Understanding the Greatness of Clapton Yes, I have met students who have never heard of Eric Clapton! That kinda thing never ceases to amaze me. You wouldn’t believe it, but it’s true! Or, they may know of him in a vague sense, but don’t know his tunes, his solos, or his massive influence on rock…
8 Things Billie Eilish does, that you don’t Tips on how to craft better songs Billie Eilish started gaining notoriety after dropping the single “ocean eyes” on soundcloud. Since then, she has 7 gold, and 2 platinum singles. If you are a songwriter (or want to become one), you should make it a habit…
Dancing in the Streets – Martha and the Vandellas Transcribed from the 1964 recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhbM2mqhCQ Learning “Dancing in the Streets” is a good track for a beginner to intermediate player. This classic motown hit has many of the signatures in form and arrangement. The majority of the tune is only a few open chords,…
Assessment lessons – The First Step Forward The internet is flooded with questions and answers. Some true, some false. Entire websites are built trying to answer guitar specific questions, more forums are created that try to correct or dispel the questions, and on and on. We avoid that by directly addressing the specific student. An…
Making The Most With What You Know: Part 2 To continue from the last article, we’re going to check out some more licks, and how to start practicing them with purpose. The hardest part of learning new material is how to integrate it into your playing thoughtlessly. It should slowly become second nature, like…
Practice Better! An approach to learning Jazz Standards Pt. 3 We’ve got two ways to play it? Now, after this is mastered, shoot for FOUR ways. Attached again are two more ways to play the same chords. Because of the nature of the guitar, and how the notes are arranged, we have to be more…
Blue Christmas – Elvis I’m considering transcribing ALOT of Elvis tunes. First of all, they’re great songs. Most of them are fairly easy and accessible, and finding a good transcription of them on the internet is really a tough call. Many transcriptions are off slightly, or totally wrong, this is why it’s important to find…
Should I Stay or Should I go – The Clash Pt. 2 Posted below is the second page of Should I stay or Should I go from The Clash. In part 1, we talked about ways to tackle some the difficulties, namely the F chord, the rhythm, and the one A7 that pops up. Here…
Blowin’ in the Wind – Bob Dylan We use this tune quite a bit, in different variations, so I thought I’d share our transcription here. I have it written as a chord chart, but if the student wanted to get deeper into the finger patterns of the song, it’s totally doable. Note to capo the…