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A special place for all of my students!

admin — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:44:24 +0000

Hi, I have created a forum for my many students to share experiences and it would be great if you could come and have a look : http://soar.forumotion.com

Thank you!

Allen Robot Van Wert

Francesco Fareri Interview coming soon

ROBOT — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:35:19 +0000

I will be chatting with Francesco Fareri. If for some reason you don’t know who he is, check out his website.

If you have any questions for this shred master that you would like me to include in the interview/chat, please post them as a comment here and I will be sure to include as many as I can. If we do it with video or audio live I will post a link to it for everyone to tune in.

More interviews and guitar chats with some great musicians in the future as well.

Music work

ROBOT — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:23:00 +0000

I recently chatted with Tiago Della Vega about doing a collaboration album. Francesco Fareri is also interested in doing some jamming with us. Could be some really crazy shred guitar on this thing lol. I will post updates on the topic as they happen.

News about this site!

ROBOT — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:40:15 +0000

Hello, as you may know I have been very sporadic when it comes to documenting life events in a blog. Here are some current events in the works:

I am going to start up a live video group guitar lesson service soon.
I will be doing some interviews with top guitar players who I happen to be friends with, worked with or ones that people really have an interest in.
I will be giving more free lessons on many websites including this one.
More blogging on interesting topics usually pertaining to music and guitar.

Songwriting Book Now Available!

ROBOT — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:10:03 +0000

I just added a purchase page for my new book “Modern Songwriting Secrets”. I will be adding more details about the book soon but I put this up for the people who have been emailing me about getting the book asap.

http://www.AllenVanWert.com

Please let other musicians know about this book. Also please let me know how it works out in helping you with songwriting. Thank you for all the help and support!

Allen

New book is finished!

ROBOT — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:54:46 +0000

My new book entitled “Modern Songwriting Secrets” Is complete and about to go on sale. It deals with becoming a better songwriter with real world examples and secrets about modern songwriting. This isn’t about classical music, 70s pop hits, or any pointless songwriting banter like most of the songwriting books out there. This is the real deal about modern music and how to craft hits. I slaved over it and made sure to include every singe tip and secret I could. There is a song analysis at the end of the book that is severely detailed and organized to help you out. The song is a current alternative metal song on national radio. It is from the band “Ra”. Sahaj Ticotin (Their lead singer) Gave me permission to use it for the book and I use it to prove how my examples and secrets are used in the current music on the radio.

If you want to get better at songwriting and have tried other books like me and just never gained anything of substance from them except for theory terms and coined phrases then this is the book for you!

I keep away from music theory as much as I can while providing a real world way to look at things and explain it all in a common sense and logical way. I provide the secrets and tools for you to get better immediately after reading it through. However, I feel that there are so many good tips and examples that most people will find themselves going back to it time and time again when they need a quick fix for a song they are working on. Or when they just need to sharpen their craft. It deals with all aspects of songwriting. There are no pointless examples and no old school mentality where you end up learning about how diana ross songs were written about love because love is a good topic. Nothing lame like that. It is the real deal!

So let me know if you are interested and I will hook you up!

Talk soon!

Allen

New website underway!

ROBOT — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:21:43 +0000

There comes a time in every musicians life when they realize what they think people should have is not what people want. This is especially true for teachers in the music field. I have been giving free lessons on practicing guitar and music theory for quite some time on youtube. I have been flooded with questions nonstop about one certain topic. I have avoided this for a while because the topic would be time consuming and I felt that being a growing musician meant doing things for yourself.

The many questions about getting a tab, about writing music, or about song analysis has made me realize that people are really interested in this. The first thought in my head is TIME CONSUMING. I am about to make a website dedicated to song analysis by request. I am also going to have 100% accurate tabs for songs on the site. I am sure you have noticed that every tab found online and even many in the published books are incorrect. Some are so wrong that it makes me wonder how anyone can play a song in that way and still think it sounds right.

Understanding that working cover-bands like the ones I have been in in the past are always on the lookout for tabs to songs. They get together and play what they read online the night before. I have always found it funny to notice many guitarists playing songs the wrong way at shows, because they all play certain songs they same wrong way… This is a strong indicator of what tab they used as a reference.

I might even include a section of the website where people can post the worst tabs they have ever seen. You know the ones… they are in the wrong key… wrong tuning… the words are to some other song… and that one chord they mark as a major when it is clearly a minor.

There is another deal that got on my nerves a little. Every tab I see is from some foreigner in a school of some sort. Their text reads like this:

“This is my first tab so please be kind. I am 100% sure it is accurate because I used to play this song in a band. I didn’t get to post the solo part yet because I am too busy with school. You can easily figure it out yourself though. Listen to the song to get the proper feel and strum it how you hear it. The bridge was tough to figure out and might be a little off…it sounds pretty close.”… etc etc

This is the type of thing I see consistently with tabs online. I am starting to think its the same guy with some really odd sense of humor fucking with me. I like to reference tabs when needing to learn songs fast. I listen to the song. Play their tab and see what parts they messed up on. Then I figure out the part the right way and sometimes learn to voice it so I can play two guitar parts at once. There is nothing wrong with tabs.. except this:

Inaccurate because people without ears write them.
No rhythm indicators because people without rhythm write them.

