January 2024 Recap - including a sneak peek of my new course!

Jan 31, 2024

Sneak Peek of My Upcoming Blues Course!

Here’s the first three videos – more to come in the upcoming weeks!

Audio Update for January 2024

For those interested, I recorded a members-only audio update (~20 minutes) where I go a bit more in depth about what I’m working on, my in-progress Blues course, goals for 2024, and more. If this sounds interesting, here’s what I talk about:

0:00 Hello!
2:15 Quick Thoughts on Weekly (and Monthly) Emails
5:21 Beginner Blues Course… Progress Update!
7:53 Course Library & Goals for 2024
17:07 Final Thoughts… and Going To See TOOL Live!

Lesson Discussion

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Featured Courses

Guitar for Beginners

A guide to getting started with guitar! Everything you need to know to begin your journey. Choosing a guitar, other gear you'll need, fretting notes & chords, learning your first songs, and more.

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Beginner Chord Guide

A guide to the must-know chords you'll need when getting started with guitar! The quickest way to learn major chords, minor chords, the chords in each key, and more.

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Reading Music for Guitarists

Learn to read tabs, chord charts, fretboard diagrams, strumming patterns, and more! This course explains how to understand all of these must-know notation styles.

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Blues Starter Kit

A guide to must-know elements of beginner blues guitar! I'll walk you through the essential topics, showing you fun things to play along the way.

18 lessons

Practical Music Theory

A general overview of must-know theory concepts. The goal here is practical, easy-to-understand explanations — all of which provide clarity to your everyday guitar playing.

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A collection of videos teaching you licks, riffs, solos, and other lead guitar techniques! Includes info on scales, CAGED shapes, and other helpful lead guitar concepts.

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Dive into the basics of fingerstyle guitar, with plenty of examples of riffs, exercises, and songs that put this technique to use. This includes a healthy serving of Travis Picking lessons, which feature an alternating bass note played with your right thumb.

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Strumming & Rhythm

While your left hand is busy with chords, your right hand needs to hold down a steady rhythm! This is tricky at first, but it's a blast once you get over the hump. Here's a guide to get you started.

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CAGED Essentials

Learn about the repeating pattern of shapes on the fretboard, named after the five open chord shapes (C-A-G-E-D). Each shape can be used to play a chord, arpeggio, pentatonic or diatonic scale in every key... which makes them worth knowing!

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Using a Capo

Capos are incredibly helpful if you want to play along with your favorite artist, change a song's key, adjust things to your vocal range, and so on. In this series of videos I explain all this & more!

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Walk Ups & Walk Downs

A very common trope in rock, country, and folk music involves walking bass lines that "connect" one chord to another. I've used this in many of my song lessons, and I'm happy to share this list of related lessons if you'd like to brush up on this technique.

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Fun & Helpful Tools I've Made

Fret Monster

Interactive fretboard map! See the patterns behind every scale in any key.

Capo Captain

An easy way to calculate key & chord combinations, for any capo location!

Key Master

See and hear the notes, chords, scales used in each of the most common keys.

Blank Tabs

Free PDF templates to download, print, and write out your own guitar tabs!

Coming soon is Jambox – which shows all the video jam tracks I've made. It's note quite ready for the spotlight, but check it out if you like!

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Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks!

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July 11, 2025

Melody & Chords, Together! ft. Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"

Learn to play the Hallelujah melody, with chords, at the same time! This is an incredibly satisfying way to play one of the all-time great songs.
June 30, 2025

FretMonster Update! New Features & PDF Handbook Now Available

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Buy a gifted membership before June 16 and save 20% on a year of Song Notes Premium! Makes a great gift for yourself, your dad, or any father in your life.
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May 4, 2025

Q&A: Can You Learn Guitar Late In Life?

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