Yesterday, my student Wesley’s little “Folsom Prison Blues” video got almost 100,000 views on YouTube, and his parents and I were flooded with attention from the media. It’s been exciting, disorienting, and a little worrisome. The internet, especially, is such a brutal force—and by the internet, I mean the way people act on the internet. The general public, from the …
5-year-old Plays "Folsom Prison Blues"
More footage from this Spring’s Coffee Shop Jam: Wesley, who just turned five, performed “Folsom Prison Blues” with a soulfulness that would have made Johnny Cash weep. Many people, including my mom, are unsettled by a kid this young performing such grim material. But I don’t see it as a problem. For one thing, you can’t keep water from running …
United Breaks Guitars
I hate flying with my guitar. Approaching the ticket-taker at the gate with my Martin in hand always feels like I’m leading it to its death, dreading this: “Oh, I’m sorry sir, it’s a very full flight, but we can hand-check that for you.” Thankfully, so far I’ve always been able to shoehorn it into a coat closet or once, …
The Heartwood Beat, Issue 13: Fingerpicking Hand Position
I hope you’re all having a great summer. The Heartwood Beat reached 4,000 subscribers since I last wrote. Welcome new readers! Fingerpicking Hand Position This past week I introduced yet another beginner to fingerstyle guitar–that is, picking the guitar with thumb and fingers instead of a flatpick. Every time I teach those first steps–how to orient your picking hand, how …
Incredible performance by a 9-year-old
The coffee shop jam is the most awesome thing I do as a guitar teacher, and this past Jam, on May 30th, was even more awesome than usual. This was partly due to the venue. The Columbia City Theater, a mid-sized music club in southern Seattle, has a glorious sound system and a three broadcast-quality video cameras. We’ve come quite …
Take Me Home: From the Coffee Shop Jam Archives
Up all night editing videos of this past spring’s Coffee Shop Jam. As I’ve waited for the videos to upload, I’ve been looking at some old videos and reminiscing. Here’s one of my favorites, from 2007. It’s gorgeous singing, and I like the unusual pairing of Mike, a snowboard builder and Starbucks employee, and Paul, a retired professor from a …
A Defense of Tablature
The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming how-to book on running a successful guitar teaching business. I thought it would inspire an interesting discussion. What do you think? I can hear the legions of Standard Notation Defenders sharpening their swords even as I write this. I’m sorry—I think it’s crazy how militant some teachers are about starting their students …
