Let's kick off the week with some strumming Q&A, along with a round-up of all the lessons I've made for songs in Quentin Tarantino movies. As noted below, don't miss the updates for my lessons on California Dreamin' (Jose Feliciano) and Apple Blossom (The White Stripes) — each of which has a bunch of new lesson materials. They're linked below. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Enjoy ✌️ David NEED TO STOP UNWANTED STRING NOISE? Two Ways to Silence Strings In response to last...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Happy Friday, my friends! New lesson today where I look at the 1972 classic Stuck in the Middle With You – and teach you how to master its iconic strumming pattern in 3 steps. Keep on scrolling and you'll find some additional percussive strumming tips, plus a list of song lessons I've made that use that technique. Enjoy! -David LESSON #588"Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel In today's new lesson, I’ll kick things off by teaching you the iconic strumming pattern – which I'll break...
23 days ago • 1 min read
I must say, it feels great to finally learn a long-time favorite song on the guitar! For me, that happened this past week with Pacing the Cage — a hauntingly beautiful song I knew via Jimmy Buffett's cover back in my high school days. It came in as a request this past week, and at once I realized its time had come. So behold, a brand new lesson! LESSON #587"Pacing the Cage" by Bruce Cockburn This is an amazingly fun song to play. It's played with Travis-style fingerpicking — using an...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
From time to time I like to look back at older lessons, and remove some of the cobwebs — and here’s a fun one from a few years back I want to showcase today... LESSON #372West Texas Campfire Fingerstyle Fun This lesson teaches a fairly approachable fingerstyle sequence that does not use Travis picking – so there's no alternating thumb to worry about. Chord-wise we're just using G C D – but there's plenty of spice via unique chord voicings + melodic fingerstyle flair to keep things...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey there, friends! Brand new video for you today, fresh off a family Spring Break trip to sunny Florida. Plenty of great time with parents / siblings / cousins, and even got to see my first in-person rocket launch! We were quite far away, but man — was it cool to see & hear. LESSON #586Learn Guitar Faster by Leaving Your Comfort Zone The topic today is your comfort zone as a guitarist — what it is, why you should leave it to grow as a guitarist — but why you shouldn't stray too far. Here's a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey there, Reader! New lesson today where I'll teach you how to play the much-requested All The Best from John Prine. Keep on scrolling for a handful of related Travis-style fingerpicking lessons I've made that work nicely with this song. I hope you all enjoy! ✌️ -David LESSON #585John Prine's "All The Best" Let's dive into this John Prine classic from 1991, which so many of you have requested over the past couple years. Typical of many Prine songs, he uses just three chords — but somehow...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
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...
about 2 months 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 &...
2 months 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...
3 months ago • 2 min read