Hi Reader – I want to be sure you saw my recent website improvements that will make a big difference when you’re browsing my list of 350+ song tutorials.

Here's a video tour that walks you through the updates:

Here's the two big changes I made, summarized in text:

1. The “Songs” section now includes 50+ previously unlisted lessons — For the past few years, I’ve had several dozen song-inspired lessons that did not show up in the ​Songs​ section of my website. This was due to my own oversight when building my website’s lesson categorization many years ago. Good news: all these lessons now appear whenever browsing any of my Song list pages.
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2. Helpful Design Tweaks to “Songs” Lists – when browsing alphabetical lists of songs or artists, there's a few improvements. You’ll now see artist name displayed when browsing by song title, and song year displayed when browsing all of my lessons for one particular artist. Also, these alphabetical lists now ignore the word “The” when it’s the first word of a song (e.g. The Chain) or artist (e.g. The Beatles).

More details about each of these changes is just below! Or, you can jump directly to the Songs section of my website and see for yourself.

The 50+ "Missing" Lessons, Revealed

While 80% of my song tutorials teach the full song, this group of formerly "missing" lessons teach some specific element heard within that song (strumming, melody, riff or lick, fingerstyle, or similar).

This results in lessons that are easier to jump into, allowing you to have fun on your guitar without the burden of learning a song from start to finish. The Chain by Fleetwood Mac is one example — where I used that song's opening riffs to take my first steps with Double Drop D tuning.

All these lessons have been available on this website and YouTube, but they only showed up if you searched for them. They weren’t included in my Songs listings until today.

I've grouped them in four categories:

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​(1) Rhythm & Melodic Strumming

​“Diamonds & Gasoline” by Turnpike Troubadours — Country Strumming and Walkdowns

​“Guitar Town” by Steve Earle — Rhythm Detective Work, Together

​“Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan — Bouncing Bass Notes While Strumming

​“No Hard Feelings” by The Avett Brothers — Quick Tips for Strumming in 6/8 Time

​“Joy of My Life” by Chris Stapleton — Learning a Song for a Wedding

​“Ruby” by Dave Rawlings — Americana Licks with a Bluesy Twist

​“Piece of Your Heart” by Gabe Lee — Country Bassline 6/8 Groove

​“In Dreams” by Sierra Ferrell — Jangly Carter-Style Riff in D

​“I’m Writing a Novel” by Father John Misty — Pinky-Powered Blues Groove in E

​“Can’t You See” by The Marshall Tucker Band — D-Cadd9-G Groove

​“Posters” by Jack Johnson — Backyard Acoustic Groove in E

​“Delicate” by Taylor Swift — Left Pinky Melody Trick in C

​“Say Something” by Justin Timberlake & Chris Stapleton — Country Pop Hammer-On Groove

​“About a Girl” by Nirvana — Acoustic Riff & Strumming Guide

​“Southside of Heaven” by Ryan Bingham — Hammer-On Practice with G & Cadd9

​“Mudfootball” by Jack Johnson — Muted Strumming Groove in G

​“Thinkin’ on a Woman” by Colter Wall — Cowboy Chords & Walking Basslines

​“One Horse Town” by Blackberry Smoke — Country Strum & Lead Combo

​“Kate McCannon” by Colter Wall — Murder Ballad Groove in A-minor

​“Will the Circle Be Unbroken” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band — Watch Me Learn It By Ear

​“Big Cheeseburgers and Good French Fries” by Blaze Foley — Country Bass Note Strumming in C

​“The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” by Tom T. Hall — Classic Country Intro Lick

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(2) Fun Riffs & Lead Guitar

​“Drinkin’ Problem” by Midland — Combining Chords & Melody

​“La Sitiera” by The Mavericks — Lead Guitar Fretting Hand Technique

​“Country Honk” by Keith Richards — Country Blues Riff in G

​“Lonely At The Top” by Billy Strings — Instantly Addictive Pentatonic Riff

​“She Talks to Angels” — First Steps with Open-E Tuning

​“Fourteen Gears” by Midland — Sliding Between Pentatonic Shapes

​“Mr. Lonely” by Midland — One Riff, Five Positions

​“Starlight” by Logan Ledger — Dissonant Triad Riff

​“Surf Rider” by The Lively Ones — Acoustic Surf Rock Groove

​“All Apologies” by Nirvana — Thick String Riffin’ in Drop-D

​“Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones — Acoustic Fills Over G & Am

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​(3) Fingerstyle: General

​“Mama I’m Coming Home” by Ozzy Osbourne — Double-Stop Fingerstyle Groove

​“Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” — Adding Fills to a Fingerstyle Groove

