LESSON #625Acoustic Bassline Fun with "Ramble On" ▶️ Click to watch free video lesson In this week's new lesson I’ll teach you a fun acoustic guitar arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s Ramble On iconic bassline. My focus isn’t simply teaching the individual notes (which I will do), but additionally I’ll give you several tips on how you can add strumming between many of these bass notes. Practice notes, percussion jam track, and bonus videos also available! Using this approach, you end up with a...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Hey there, friends – I'm excited to share TWO new lessons with you today! They both tackle the all-time classic Love Me Tender, but take very different approaches. Take your pick, or learn 'em both! –David LESSON #623Sing & Strum (Key of D) ▶️ Click to watch lesson #623 This first lesson teaches you to sing & strum Love Me Tender as it's heard in the Elvis recording. I'll start by teaching you the chords, measure-by-measure... then shift into the world of alternating bass notes. There are a...
12 days ago • 1 min read
LESSON #622Using Melodic Triads to play Happy Birthday ▶️ Click to watch free video lesson Hey there, my friends... new lesson for you to kick off the weekend! This one spontaneously found itself in my playing rotation after my daughter’s birthday celebration last week. The topic here is triads, where I use the good ole’ familiar song Happy Birthday as the melodic inspiration. I’ll show you TWO ways to play the melody to Happy Birthday using triads. For the most part, this is all done with...
19 days ago • 1 min read
Learn Guitar Faster Using Jam Tracks This week I have a couple fun updates involving the video jam tracks on my Song Notes website. These play-along tracks are an incredibly helpful way to get more out of your practice sessions, while also having fun along the way. My video jam track for Soulful Lead Guitar over America the Beautiful Don't miss my new video lesson (showing how I make jam tracks) below, but first let me show you how to find my jam track library... BROWSE ALL MY JAM TRACKS I've...
28 days ago • 2 min read
LESSON #620Country Fingerstyle: Bass + Melody Groove! Click to watch free video lesson In today’s mini-lesson I’ll teach you a short, melodic fingerstyle groove inspired by Billy Joe Shaver’s classic Live Forever. Instead of teaching you the full song, I’ll take the core melody (heard in the intro) and show you three ways to play it using fingerstyle guitar. Each approach combines bass notes and melody, which you can play with just two fingers on your picking hand. Whether you're new to...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
LESSON #619Free Fallin' by Tom Petty Click to view free video lesson » In today’s lesson I’ll teach you to play Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty, which I consider an all-timer as far as guitar songs go. Whether you're a beginner or much more far along in your journey, this song gives us plenty to have fun with. Here's what I tackle: 0:00 Lesson Overview 1:19 Campfire Version (no capo) 3:55 Fancy Chords: Capo 3 6:58 Fancy Chords: Capo 1 11:50 Strumming & Rhythm 15:34 Performance Tips 17:50...
2 months ago • 2 min read
HAPPY OPENING DAY!Learn the Iconic "Centerfield" Intro Riff Click to watch free video lesson To all the baseball fans out there... I wanted to re-share this lesson I made last spring, in case you missed it. I break down the opening riff to Centerfield by John Fogerty, with my usual step-by-step guidance. I also have a sing & strum lesson available for this song, if you want to learn to play the full song, from start to finish. Such a fun song! Step-by-step practice notes, audio practice...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Must-Know Guitarist Tech Tip! Click to watch free video lesson Happy Monday, my friends — brand new lesson today featuring an incredibly helpful tip: adjusting the key of any YouTube video. Specifically, I’ll show you how to use the free Chrome plugin Transpose – which lets you easily transpose any video to a different key (as well as fine tune the pitch, adjust the speed down, create loops, etc). This started with a question I received from Song Notes member Randy, who asked: I have been...
3 months ago • 3 min read
LESSON #616Refine Your Rhythm & Never Lose the Beat! Click to watch free video lesson » If you asked me to give you one strumming lesson that’ll make the most difference your playing, it’s this one. It’s an exercise I put together over the years during my own practice – and finally I’ve made a proper lesson showing you how to do it. I’m calling it the pyramid drill – which seems fitting because of the ascend-then-descend structure, similar to what you find in many workout routines. This drill...
4 months ago • 2 min read