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I have had PT for about two weeks now and can safely say it is the best thing I have ever purchased. 

Knight46 (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
I've been nose to the grindstone with Planetalk. It is THE missing link for me. Patterns I've used for soloing these past 37 years are now completely altered and express what I hear in me head so much more. I am eager to jump into the site and participate in the forum... right now, I'm still trying to take a sip from a fire hydrant! Thanks so very much Kirk. Life itself is better now!

Kyle (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
Oh Kirk this is good, soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good its unbelievable. Not going to watch the dvd for a week going to let my mind ponder with the info in the book. I just keep thinking about this its great, every 2 seconds it becomes more more clear that this is the way to think about the guitar layout. ... Thanx for a great product 

Johnboy10 (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
Just wanted to write and say a big thanks for Planetalk. I ordered it a few weeks ago and have now finally had a chance to sit down and read/watch/begin to absorb it. For years I've been fruitlessly searching for a way to link together the little pockets of guitar knowledge that I've been plugging away at - and you have provided that link through Planetalk. I am now using the whole neck of the guitar when playing, and it's beginning to look like a familiar map (rather than a dense forest of random notes). Yesterday I had my first "Aha!" moment and was happily playing along to CDs all up and down the neck of the fretboard! I was grinning like a kid! So thanks again, and hats off to you!

gogogoch (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
Hi Kirk, I received your Plane Talk book, dvd and slide rule. After watching the dvd and using the slide rule, the guitar fretboard is finally making sense to me! ... I have never heard anyone explain the fretboard like you do in this course. It really makes understanding the fretboard easy. Thanks very much!

Esko (Toronto, Canada)
I just wanted to complement you on your usefulness practicality of plane talk. Having played guitar for a good while..ive been through the modes/scales and various caged minicourses..I should have found yours first...cuts to the meat of the matter...your slide rule will stay in my guitar case.....you need to make a permanent version (hard plastic) as I will wear this out! 

Bert (USA)
After going through PlaneTalk a couple of times I am quite frankly amazed at how simple it makes things. It does not teach you to play guitar as such BUT it EMPOWERS you to learn (with hard work), to teach yourself play any kind of music you like. It breaks all music down to its simplest form, the lowest common denominator; which to me is the way to solve any problem. I honestly believe that I'll never have to spend any more money on guitar instructional material again (I'm not a big fan of having lessons) because anything I want to learn how to do is right there in front of me, plain to see. Now all I need to do is practice. Thanks Kirk.

Jaimie (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
I finally got my copy of PlaneTalk (+ DVD) on Saturday, along with the Slide DVD and the Brass slide. No light bulbs went off as I began reading PlaneTalk - it was more like the 4th of July with each successive page!!! Like many of you here, I clearly knew about all of these elements, but I just didn't see how it all fit together and what it really meant. I am so blown away, I can hardly think about anything else. This knowledge has breathed new life into my guitar playing like no other other musical information I've come across. I've been stuck at a minor Pentatonic plateau for years, trying to break through the Blues box shapes that have guided (and limited) my playing since the mid 60s. Now I finally feel that I can begin improvising melodically from my heart/soul, instead of just patching together a sequence of safe riffs, and not really knowing what I was doing musically. Kirk, I can't thank you enough for sharing this with all of us. I am forever in your debt. You will definitely be getting a credit on my CD, whenever it finally comes out (now I really feel inspired to finish it!).

"Macaroni" (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
Kirk, First of all: AMAZING. That word sums it up!!! I've been playing for 20 years and even though I play well it has never made any real sense (all of my compositions have come out almost "accidentally" and they all seemed like scales on steroids!!!). Now, it's like writing lyrics, I know the letters AND how to use them to write words. Obviously it takes time and practice to get the hang of it (it wouldn't work if it didn't!!!!) but after two reads and watching the DVD I understand the potential. WOW!!! THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!!!

cfzinser (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is awesome. I just finished it. I do have one problem, how am I going to continue to teach guitar without somehow using some of your methods. They are genius!!!!! I will recommend this series to any and all of my students. Again, many thanks, especially for the speedy international shipping. I will sign up for your forum when I get a chance, and once i've read the book several times, and had a greater chance to explore it. 