​“Gone Till November” — Wyclef Jean Fingerstyle, Step by Step

​“Remember Me” from Coco — Simplified Spanish Fingerstyle

​“In His Arms” by Miranda Lambert — West Texas Campfire Riff

​“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin — Four Chords, Endless Groove

​“The Night I Painted the Sky” by Jimmy Buffett — Revolving Bass Notes in E

​“Happy Birthday” — Using Melodic Triads

​“Death by a Thousand Cuts” by Taylor Swift — Fingerpicking Walkdown Groove

​“Señorita” by Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello — Latin-flavored Percussive Fingerstyle

​“California Dreamin’” by José Feliciano — Spanish Fingerstyle Groove

​“The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac — First Steps in Double Drop D Tuning

​“Twelve Volt Man” by Jimmy Buffett — Meditative Fingerstyle Groove

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​(4) Fingerstyle: Travis Picking

​“Sleeping on the Blacktop” by Colter Wall — Outlaw Fingerstyle Groove

​“Hang Me in the Tulsa County Stars” by John Moreland — Travis Picking with an Anchored Pinky

​“Live Forever” by Billy Joe Shaver — Melodic Fingerstyle Bass + Melody

​“Beaumont” by Hayes Carll — Travis Picking Training Wheels

​“Graceland” by Paul Simon — Grab-and-Go Fingerstyle

​“Pancho and Lefty” by Townes Van Zandt — One Picking Pattern, Any Song

​“Rex’s Blues” by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott — Melodic Travis Picking in G

​“Hold You Now” by Vampire Weekend — Building a Travis Picking Groove in C

THERE'S MORE!
​Other Helpful Design Tweaks

While I was at it, I added some nice polish to the Song list pages on my site to help you easily identify lessons you might be interested in. Here's what's new.

Artist Name is Now Shown When Browsing By Song Name

When browsing by song title, I've added the artist name after each song name. This gives helpful context to songs you might have never heard of before.

Song Year is Now Shown When Browsing By Artist

When browsing by song artist, I've added the song year after each song name. This gives helpful context to when songs came out, which helps give an idea of older vs. newer tunes.

Artist Name is Now Shown When Browsing By Song Year

When browsing by song year, I've added the artist name after each song name. Again, this gives helpful context to songs you might have never heard of before within a year / decade / era you're interested in.

"The" is Ignored When Viewing Songs or Artists in ABC Order

One thing that’s always bugged me is finding songs or artists that begin the word “The” — and not being sure where to look alphabetically. Until now, I’ve listed these under “T” – which never felt right.

So I fixed it! Whenever a song or artist name begins with “The”, that initial article is ignored when it comes to sorting alphabetically.

For example, The Beatles will now appear under “B” when browsing by artist name. A song like The Chain will appear under “C” when browsing by song title.

For example, when browsing songs by artist — you'll see the following if you were looking near the R section:

Song Columns No Longer Extend Off the Right of Your Screen

On most of my song-list pages, I've used a multi-column layout. Fun fact, this is inspired by the now defunct The Cosmic Kitchen from the early 2000s... which is perhaps the #1 inspiration for Song Notes overall.

This multi-column view has mostly worked fine, but on certain screen sizes you may have noticed some of the columns will extended off the right side of the screen. I updated the styling rules (CSS) so this no longer happens.

ONE LAST NOTE...
​Songs with Multiple Lessons...

Some of these song-inspired lessons do have separate tutorials where I teach the full song (e.g. Blackbird or Country Honk).

When multiple lessons exist for one song, I'll link to these additional tutorials from either of that song's lesson pages.

When in doubt, just search – if I have a lesson for it, it'll show up. For example, searching for Country Honk shows the two lessons I've made:

But The Chain only shows up once – meaning this is the only lesson I have for it (at the moment).

Again, if you're ever unsure whether or not I have a full lesson for a song... just use my website's search page.

Or, read through the listed lesson page to see if I link to any other lessons.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS
​Thanks and Enjoy!

And that's it for this week's update! Head over to the Songs section of my site to check all this out for yourself.

Thanks to long-time member Cody who most recently brought this to my attention. It's been on my to-do list for a few years now, and it feels great to finally have it updated.

In case you missed it, a few months ago I added Favorites and Custom Collections to my Song Notes website. This lets you save lessons for later, and likewise build out any number of custom groups that your saved songs can be sorted into.

In the spirit of listing all my Song lessons, my Most Popular Songs page now sorts the songs by most-favorited. Pretty cool, if I may say so – given it turns that list into a living, breathing list that updates over time as new members add songs to their favorites.

Until next week!

David
​Browse all my lessons at songnotes.net​