LESSON #584For Those About to Rock... We Salute You! New lesson today where I’ll get you going with AC/DC’s 1980 classic Back in Black. While you can play this on an electric (as the band does), my lesson approaches the song with an acoustic guitar in mind — which absolutely gets the job done. I’ll show you a few ways to tackle the intro & verse riffs, and also breakdown the tricky rhythm of the refrain. Don't miss the additional resources for this lesson – including some slow play-along...
12 days ago • 1 min read
You Asked, I Listened! Over the last couple years, one of the most common requests I get is for minor scale and minor pentatonic PDF cheat sheets — which until now has been a big blind spot for me. But no longer! I’m excited to finally share with you all a huge amount of brand new print-friendly cheat sheets (42 pages), showing you a half-dozen ways to visualize the most common chords in print-friendly format. This includes the minor scales noted above, but I've also included the major &...
21 days ago • 2 min read
Did you know George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison teamed up to from a supergroup in late 80s? In this week's lesson I'll teach you how to play their (second) biggest hit – which many of you have requested over the past few years! LESSON #582Handle with Care by Traveling Wilburys In today's new lesson I'll teach you how to play Handle with Care, the 1988 hit The Traveling Wilburys – whose ranks included Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. This...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey there, friends! Here's a few lesson updates from the past week, along with a roundup of member song requests from the past month. Be sure to reply if you'd like to see lessons for any of these songs! Thanks and happy strumming ✌️ –David FIRST UP.... Much-Requested Lesson Updates! Let's start with Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, which I taught in lesson #493. My original lesson looked at the 'bouncing" bass-notes Dylan incorporates into things. My new updates show how to play the verse...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
This week I'm excited to share two brand new lessons – including nice refresh to the Walk-Up & Walk-Down page on my Song Notes website. Details below. Keep those strings ringing – and I'll see you in the next one! ✌️ –David LESSON #580 Strummy Walkdowns in Key of G First up, I want to share three common walk-downs you’ll encounter in the Key of G — all of which can be played while strumming. These walk-downs create a smooth, descending melody which adds richness and motion to your chord...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey there, Reader – hope this one finds you warm and cozy, wherever you are! We're just wrapping up a streak of freezing weather here in Austin, complete with a day off school for the kids. I'll take it! Here's a few updates I've made in the Song Notes world since last week. Updated Lesson for Let Him Roll by Guy Clark First up – I made some updates to one of my more popular Travis-style fingerpicking lessons. Here's the original video from 2019: And here's the new resources I put together to...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
In today’s lesson I want to walk you through some must-know YouTube keyboard shortcuts to help you learn guitar faster. Trust me when I say – if you're still using a mouse to pause, rewind, or fast forward YouTube lessons – you're making it wary harder than it needs to be. By learning just a few of these shortcuts, you’ll be able to control playback in a fraction of the time it takes to use your mouse & cursor. This removes frustration, increases the time we’re actually playing the guitar,...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Happy Friday, my friends! I've received a bunch of Bob Dylan requests in the past few weeks, no doubt because of A Complete Unknown hitting theaters – and wanted to add another of his songs to my library. So today I'm excited to share this brand new lesson for his 1964 classic Mr Tambourine Man. At its core, this can be played as a 3-chord song that’s quite beginner friendly. But as per usual, I’ll also include a handful of ways you can level things up. This includes several ways you can add...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Reader – I wanted to kick off the New Year with a roundup of all the latest & greatest Song Notes additions I've made in 2024. Song tutorials, new courses, 45+ new PDF cheat sheets, and plenty of website improvements – they're all listed below! I'll include a few reflections & goals for 2025 at the bottom of this email as well, for those curious about the bigger-picture stuff I'm working on. But first, let's look back... Here's a list of the song tutorials I made in the past year. I'm proud...
2 months ago • 4 min read