Jason (Utah, USA)
Just wanted to report that I'm getting a lot out of your PlaneTalk package. Very nicely done! As a guitar player for 33 years and a slide player for about 4, I'm one of your "classic" customers that just couldn't get out of the pentatonic box. I've had PlaneTalk for about a week and I'm all over the fretboard. What a difference your system has made in my ability to express myself on the guitar, and it's getting better and easier everyday. Thank you for taking the time to put it all together, and in such a clear and clever way. The comic strip format is great (and funny!), the dvd is a perfectly paced visual compliment, and the slide rule... what a handy tool. I'm very happy with it and grateful that you've made it available. Thank you, Kirk.

Adam Boltz (New Jersey, USA)
Hello again Kirk, I just wanted to inform you about a couple of things.

1:) I got the missing guitar ruler the other day, and everything is well under the sun

2:) I will recommend planetalk to everyone that will lend me their ears for a sec !!!! in forums email etc ... (but of course with commons sense and etiquette)

3:) YOU ARE A GENIOUS !

4:) Thank you so much for not keeping all this info for yourself !

I must have bought about 35 - 45 guitarbooks over the years, none of them can compete with planetalk!! as a matter of fact, only one book before your's have really helped me, and that's Bill Edwards C.A.G.E.D system book, which is brilliant, but get really busy after the initial revelation. Planetalk doesn't suffer from that illness :) you have the best of the best of the best.!

My only regret now is that I should have bought this book 15 years ago :)

Kenneth Hakansson (Furulund, Sweden)
Wow! The book made me feel so dumb and so enlightened at that same time. All these years I never noticed some of the things your book showed me. I took my day off to study your course and immediatly decided to get back to trying to make the changes and actually knowing what tone I am using, over what chord, all while knowing where I am in a tune. Helping to break me out of the cage (CAGED)! Got to go practice. Thanks man!

Eric (Georgia, USA)
Hi Kirk, I bought your book sometime ago, and it unfortunately stayed on the shelf with all my other guitar books. Big mistake! At the end of last summer I had some time to spare and thought I'd take a look. That was the single most important thing I'd ever done with regards to playing the guitar! I am more excited about playing the guitar now than I have been my whole life, and tell any one who has a guitar to go and get the book!! Thanks again.

Piers (London, UK)
I received the Plane Talk materials and Slide DVD this weekend and have had a chance to briefly read/watch them. You did a fantastic job laying out these concepts. I have been playing guitar as a hobby for nearly 20 years and have always struggled with seeing the fretboard. My first read through the Plane Talk book really resonated with me and I am excited to delve into the materials deeper.

Kevin F (Ohio, USA)
Please accept my sincere thanks for your PlaneTalk efforts - truly outstanding work.

Dennis D (USA)
Well your PlaneTalk book Blew My Mind! I have been trying to understand the relationships between Chords, Scales, and the Fret Board for many year. So to see it so simply laid out was very revealing. I sure wish I had had you book some 25yr ago when I started playing. 

Ryan (Thailand)
I’d just like to thank Kirk -- again -- for teaching me "the secret" of how to actually play this instrument. I'd taken hour-long guitar lessons every week for over 20 years, with many different teachers, and all those lessons added together never freed me to play whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, in any key, the way I can now. Thank-you, Kirk!

"Zapruder" (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
I was looking for a topic to reply to and this one says it all. PT=Awesome. My package arrived today and I have already read the book and watched the DVD. Kirk, thank you again. This has provided me with the answers I have been so desperately seeking for years. Wonderfully put together! Where can I buy a the T-shirt?! Haha, but seriously, if you have some or ever make some I would love to buy one. I have already started passing the word along about PlaneTalk. 

jdb1421 (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
I have played guitar for 15 years on and off. I wanted to find a system to connect all I learnt into one. After 2 years of searching the internet for guitar books and browsing 100's of them, I finally found the one book that ties it all with one system - Planetalk. My understanding of the guitar increased dramatically in just a few hours and the possibilities arising from this way of looking at music on the guitar are endless! Simplifying to one common denominator was really to key to understand the complex guitar 12 note offset repeating matrix arrangement. This is surely the best Guitar book I ever owned, and probably the last I will ever buy.

Micheal Bonnet (The Netherlands)
Greetings from Ontario Canada, I've been trolling through the message boards until my PT package arrived. After reading thru and watching the video, It was like talking to an old friend. Everything made perfect sense and all the things I have picked up here and there fit in the picture perfectly. Guitars are so different and very special. Kirk is a very special teacher. He has opened the steel vault door for his students. We all just need to walk through. Thank you Kirk...... 

