Rogernice
Verified buyer
04/11/26
Beyond Beginner
I have just started working through this course and I’m loving it. It’s actually giving me my next steps in my journey.
Hands On Guitar: Beyond Beginner
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About this course
You already know how to tune a guitar. You already know several open position chords and maybe a couple of moveable barre chord shapes. You know a few strumming or picking patterns, can keep fairly good time, and have a small handful of easy songs under your belt. You can even play a few single note lines and licks. But you just can’t seem to take your playing to the next level…
Welcome to the club! Everyone who has ever picked up the guitar has been exactly where you are. Crossing that bridge between beginner and intermediate player is one of the biggest challenges we face as guitarists. There’s plenty of beginning guitar instruction and plenty of intermediate guitar instruction available, but there’s almost nothing that bridges the gap between them. That’s why Susan Mazer’s Beyond Beginner is your express ticket, over that bridge, to the bountiful and very musical world of intermediate guitar!
Susan has organized the Beyond Beginner course into eight sections, Each section contains a series of lessons focused on an essential skill you’ll need to cross your bridge to go beyond beginner…
“I’m going to help you develop the eight essential skills you’ll need to go beyond beginner. You’ll expand your open chord vocabulary to the 25 chords needed to play thousands of songs. You’ll learn how to use chord substitutions, extensions and embellishments. We’ll work on movable barre chord forms so you can play any of your tunes all over the neck. You’ll learn 30 strumming and picking patterns so that you can choose the perfect groove for any song. I’ll show you how to incorporate bass lines and slash chords in your playing. You’ll learn how to hold your own in any blues jam. You’ll learn how to solo a little and play a few single line fills. And finally, I’ll teach you how to play songs in any key to best match the singer.”
Your first stop on Susan’s bullet train will populate your chord vocabulary with all of the chords that you hear being played in your favorite songs but just haven't found on your fretboard yet. You’ll learn how form the Major 7th, Minor 7th and Dominant 7th chords that are so popular across almost every genre of music.
You second stop introduces you to those cool Sus4, Sus2, Add9 and 6th chords that all of your favorite singer-songwriters use all of the time. You’ll also learn how to use embellishments like hammer-ons and pull-offs while strumming chords to add even more interest to your rhythm playing.
All aboard and onto your third stop where Susan passes on the fretboard magic of moveable barre chords — your gateway to using the entire neck of the guitar for both rhythm playing and soloing. Even if you already play a few moveable barre chords, tune in here for more insight!
Learning 30 new strumming and picking patterns is next: 10 strumming patterns in 4/4 time, 10 strumming patterns in 3/4 time and 10 finger-picking patterns in 4/4 time. You’ll never be at a loss again to come up with an appropriate rhythm guitar part with these 30 patterns at you fingertips.
Next stop, Slash chords and Bass lines. Susan will show you how to incorporate slash chords and bass lines in your playing to create more textures and movement in your rhythm guitar parts.
Grab your electric guitar for the next stop as you learn to play and jam on the blues (although you can use electric or acoustic for any of the lessons and skills being taught in this course). The 12-bar blues is probably the most frequently played progression in contemporary music. Susan will show you a few different ways to play rhythm guitar parts for the 12-bar blues and also give you the tools to play it in any key.
Just two stops to go! On this stop, its time to start playing a little lead guitar. Susan shows you how to solo using movable and sliding major and minor pentatonic scales — the most important scales in popular music. You’ll also learn to add a few riffs to your rhythm playing.
On the last stop across the bridge, Susan ices the cake of your new musicality with a series of lessons focused on identifying keys and tonal centers, and how to approach changing keys to best match the singer’s voice, whether that’s you or the singer in your band.
You’ll play your way through the course, applying all of the skills as soon as you learn them by working with the playalongs and jam tracks that Susan prepared for the course. Susan also includes lots of charts and diagrams, and many of the examples will also be tabbed and notated, plus you’ll also get all of the rhythm tracks to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and hop aboard, you’re headed way beyond beginner guitar!
