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FAQs

Which course do I need?

  • If you want to improve your technique by learning the right way:

    - The Mega Badass Bundle is devoted to teaching you how to do the techniques properly, and it gives you the most efficient exercises to do that with. The technique courses in the Mega Badass Bundle include the incredibly popular ‘Badass Alternate Picking’ and ‘Legato Gym’ courses which are the most straight-line paths to making progress in those techniques

    If your guitar technique needs work then I truly recommend starting with ‘Legato Gym’. You can get all the technique courses separately but if you’re serious about improving and want to save some money at the same time, the Mega Badass Bundle is the way to go

  • If your technique is quite good but you’d like to get your picking and fretting hand faster:

    – the Speed and Accuracy courses are devoted to giving you masterclasses and methods of speeding up your technique by smoothing out all the problem areas where most players lose speed. These are not ‘from the ground up’ lessons on techniques like picking and legato. If you need those, see the ‘Mega Badass Bundle’

    The Speed and Accuracy courses show you how to free yourself from the ruts of slow movements, bad transitions and common problem areas. It will also show you a better way of practicing than the old ‘practice slowly with a metronome’ advice which only works for the early stages of learning a lick or technique. To reach the higher levels of guitar performance, you need something different. This teaches you how to do it. (You will also get these masterclasses along with many more, not available to buy, in The Complete Guitarist)

  • If you love Rock, Metal and Shred guitar and want to be the absolute best you can be? If you want to go beyond technique and improve your melodic abilities, increase your lick repertoire and gain the skills to unlock the fretboard:

    – The Complete Guitarist is a monthly subscription which will expand your guitar skills by giving you everything you need to improve in Rock, Metal and Shred guitar

    If somebody comes to me and says “What do I need to do to shred on the guitar?” – then THIS is the answer to that question

    This really is the ‘give you everything’ package. The material is different to the lessons in the Mega Badass Bundle. The technique courses in the Mega Badass Bundle deal purely with technique only and I recommend that path if you want the deep dive / step by step guides to learning alternate picking, legato, sweep picking, economy picking, bending and vibrato. But if you’ve got a reasonably good level of technical skills and you’re ready to go further than that, The Complete Guitarist is for you

  • If you’re intermediate or advanced and you want to build up your technique in the specific style of one of your favourite guitarists, in order to play their songs or just to know how to shred like them

    - The Badass Guitar Legends courses lay out a path of exercises and solos to build your technique in the style of a particular giant of rock and metal guitar. There’s no point studying blues and country licks if you want to shred like Yngwie Malmsteen

    You’ll get further by practicing exercises that use his actual picking style and finger patterns. Same story if it’s EVH, Randy Rhoads or George Lynch. This is the most direct path to understanding how they play the way they play…and getting the skills to do it yourself

  • If you’re a late beginner/early intermediate and are new to challenging techniques or you’ve had a long lay-off from guitar and need to build up your skills again:

    – start with the FREE courses

    The Warm Up will get your fretting hand and picking hand in shape by increasing your speed and stamina, which gets you in a better place to start learning more challenging material

    Iron Maiden: Ultimate Rhythm Skills will improve your picking technique and strumming technique as it pertains to rhythm playing. I recommend this to anyone who’s making the leap into more technical, challenging rock and metal guitar playing

    Maximum Guitar Gains shows you how to practice properly in order to improve your technique, improve your speed and improve your accuracy. You’ll work on lead playing and rhythm playing. You’ll also be shown an easy way into improvisation. Think of this as a glimpse into the ‘give you everything you need’ package that you will get in The Complete Guitarist

I've got the Mega Badass Bundle. Which technique course should I start with?

  • If you’ve grabbed yourself a copy of the Mega Badass Bundle then here's what to do. I recommend starting with Legato Gym. Most people will probably want to jump into picking straight away but the Fretting Hand is what holds you back from developing hand synchronisation. A weak picking technique may keep you slower than you want but an unreliable, weak fretting hand will completely hold you back from good hand sync! No matter how solid your picking is, if your fingers can't keep time and hold their position then you'll never be able to sync both hands up. Take the time to go through Legato Gym and really get your fingers under your control once and for all!
  • From there, now you're ready to match up your reliable fingers to the picking hand. So dive into Badass Alternate Picking. If your sync is still unreliable, go back and make sure that it's not your fretting hand that is behind the beat or rushing. Remember: Weak fingers cannot stay in time! Only when you are sure that your fretting hand is competent should you attempt to play complex licks. Your fretting hand doesn't need to be super fast and super elastic but it should at least be competent and reliable with its timing and control. 
  • Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the material and are practising the advice and licks, start applying it to Badass Hand Synchronisation. The licks in this course are designed to cycle purely for synchronisation and speed. Depending on what level you are, you can play along with the backing tracks or, if you need more of a challenge, you can play to a metronome at higher tempos.
  • My FREE course The Warm Up also has two mega simple exercises that work both hands so make sure you possess that if you don’t already! 
  • Now you’re taking care of both hands and getting some fundamental strength and stamina where it counts.

How should I practice the material in your courses?

  • The same way you would with anything you practise. Some people prefer strict practice schedules with a certain time allotted to every exercise. Some people work better by focusing on less things but for a longer amount of time ie. go with the flow and play until they’ve had enough.
  • If you’re focusing on developing a particular technique it can often be better to just immerse yourself in it and give yourself time to experiment until you feel the technical concepts taking shape, rather than to try and squeeze everything in. This is the way I’ve always made the real leaps in my guitar playing.
  • There’s no right or wrong way here. Look back at your guitar playing history and try and identify what has always worked best for you and keep it along those lines.
  • Remember: If you're wondering 'What licks should I practice and for how long?' The first part of that question is already answered. The licks are in the courses! Start with Legato Gym. Your Fretting Hand WILL need work. I guarantee it. As for the second part of the question. That question is the eternal question without an answer! Any guitar teacher could make up some numbers and say 'do that lick for 10 minutes followed by that lick for 15 minutes' but they are just numbers. It doesn't mean anything. Plans like that are more for the student's reassurance rather than any real evidence of effectiveness. Your personal practice is YOURS. You have to sit down and do the work. This is where we have to use some common sense. Clearly, two minutes of work isn't going to do much for us. But cycling licks beyond the threshold of our attention span and playing until your hands hurt should be avoided.
  • There's a difference between 'feeling the burn' and pain. 'Feeling the burn' aka the 'zone of improvement' and what I sometimes call the 'Ultra Zone' is that warm sensation of lactic acid building up in your muscles and causing them to feel stiff and heavy. This occurs when your muscles are working. This is normal. The more difficult and less familiar the task is, the harder they have to work. You can start a task slowly, and it might be a few minutes before you notice the burn. If you do a task which is very physically demanding then the burn will start much quicker.
  • Don't stay in the burn too long. If you feel the burn during practice it means that your muscles are working outside of their comfort zone. But don't overdo it. The biggest rookie mistake you can make is to think that adding hours of more and more practice is going to get you improvements faster. No. It will just get you injured faster. And then you have to wait days or even weeks to recover so you can go back to practicing... and then you'll have to start gently again, and much slower. So don't do too much. 

Do I get lifetime access?

Yes you do!

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