Mynorthstar (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
Testimonials - Use the arrows to browse through them all.

The whole PT idea is so spectacularly right, simple and wonderful that complicating it seems so wrong. It is truly a brilliant concept and has improved my understanding of guitar playing beyond all recognition. I just can't thank you enough! 

Zap (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
I did my first read-through of Plane Talk and watched the video last night. Super stuff - I am very impressed. Years ago I used to claim to my AI students that intelligence was the ability to see differences where others see sameness and to see sameness where others see differences - that puts you off the scale in music IQ, I reckon. ;-) 

Aigeezer (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
I can't express fully my feelings on this incredible book and accompanying DVD. Appreciate very much the time, experience and depth of thought it must have taken to turn out this masterpiece and all its related material. The essence of great teaching is simplicity, as you are obviously aware. I'm sure there must be thousands of music teachers and professors who can complicate things nicely----the essence of all that is bad with teaching. You have accomplished a unique work. Your down to earth, helpful and clear explanations answer virtually all questions before they arise. I can't thank you enough for your willingness to share this awesome approach to the world's most wonderful of all instruments... I had always felt there must be some key. But any attempts I made at learning theory, although enjoyable and interesting, never clicked to any degree. This tool makes learning a fun and exciting experience. I wish you all the success that comes your way, Kirk. You deserve it. Good on ya. Have a fine day.

Bob (Canada)
I just got PT a few days ago and devoured it that day. I initially had a lot of questions but waited to post and, in the course of re-reading everything, watching the video and reading through many of the forum posts, I've been able to answer most all my questions. What a tremendous resource this is. Kirk, you've done such a fantastic job with the book and the video (I'm a filmmaker) and putting this forum together. Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge and creating such a tightly integrated system for students to get the answers they need. 

Colin (PlaneTalkers' Forum)
I had Planetalk for a couple of weeks or so now. No gimmick, no tricks, no gizmo. Just easy to understand way to see your fretboard. I've played guitar for years and learned quite a bit of theory. In fact, still learning theory, confusing as ever. Planetalk has organized it for me by showing me how to see my fretboard. So simple that I'm surprised that I didn't see it. I should've got Planetalk years ago but I thought it's just another learn the guitar gimmick like the others. It's not. It's the mindset worth learning. You won't have it any easier than this.

Rockabilly (Guitar for Beginners and Beyond Forum)
PlaneTalk basic
The Basic PlaneTalk Package



Endorsed by
Tommy Emmanuel CGP
who says:

"A fresh and new approach to helping young and old to have a more complete understanding of music and the guitar.
Well done, Kirk."



  The easiest yet most powerful guitar lesson you will ever learn

Does this sound like you? You know scales, you dabble with modes, you know your chords and you can handle a bit of improvising, but you're still wondering how it is that some players seem to have the whole fretboard at their disposal; they seem to know how, why and where to find every last fragment of music... with total ease. The whole fingerboard seems to be friendly, well traveled territory to them, no matter what is going on musically.

Enviable? Yes, and learnable

Kirk LorangeHi, I'm Kirk Lorange. I've been playing guitar since 1961 and I'm the author of PlaneTalk. I live in Australia and I have played in a dozen bands, on countless album tracks, movie sound tracks and TV commercials, and I've shared the stage with the likes of ex-Eagle Don Felder and ex-Beatle Ringo Starr. You have obviously found this site because you've heard about PlaneTalk somewhere on the net and you're wondering what all the fuss is about. This book and DVD have been selling from this site for over ten years now, teaching thousands of players from all over the world a very simple way to map out the fretboard, how to decode that annoying 'kink in the tuning' and a mindset which enables you to freely improvise over any old chord progression without once thinking 'scale' or 'mode' or 'Pentatonic box'. I never found those useful when it came to making real music. I learned them all, I still know them all, but they always just sounded like scales and failed completely over complex chord progressions. I moved on to something far more practical, powerful and musical years ago. The basic mindset is nothing new — follow the changes — but that's easier said than done. That seems to imply that you follow chord progressions, but how? What do you think about? What do you look for, down there on the fretboard? There are hundreds of chords and anyway, what does that mean exactly?

