2018: A Fantastic Year in Review
Jan 09, 20192018 has been a great year with lots of growth and a few challenges along the way. We've been steadfast in continuing our Tune of the Month club, adding a new tune every month. We've also added new courses to our store as well as grown our staff.
There's a lot to be thankful for this year and none of it would be possible without your support. We've grown our time and our reach and can't wait to go into the new year full speed ahead.
2019 ... come at me bro!
Let's get right to it with the 2018 fantastic year in review. There's a lot to talk about!
January: Bossa Baby
At the beginning of the year, we worked on expanding our reach on the internet, and we also got right to it with a blog post: Intro to Bossa Nova Comping.
This marks the first time we've really touched on the Brazilian side of things. Thanks to Jonathan, who is a pure wiz at latin comping!
February: New Staff
Speaking of which, in February, we hired our new editor-in-chief Jonathan Orriols. Jonathan has taken over some of the blogging and editing as well as helping us make our social media presence stand out.
Here are just a few of the blog posts he's written for us:
March: Chord Melody, Strike 3
In March, we released the final course to our chord melody series: Chord Melody Mastery. This course touches on some of the more sophisticated aspects of chord melody playing and is a logical progression from the previous courses.
Chord Melody Mastery closes the loop in our chord melody series, with some advanced and creative techniques for arranging melodies on the guitar.
We now have the following available in the course catalog:
- Chord Melody Crash Course
- Chord Melody BTN (Beyond Top Notes)
- Chord Melody Mastery
April: Musicians Websites
We joined up with Bandzoogle in a partnership to help up and coming musicians get their website together and start to build their brand. A website is like a digital business card and we're happy to have played a part in sharing this valuable information.
May: NEW ALBUM! Woot! Woot!
I released my album, "Second Chances" and I'm really happy with this recording! My now deceased friend is on the cover, as a tribute to his fulfilling life.
You can check out a performance from the album released below. The tune is an original called The Frank Waltz. In all honesty, just skip ahead to the sax solo. That's where the juice is ;)
7 - The Frank Waltz (M-A Seguin) from JazzGuitarLessons.net on Vimeo.
June: Standards Bonanza
In June, we overhauled our entire jazz standards index. We've added new solos, chord melodies, studies, and more.
This, of course, is a massive undertaking and always a work in progress. We plan to add new tunes to the list in the coming months.
Check out some of our more popular standards pages:
July: Hands On Jazz Guitar
2018 also brought the continuation of our popular Hands-On Jazz Guitar series. In this series, we share a concept with you, and give you licks or chords you can play right away.
In July we published issues #11 and #12.
August: Wedding and Honeymoon!
I married my soulmate, V! It was a lovely wedding surrounded by family and friends. Harp at the ceremony and all.
The best part: I did not wind up dancing a cha cha with a drunk aunt at 11:30pm. Win-win-win ;)
Who is V? Simply the founder of the most amazing music school in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. Check it out! www.LachanceMusic.com
Gentlemen, keep the DM and you-know-what pics to yourself. She's taken!
September: More Hands On
In September, we closed the book on our Hands-On Jazz Guitar series with an intro to metric modulation.
In this issue, we talked about a few things you can do to play around with time and add some rhythmic interest to your soloing.
October: Theory, Finally
We released our long-awaited Harmony 101 course in October. In this course, we really delve into the theory of chord construction, intervals, and all of the things my fellow music geeks are interested in.
November: Screencast Testing
You asked and we listened. Lots of people had questions about the difference between inversions and voicings, so in November, we produced a quick little video + blog post on the subject to clear up some common misconceptions.
December: Blogs Frenzy
We wrapped up the year with a blog post frenzy in an effort to touch on some important subjects attempting to answer some common questions.
We also made it onto Feedspot's Top 100 Guitar Blogs!
Have a look ;)
What's Next?
All in all, I'm very happy with the year we've had. It presented some challenges as well as new opportunities.
JazzGuitarLessons.net is only growing and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us! More to come in 2019: VIDEOS focus (live and polished lessons) as well as more premium (paid) lessons for all levels and needs.
And maybe podcasts too (John -- I know you're reading this!)
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