article. If you did, please consider sharing it.

Thanks

Brett

Summit Guitar School parents/students…

I hope everyone is having a good start to the week. I have been planning on pushing out a practice challenge for a little while. I have noticed that a lot of students have gotten out of the habit of practicing regularly. I totally understand this but I want to get everyone back on track with this practice challenge.

We know that without practice it is hard to progress.

So this is my effort as a teacher to get everyone on the same page with practicing.

I am looking for students to practice 4-6 times a week for at least 20 minutes each day.

Here are the details on the winter practice challenge.

The 6 week practice challenge will start on February 1st and end on March 15th.

Rules:

1. You must log your practice time on the My Music Staff practice log. (If you need your log in for this again please respond and let me know.) Once you log in to my music staff you can easily see where you log practice time on your home page. (again let me know if you have trouble with this)

2. Parents will be asked to verify students logged practice time. Adult students I will take your word for it. NO CHEATING!!

3. You must be working on some sort of scale/scales and some sort of song and or new technique during this practice time. I will be discussing what students will be working on for the 6 weeks in their upcoming lessons.

Now for the prizes!!!

1st prize:

$100 Guitar Center Gift Card

2nd prize:

$75 Guitar Center Gift Card

3rd prize:

$50 Guitar Center Gift Card

Please let me know if you have any questions… I will be happy to answer them.

Reminder: This starts on February 1st!

We have merch!!!

With the launch of our latest beginner guitar online couse, we decided to open our own merch shop!

These designs are completely custom and super cool! Please check them out. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the products. I would be more than happy to chat!

This class changes everything!

This class is completely different from any other beginner guitar course online.

After 20 years of playing and teaching guitar professionally, I finally put my own curriculum into an online course.

This class is meant for anyone wanting to get started playing the guitar the right way. I have successfully taught over 500 beginner guitar players with this new method.

One of the things that makes this course completely different from anything else on line is the practice play alongs. This is not a backing track to practice with. The play alongs are videos of me playing the songs and exercises at different speeds. During the practice play alongs I coach you through the material and give you tips on how to improve along the way!

Students will be playing songs within the first week of starting this course. Each section of the curriculum leads the student to a song. Students will learn the key movements needed to be able to play their favorite songs. This course leaves out all of the stuff you don’t need to know which will save you time and money.

The class comes with a full downloadable E-Book to help you get through the material… You’ll also have access to my email to be able to ask any questions you may have.

You can buy the class risk free as well! It comes with a 30 day money back guarantee!!

Check out Beginner Guitar Essentials Here!!!!

Have you ever wanted to sound like John Mayer or Jimi Hendrix? It really doesn’t matter who your favorite guitar player is… The best of the best know things you don’t know… One of the big topics novice guitar players have trouble grasping is chord inversions…

Chord inversions are the doorway to sounding more like your favorite guitar players. Learning your open chords and barre chords are just the beginning… Yes! There is so much more to learn about chords… By learning your chord inversions you can play more tastefully up the neck, you will be able to play more chords with less movement, and you will be able to outline chords with individual notes. By learning to outline the notes in each chord you will be able to play more tastefully. But how do you learn to do this? There are some steps you have to take to be able to make this happen. The first step is to commit to learning it. After that you will need to learn some basic music theory.

I am working on creating some content that will help fast track some basic theory knowledge. Please subscribe to the newsletter for updates on premium content. In the meantime you can short cut that stuff and start memorizing the triad inversion patterns. Some would say this is working backwards but I do not think so… Because the guitar is so centered around patterns it is a great use of time to start memorizing these shapes…

I have created a 3 part lesson series that covers these triad inversion shapes as well has how to use them. Here is the first lesson in the series. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to send me an email… Heck, send me an email just say hi! That’s fine as well. Let me know what kind of lessons you’d like to see in the future!

Have a great day and enjoy this free lesson.

Brett

Here is the first lesson on triad inversions.