These are just some of the questions PlaneTalk answers in an amazingly simple way

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PlaneTalk comic

The Basic Package

PlaneTalk
started out as a 6 page booklet that I used to hand out at my workshops in Sydney (Australia) back in the early 90's. It was so helpful to my students that I decided to turn it into a proper book. I used the comic strip format as a way of imparting the information in a fun and concise way, as a conversation between the guy who knows and the guy who doesn't. I have them trapped together on an airplane flight, hence the title. I also designed the Guitar Slide Rule — a folded-sleeve-with-insert affair — that graphically crystallizes the lesson. That was in 1994.

PlaneTalk DVDIn 1998 I put together an hour long video which demonstrates the mindset in real time to real music. I turned that into DVD format in 2000 and combined the three items — book, slide rule, dvd — into 'The Basic Package'. Read more about the book and the DVD here. You also get the CAGED lesson (see below) with the basic package.

The Full Package

The PlaneTalkers' Forum — a private forum — is an online discussion board where you can find me and over 2,000 other PlaneTalkers (not all at once!) on a daily basis. It's part of the Full Package, along with the 18 Bonus Lessons that I have put together over the years. It's a very active meeting place where members regularly upload examples of their playing for critique and where you can ask questions about music in general and the PlaneTalk mindset in particular.

Chord Tone BluesThe bonus lessons are a collection of lessons I've put together over the years that teach various aspects of the mindset. In 2007, I produced a 5-movie-lesson called 'The Chord Tone Blues' that was available on CD-ROM to those who had bought PlaneTalk. It shows you how to apply the PlaneTalk mindset to a 12 bar blues. It is also included in 'The Full Package', along with 15 other stand-alone lessons teaching various aspects of the mindset, well over 2 hours worth of movies, all reinforcing the simple but all-powerful lesson that PlaneTalk teaches.
caged

And one more bonus lesson — availabe to all — is a movie (which you can download as soon as you have ordered) that explains, by way of graphics and voice-over, the 'CAGED' method of de-coding the fretboard, a great primer to the lesson PlaneTalk teaches.

Between the five items pictured here and the PlaneTalkers' Forum where you can discuss it all on a daily basis with me and many other PlaneTalkers, I can pretty much guarantee that your playing will move ahead by light years. In fact, most of my customers tell me they will never need to buy any other instruction books again.

How much does it all cost? $60 for the Basic Package, $85 for the Full Package, plus $15 postage handling.

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The Power of Chord Tones
Chord tones are the notes that make up chords. They are therefore the strongest, 'sweetest', notes that you can use if you are improvising lines over a chord progression. They are the notes that glue it all together. The ability to see chords not as compact clusters, like you see in chord diagrams, but as fretboard-long arrays of notes, is the key to mastering the fretboard at any given moment. Once you become familiar with this approach, scales and modes become redundant. Melody emerges naturally, always right, always sweet, because Melody Loves Chord Tones. PlaneTalk teaches you how to see your fretboard as one long chord, no matter what the flavor. Below are two movies demonstrating how easy it is to create relevant melody thinking this mindset, and how easy it is to harmonize lines and literally see the endless possibilities. .

Single note melody lines

Harmonized lines

Here is a promo video I put together ...




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Some examples of improvisation à la PlaneTalk

The PlaneTalk lesson teaches many things but its true power kicks in when improvising. I learned all the scales and modes decades ago but they never came in very handy when improvising. It always just sounded like I was playing scales. Melody was what I was seeking and that I found not in the scales but in the chords. Thinking chords means that it doesn't matter how complex the progression is, it's always the same mindset. The videos below show a variety of styles, including jazz which I don't really play, but, if the chords are jazzy, the melody lines will be jazzy. Most players rely on the Blues scale for a 12 bar; I still prefer just following the chords. Many of the videos are of me playing slide guitar, but because I play slide in standard tuning (sometimes I lower the bass string down to D), the layout of the fretboard and the mindset are the same as normal playing. It was in fact while playing slide many moons ago that I stumbled onto the PlaneTalk 'trick'. For more on slide guitar, open the lowest panel on this page.

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I only just bought my first guitar. Is PlaneTalk for me?

I didn't write PlaneTalk for beginners but more for those who have mastered the basics and are now stuck. However, many beginners have bought it and tell me that they're very pleased they did, that the basic theory lesson, fretboard map and mindset it teaches have made learning much easier. I certainly wish someone had shown me this when I was starting out, it would have saved me a good twenty years of poking around the fretboard searching for that one 'constant' I knew must be there.

Do I need to know any theory?

