2024 Lesson Roundup! Songs, Courses, Jam Tracks, and more...

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…

Song Lessons I Made in 2024

Here’s a list of the song tutorials I made in the past year. I’m proud of each & every one of these lessons. In addition to the free video on YouTube, each of these has additional bonus videos, play-along jam tracks, and/or print-friendly practice notes available – all of which can be found via the links below:

• ​​Streets of London​ by Ralph McTell
• ​Country Honk by The Rolling Stones
• ​Breathe by Pink Floyd
• ​Carefree Highway by Gordon Lightfoot
• ​Moonshadow by Cat Stevens
• ​Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
• ​And It’s Still Alright by Nathaniel Rateliff
• ​Have a Little Faith in Me by John Hiatt
• ​Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits
• ​Wondering Why by Red Clay Strays
• ​Tonight You Belong to Me as played by Eddie Vedder
• ​Spin You Around by Morgan Wallen
• ​Linger by The Cranberries
• ​Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddie
• ​59th Street Bridge Song by Simon & Garfunkel
• ​Me and Bobby McGee by Kris Kristofferson
• ​Scarlet Begonias by Grateful Dead
• ​Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
• ​Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in Christmas Songbook
• ​Deck the Halls in Christmas Songbook

Course & Topic Pages Added in 2024

I made some big website improvements in the past year, one of which was an improved browsing experience across all of my topic and course pages. Within each page linked below, you can use the left-hand sidebar to easily traverse between related lessons.

This required a lot of under-the-hood work, given all the existing lessons I had to fit into this new setup – but it was 100% worth it. Especially because this sets me up for a much more efficient & productive 2025.

• ​Blues Starter Kit [all new]
• ​Using a Capo [all new]
• ​Learning Lead Guitar​
• ​Fingerstyle & Travis Picking​
• ​Strumming & Rhythm​

And of course, don’t miss my courses from 2023 – which also use this new layout:

• ​Reading Music for Guitarists​
• ​Beginner Chord Guide​
• ​Practical Music Theory

Other Website Updates in 2024

In addition to the new course & topic page layout (described above), I made a steady effort to improve various aspects of my Song Notes website throughout 2024. This includes a few new features, as well as quality-of-life improvements for those browsing my 500+ lessons. Here’s some of the highlights:

• ​46 New PDF Guides – for the last few years I’ve made PDF cheat sheets to accompany my video lessons, and as of now I have over 250 available directly through my Song Notes website. It’s rewarding for me to see the collection grow, and I very much hope they’re helpful to all of you! ​
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• ​New “KeyMaster” Web Tool – earlier this year I added a new tool that lets you see and hear the notes and chords in each key, which makes for an incredibly helpful way to wrap your head around music theory, chord progressions, melodies, and more! A batch of new PDFs were created to accompany this tool as well… definitely check it out! ​
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• ​Updated “FretMonster” Web Tool – a few months back I made the biggest update to FretMonster in years! Specifically, the ability to show & hide notes in certain areas of the fretboard. A few new instruments were added as well, in addition to a visual refresh to make things print-friendly should you want to take screenshots. ​
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• ​You Can Now “Gift” Premium Membership – a lot of you have asked how to “gift” a membership to Song Notes Premium, and it’s finally available! You can now buy a year of Premium membership for a friend, family member, or co-worker — and send it along to them. They don’t even need to enter their payment information.
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• ​Browse All My Video Jam Tracks – for the past year or so I’ve been regularly making play-along jam tracks, in audio and video format, for you to use while practicing songs, riffs, and techniques. Recently I added a single page where all these can be found – making them very easy to find! More to come on this topic in the coming year…
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• ​Search Updated to Include Course Lessons – while this isn’t a flashy update, I improved my search page so it now includes all my course lessons… which for the past year were missing from the results. I also did some tweaks to the suggested search filters, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Song Notes in 2025… What’s Next?

If there are any big items you’d like to see on this list a year from now, let me know! Courses, topics, tools, or otherwise – I’m always happy to hear what folks are looking for in my video lessons, PDF guides, courses, web tools, and otherwise.

The song lessons will keep on coming, as I the muscle-memory for that is something I’ve developed quite well. If anything, I would like to be more frequent with song tutorials – even if that means some of them are lighter & not as deep.

One item that’s high on my list is adding a beginner guitar course. It’s something folks have asked about for years, and I’ve yet to add. I actually believe all the improvements to my website’s organization in 2024 sets me up perfectly to scratch this one off the list.

I’m very excited and curious to see where my course and topic-based lessons go with time. There’s a handful (or more) of topics I’d like to create bundles of lessons for, walking through essential concepts in a bit of a step-by-step process. I’m not sure what this will look like just yet, but I’m optimistic given the momentum I’ve setup myself up with.

Lastly, I want to maintain the balance that I’ve struck between Song Notes and everything in my personal life. Time with family on evenings & weekends, sleep, exercise, etc. I was feeling a bit burnt out toward the end of 2023, which wasn’t fun. Productivity is nice, but it’s for nothing if it comes at the expense of everything else. I want to be in this for the long haul!

Happy New Years and Thanks!

I’d like to end with a note of thanks & gratitude to all of you, especially those supporting me with Premium membership on my Song Notes website. I can’t express how grateful I am to have the support and encouragement from you all. I never take it for granted, and strive do my best to help as many of you as possible with each lesson I create. Once more, you have my thanks!

Here’s to a great 2025 for all of us! See you in the next lesson ✌️

David