I am going to have a website specifically for guitarists in cover bands who need an accurate tab the first time, every time. Without needing to check 10 different ones and then figure it out by ear anyway. It will have all the bells and whistles guitarists in cover bands would want. No extra crap in the way. No pop up ads covering the screen. No BS!

First and foremost I will be ensuring that every song is perfect. I want this to be a place where musicians can go in complete confidence every time. I want a band to be at rehearsal saying to go to the website and get the tab there because it is always spot on. I will probably include video of how to play the song as well. Slow and normal speeds.

If anyone else has a good ear and knows how to notate please let me know and I will see about giving you a job on the site. I am going to be bogged down with about two to three hundred songs right off the bat. I am firstly going to select the most popular cover songs for an average cover band.

I hope this works out!

Update on instructional

ROBOT — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:41:18 +0000

I have written another massive section to the text portion of the instructional. This portion doesn’t actually deal with guitar playing at all. It deals with learning in general. I will have it separated from the other text so the reader can find it easily when needed. I am planning on recording 20 more exercise videos today. I am liking the flow from exercise to exercise. I also think you will like the extra information included in every video. Instead of having one exercise played at different speeds from different camera angles.

I explain what the exercise is helping you master, why it works in your mind, how it builds from the other exercises, and how it will build into later exercises and ideas. I also provide really great tips on playing and technique along the way. Besides those tips on playing which are included, I am going to have specific sections and videos for each technique and show the best ways to do things. I figure instead of making 10 to 30 different little instructionals that deal with one primary thing each, I will make one amazing massive instructional that teaches you basically everything there is to know. I could make lots of money with bunches of smaller instructionals however, I seem to be more interested in actually helping people rather than making a quick buck. This may come back to haunt me someday, but at least I can feel good about myself.

I am getting more and more excited that you will be using all of my knowledge to build yourself up to the best musician and guitarist you can be. After years and years of intense study and practice on the instrument and music theory, I find that the next step besides my own creation of music is to help others at their craft too.

Update on Instructional

ROBOT — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:06:06 +0000

Hello, I have gotten a lot done on the instructional. I have to say that it is going to be really special. There are some amazing elements of learning in this thing. I am so excited about it that I fear I might spoil the secrets of what it contains in this message somehow. All I can say is that it has some very new concepts for guitarists, ones that work. I have built a comprehensive system that everyone will succeed at. I said I had some groundbreaking information in it once before. I am now 100% sure that the few special people who get this instructional will be in complete agreement with that statement. I figured out why guitarists plateau. I figured out why some people don’t learn or advance. I figured out why other systems don’t work. I have also figured out a new way to ensure the fastest mental and physical growth any human can attain. I then took that system and completely redesigned the order of learning to make sure it fits growth of your learning speed. (Basically, with this system you learn how to learn. You start over like you never played before and re-program everything properly. Your learning speed will grow and grow with each section so you can learn anything and everything faster and forever.)

For this entirely new system and way of learning, I have developed all new physical exercises on the instrument. They all build off of each other in many ways. Your mind will find it very easy to master the instrument when you learn in this manner. There is no way to fail except for simply not using the material contained in it.

I already have over an hour of Audio lesson stuff…(me talking to you about this system).
I have a video for every single exercise… each video also explains other things and what the exercise is for in the overall scheme of things….and the text to go along with all of it.

I just had to delete a bunch of text so I wouldn’t give out my secret in here. I don’t want this method getting out to anyone else…yet. If you would like to know when the instructional becomes available. Let me know in an email, or post a message about it in here.

I can’t wait for all of the new happy emails to come in once this is out there and people are advancing like crazy from using it. The last instructional still has people messaging me all the time saying how much it has helped them and no other system has ever worked. Well, this new one totally destroys my old instructional.

With my self study in other fields of life… some really cool fields that pertain to how our brains work, I am combining that knowledge along with all of my extensive guitar and music theory knowledge and packing it all together in a simple for you… (but, hard for me to develop to make sure its easy on your end) format.

I know that all of my long hours spent studying the mind and all of the learning methods in the world. Along with the years and years on guitar itself, are worth it. I am about to release to the world, one of the most amazing examples of advancement as humans.

This material is just gonna 100% kick every ones ass around the world!

New album underway!

ROBOT — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:04:04 +0000

I have been composing day in and out for the new album. This will be a masterpiece. I have been challenging myself to write the absolute best sounding music while still using insane technique. I am currently writing a song that has 3 parts playing at the same time on one guitar with the robot tone and a very strong melody and harmony to it. My side goal is to prove that the robot tapping can be very musical indeed. I have not been this excited about guitar based music in quite some time! I feel very dizzy from all of the complex parts I am writing and playing so far today. My eyes are having trouble focusing on anything except for the fretboard it seems. I am so happy with the work so far that I am really thinking about taking this on the road once it is finished and touring as ROBOT.

I am just so excited! The magic is happening.