Happy New Year from Vision Music! This month we feature new releases, updates, our ongoing membership bonus offer ever, and more to share with you. Read on...

Not a Vision Music member yet? Have you seen our latest promotional offer? We're offering a hot edition from our popular Monster Guitar Solo series.

Become a Gold Member or renew/extend your subscription at our best rate ($36 per year, a dime a day), then choose any bonus solo you wish (eBook w/mp3), a retail value of $30, absolutely FREE! Just click here to check out the lineup. After you join/renew, let us know your choice via email.

Vision Music still offers the best learning bargain on the web, with over 1100 pages of great lessons, hot jam tracks, inspiring articles, original songs, plus a guest faculty loaded with world-class players and educators, including George Benson, Wolf Marshall, Henry Johnson, Jimmy Bruno, Robert Conti, Muriel Anderson, Liona Boyd, Chris Standring, Steve Laury, David Tanenbaum, Joe Giglio and others. Just think... the best learning site on the web for you and every member of your family for less than ten cents a day. To join our vision and receive your special bonus, click here now to get on board!

We've just released FIVE brand new solos in our Monster Guitar Solo series, a solo transcription collection based on monster influences. The series is now up to 38 editions, and the latest releases feature a great blend of bebop jazz and blues (of course ;-). Each solo contains a mountain of terrific licks for you to learn and apply, not just to these tunes and chord progressions but in countless improvising situations.

The monsters? B.B. King, Tom Scott, Kenny Burrell, Miles Davis, Grant Green, George Benson, Oscar Peterson, Pat Martino, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Robben Ford, Hank Garland, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Charlie Parker, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, and others. Each MGS edition comes in a high-quality eBook with matching MP3 track. Why waste time when you can learn from the best?

Just click below to check out the latest group of MGS additions:

Meditation  |  Blues for L.A.  |  Material Witness  |  Unit Seven  |  Wave

We recently added 15 new additions to our popular Jam Central Station page, including several classic Stevie Ray Vaughan numbers. This month's JCS featured solo was recorded using the "Texas Flood" slow blues track.

To hear the solo, click here or on the image. Our deepest thanks to fellow bluesman and VM faculty member, Wolf Marshall, for his kind words and review. Like what you hear? The licks and concepts reflect what is taught in two of our most popular Lessons by Mail guitar courses. For complete details:

Rhythm & Blues Experience

Swing Blues: Doorway to Jazz

Love the blues? Really serious? Sign up today!

Understanding the basic difference between major, dominant, and minor blues sounds is one of the most critical yet elusive concepts for guitarists to grasp, and one of our latest YouTube video lesson editions breaks it all down for you!

Our other new addition features a hot II-V-I jazz lick using a pair of string rakes. To check out these new lessons plus EIGHT others, click here.

Note: The lesson editions at YouTube.com are video-only, but do include many guitar and bass lesson examples in an ensemble context. For those who wish to see the music itself, we've created a companion version at our site.

To access the standard notation with tab version in our special, highly-unique full-page format, follow the links from the YouTube.com side back to Vision Music.

Have you visited the new Vision Music Specials section at our online store? This is where we feature deep discount (40-50% off) collections from some of our most popular educational product lines.

From our MGS series we have Bebop Deluxe for serious players interested in elevating their ability to improvise over standard jazz changes. Our Benson Classics bundle features a great mix of groove solos for those who love to fuse elements of blues and jazz.

Last but not least, you can pick up the entire collection of ten ebooks (w/audio) from our exciting Four On Six: Walking Bass for Jazz Guitar series. To go directly to the VM Specials page and see all available bundles, click here.

Question Mark...

Most guitarists are rightfully concerned about performing in a trio context, because without a keyboard or a second guitar there is so much more space involved. To me, the critical element is being able to provide added percussion to the guitar role, through rhythmic licks, double-stops, octaves, and chord punches, executed with call and response phrasing. A solid example in a jazz context was legendary guitarist, Wes Montgomery. In blues-oriented rock, players like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan come to mind. Regardless of the genre, all three players used these elements with great success.

New "Ask the Coach" feature! Got questions about what you're practicing and how you're spending your time in order to achieve your goals? We've got great answers, tips, and solutions for you, based on decades of teaching experience. And the best part? It's FREE (no strings attached ;-). To email your questions: click here.