Member Q&A: January 2026

Today I want to showcase some helpful practice tips from my lesson library, in addition to some new Q&A videos I posted in the Song Notes members forum over the past week. Let’s dive on in!

Must-Know Practice Tips

First, a few of my more popular videos answering common practice questions from the past couple years. If you’ve wondered about a practice routine, how long to spend on songs, the importance of consistency, etc — check out this video:

7 Tips for Effective Practice

If you’ve ever had problems memorizing song lyrics, here’s all the advice I have on the topic rolled up into one video.

The Best Way to Memorize Song Lyrics

Learning the lyrics is one thing… strumming at the same time is another piece of the puzzle! Here’s a bunch of tips on easing into this difficult part of learning any song:

How to Sing & Strum at the Same Time

Your Questions, Answered

From time to time I’ll record Q&A videos, where I reply to member questions in the Song Notes community forum. The videos below are much less polished (no edits, no graphics, etc) – but hopefully provide some guidance for each topic that’s asked about.

1️⃣ First Steps with the Fingerstyle “Pinch” Motion

Matt asked about this tricky technique, wondering how it compared to up-strums and down-strums. With fingerstyle, strumming direction doesn’t necessarily apply in the same way. Here’s my explanation.

2️⃣ Piano Man: Melodic Fingerstyle for Refrain?

Michael asked a great question about my recent Piano Man lesson teaching the main verse & chorus melody, played with melodic fingerstyle. Could this approach be used for the song’s refrain, as well? First, I explain why I did not included it in my lesson… as the melody notes for that section are just too tricky to play:

And in reply to Michael’s astute follow-up, I show how it is possible to play “filler” notes during this section, along with the descending bass line. This would allow you to hum or sing the “la, la-di-da…” section — while your guitar does the rest:

3️⃣ Learning Tricky Riffs by Slowing Down & “Chunking”

Steve also emailed a question about my recent Piano Man melodic fingerstyle lesson, looking for advice on getting bass notes to ring out cleanly while the melody is played on the thinner strings. My video reply shows how we can slow down & break the riff into smaller chunks. I demonstrate the importance of proper hand technique (for fretting notes and picking them) to ensure nothing is compromised along the way.

4️⃣ Learning the Fretboard: First Steps, CAGED Shapes, etc

Andrew emailed with some questions about learning the fretboard and where to begin. This is a very broad topic which I plan on tackling further in a dedicated series of videos… but this hopefully shines a light on some suggested places to start!

The audio in the video below isn’t great, as I had the incorrect mic enabled — but you can hear me okay if you turn it up.

Have a quesiton? Let me know!

I’m always happy to hear from my audience. Let me know if there’s a guitar-related question you’d like to see answered — or at the very least, I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction.

Members of Song Notes Premium get prioritized replies, and are more likely to see me follow-up with a video response. Thanks all – see you in the next lesson!