Category Archive

One of the great rewards for becoming a skillful guitar player is being able to sit down with a total stranger at a campfire, bus stop, wherever—and make music. I recently had an experience like this leading a singalong up at Diablo Lake, Washington. The other guitarist in our group, who I’d never met until that night, just sat down …

In the last newsletter, I showed you how you can play a I – IV – V song in five different keys. Today I’d like to introduce you to the four other members of a chord family. At the end of this lesson, you should be ready to transpose a simple song into a different key. But first, a song …

This newsletter is a follow-up to last week’s issue, when I tried to convince you all that learning about chord families was worth your time. Now that you’re all raring to go, let’s check out those I – IV – V chords in more detail. But first, I need to ask all you jazz geniuses to take a deep breath …

And now, it’s time for a Heartwood Headscratcher(TM)! What do these four recordings have in common: “Wild Thing” by The Troggs “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles “La Bamba” by Los Lobos “Always With Me, Always With You” by Joe Satriani A) Each has been banned by radio stations for having obscene lyrics. B) They’re the four songs most likely …

Bending is the art of stretching a string to raise the pitch. Bends create a moaning or wailing sound associated with the blues, but can bring expressiveness and style to pretty much any type of music. A few well-place bends can turn “Mary Had a Little Lamb” into “Mary Had a Little Lamborghini.” Don’t know a bent string from a …

As some of you may have noticed, I’m now writing a weekly newsletter. If you’re interested in subscribing, you can learn more here, or just scroll down on the main blog page and find the form in the right-hand column. I hope you’ll check it out. I’m really psyched about it. When I think that the content of the newsletter …