The Digital Divide

You hear a lot of talk about computers isolating people from each other, and I think in many cases that’s true, especially if your job involves staring at a screen all day. But computers also have great power to bring people together over long distances. I’ve had visitors from India, Sweden, Singapore come to this blog and drop a note. And this morning I got this email from a reader in Chicago:

—————————————

Hi Rob:

I found your chords on-line last night, and I want to thank you for putting that stuff up. When I found your list of songs, I called my wife in and said we have to move to Seattle, cuz I found a teacher whose list of songs scarily matches my own interests.

I took guitar lessons here in Chicago for a while (at the Old Town School, you may know it), but it’s my seven-year-old son taking them now that has re-energized my own playing and practicing (each day we compare the pads that we’re building up on our fingers). I can’t free up a regular time for lessons right now, but I’m finding the chords for songs I like on the Internet and getting in more practice almost every night than I ever did before.

I really appreciate all the work you’ve done to put everything on-line. You’ve given me months of new material, nicely laid out and a great match for my skills and interest. You may not make money from your web site, but you are making me a better guitar player. Thanks a lot.

Peter

——————————————

Thanks to everyone for visiting my blog. I’m traveling this weekend but I’ll have some new material on improvising posted on Monday.

–Rob