Stand By Me, Wherever You May Be

In the midst of a hectic day, a student sent this video splicing together musicians from around the world as they perform “Stand by Me.” At this rate, November 2008 will go down in my history as The Month Beauty Kept Making Me Cry. I swear, I’m not usually a crier. Stand By Me If you have the time, watch …

The Naggest of them All

There are some guitar skills you can only teach by nagging. Again and again, you remind the student, until finally, they start reminding themselves. And which skill is The Naggest Of Them All? Play slowly and carefully when you’re practicing something hard. Invariably, when I teach a beginner a hard piece of music, they launch into it much too fast, …

New Business

I’ve followed every crisis in my life with a transformation. I was bullied in middle school until my parents finally transferred me to a different school, where I made friends and discovered my love for the theater. After a bad breakup with a girlfriend, I found a counselor who taught me how improve my relationships with everyone I loved. And …

Arm Injury Update

As many of you know, I hurt my arms this past spring by simultaneously cramming for the first performance with my new band (three days after joining it), preparing for my students’ Coffee Shop Jam (which happened two weeks later), and, in a fit of vanity, trying to do as many push-ups as I could at the gym. Writing that …

Chord Chart Update

I’ve just added 32 new chord charts to my website, and made improvements on a handful of others. It’s a veritable cornucopia of carefully crafted chord chart compositions! You can find all my chord charts here. New Charts: 10,000 Maniacs – Like The Weather Barenaked Ladies – If I Had a Million Dollars Brandi Carlile – Fall Apart Again The …