.:THE ROSETTA STONE OF GUITAR
Welcome to the Rosetta Stone Of Guitar official website. We are dedicated to teaching the guitar visually. We study music theory by examining the patterns that scales create on the fret board. We aim to form a complete picture of the relationship between the naturally occuring notes and chords of a given scale.
This first step can be a milestone for many guitarists and the rewards are immense. But this is not all we our method can give you. From this you build an insight into how one scale is altered to form another scale and how that effects the chords from the original family. By understanding this you can learn how to make changes to the family of chords for one scale, to invoke another scale as well as how the solo pattern is effected.
This is geography for the fret board. This is about knowing where you are, where you can go, and how to get there. This is not merely studying patterns, this is about studying relationships between the notes of scales and their complimentary chords.
This is like learning to read music directly from the shapes and patterns of the fret board. Traditional music theory teaches students to learn the deeper secrets of music by studying the patterns of notes as they project themselves on the 5-ledger line staff. We say, why not learn the deeper secrets of music by studying the patterns of notes as they project themselves on the fret board?
We invite you to try out our method at your convenience. Just explore the website at your leisure. You might want to check out the FORUM, the GUESTBOOK, but be sure to click on the LESSONS link. That's where you'll find sample animated tutorials, sample video lessons, and a variety of original music made by people who eat, drink, and sleep the rSoG method.
Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have about this method. I'm not trying to keep it a secret, I'm trying to let the world know. I only wish I could afford to spend all my time developing, learning and teaching it.
Be sure to check out the FREE SAMPLER PDF FILE of THE ROSETTA STONE OF GUITAR today.
Again, welcome!
Frederic F Pool
rSoGuitar .::. HISTORY
The Rosetta Stone of Guitar is a teaching method developed as a visual study of music theory as it appears on the fretboard of the guitar. This visual strategy focuses on studying patterns, yet students of this method are not merely "pattern players" as some might suppose. The approach teaches one to search the patterns for relationships that probe the deeper mysteries of music theory much in the same way as the traditional student searches the patterns on sheet music for them. Our method is an effective alternative to traditional music teaching strategies. We have overcome the need for naming notes by their traditional names (i.e. A#, Bb, etc.). We use more relative terms to describe the notes and chords as it is their relative position to one another (the intervals) that is so critical to understanding the deeper concepts in music theory.
Words cannot adequately describe the advantages of this system over the more traditional methods. There is a oneness about music that so many fail to realize. For example, many guitar students will think there is some enormous difference between a song written in a major key and a song written in a minor key when there is an essential "oneness" to it all. Further confusion comes when studying different keys and modes, not to mention scales. By nature of the approach, The Rosetta Stone Of Guitar fosters a more universal understanding of the greater perspective.
The Rosetta Stone Of Guitar starts the learner off on this journey to enlightenment by first showing the big picture itself (See the free "Infinite Bass" chapter). Next it gets them to learn as quickly as possible to be able to solo all across the neck at will without getting lost (See the free "Spiral Mapping" and "Jumping" chapters). All this is done by learning some simple ways to use the nature of the repeating pattern (that the Infinite Bass makes on the fretboard) to move around without ever getting lost. The next milestone in the journey is a "horizontal" snapshot of the complete set of chords that naturally occur in that pattern (See "Family Of Chords") followed by the chapter on the "vertical" relationships (See "Familial Heirarchy"). The last few chapters focus on the connection to the traditional (Greek Family), key changes (Fretboard Nomads), how to use your ear to find the pattern's place in a piece of music (Pattern Detective), and reinforcing the relationship/connection between chords and soloing (Relatives Of The Pattern). The Rosetta Stone Of Guitar takes the learner by leaps and bounds down the path of enlightenment to a point where they are well equipped to create intelligent music on the fretboard battlefield. Students can improvise and compose chords and solos that don't betray one another. And from this groundwork, as the student gets a stronger view of the simplicity of the pattern, he or she will be poised and ready to make alterations to it and adjust for it in both chords and solos to acheive the more exotic sounds of other scales.
Most students get so excited about the chapters on soloing, and rightfully so, but I must declare that it is the chapters on chords that carry the most power. Understanding chord relationships is the key to discovering the deeper mysteries of music theory.
Now, it must be said that one can surely learn the deeper mysteries of music theory by just buckling down and learning how to read music and taking some music theory courses at a local college or university. But not everyone wants to or would be successful going that route. And, to tell you the truth, most of the people I have met who have supposedly gone some significant distance down that road have only a limited and mostly unimpressive knowledge of music. What The Rosetta Stone Of Guitar offers is either a complete replacement or at least a successful alternative to the traditional approach. It is a system that specializes in guitar; it is a system built specifically with the guitar in mind, whereas the traditional methods are more general in order to apply to the entire spectrum of instruments. The advantage of the traditional is that it applies to all instruments. It's disadvantage is that it isn't specific to the nature of the guitar. The advantage of The Rosetta Stone Of Guitar is that it is designed to apply to the very nature of the guitar in every way the author can conceive.
The roots of this approach date back to about 1995 when the author, while attending Northern Arizona University (NAU), in Flagstaff, Arizona, set about to radically change his approach to playing the guitar. This involved strict discipline in training all four of his fret-hand fingers to build up dexterity. (For many years he had played ferociously without involving his "pinky" finger. Playing this new way, essentially three notes per string, enabled him to see the pattern more completely. It was fundamental to making the breakthrough to what would eventually become a phenomenal new approach to studying guitar theory.
To be continued...someday...
Rosetta Stone Of Guitar :: Fretboard Geography :: Visual Music Theory About the Rosetta Stone Of Guitar :: Visual music theory for guitar. Fretboard Geography: Know where you are, where you can go, and how to get there.
