Fretwise Reviews
A wall of the latest reviews from verified students
All you need to know to gitgud
Stop reading and get started on his courses already! - For me, I decided to return to basics and despite knowing most of the material prior, it enforces what one may already know in a very easy to understand and structured manner. Not only did I pick up new ways to practice old tricks, it also provided me great insight on how to approach teaching this vast topic to my students. Absolutely great resource as always, can't wait to go through the other courses. Less typing, more practicing ;) Darryl, you da man!
Challenging
I love it. He took a challenge concept and made it easy to follow. I knew about GAGED already but this way made it lot easier. I wish I discovered it sooner.
Excellente course!
Everything is very well explained!
Another fantastic masterclass put together by Darryl.
I'm going through all the courses in Fretwise and I'm again blown away by the way Darryl presents material and gradually escalates the concepts and difficulty. This course starts by going over the basics of harmony, reviewing all the diatonic chords and inversions in a key, but also presenting the function these chords have in a progression. Then the most common (and useful) progressions are reviewed and analyzed in popular songs for you to hear their practical application.
THEN the fun starts by going into the weeds of advanced harmony, where you will learn how to completely transform repetitive progressions into something completely new and interesting with diatonic and non-diatonic substitutions. The cherry on the cake is the run-down at the end where you review the whole course by creating everything from the ground up, from basic to complex; and then understand the different levels of melody/solo creation to perfectly tie in to your creation.
WELL WORTH the investment. Darryl, THANK YOU for such a well presented, thorough and easy to follow course. JUST TAKE THIS COURSE, beginning to end, then go through it again! You WILL be a different musician by the end.
Excellent introductory course into the world of fingerstyle!!
Darryl is a soulful and gifted guitarist, and a methodical teacher who starts every lesson by impressing you up front with his performance to get you excited; and then slowly shows you exactly how to there at a very digestible pace. You will start thinking "this is impossible"; and finish saying "that wasn't so bad, let's try the next lesson!". This is not easy stuff, but that just goes to show how amazing of a teacher Darryl is.
The course will start with the basics of fingerstyle, practicing finger independence and basic percussion, and then graduate you to more complex rhythmic techniques to use your picking hand as a built in beat machine while you pluck, hammer, pull-off and flick away. All the techniques used by all modern day popular guitarists. Once you're playing songs, he will walk you through his process of choosing a basic chord progression, adding a melody, coloring with chord inversions and extensions, and then finally applying fingerstyle technique to make everything sound cohesive and beautiful. You'll finish the course by learning Darryl's actual compositions, tying in all the content of the course together in gorgeous songs you will play for years to come!
Take the course, you will NOT regret it. Just make sure your axe is well set up. A comfortable action is a must to nail the hard passes of sliding chords with hammer-ons and pull-offs. I will be taking EVERYTHING else Darryl has to offer!!
A Profound theoretical AND practical Approach!
Very easy to follow and understand, plus practical exercises that provide a solid foundation! Loads of fun to work with those!
Simple Explanation of Complex Ideas
I've always respected and enjoyed Darryl's content as he has a way of simplifying complicated musical concepts. He's very thorough in his work and is able to appeal to all skill levels at once through detailed explanation. I look forward to each new course he puts out because of this!
As Good of a Theory Primer as it Gets
This course goes along perfectly with the CAGED course that he offers and I personally have gone through both at least twice and plan to reference it as needed over years to come. Lessons are concise, yet thorough. I'd recommend doing one lesson per day to really get the most out of the material and to help it stick. The material he's sharing is all very relevant and pertinent to your every day playing. There's actually no section in any of his courses thus far that I've found to be redundant or non-practical. Keep rockin' my friends!
Best Teaching Method For The CAGED System I've Ever Taken
I ordered Martin Millers Fretboard Visualization Vol.1 and it had plenty of "exercises," if that's what you want to call them, but it explained nothing. Darryl's CAGED Masterclass is just what I was looking for! If you want a fretboard visualization system to tie together Chords, Arpeggios, Scales and Interval mapping then do yourself a favor, get this masterclass...Like, NOW!
A gem of a course from a gem of a player/teacher. Hands down winner here. I've learned so much from Darryl. Thank you!
I haven't finished this course as I'm being as thorough as possible but it's already provided so many incredible tools and lessons for hours of endless learning. It's already a 5-Star course in my book. Darryl is an incredible teacher and player that has heaps of wonderful insight to the basics of guitar and music theory. Not to mention his tasteful playing is such an inspiration to my own. I've learned so much here and on youtube and I have you to thanks Darryl! Thank you. I love feeling the progress and finding connections through your lessons and my everyday playing. Hope to become my own best version of musical self on my guitar journey.
Personal side note as someone who has play guitar for over a decade and never learned a lick of theory. As I move through the course I make sure to take breaks in between learning the course material and try to apply it to both writing and learning other musicians music. I then go back and try to take a deeper dive and truly learn the theory behind what I'm playing and not just "memorizing" the shapes but really understanding the intervalic value and understanding what I'm playing (I happen to be learning triads). I find this more digestible and advise other to do the same if it feels overwhelming. I compare it to learning a new language - if you just memorize a sentence/words do you really know what your saying? It takes time and effort to truly understand it all. Multiple visits to the same lesson is it's own lesson I'm learning! - You're your own boss when truly learning and no ones watching so make it count! Good luck to everyone!
