
Take a step back in time with Mark and learn to shred some rock n' roll classics.
Lesson 4
Mark Brennan and his wife, Marla, take on "She Talks to Angels". This song is from The Black Crowes release, Shake Your Money Maker.
Length: 34:12 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 10
"Big Yellow Taxi" appears on Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon, released in 1970.
Length: 23:13 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 11
Mark teaches you the ins and outs of a Stevie Nicks' / Fleetwood Mac fan favorite. After Mark plays the full song demo, Marla (Mark's lovely wife) joins him and sings this beautiful song.
Length: 34:23 Difficulty: 2.5 Members OnlyLesson 13
Mark Brennan takes you through the mega hit that brought Lifehouse international attention.
Length: 23:34 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 14
Mark Brennan teaches this classic rock song by Jethro Tull.
Length: 69:09 Difficulty: 2.0 FREELesson 15
Mark Brennan teaches this classic rock staple.
Length: 35:05 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 16
Mark Brennan teaches this Creedence Clearwater Revival classic.
Length: 31:14 Difficulty: 1.0 Members OnlyLesson 17
Mark Brennan teaches this Creedence Clearwater Revival classic.
Length: 36:25 Difficulty: 1.5 Members OnlyLesson 18
Mark Brennan teaches you how to play this hit song from Eric Clapton. Released on Money And Cigarettes in 1983, the song has had a recent boost in popularity thanks to its use in a cell phone commercial.
Length: 75:00 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
About Mark Brennan
View Full Biography
Mark Brennan, born August 12th, 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio, began playing guitar at the age of 10. His first influences were from the Ventures and the British Invasion, especially the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Shortly afterwards he was playing in rock bands with his brother on drums, developing his ear by learning songs straight from records. Playing in a band became a passion.
In high school, he grew to love acoustic and classical guitar. He spent time playing acoustic music, influenced by The Eagles, CSN, Dan Folgelberg, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, etc. In the 70's, he headed a very popular Cleveland band, The Brennan-Cosma Band, which played a variety of acoustic and rock music, along with originals. He also took up classicalguitar, and began developing his fingerstyle technique.
Mark is a graduate of Cleveland State University (1980), with a Bachelor of Music in Classical guitar performance. He also studied Music Composition, and took many Music Education classes. After graduation, he began his private teaching career, teaching electric, acoustic, and classical guitar, along with music theory. He taught in various studios and guitar shops throughout his career, and currently has a private practice at his home in
Fairview Park, Ohio.
In the 80's Mark took an affection to Progressive rock. With his band Polyphony, he was influenced by the music of Yes, Genesis, Kansas, ELP, Styx, along with a set of prog rock originals.
Currently, Mark is in the regionally successful Pink Floyd tribute band Wish You Were Here. The band performs faithful renderings of the Floyd classics spanning their entire catalog, along with a strong visual stage show. Here, Mark displays his command of the David Gilmour style.
Mark is excited to be part of JamPlay.com's fine roster of teachers. He's looking forward to extending his 35 years of performing and teaching experience to the JamPlay members. His philosophy is about developing a passion for guitar and being the best musician you can be; being true to yourself and developing a personal style, and truly expressing your heart through your music.
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
Erik expounds on the many possibilities of open tunings and the new harmonics that you can use in them. He explains what...
Free LessonSeries DetailsMiche introduces several new chord concepts that add color and excitement to any progression.
Free LessonSeries DetailsJessica kindly introduces herself, her background, and her approach to this series.
Free LessonSeries DetailsLesson 7 is all about arpeggios. Danny provides discussion and exercises designed to build your right hand skills.
Free LessonSeries DetailsSteve Eulberg does a quick review of this lesson series and talks about moving on.
Free LessonSeries DetailsMark Nelson introduces "'Ulupalakua," a song he will be using to teach different skills and techniques. In this lesson, he...
Free LessonSeries DetailsPamela brings a cap to her first 13 JamPlay lessons with another original etude inspired by the great Leo Brouwer. This is...
Free LessonSeries DetailsHawkeye teaches several Robert Johnson licks in this lesson. These licks are played with a slide in open G tuning.
Free LessonSeries DetailsNick explains how to play some of the most commonly used chords in the bluegrass genre.
Free LessonSeries DetailsJim Deeming discusses how to use a metronome for practice, skill building, and speed building.
Free LessonSeries DetailsOur electric guitar lessons are taught by instructors with an incredible amount of teaching experience.
Lauren Passarelli offers up her wisdom on purchasing a guitar. She also includes information regarding proper setup and care....
Free LessonSeries DetailsThis is a crucial lesson that explains tablature, how to read it, and why it's important.
Free LessonSeries DetailsChris brings his ingenuity to this lesson on the American folk song called "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" Also known as...
Free LessonSeries DetailsMark Brennan teaches this classic rock song by Jethro Tull. Released on the album of the same name in 1971, this song features...
Free LessonSeries DetailsJane Miller talks about chord solos in part one of this fascinating mini-series.
Free LessonSeries DetailsLearn a variety of essential techniques commonly used in the metal genre, including palm muting, string slides, and chord...
