Japanese couple wins World Tango competition (AP)

AP – A Japanese couple outdanced the Argentines and more to win the traditional salon category at the Tango Dance World Championship.

Jay-Z to give Sept. 11 benefit concert in NYC (AP)

AP – Jay-Z will hold a Sept. 11 benefit concert in New York City.

Fox’s new “Glee” inspires soundtracks (Reuters)
Reuters – Columbia Records will release a series of soundtracks from Fox’s upcoming musical drama “Glee,” beginning with “Glee: The Music, Volume 1″ on November 3.

Business Matters: Copyright Debate, Nielsen, WMG
Canadian government is consulting on copyright in advance of new copyright legislation; Nielsen describes America’s generation gap and explained some differences that marketers should note; CD pirates have been taking it on the chin due to harsher anti-piracy laws in Australia, and more.

Peter Gabriel, Abreu accept Polar Music Prize (AP)

AP – Peter Gabriel, founder of the rock group Genesis, and Venezuelan composer Jose Antonio Abreu are sharing this year’s Polar Music Prize.

Columbia To Release ‘Glee’ Soundtracks
Twentieth TV is teaming with Columbia Records to release a series of soundtracks from Fox’s upcoming musical drama “Glee.”

Cranberries reunite for tour after seven years (Reuters)
Reuters – Irish rock band The Cranberries will reunite after a near seven-year break for a tour in North America and Europe with some new songs and old hits like “Zombie” and “Linger.”

Rolling Stones guitarist’s death to be re-examined (Reuters)
Reuters – British police are to re-examine the death of former Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones after receiving new information.

DJ AM autopsy inconclusive; more tests planned (AP)

AP – Authorities will need to conduct toxicology tests, expected to take weeks, to determine what killed celebrity disc jockey DJ AM, a medical examiner’s office spokeswoman said Saturday.

I sucked at playing guitar for a long time, even though I have always loved rock music since I was 5 years old. I have always wanted to learn how to play guitar from my love of the music. I admit, I, like many of you reading this, had your old standard acoustic guitar that you have noodled on every so often hoping you will figure out how to play something, ANYTHING to start getting the hang of playing.

The frustration of wanting to learn something but not knowing where to start can be very daunting and can cause anyone to just give up without the right guidance. I have tried everything to learn on my own without formal instruction because I have always felt that because I absolutely love rock music so much, that I would just intuitively be able to play. At the time I thought this would never happen. I then looked for some books on playing and bought a few and did learn some of the basics but none of them really were that helpful and I gave up on those.

I also joined a lot of forums on playing guitar and read about tips for new players and some of these were good but I still felt held back and lost. But one day while searching the web I came across a page for “Riff Master Pro”. At first the name sounded totally ridiculous to me but I decided to click it and read down the whole page and watched the sample clip also. THIS is what really intrigued me, as it showed that any mp3 I have can be played through this program and it can be slowed down without losing tempo!

Now at this point I had learned some basics from a few books and tabs and I was getting my feet wet. So this program did seem to be pretty innovative. I then decided to buy it and DL it. The interface was very user-friendly and I was learning pretty quickly. The slow-down feature works WITHOUT losing the pitch too. You can also loop any riff over and over to learn at your own pace.

Now that I have been using Riff Master Pro I have become a much better guitar player and am starting to have the intuitive ability that I knew was deep down in me. Since using this program I have learned to play about 40 songs in their entirety on my guitar! If you want to learn how to play and have reached a “player’s block” then I would recommend this program because it is great. Thanks for reading!

About the Author

Kevin O’ Brien is a lifelong fan of all kinds of Rock Music and has always wanted to learn guitar and now he has. A great contributor to this is Riff Master Pro