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.

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​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​

Again, I'll continue to add to this course over the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can view the 14 lessons I've made so far »​
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Some of my Lead Guitar Favorites

Last year I had a mini-breakthrough with lead guitar progress, and want to share some of my favorite lessons from that era. All of these will work on acoustic or electric.

​#488 - Amie Intro Riff, Step by Step
​One of my all-time favorite lessons! This one showed me how a familiar riff can come straight from a plain old scale — and the mini-exercises I teach will help you turn that same scale into music.

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​#521 - Soulful Lead over "Amazing Grace"
​A terrific example of how you can combine melodic lead guitar with familiar open chords. Two different play-along jam tracks are available as well, allowing you to practice at a moderate or slower speed.

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​#526 - Pentatonic Improv over "Wagon Wheel"
​Another one of my favorites, where I realized you don't need a "full" scale position to get your improvisational feet wet. Just take a smaller pocket of the notes, and that can be enough! Two jam tracks are available for play-along practice as well.

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Audience Requests I'm Listening To

Finally, a quick list of some of the songs I've been dipping in & out of. I never know which will turn into a lesson next, but I might as well share them all here!

• ​Future Days by Pearl Jam... from the new season of Last of Us
• ​Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen... cover from Caiola
• ​Cold Cold Heart by Hank Williams.... cover from Elle & Toni
• ​Black Crowes performing at the Tiny Desk Concert
• ​London Homesick Blues sung by Jerry Jeff Walker
• ​Bury Me by Jason Isbell... one of many gems from his new album! The title track Foxes in the Snow is another one that's really swept me away (link)

Let me know if any of these are ones you would like to see as a proper lesson.

That'll do it for today – have a great week ahead, everyone!

David

Browse all my lessons at songnotes.net​