Free LessonSeries DetailsTosin explains some of the intricacies of the 8 string guitar such as his personal setup and approach to playing.
Free LessonSeries DetailsIn this lesson Eric talks about playing basic lead in the Memphis Blues style.
Free LessonSeries DetailsSteve Stevens shows some of his go-to licks and ideas while improvising over a backing track he made.
Free LessonSeries DetailsWhile we have attempted to provide you with an accurate rendition of our video lesson experience, there are some features which
require a membership with us!
At JamPlay, we give you the ability to monitor your own progress for any lesson! If you watch one of our lessons and feel as though you understand around half of it, mark your progress at 50%. This adds the lesson to your customized Progress Report, and gives you an incredible ability to document what you need to work on, and where you left off.
With thousands of lessons at your fingertips, JamPlay can be a touch intimidating to a first-time user. With Progressive Bookmarking, we give you the ability to systematically bookmark sections of any lessons you are working on to quickly access later. After all, what is the point of all this content if it isn't easy to use?
JamPlay also gives you the ability to leave notes for yourself on any lesson. Just like in any educational system, taking your own notes while learning gives you the ability to highlight the instruction that is important to you. Leave your notes, and we store them in our database for you to reference each and everytime you come back to the lesson.
Signup today to enjoy access to our entire database of video lessons, along with our exclusive set of learning tools and features.
Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.the riffs for me were pretty easy for me . just the las part of riff b, but with repeated practice and replay i got it down. the hardest part of this song was the rhythm. thanks mark. great lesson.
Great lesson, Mark. I really struggled, though, with the C/G chord after years of strumming normal C's. I finally contented myself to do the 5-string C. Lo and behold, I then see that you do the same for all but the first C in the demo! :) Nice singing by your wife.
One of my favorite CCR songs...thanks!,,
I been working on this for a week.I think I will pull this off with a little brake from jamplay to practice.Then I'll be back for more lessons I like how you teach THANKS P.S I have big fingers will I ever be able to play chores I'm having a hard time I still trying them
I too have short fat fingers but I'm really working at wrist position and it seems to be getting better. Let me know if you've found any new tricks.
that is a good job of teaching thank you Mark
Bloody great Mark. Your keeping me inspired.
Hi Mark. Fun song to learn here. I am having trouble with that palm damping and the percussive chich strum - are you using your left hand to damp here? Thanks, DR
With the muffled (chick) strums I'm lifting the left hand finger but staying in contact with the strings. This will dampen the strings to get the percussive sond when strumming....when I'm dampening the whole chord to give the strum a short duration, i'm dampening with the side of my right hand. Hope this makes sense, and helps.....let me know, Mark
I read about this lesson on the forums, for the challenge live chat on April 2nd. I would have missed it altogether otherwise as I'm a beginner and mostly focusing my time here on beginner lessons. Can I just say, Wow! You make this so easy to learn. I particularly like the fact that you teach both of the guitars and then show how they go together as if in a band. It took me a moment to get used tot he dual upside down view, but ultimately I think this camera angle is probably easier to learn from. Great job!
Mark, great lesson! My son is just starting out and this has been a great song for us to work on together. It really helps keep the fun in learning while he practices his regular exercises. Not to mention this is one I always wanted to learn too. Thanks!!
Mark- Great job as always !! What resource do you use\recommend for the sheet music with the standard notation and tabs like being shown on this song? I know we can print these, but if we want to find other music similar to this, where is a reliable source?
Start with ultimate-guitar.com....you can get Guitar Pro tabs and they're free. Then try MusicNotes.com. You can purchase and download sheetmusic (tabs with standard notation), plus it has a cool feature called Guitar Guru, for helping learn tunes.
Thanks for the response and for doing such a great job on these lessons!!
Really liking the CCR lessons. Anymore coming? Centerfield perhaps?
I have filmed a lesson on "Proud Mary". There are a lot of great choices with John Fogerty music.
Another great one. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks a bunch Mark!
Fantastic to see the performance, as it gives sooo many hints on how the guitars sound in a band context. That's what i looked for! Fox
Nice to see new songs. What's with the upside down view. When you finally get used to learning to follow someone playing with you this new view kind of gets you out of practice when learning from someone live when you can't look over their shoulder.
The "upside down view" is supposed to be more realistic as if you were actually holding the guitar and looking down at it. Think of it in this way and It should become a little asier.
I realize what the view is. I was just commenting because I like the older version better because it's more like it would be if you were in the room with someone. It just seems like it would be more practical.
Mark, very very enjoyable. Great tune, well taught. Great singing by Marla as well. Thanks. I hope we'll see more of these. 'Fortunate Son' would be another great CCR staple I'd love to see.
Great lesson; I love CCR. Thanks for adding this to the library. As usual Mark does a fantastic job; his wife has an excellent voice.
mark thanks very very much for this ccr song its great and easy to play. i'm sure everyone appreciates your hard work for us, i know i do agan thanks so much
Great lesson Mark. Great camera work. Thanks!
Mark, Great job as always. This was a nice song selection -- easy enough for beginners yet still fun for more advanced players. Thanks again for all your contributions to jamplay.