Welcome to the club! Everyone who has ever picked up the guitar has been exactly where you are. Crossing that bridge between beginner and intermediate player is one of the biggest challenges we face as guitarists. There’s plenty of beginning guitar instruction and plenty of intermediate guitar instruction available, but there’s almost nothing that bridges the gap between them. That’s why Susan Mazer’s Beyond Beginner is your express ticket, over that bridge, to the bountiful and very musical world of intermediate guitar!
Susan has organized the Beyond Beginner course into eight sections, Each section contains a series of lessons focused on an essential skill you’ll need to cross your bridge to go beyond beginner…
“I’m going to help you develop the eight essential skills you’ll need to go beyond beginner. You’ll expand your open chord vocabulary to the 25 chords needed to play thousands of songs. You’ll learn how to use chord substitutions, extensions and embellishments. We’ll work on movable barre chord forms so you can play any of your tunes all over the neck. You’ll learn 30 strumming and picking patterns so that you can choose the perfect groove for any song. I’ll show you how to incorporate bass lines and slash chords in your playing. You’ll learn how to hold your own in any blues jam. You’ll learn how to solo a little and play a few single line fills. And finally, I’ll teach you how to play songs in any key to best match the singer.”
Your first stop on Susan’s bullet train will populate your chord vocabulary with all of the chords that you hear being played in your favorite songs but just haven't found on your fretboard yet. You’ll learn how form the Major 7th, Minor 7th and Dominant 7th chords that are so popular across almost every genre of music.
You second stop introduces you to those cool Sus4, Sus2, Add9 and 6th chords that all of your favorite singer-songwriters use all of the time. You’ll also learn how to use embellishments like hammer-ons and pull-offs while strumming chords to add even more interest to your rhythm playing.
All aboard and onto your third stop where Susan passes on the fretboard magic of moveable barre chords — your gateway to using the entire neck of the guitar for both rhythm playing and soloing. Even if you already play a few moveable barre chords, tune in here for more insight!
Learning 30 new strumming and picking patterns is next: 10 strumming patterns in 4/4 time, 10 strumming patterns in 3/4 time and 10 finger-picking patterns in 4/4 time. You’ll never be at a loss again to come up with an appropriate rhythm guitar part with these 30 patterns at you fingertips.
Next stop, Slash chords and Bass lines. Susan will show you how to incorporate slash chords and bass lines in your playing to create more textures and movement in your rhythm guitar parts.
Grab your electric guitar for the next stop as you learn to play and jam on the blues (although you can use electric or acoustic for any of the lessons and skills being taught in this course). The 12-bar blues is probably the most frequently played progression in contemporary music. Susan will show you a few different ways to play rhythm guitar parts for the 12-bar blues and also give you the tools to play it in any key.
Just two stops to go! On this stop, its time to start playing a little lead guitar. Susan shows you how to solo using movable and sliding major and minor pentatonic scales — the most important scales in popular music. You’ll also learn to add a few riffs to your rhythm playing.
On the last stop across the bridge, Susan ices the cake of your new musicality with a series of lessons focused on identifying keys and tonal centers, and how to approach changing keys to best match the singer’s voice, whether that’s you or the singer in your band.
You’ll play your way through the course, applying all of the skills as soon as you learn them by working with the playalongs and jam tracks that Susan prepared for the course. Susan also includes lots of charts and diagrams, and many of the examples will also be tabbed and notated, plus you’ll also get all of the rhythm tracks to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and hop aboard, you’re headed way beyond beginner guitar!
