Author: Mark Wein

  • The Live Performer’s Social Contract

    The Live Performer’s Social Contract

    I’ve been performing music in public for almost four decades at this point if you count a disastrous trumpet recital in the 5th grade as my “live debut”.  There are many elements that go into a successful public performance but I’d like to focus on one element, which is what I call the “Performer’s Social Contract…

  • Putting Your Lines in the Pocket.

    Putting Your Lines in the Pocket.

    Another of my Truefire.com “TNTGI” contest lessons but I think that it will be useful as a primer for the upcoming lessons that I am producing new for the site next month.  Because of the origin of the video there is a lot of talking in the beginning but I think it’s all worth checking…

  • The Learning Squiggle.

    The Learning Squiggle.

    That’s right, I said it.  It’s a squiggle.  Not a curve and definitely not any sort of linear progression.  In over 35 years of playing guitar and nearly 30 years of teaching it, I’ve experienced the “squiggle” from both sides of the music stand. As a newly minted “guitarist”, I had a bit of a…

  • Building Better Blues Lines

    Building Better Blues Lines

    This is another of the lessons that I did for the Truefire.com “Next Top Guitar Instructor” contest in 2014.  The PDF linked below has a transcription of the sample solo and the backing track I play over is in the media player right below.   Click here for the Building Better Blues Lines PDF. Box shuffle backing…

  • It’s been a while…

    It’s been a while…

    I used to post stuff every week.  Video lessons, blog posts, a podcast on iTunes and whatever else I could use to get the word out that I taught guitar and that I have something to share that you might want to pay for. By the time the 2014 Truefire.com “The Next Top Guitar Instructor”…

  • Mcfeely Custom Guitars 426 Hemi Guitar Demo

    Mcfeely Custom Guitars 426 Hemi Guitar Demo

    This guitar actually belongs to a friend of mine and I thought it was so cool that I wanted to do a demo for it.  I play a McFeely 440 and a 454 but this guitar is a different body style and electronics.  At some point, I need to do a nice demo of my own McFeely…

  • The UnCAGED Fretboard

    The UnCAGED Fretboard

    This lesson is one of a series I made for the Truefire.com “Next Top Guitar Instructor 2014” and I still use it to this day with my students as a primer or introductory lesson before we actually start discussing fretboard layout. The “CAGED System” is a useful tool for students but it is only a…