General Music | Jim Bowley

Category: General Music

March 26, 2012

Welcome!

by jim — Categories: General Music — Leave a comment

I’m Jim Bowley and I’m happy to be your guitar teacher!

Whether you’re a beginner strumming her first guitar chords, an intermediate student aiming to take his guitar technique to the next level, or a 20-year veteran looking for new musical inspiration, you’ve come to the right place! Whatever your goals are, I’m confident I can help you reach them. And when you learn to play guitar with me, you’ll not only reach your goals, but you’ll have fun in the process!

There is plenty of quality information here, so take a look around! Guitar Lessons gives details on my teaching approach, pricing and scheduling. This Blog homepage features a wide variety of free guitar lessons and tips, as well as student success stories and fun articles on artists and industry trends. Read my musical bio in About Jim and some student and parent testimonials in Students Speak. And then there is Guitar Talk for the gear heads and guitar junkies among you!

If you’re local to Harford County, Maryland, Contact me for guitar lessons at my studio in Bel Air. In addition to private guitar instruction, I also offer small group beginner guitar classes, as well as ukulele and bass lessons. If you live outside of Maryland, consider distance lessons via Skype.

If guitar lessons are not an option right now, make sure to join the mailing list – it’s quick and easy and you’ll get all the latest articles and free lessons straight to your inbox!

Whichever road you choose, I look forward to helping you along your musical journey!
jb

January 31, 2012

“The True Teacher”

by jim — Categories: General Music — Tags: guitar principles, jamie andreas, true teacher — 2 Comments

“The true teacher strives with his or her whole being to give the student everything they need to reach their highest potential as a guitar player. They never stop trying to communicate knowledge, and ultimately, transform the student.”

Lately I’ve been using the word “empowered” quite a bit in guitar lessons and in speaking with prospective students. Truth is, it’s a pretty standard word in my guitar teaching vocabulary, but for the past few days it seems to be cropping up left and right.

As synchronicity would have it – thanks Carl Jung and Sting! – a reprise of Jamie Andreas’s 2010 article, “The True Teacher”, appeared in my inbox today. And it’s all about empowerment. Continue reading ““The True Teacher”” »

January 9, 2012

Songs From the Guitar Studio, Vol. 4

by jim — Categories: General Music, Songs From the Guitar Studio — Tags: Christmas, foster the people, jason mraz, van halen — Leave a comment

Welcome to Songs from the Guitar Studio, Volume 4!

As you might remember from earlier volumes, this series is dedicated to songs featured in my guitar lessons. Instead of picking a technique or concept and finding a song to match it, we’ll sometimes pick a song first and see what we can learn from it.

Listed below are some of the songs my students have worked on through the holiday season. I’ve outlined some of the main elements and takeaway points from each one. Hopefully you’ll see something here that may inspire you.

Let’s check out some tunes! Continue reading “Songs From the Guitar Studio, Vol. 4” »

December 16, 2011

Unsung Guitar Hero: Steve Lukather

by jim — Categories: General Music, Unsung Guitar Heroes — Tags: guitar hero, session musician, steve lukather, toto — 3 Comments

Welcome to the first installment of the Unsung Guitar Hero series! These posts will be dedicated to spreading the word about phenomenal guitarists who aren’t household names, but probably should be. In some cases, these players are not even well known to your average guitarist!

The first guitarist I’m presenting is the incredible Steve Lukather.

Steve is well known for being a founding member of the group, Toto (“Rosanna”, “Africa”, “Hold the Line”), but he is also a Grammy winner and one of the most recorded guitarists in pop history, having served as a first-call session player in Los Angeles during the 70s and 80s heyday of the “studio cat”.

“Luke”, as he is known to his friends and fans, is responsible for many of the rhythm tracks, riffs and solos you’ve likely heard on the radio over the last 30 years or so. He has also co-written quite a few major pop hits and played on countless gold and platinum albums, most notably, Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Although Luke is well-known and highly respected among his peers and fans, he doesn’t have a lot of name recognition among the average music fan or guitarist. In this post we hope to change that by giving you a short biography and some interesting factoids about our Unsung Guitar Hero, and also treat you to a list of recommended listening and some great videos. Let the games begin! Continue reading “Unsung Guitar Hero: Steve Lukather” »

December 9, 2011

Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists. Really?

by jim — Categories: General Music — Tags: 100 greatest guitarists, chuck berry, eddie van halen, jimi hendrix, rolling stone magazine, the edge — 6 Comments

Those wacky Rolling Stone people are at it again, with yet another list of the greatest something or other. This time it’s 100 Greatest Guitarists. Unfortunately for them, this is right in my wheelhouse and I’m begging to add some juice to the discussion.

Now, this list has already generated quite a bit of controversy, as most lists do. And I’m sure it’s meant that way – after all, “greatest ever” or “top ten” lists are highly subjective. But some of the choices are truly mind-boggling, both as inclusions and exclusions.

(I feel like I should be doing one of those SNL segments, Really? With JB.

“Bruce Springsteen at #87, Rolling Stone? Really?!? He’s ahead of 13 people? I didn’t know one of the criteria was being able to strum so hard the strings pop off your Tele. Really.”)

It’s no different than a sports Hall of Fame; who gets in versus who gets snubbed. Fans can argue all day long over the choices, and some of my friends and I have already begun this process on Facebook.

For me, the biggest question is this: How do you define “greatest”, when we’re talking about guitarists? That’s a toughie, and unfortunately NOT something Rolling Stone made clear. So let’s clear it up here, shall we? Continue reading “Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists. Really?” »

November 23, 2011

The Wednesday Whatnot, November 23, 2011

by jim — Categories: General Music — Tags: all along the watchtower, bob dylan, cover song, jimi hendrix, musical theater, the civil war, tidewater players — Leave a comment

What up, six-stringers!

While I am hard at work writing some EPIC lessons to thrill and amaze you, to bring you the guitar info and entertainment value you’ve come to expect from my fine establishment, AND learning the entire score to “The Civil War” (for which I have been entrusted with the rockin’, slidin’, country-fried Guitar 2 part), I figured I would throw a few musical goodies your way at no extra charge.

Call it a pre-Turkey Day post, seeing as how no one’s likely to read a Free For All Friday edition this week. Because in the immortal words of Steely Dan, “When Black Friday comes…,” people will be rioting at Best Buy at 5 am. Not me, though. I’ll be snug as a bug and dreaming. Suckers.

Btw, don’t know if people in other parts of the country use the word “whatnot”. Don’t even know if it’s an actual word that ANYBODY should be using, but in these parts, “whatnot” is as much a word as pizza is a vegetable. (Ha! I knew I could work that in somewhere!)

And now…The Wednesday Whatnot. Continue reading “The Wednesday Whatnot, November 23, 2011” »

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