I spent the day (and a good chunk of the night) drafting the Strum Pattern Archive page. A lot of the time was spent learning about CSS and how to make tables—both new territories. I finally feel like I’m understanding all that code. I don’t have any content in the archive yet, but I’m almost finished with organizing the basic …
Note from Thailand
I just got an email from a former student, Emily, who’s in Thailand. It was in the form of a top-ten list of great experiences she’s had there. Here’s her number one: Bonfire on the beach, Tonsai: There were two guitars. I got to play a good guitar about half the time. “More Cat Stevens!” “What other Simon and Garfunkel …
Adding Videos of Strum Patterns
Over and over, visitors to this site say that their favorite thing about my chord charts is that many of them have strum pattern recommendations. This is a feature that’s practically non-existent in chord charts on the web. Lately, I’ve been toying with two ideas that I think would be a big benefit to people who find the strum pattern …
Press
I got some props at the popular Kid’s Music That Rocks blog for my contribution to Recess Monkey’s latest album, “Tabby Road.” Recess Monkey is Seattle’s awesome children’s music band, comprised of three elementary-school teachers and former indie-rockers. Music both kids and their parents can enjoy.
DIY: How to Build a Pedalboard
For most of my guitar playing career, I’ve schlepped my stompboxes and cables in a paper bag like some digital-age hobo. But last spring, a local singer-songwriter Jill Cohn asked me to join her band, and I decided to upgrade to a rig that would make it easier to get to rehearsals and gigs, and frankly, looked a little less …
The Heartwood Beat, Issue 12: Site Update
Hi Heartwood Beat Subscribers, I hope you’re all enjoying February. I want to let you know about several updates I’ve made to the website. Print or Save Function One of the fun things about having a popular guitar instruction website is bumping into people (usually at guitar camp) who’ve printed music from my site to make songbooks. But I wince …
Rockabye Baby
Dilemma: Baby likes peaceful music. Mom and Dad like Nine Inch Nails. Solution: Rockabye Baby You haven’t fully appreciated AC/DC until you’ve heard “You Shook Me All Night Long” played by a music box.
Easy Guitar Songs for Kids
I teach kids as young as three years old to play guitar. One of the keys to teaching really little kids, besides knowing how to spontaneously burp, wiggle your ears, and listen to that orange/banana knock-knock joke 3,000 times without going AWOL, is choosing the right material. Kids this young can barely pick their own nose, so there’s no way …
