Chord Substitutions Workshop Revisited

Last November, I offered the first of my weekend workshops, Chord Substitutions And How To Use Them. At the time, I'd heard from a number of people that while they were interested in what I was teaching in The Fingerstyle Five, they weren't down for the ongoing commitment of a monthly membership. Cool, I thought – I'll make something for people like that, something you only have to show up for once. I modeled the first one on the in-store clinics I once gave to promote the release of my Acoustic Guitar Method. A couple of hours on a specific topic on a Saturday morning, only this would be even better, because instead of just attending live for a couple of hours and getting a few handouts, you'd also get a replay afterwards, allowing you to review the material as much as you liked for the next few months. Awesome, right?

Well, the topic was popular, and the live stream went pretty well, but there were a couple of hitches. One was that people already in the membership were confused – did their membership cover this new workshop, too? It didn't, because it was invented, I thought, precisely for people who were membership-averse. And the whole three-months thing was confusing, too – I thought having months of replay was super generous, but people tended to compare it to a download you own forever, and felt frustrated that they couldn't count on having the material around to refer back to for as long as they were interested in it.

Finally, it turned out a big percentage of the audience for the workshops was, in fact, existing members. Who knew? I started hearing that the workshop material, which tended to provide an in-depth approach to general blues topics like improvisation or chord voicings, made the perfect complement to the song-specific approach of the  membership lessons.

So this month in the membership, I'm doing an encore presentation of that first workshop on chord substitutions. I'll live-stream the material this afternoon, and this time, if you're in the membership, you'll automatically have access, and instead of the three-month limit, you'll continue to have access to the entire replay for as long as you maintain your membership. In addition, the workshop replay will go into the membership archive like any other monthly lesson, and anyone who joins in the future will find they have access to the entire workshop as well.

So if you missed the workshop the first time around but would like to know more about how to find and use chord substitutions on the blues, you can join the membership now, attend the live stream this afternoon and have access to the replay for as long as you stay subscribed. Plus as a member you'll have access to almost two years' worth of monthly content: not just solo fingerstyle blues songs to play, but also step-by-step lessons on how to improvise on those songs and turn them into complete, performance-ready arrangements. Plus access to a vibrant membership forum where you can post your work, ask questions, get insight from other members and geek out on all things fingerstyle blues related.

This new live stream will include all of the original material from last November plus new examples created expressly for this presentation. You can find out more about the Fingerstyle Five membership and sign up at the link below:

Join the Membership

If you'd like more details about the workshop or are wondering why you'd want to learn about chord substitutions in the first place, I've reprinted the original workshop explanation below:

Here's how the numbers work: the original workshop cost $47 and you had access for three months. If you join the membership now in order to catch the workshop, it'll cost you $20/month for as long as you stay subscribed. In addition to the workshop itself, you'll now also have access to all the other membership content, including the entire archive of lessons and songs, and the membership forum. And yes – you could totally sign up for a month of membership, check out the workshop, download all the tab, and skedaddle in the first thirty days, all for twenty bucks. But if you decide to stick around, you'll get all the membership material, plus a rad workshop on chords, all for the same, uh, low low price (minus the Ronco Vegematic).