2015: A Year in Review

Hey all! Marc-Andre Seguin here; nice to have you reading this post. This is the "year in review" for 2015 on JazzGuitarLessons.net ... grab a nice cup of coffee and we're set. :-)

I hope you had a nice 2015. As the year is drawing to an end, I believe it's a great time to recap on the things we're proud of. For me, here, of course: all the JazzGuitarLessons.net stuff has occupied most of my time. Lessons, courses, podcasts, videos, etc.

That. And teaching of course. :-)

Here are the year's highlights:

2015 JazzGuitarLessons.net Review

January: Migrating to Wordpress. In fact, this is an endeavour that I had started in 2014. Yours truly manually moved every single page of the original "old" JazzGuitarLessons.net to the Wordpress platform. And finally it took until late February to make the switch and have a fully functional (and mobile) Wordpress blog for JazzGuitarLessons.net ... all the old html pages are still there, but they've all been reviewed carefully. Talk about a painstaking process! :-)

February: Creating the store. After migrating to Wordpress, I felt the need to deliver great jazz guitar instructional products from one convenient location. Up until that point, I only sold video courses on Udemy and individual PDFs through the defunct Oronjo, or e-junkie. So it's in February that I created Store.JazzGuitar.net, hosted on the Teachable (formerly Fedora) platform. The original URL was http://store.jazzguitarlessons.net ... and I started brainstorm new courses by myself, and other external authors.

March: 25 Exercises for Better Jazz Guitar Phrasing. This is the first course published officially through Store.JazzGuitar.net ... of course, I migrated the old "classic" Udemy courses on the new store. But 25 Exercises holds a special place in my heart, as the first course in the new store. :-)

April: Untold, a YouTube series of "non-lesson" videos. Although the release happened later in the year, I got the original idea back in April. The Untold Series simply is discussing the "formula for success" found by studying the bios of legendary jazz musicians. We don't discuss scales or chords ... but rather examine what we can learn from each jazz guitar master. The first instance is Wes Montgomery Untold. I had a blast doing it, and will continue with this series in 2016.

May: Three Ways Pat Metheny is Using the Secret, the blog post. This was the coolest little piece of writing I had done in a while. I know Pat probably never read "The Secret", but by realizing how much visualization and goal-setting Metheny made, I just had to write about it. I found out by reading some interviews with Pat Metheny. This book of interviews with the master is worth checking out!

July: Tune of the Month Club official start ... the biggest release in the history of the website and store. Do I need to say more? :-) Ok, yes I do: one new song every month, including chord melody, lead sheet, solo, comping study PDFs (with TABS) ... along with video instruction for all the above. Includes backing track, a Facebook group, discussions and a monthly webinar. And more!

August: The Dummies' Guide to Jazz Standards, the blog post. Another "home run" as far as my skills in writing blog posts go. The reception on the social medias and through the newsletter has been phenomenal. There's also an accompanying video, here. It shows the jazz guitar student (of any level), how to build, maintain and polish a decent repertoire of jazz guitar standards. Personal life: it's in August 2015 that I proposed and got engaged (in New York city) to the most wonderful person I've ever met. Yes, we had the nicest meal at Daniel. ;-)

September: the only thing worth mentioning is a trip to Newark, New Jersey for a Pat Metheny concert and interview. It launched Christian McBrides' One-on-One series of interviews/concerts. The formula is pretty cool: play a few tunes, chat a little. Rinse and repeat. I still want to write about this Pat Metheny and Christian McBrideevent on the blog, but I was so blown away that I'm still recuperating from it. Pat and Christian played beautifully in duo on standards and some originals. Opening song: Black Orpheus. Moment of truth: these world-class jazzers playing the Metheny original Question and Answers.

Personal life: I was cordially invited to this event by Scott and Jimmy, students of JazzGuitarLessons.net ... but first and foremost, amazing friends. In fact, it was the first time we met in person. And that's only because of the distance. I live near Ottawa, they're further south in the US.

Scott, Jimmy, and M-A

October: Crowdfunding for a new jazz guitar album. If you've been around in October and November, you've probably noticed the website and newsletter plastered in irritating ads asking you to contribute. Well, it was a success! The next "M-A Seguin Trio" album is going to be recorded and released in 2016, thanks to you (funders!) In the process, I've also offered several "goodies" in exchange of funding certain amounts. The biggest perk was the I'll Write You a Blues This Week where yours truly wrote (and uploaded to YouTube) blues dedications. To start the dance, I wrote a blues for my wonderful studio assistant Mitaine (my cat), called Mitten Blues.

November: Making the Changes on All the Things. A series blogs and videos (in three parts), where we broke down how to clearly outline changes while improvising on the jazz standard All the Thing You Are. Another "home run", I believe, as it helped lots and lots of players get clarity in their jazz guitar soloing.

December: release of the online video course Deja Vu, by Sandy Poltarack. Which is, basically, the easiest, simplest, most straight-forward and most amazing way to learn all the notes on the fretboard. It was a few months in the making, but was worth the wait. Sandy's years of experience helped us devise a step-by-step non-intimidating (and NOT positions/CAGED based) way of understanding the fretboard for guitarists of all levels and styles. Check it out!

Ok, enough about JazzGuitarLessons.net now! ;-)

So how about you?

Did you learn a lot of jazz guitar licks and songs in 2015? Or perhaps you're just starting out? Let me know in the comments below. And buckle up for 2016, where you'll receive more free lessons, videos, podcasts to help you on your jazz guitar journey.

Sincerely,

Marc-Andre Seguin
JazzGuitarLessons.net