A truly brilliant course and unbelievable value!
This course is absolutely fantastic (and worth way more). If you want a better understanding of Music Theory then this is 100% for you. The structure of the lessons and the content proves that Darryl not only can play the guitar (obviously) but can TEACH it too which is rare. I feel I'm already improving and actually understanding what I'm doing rather than just relying on memory. You get the structure, content, transcripts for every lesson, PDF's when needed, and can ask questions too. Honestly, it's been the best purchase in my guitar learning journey so far. If you're thinking about it, get it! Thanks so much, Darryl.
For years I’ve fallen back on the same old bar chords/power chords and the same old licks, THIS will change that!
I'm working my way through Darryl’s instructional courses and they are doing me the world of good. I should have learned this stuff years ago but it’s never too late to start. I’m picking it up really well and I’m actually learning and progressing instead of playing the same old stuff I’ve been playing for years and got nowhere with. If you have been playing for years, like me, or just starting, start with the CAGED Masterclass, it’s absolutely what you need. You will see the fretboard differently, it will open everything up for you. GO! GO DO IT NOW! ✌️
Very very useful Masterclass!
Get this one. You won’t regret it!
The value and what you get for the price is insane
I think the title of this class already said it. This has helped me a lot. Darryls way of teaching things is clear, easy to understand and logically build up and he is a calm very kind guy. Definitely would buy it again. 10/10!
This melodic finger picking masterclass is spectacular!
Darryl starts with the very basics showing clearly how to perform the technique, then he progresses to show a number of different example chord progressions (songs) using the technique. There are tabs and clear video shots showing how each chord and each song is played at a very slow tempo and then up to speed.
This is definitely the best course for learning guitar music theory.
I’ve been buying lots of programs and watched youtube videos on music theory but never really understand them too well, but Darryl sets this program in an understandable order. Thank you so much, would definitely buy other programs too when you make them. Currently halfway through this program haha
I LOVE the transcripts written out for every lesson, that compliment the videos really well.
Absolutely great course so far, highly recommend it. It is thorough, easy to understand and covers all the topics which I’ve heard mentioned before, but never understood, in one comprehensive course. One of the things that I LOVE about it are the transcripts written out for every single lesson that compliment the video lesson really well. I love watching Darryl explain the topics in the videos, but I really like being able to have something to read at my own pace and study. The notes are very thorough and super helpful. Another thing worth mentioning is the support that you receive if you ever have any questions. He always replies really quickly with a thorough answer and clearly values his students. Highly recommend this course. A++
A must for all guitarists I feel.
Brilliant course, covers everything I wanted to learn to understand what I’m playing more and also unlock a vast amount of possibilities with my guitar playing. The guitar has definitely just opened up to me, and also a deeper understanding of music in general and how it can be worked out on other instruments.
Easily one of my best purchases ever!
I’ve heard the CAGED system before but never knew that it would be this useful. Darryl explained it very well and helps me understand the whole system. This course will help you visualize the fretboard, thus making it easier to do things that you wanted on the guitar. Pentatonic across the neck? Not a problem! Building any chords along with inversions? Absolutely! Creating Harmony? Of course! Easily one of my best purchases ever! I really recommend it if you want to go further with your guitar playing!
Love how thorough the lesson notations are!
Recently bought and went through Intervals real quick to get an idea of the course. What really caught my eye was the notations to go along with each lesson. Very thorough and useful for someone like me who likes to keep notebooks of information. I’m excited to put it to use and start feeling more comfortable with creating music instead of blindly playing what MIGHT sound good. lol Thanks, Darryl for the opportunity to learn from you. Some of your vids on Youtube go over my head when it comes to theory, but I’m eager to learn!
Your teaching and your skills are like no other on the internet!
Hey Darryl, first off thanks for all that you do!! I’ve been playing guitar now for over 20 years self taught. Thirteen of the years I’ve been fortunate enough to do it for a living. I’ve learnt so much from this course as well as your YouTube videos, there’s just so much useful information. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who’s starting out or has been playing for sometime. If you want to take your guitar playing to the next level this is the teacher you need to follow for sure! If I could give more than 5 stars I would. Thanks Darryl, I’ll be signing up soon for your Patron as well as your Skype lessons soon take care.
Great stuff!!!
I am familiar with the CAGED system and use it myself, but have never had it explained so well. I really like how Darryl has a step by step approach on each shape that builds on the intervalic relationships between the root note of the parent chord.
This is a great course for learning guitar music theory!
This course helped me to understand complicated guitar theory in an easy way and very easy to understand. I recommended this course, especially for a guitarist like me, I’ve been playing electric guitar for many years, but I only have basic knowledge of guitar theory. To be honest, this course helps me to improve as a guitarist and helps me to improve my musicality. Thanks, Sir Darryl for this intuitive course.
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