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...
16 days 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...
28 days ago • 2 min read
YOU ASKED, I LISTENED! Click to view "My Favorites" At long last! You can finally save & organize your favorite lessons over on my Song Notes website. This is a feature that's been regularly requested by members over the years, and I'm pumped to announce it's ready! HOW IT WORKS From any lesson page, click the Add to My Favorites link. For your convenience, it's always positioned just below the lesson title. That will immediately add it to your Favorites list. You can keep on learning the...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
LESSON #614A Guitarist's Guide to Piano Man Click to watch free video lesson In today’s lesson I’ll teach you a guitar arrangement of Piano Man, the 1973 classic from Billy Joel. This song uses a singular chord progression for most of the song (intro, verse, chorus) — which I’ll walk you through step by step. I’ll also include a handful of practical ways to simplify some of the trickier chords, as translating piano chords to a guitar isn’t always straightforward. To the many of you who...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Happy Monday, my friends! To those of you impacted by the winter storm across the USA, I hope you're holding up okay. Here in Austin, we had a blanket of ice descend across our yard & street. The kids enjoyed a snow day off school, and my routine has been a bit up-ended... but we're in good spirits! Today I want to showcase some helpful practice tips from my lesson library, in addition to some new Q&A videos I posted in the Song Notes members forum. Let's dive on in! IN CASE YOU MISSED...
2 months ago • 2 min read
LESSON #612Melodic Fingerstyle Fun with "Piano Man" Click to watch free video lesson In this lesson I’ll teach you to play a melodic fingerstyle arrangement inspired by Piano Man by Billy Joel. Specifically, I show how we can play the main melody of the song (heard in the verse and chorus) and play it along with a few other notes from each chord that’s used. The result is melodic, but also harmonically rich — and is a blast to play! In addition to my main video (above), don't miss the "Part...
2 months ago • 1 min read
My friends! A new year is upon us, and before my next lesson I want to share a summary of all the lessons I made in 2025. For your convenience, I've grouped them all by category. Each lesson is linked below... enjoy! AT LONG LAST!Guitar 101 In Spring 2025, I finally released a much-requested series on videos on guitar fundamentals. These are aimed at folks who are getting started or otherwise looking for some guidance along their guitar-playing journey. While there are more videos I plan on...
3 months ago • 2 min read
LESSON #610Fairytale of New York Click to watch free video lesson My friends! In today’s new lesson I’m excited to teach you how to play Fairytale of New York, the classic Christmas duet by The Pogues, featuring Kirsty MacColl. This isn’t a song I grew up listening to here in the USA, and indeed only learned of it in the past few years via several Song Notes members. In that time it’s become one of my all-time favorites… and in this lesson I’ll teach you everything needed to play it on...
3 months ago • 1 min read
LESSON #609Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire... Click to view free video lesson In today’s lesson I’m excited to teach you to play The Christmas Song, which you may know as “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…“ My lesson aims to simplify what Nat King Cole’s backing orchestra is playing, while still capturing the recognizable essence of this song. I’ll teach you two ways to play it: my jazzy take on a “full” version and a simplified version (which avoids barre chords entirely). Here's what's...
4 months ago • 1 min read