So heres the tricky bit about taking up the guitar, or any instrument, particularly when you’ve been out of the loop of learning for a while. You know what you want to play, because you listen to music, which is why you want to play in the first place, but there’s not an obvious path as to how to get there. So, to that end, I’ve written put a list of songs that I’ve used a lot in lessons and classes and that I think either demonstrate a technical or musical point that can then be applied to other pieces. Another advantage of using songs rather than exercises is building a repertoire, as the more stuff you know, the quicker it is to learn new things.
Posts under ‘Free Tabs / Lessons’
Introduction to Ragtime Guitar
Download Ragtime Guitar Primer PDF
Ragtime music probably had its peak between the late 19th century and the end of the 1st world war, where it was overtaken in popularity by jazz. Its a modified version of a march with a characteristic heavily syncopated rhythms. A closely related style, the cakewalk, preceded ragtime, both being primarily written traditions in that the music was handed from musician to musician by written music, rather than by performance. The most famous ragtime piece is probably the Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin, although a lot of the music played by blues players such as Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller and Elizabeth Cotton could also be described as ragtime guitar. Although this can be a tricky style to categorise there is chord progressions and patterns that crop up in several different tunes. The video and tab below show a basic style of ragtime playing based loosely on Blind Blake’s Southern Rag.
Rhythm Guitar – free download
Rhythm Guitar – by far the most important aspect of guitar playing. For instance name one great soloist who was not also a great rhythm player. Jimi Hendrix – developed a whole new style of rhythm playing (little wing, and almost everything else he recorded). Hendrix spent years playing rhythm guitar on the ‘Chitlin Circuit‘ for Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson among many others. Eric Clapton – Check out any of Claptons live recordings, but I dont think he’s ever been better than on the Bluesbreaker with Eric Clapton album. Rory Gallagher – A good shout for the best ever popular music guitarist. He could do it all; fingerstyle blues and ragtime, searing solos and great rhythm on electric, acoustic and mandolin. My favourite Bert Jansch…his style is all about rhythm with an attack on the guitar verging on violent, Neil young, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Ray Vaughan the list could go on forever, but the point being, the easiest way to become a better guitarist is to work on rhythm.