What you'll learn
- Solo over a minor blues using the minor pentatonic scale
- Combine comping with melodic riffs
- Apply bass movement at strategic points in songs
- Transition between rhythm and lead roles in a blues context
- Understand how bass lines connect song sections
Release date: 01/05/2015 • 2h 57m runtime
Sample lessons
JAM: Triads and Seventh Chords 2
Playalong
Understanding Extensions
Demonstration
JAM: Extensions as Embellishments
Playalong
Strumming Patterns in 4/4 Time
Demonstration
What's included
69 lessons • 52 charts • 15 Jam Tracks
Hands On Guitar: Beyond Beginner
These lessons contain something for everyone. We start by reviewing all the basic open chords and then talk about chord extensions and slash chords. The new chords will instantly add interest to your playing. Then I’ll make sure that you understand all your barre chord forms and how to move them up and down the neck. All through the lessons I introduce lots of picking and strumming patterns, so you’re right hand adds as much interest as the left. In the next lessons, I’ll show you how to add bass lines to your playing to connect and outline the chord changes. You’ve probably already played a 12-bar blues, but in these lessons I'll show you two movable forms that you can play in any key. To go along with the 12-bar rhythm part, I'll show you how to solo with both a movable major and minor pentatonic, and a sliding scale. You’ll also learn to add riffs to your rhythm playing. Finally, I'll explain the concept of tonal center and a “key” so you can use the capo or transpose to play in any key.
SECTION 1: Open Chord Vocabulary
These next lessons are a review of all your open chords. Sometimes, even people who have been playing for a while need to revisit these chord shapes. Listen to the quality of each chord and notice how major chords sound bright and happy. Minor chords are darker and sad. Dominant 7th chords (7) have a bluesy sound, while major 7th chords have a relaxing and pretty sound. Minor 7th chords take the edge off that dark minor sound. What do you hear? These chords will also serve as preparation for the barre chords that I'll teach you in a later lesson
Open Chord Vocabulary
While you’re learning these open shapes it’s important to have the chord chart in front of you. Seeing the visual pictures always helps to solidify what you're learning. Once you're confident with the chords, try quizzing yourself by taking the chord chart away. Go through "A" - "A7" - "Amajor7" - "Am" - "Am7" in alphabetical order.
JAM: Triads and Seventh Chords 1
Have the chart in front of you before you play along. Practice each chord slowly and be sure that you know where your left hand is supposed to go. Your hand only follows what your head tells it to do. Remember to keep common chord tones down. As a review, you can also try writing out each chord from memory using a blank chord diagram.
JAM: Triads and Seventh Chords 1
The chords move fairly quickly in this tune, so if you miss a chord jump back in when you find your place. Practice the right hand strumming pattern enough that your hand is on “auto pilot” and you can play without thinking. If the strumming is still difficult, the first time through you can just use two down strums per measure instead of the pattern given. Have fun!
JAM: Triads and Seventh Chords 2
This tune uses a new strum and different chords from the last tune. Sometimes, the strumming pattern is split between two chords. Take one measure and practice it over and over until the strumming pattern is solid. Then, practice the chords separately from the strum using only a down strum per chord. Once you know the chord shapes without looking at your chart, you can put the two together.
JAM: Triads and Seventh Chords 2
Sometimes we get so intent on learning a tune that we forget to just sit back and listen. We use our eyes and head so much that we simply forget to be musical. Play along with me and don’t forget to enjoy!
+ 62 more lessons
Reviews
24 results
pchudzik@icloud.com
Verified buyer
12/19/24
The class is fine but the app not so much
Nice advanced beginner series of classes but I am finding TruFires navigation system terribly finicky and confusing.
Francisd
Verified buyer
04/02/24
Beyond Beginner
Hi, I learned to play guitar myself but picked up some bad habits and techniques, but Susan Mazer's course Beyond Begginer helped me so much and showed me the correct way and aproach to practice and playing right and left hand techniques to chord change and finger styles, scales etc, plus bridged the gap for me between beginner and intermediate,her teaching style is easy to follow, hope to see more of Susan's lessons if she in aditional courses in the future, God Bless her.
dwa79
Verified buyer
07/30/23
Just Right
Just the right level for a late beginner early intermediate player like me.
Vlad S.
11/11/22
Very Good
This course provides further foundation for beginners who can actually play. It has really elevated my guitar playing level. Suzan teaches beyond beginners chords with applicable theory. How to play these chords, with moving basslines and strumming techniques. A very nice part on 12 bar blues and later cool section on soloing with pentatonic scale. Really enjoyed playing and getting musically educated by Suzan.
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