Let Rock 'n Roll History School You

It’s what all the greatest musicians have in common.

They took the best of what their record collection had to offer and adopted what they liked, so they could create their own unique style.

This course is about doing exactly that.

It’s about tracing the footsteps of legendary guitar players all the way up to today.

From Duane Eddy, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin through Queen, Metallica and Rage Against the Machine, to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse and the Arctic Monkeys.

Along the way, we’ll explore the possibilities of the fretboard and absorb all the great musical ideas hidden in rock and roll history.

We’ll take the best of 70 years of music and make it part of your ‘musical vocabulary’.

While we’re talking about Rock and Roll history, consider this.

Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Eric Clapton all have something in common. They all didn’t use TABs or YouTube instructional videos to learn to play.

Nope, all the greats learned to play music by ear.

Here’s why this course helps you do the same:

• Figuring out the songs by ear helps you absord all the musical ideas in a much deeper way. When you figure something out by ear, it feels like you really ‘own’ it somehow. This helps you not just remember the songs, but also to start using fragments of what you learn when you’re improvising or playing solos.
• Learning music by ear is the most effective thing you can do to train your ears. It helps you hear music in greater detail, recognise musical elements, and it’s the foundation for the ability to come up with something in your musical mind and instantly playing it (i.e. playing by ear).
• Learning by ear develops your musicianship. And while picking up a cool song every now and then keeps you motivated in the short term, feeling that you’re growing as a musician keeps you motivated in the long term as well.

Now, this course is part of Make Your Ears Awesome series. That means I’ll help you figure out these songs with this interactive too:

New to figuring out songs by ear? Check out Make Your Ears Awesome: Kick-Starter!

Right now, we’re at the start of this journey through the history of rock and roll. The first section of the course is out, focused on riffs from the 50s. Think Duane Eddy, Little Richard and Buddy Holly.

Each month, I’ll add more songs as we travel through time, decade by decade. How I decide what songs to put in the course? That’s where you come in! For every decade, I’m asking StringKick members for what their favourite riffs are.

In short, I’d love it if you enroll and join us all on this awesome trip!

It’ll make you into a better musician. And, even more important, it’ll be loads of fun!

This course is exclusively available to StringKick All Access Members. Join today and get access to the Riff Hall of Fame, as well as every other course on the site!