No. PlaneTalk in fact goes through basic theory in plain English before moving on to describing the 'trick' to seeing your fretboard as familiar, well traveled territory. You will learn why it is so important to always know what it is you're playing and how music is structured and how easy it is to keep track of it all using the PlaneTalk mindset. It's a lot easier than you think. With lots of practice, of course.

Will I be needing to remember endless patterns?

No. PlaneTalk makes use of an extremely simple landmark, one you learned in the first few days of playing. Many PlaneTalkers tell me they're amazed and annoyed that they didn't 'see' it themselves. As simple as it is, its ramifications are endless and -- if you're anything like me -- will become the only thing you really need to consciously be aware of.

This doesn't require me to remember movie stars' names or other odd mental gimmicks, does it?

No, no silliness, no gimmicks. The PlaneTalk mindset uses a landmark that IS music, one that displays at a glance the context of the moment. With practice, of course.

What if I don't understand it?

The chances of that are slim, as it's such a simple mindset. However, depending on your level of playing, you may wonder how to use the knowledge. In that case, just come to the PlaneTalkers' Forum where you can ask me and many other PlaneTalkers any questions you may have. Sometimes it takes a while to see the need to have the whole fretboard at your disposal, but once you do, the PlaneTalk mindset will be yours forever more. Most PlaneTalkers say they will never need to buy another book again, that all they need now is time to refine their art.

Do I need to read notation or tablature?

No. PlaneTalk doesn't go into any of that. PlaneTalk, among other things, describes in plain old English a way to map out the fretboard. It teaches a mindset that you can use to improvise chordally and melodically, to literally see the endless possibilities the whole length of the fretboard ... with lots of practice, of course. I use graphics and common analogies to explain some aspects of music, but you won't be scratching your head over any dotted crotchets or mysterious Greek names. I don't read notation very well myself.

I know all my scales and modes. How will PlaneTalk help me?

If you are happy with the results you achieve when improvising using scales and modes, and happy with your understanding of how music works and applies to the guitar, then don't bother ordering. But, as I've heard said, if you practice scales, you end up playing scales. Scales and Modes are not really music, they're the building blocks. Melody is the music and melody is not all that easy to extract from scales and modes, especially when you start getting into more complex chord progressions where just playing the 5 notes of the Pentatonic scale doesn't work. The PlaneTalk mindset allows you play over any chord progression ... with practice, of course.

What's the difference between the book and the DVD?

The book describes very methodically the logic behind it all. It takes you through basic theory then explains the power of the PlaneTalk mindset in plain English. The DVD demonstrates the technique to real music clips, showing real playing and using all the overlay features of modern video editing. So what the book explains, the DVD demonstrates.

What's the slide rule all about and why can't I see a better image of it?

The Guitar slide Rule crystallizes the whole mindset, shows you instantly how your brain should perceive the fretboard at any given moment. I don't show a better image of the slide rule because the mindset is so simple I'd be giving it all away.

And the bonus lessons? What are they that all about?

Over the year I have put together many stand-alone paid lessons demonstrating the PT mindset, many of them related to The Blues. Most are video lessons, over 2 hours of viewing in total. They're all free now.

If you still have questions, please feel free to email me. Unless you're an Aussie, I'm in a different time zone, but I won't be long.
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Slide GuitarI 'discovered' the PlaneTalk mindset many moons ago when poking around the fretboard in standard tuning looking for positions I could use while playing slide guitar. I'd already spent years playing slide in the traditional open tunings, but I was never quite sure of the layout of my fretboard in those tunings, so I reverted to standard tuning to see if I could make it work with a slide on my pinkie. I quickly discovered that it's a very rich environment for slide and that all chord flavors could be either played outright or hinted at. I distinctly remember the day I said 'Eureka!' to myself when I finally realized I'd found what I'd been looking for: a constant; a landmark; a bottom-line against which I could measure everything and anything, and it was one so simple that I couldn't believe it had taken me all those years to find it.

Brass guitar slideI've been playing with a slide on my pinkie ever since, combining both normal playing and slide guitar, merging them into one hybrid style. A couple of years ago I produced a 70 minute long DVD showing all I know about the art. You can order it here.

I also sell the beautiful brass slides you see in the movies. They're machined from solid brass and are heavy and highly polished. I do have a 'special' package at the order page if you want to order the whole kit and caboodle -- the PlaneTalk package and the Slide DVD/Brass slide.

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Copyright © 1998-2012 Kirk Lorange, all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without
the expressed written permission of K-# Publishing (Kirk Lorange) is prohibited.