The Martin Taylor
Guitar Academy
http://martintaylorguitar.com/
The Martin Taylor Guitar Academy opened on April 15, and a new era in teaching fingerstyle jazz guitar began. If you have been lucky enough to see Martin Taylor in concert then you know what an astute student of the guitar he has been for his entire lifetime. The great news is that he is just as clear and personable as a teacher. Of course most of us do not have the luxury of commuting to Scotland for regular lessons, so Dr. Martin Taylor, MBE has been kind enough to come to us. Working with the company ArtistWorks, the Martin Taylor Guitar Academy maximizes the usefulness of the internet to provide two-way communication between teacher and student, and student and teacher.
Already the site contains over 100 video lessons on virtually every topic of interest to a fingerstyle jazz player: what position to hold the guitar, right hand technique, developing expression with the left hand, basic scaffolding for improvisation, how to arrange for solo guitar, how to comp with a band or with a singer, nail care, incorporating a pick into fingerstyle, and many, many more. You study this material at your own pace, and when you have mastered a lesson you can make a video of yourself playing, submit it to Martin, and he will send back a video commenting on your playing with suggestions for how to progress. Even better, these video exchanges are public, so that you can learn from others and they from you. If this sounds at all daunting, let me ease your fears. Having spent most of the week snooping through the site I can tell you that this is a very supportive community that cheers each other on. Martin Taylor is a kind and encouraging teacher who tells you what you are doing right as well as suggesting things to stretch your technique and your enjoyment.
And enjoyment is a key element in Martin Taylor’s teaching. He presents the concepts clearly, with humour, and in chunks that are just the right size to challenge but not overwhelm. I found myself watching videos of concepts I already knew just for the fun of hearing Martin’s take on them and his straightforward presentation. After the basic concepts, the lessons shift to learning by playing tunes. Here you can apply what you have learned, as well as studying how Martin Taylor arranges tunes for solo guitar. The first few of these go through several versions, each adding a little more until a truly professional version emerges. But while the section on learning with tunes is great fun, do not get the impression that the basic concepts are just busy work. His is the clearest explanation of “jazz blues” that I have heard, and the eight lessons on improvisation are worth the price of signing up alone.
And there is the best news of all. The cost is just $60 for THREE MONTHS of lessons! The site offers over 100 lessons, but there are many more features to help you learn and meet new friends with this same interest. There are forums where members are already discussing all aspects of guitar and playing. There is a chat function where students can chat in real-time, as well as a Twitter-type panel on the main page for quick messages or questions. There is also a section of audio tracks that you can play along with, either from the site or by downloading them. Some of the song arrangements also have downloadable notation and tablature as PDF files. There are even performances with the Martin Taylor band and the wonderful singer Alison Burns.
Most of the lesson songs have two different camera angles that you can choose from, one straight on and the other over Martin’s left shoulder. These can be very helpful when trying to get a tricky fingering or to see what his right hand is playing. Many songs also have slow versions, which keep the pitch constant while slowing the tempo to half-speed. This makes it much easier to follow Martin’s hands, and while the audio is very well done there are a few digital “artifacts” in the audio since it is slowed so drastically. However, if you have tried any of the software for slowing down audio, you will appreciate how good the sound quality here is in comparison.
As with any technology, the site has a few “teething problems” that should be remedied soon. Most are minor, such as that chat sometimes does not work, and some videos automatically go to the next when finished while others do not. Other issues are annoying but should be easy enough to fix. On the audio tracks page I accidentally started a track playing only to discover that there was no button to stop it, and not even an indication of which track was playing. It continued playing over top of the next video I watched. So a little annoying but easy enough to avoid, and to fix. The one feature that bothered me most was the music used to lead-in and lead-out of the videos: it often interferes with the performance it leads into, sometimes even playing over the first few notes. Once again, annoying maybe but it certainly will not keep you from learning.
In short, this is a fantastic way to take fun and interesting lessons from a terrific artist and teacher. You get three months of lessons for the cost of one or two lessons with a private teacher, and if you can learn all of the material on this site in three months I will be buying tickets for your Carnegie Hall debut this summer. For any fingerstyle jazz guitarist, signing up is the easiest decision you may ever have to make.