What is the Etudes Project? What exactly is an “Eh-tude”? In classical music, an “Etude” is a piece written for students to practice a particular musical or instrumental technique; it’s just French for “Study”. But Etudes are also meant to be “real” music, to be performed on a stage and not just a practice room. […]
Remembering Eddie Van Halen
I started playing guitar in 1982, and for a teenager learning rock guitar there was no one who loomed larger. The story goes that Edward started out on drums but switched to guitar when his brother Alex could play “Wipeout” better than he could. By the time I was learning, “Eruption“, the stunning guitar solo […]
Chopin Plays The Changes
This is a guest post by David Hamburger, a great fingerstylist, blues authority, and a teacher I respect greatly. Check out his lesson on “Statesboro Blues“. School is back, sort of, but getting there on time was never our strong suit, and now we’re rusty. We live close enough to walk, but some mornings when […]
For What It’s Worth (SOTW)
The Buffalo Springfield were as influential as they were short-lived, but created one of the the most iconic songs of the 60s with “For What It’s Worth”. Releasing 3 albums between 1966 and 1968, the band then splintered to launch the careers of the band’s three singer-guitarists: Stephen Stills, Neil Young, and Richie Furay. The […]
Crosscut Saw (Albert King): easy blues guitar intro
If you want to learn to play blues lead guitar, you need to to back to the source. To understand Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamossa and Eric Clapton, start with the “3 Kings”: B.B, Freddie, and Albert. Albert King’s fat, singing tone on his Gibson Flying V is one of the definitive models for the […]
SOTW: Carolina In My Mind, part 2
As promised, this followup lesson looks at the verses, bridge, and outro of James Taylor’s “Carolina In My Mind”. You can download tab here. But I’d also suggest you download the chord chart. Remember, TAB gives you a sequence of events, a series of locations on the neck. And it’s possible to grasp the musical […]
