The Official Blog of Pro Guitarist Allen ROBOT Van Wert

I was sent this email today and it is sad. I wanted to become a youtube partner so I could upload longer videos to make it easier on me and you guys. They said I needed more viewers before they would allow me to partner. If anyone knows how to get more viewers on there please let me know. Here is the message:

Dear musichopper,

Thank you for your interest in the YouTube Partner Program. Our goal is to extend invitations to as many partners as we can. Unfortunately we are unable to accept your application at this time. The current level of viewership of your account has not met our threshold for acceptance.

Applications are reviewed for a variety of criteria, including but not limited to the size of your audience, country of residence, quality of content, and consistency with our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use. Please review the program qualifications (http://www.youtube.com/partners) for a complete list of our criteria.

As we continue to expand we hope to be able to accept a broader group of partners. We have registered your interest in the program and will continue to monitor your account for potential future acceptance into the program.

Thank you for your understanding.

Jim asked about playing a specific set of notes. What is the best way to play it and how does it sound with 16th notes and triplets as 16ths. Here is my video for Jim to help out.

I just gave a listen to the first single from the new Extreme album “Saudades de Rock”. I had been a big fan of their music. They had great space in the music. Funk feel with classical composition and transpositions. It just sounded awesome. Now I go to their myspace and listen to the new single entitled “Star”.

The song consists of a harmony singing.. your a star.. yes you are..bigger than venus and mars. That line on the same stagnant sounding root note while the guitar plays a chord voicing for the vocal line making it even more annoyingly present.. then sounds like it goes to a b7th then a natural 6th to create a dissonant resolve back to the chorus part again. It sounds like the vocals are about 2db too loud in the mix and panned to far to the right. Then we go into the straight 4/4 driving drum and bass part with a non interesting guitar part that is at least allowing some space in the section to make it sound like a verse. Gary’s voice sounds quite pushed and lacking (think Gary with Van Halen). Then back into the same annoying part they are attempting to make a chorus by repeating it a bunch of times.. STAR STAR.. fucking STAR. The only redeeming factor in this song is the Nuno solo. There is a nice breakdown right before it and the solo itself has some creative phrasing. I did get the feeling he was attempting to play faster than he is able to in parts because it got a little sloppy. His usual creative phrasing saved it though. It could of had a little more space and rhythm. Then we go back to it saying star over and over again. End song.

On the mixing and sound side of things. I feel some parts are washed out a little. Nuno should NOT be the recording engineer on this.

I was expecting something very nice… perhaps another pornograffiti album. This was a big letdown for me. I can say this.. the old extreme stuff.. if you were listening to it in your car loud people would think it was cool. If you cranked this and people seeing you drive heard the blasting STAR STAR STAR gayness they would most likely think you were retarded. Perhaps I am angry because I feel let down. Maybe the other songs will be better than this. I really hope so.

Here is part one of a series of upcoming lessons on fretboard mastery. If you have any questions or you are confused about something in the video, leave it in the comments or add a video comment of your own! I answer all comments and emails and make sure to check back or subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss the other parts of this lesson.

I just happened to go through my records for last years earnings and it is quite bleak. The only thing notable is that the book I wrote made over two times the amount of album sales for 2007. This got me thinking. I really enjoy sharing my lessons and years of knowledge about guitar and music theory. I seem to be able to help people out with all of the confusing stuff they pay teachers to show them. I will be working on a set of instructional books for guitarists. They will help you master your craft and will be in a step by step process that will work. I never aimed to publish my first book and it went over well with the masses. I might give this one a shot at being published and put into stores. I have a long list of personal exercises I used myself. I will be making some new ones that should really hurt. It seems like people would rather learn how to play guitar then listen to guitar based music. This isn’t true because the album was priced quite low (way too low). Someone actually has the song ROBOT Funk as their ringtone from Verizon. I noticed this in the sales log today. Perhaps things are looking up. I am excited to begin work on these books!