Reader – if you're looking for a last minute Father's Day gift, I've got you covered! For the next 3 days, gifted memberships to Song Notes Premium are 20% off. This gives you, your dad, or whoever you send the gift to, a full year of membership for $79 instead of $99. Here's a quick video explaining how the gifting process works: A quick text summary: Click here and buy the gifted membership I'll email you a magic link. You share the magic link with the gift recipient. You can do this at...
15 days ago • 1 min read
"You can't light a fire / you can't light a fire without a spark" Happy Friday, my friends! Here's a brand new lesson for you to usher in the weekend. This looks at one of my favorite Springsteen tunes, which many of you requested in response to my prior newsletter. Ask and you shall receive! Don't miss my extra strumming recommendations below – they'll help with this one. Enjoy! -David LESSON #592 "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen Click to Watch Video Lesson In today’s new lesson...
21 days ago • 1 min read
Happy Tuesday, my friends! To all those here in the USA, I hope you had a restful Memorial Day weekend. Here's a few updates & lesson recommendations as the summer season begins. 5 New Lessons in my Beginner Guitar Course First up, a batch of five new lessons for my in-progress Beginner Guitar course. Here's the recent additions I've published since my last update: Holding a Guitar Comfortably How to Hold a Guitar Pick How to Fret Notes Cleanly Sitting & Chair Advice Standing & Using a Strap...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
A few weeks back I received a member request for John Fogerty's Centerfield – and today I'm excited to share two new lessons tackling this classic ode to baseball! Whether you're after the intro riff or a sing & strum version, I've got you covered... links are below! LESSON #591How to Play the "Centerfield" Intro Riff, Step by Step First up, I want to dive into the 20-measure lead guitar sequence heard in the opening of this song. Note-wise, it may seem approachable at first glance... but...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
After more than a decade of making weekly guitar lessons, I'm finally getting around to a true "Guitar Fundamentals" course — which is something so many of you have asked for over the last few years. Today, I'm happy to share 11 new videos from this course which are ready to view on my on members-only course page... and in today's newsletter I want to give you a sneak peek of one of them. The video below answers a fairly common question I receive, about starting guitar late in life: Click to...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
A new song from the latest Turnpike Troubadours album truly swept me away the past week – and I'm excited to share my new lesson below. If you enjoy fingerstyle, give the intro a listen — as the almost-acrobatic pattern of those first 5 chords feels amazing once under your belt. Enjoy, my friends! ✌️ David LESSON #589 "Heaven Passing Through" by Turnpike Troubadours Over the last couple years Turnpike Troubadours has become, without question, one of my favorite bands. Evan Felker's...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Let's kick off the week with some strumming Q&A, along with a round-up of all the lessons I've made for songs in Quentin Tarantino movies. As noted below, don't miss the updates for my lessons on California Dreamin' (Jose Feliciano) and Apple Blossom (The White Stripes) — each of which has a bunch of new lesson materials. They're linked below. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Enjoy ✌️ David NEED TO STOP UNWANTED STRING NOISE? Two Ways to Silence Strings In response to last...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Happy Friday, my friends! New lesson today where I look at the 1972 classic Stuck in the Middle With You – and teach you how to master its iconic strumming pattern in 3 steps. Keep on scrolling and you'll find some additional percussive strumming tips, plus a list of song lessons I've made that use that technique. Enjoy! -David LESSON #588"Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel In today's new lesson, I’ll kick things off by teaching you the iconic strumming pattern – which I'll break...
3 months ago • 1 min read
I must say, it feels great to finally learn a long-time favorite song on the guitar! For me, that happened this past week with Pacing the Cage — a hauntingly beautiful song I knew via Jimmy Buffett's cover back in my high school days. It came in as a request this past week, and at once I realized its time had come. So behold, a brand new lesson! LESSON #587"Pacing the Cage" by Bruce Cockburn This is an amazingly fun song to play. It's played with Travis-style fingerpicking — using an...
3 months ago • 1 min read