A stupendous smorgasbord of my students’ astute song selections! The following songs are either new or updated versions of previously-posted songs.

And if you’d like to see all of the songs I offer, go to my main chord chart page.

The Arrogant Worms - “Happy Birthday”
The Beatles - “Yellow Submarine”
Jimmy Buffett - “Margaritaville”
Cary Brothers - “Blue Eyes”
Johnny Cash - “Folsom Prison Blues” - MP3’s of step-by-step explanations of how to play this song can be found on my Jam Track page.
The Charlatans - “How High”
Coldplay - “Fix You”
Sheryl Crow - “Soak Up the Sun”
Sheryl Crow - “The First Cut is the Deepest”
The Decemberists - “Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right”
John Denver - “Leaving on a Jet Plane” (in C)
The Eagles - “Already Gone” (in A)
Guns ‘N Roses - “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
Guster - “Amsterdam”
Billy Joel - “Only the Good Die Young”
Diana Jones - “A Hold on Me”
Lyle Lovett - “If You Were to Wake Up” - Here’s a recording of my performance of this song at the 2006 Puget Sound Guitar Workshop
Nickelback - “Savin’ Me”
Sinead O’Connor - “Black Boys on Mopeds”
Brad Paisley - “Little Moments”
Pearl Jam - “Nothingman”
Tom Petty - “Wildflowers”
The Ramones - “Blitzkrieg Bop”
REM - “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville”
Rise Against - “Swing Life Away”
Son Volt - “Windfall”
Bruce Springsteen - “Two For the Road”
Steppenwolf - “Born to be Wild”
The Troggs - “Wild Thing”
The Turtles - “Happy Together”
Uncle Tupelo - “Screen Door”
Uncle Tupelo - “Still Be Around”
Van Morrison - “Into the Mystic”
Weezer - “Beverly Hills”
Weezer - “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here”
Gillian Welch - “Orphan Girl”

Phew!

Every morning I wake up to music—not on a radio alarm clock, but in my head. I started noticing this years ago, and earlier this month I decided to start writing down the songs.

I’m interested to see if any patterns emerge. Will they tend to be songs with dreamlike imagery? Will Norah Jones be over-represented? How long will it take for the Beastie Boys, a decidedly non-somnolent band, to join my dawn chorus?

Here’s my list for September:

3 “Rain” by Patti Griffin
4 “You Remind Me of Home” by Benjamin Gibbard
5 Can’t remember
6 A few chords from “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix—I was dreaming I was teaching.
7 Can’t remember
8 “Today” by The New Christy Minstrels
9 “Above the Clouds” by Turin Breaks
10 “Pushover” by The Long Winters
11 “Rain” by Patti Griffin ***A repeat! And it rained two days later! Freaky!***
12 Can’t remember
13 “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service
14 Can’t remember
15 “Thrasher” by Neil Young
16 Can’t remember
17 “Stormy Monday” by T-Bone Walker
18 “Amsterdam” by Guster
19 Can’t remember*
20 Some 12-bar blues song with electric slide guitar—something I was making up on the spot. Too bad you can’t record these things. I’ve always wanted to compose in my dreams.
21 “Over & Over” by Turin Brakes
22 “Valencia” by The Decemberists
23 “This Old Town” by Tom Petty
24 “Better Be Quiet Now” by Elliott Smith
25 Can’t remember
26 Fingerstyle 12-bar blues in E
27 Can’t remember
28 Can’t remember
29 “Carolyn” (an original)
30 Can’t remember
31 More 12-bar blues in E—guess what I’ve been playing every night this past week before I go to bed.

*There seems to be a correlation between waking up to my girlfriend’s clock radio and not being able to remember the songs in my head. Either it’s so damn early (she has to get to work by 8:30! In the MORNING!) that I’m not in REM sleep, or the songs on KEXP are scaring away my little musical dream.