An Absolute Beginners Guitar Course

Published on 12/31/2009 by Elwood

For a long while I have wanted to integrate a solid track of lessons for beginners to be able to use to learn guitar. Today I began importing in the youtube videos by Justin Sandercoe into an ‘absolute beginners’ course.

I have added supplementary material to some of the videos, which appears below and allows the user to learn a little extra or practice without having to rewind the youtube video. Oftentimes youtube seems to freeze up when you jump around a lot.

In the future I intend to create courses on more advanced topics – mixing videos from a variety of sources and including some entirely written articles.

If you have any sets of guitar lessons you would like me to add to the site or know of any cool ideas for a series or course please get in touch with me using the contact form.

Absolute Beginner’s Course »

Fretboard Builder

Published on 12/29/2009 by Elwood I have created a the “fretboard builder” machine, which allows you to see all the notes on your fretboard for a given tuning. Features include:

• Custom-Tuning Option, which allows you to choose the number of strings (4, 5, 6, or 7) and which notes.
• Choose the number of frets.
• Open, Dropped, and Standard Tunings.

Continue reading Fretboard Builder

Blank Fretboard Diagrams 2

Published on 08/15/2009 by Elwood Another version of fretboard diagrams. Continue Reading

Favorites, PDF’s of Tabs

Published on 08/14/2009 by Elwood

1. PDF’s of tabbed files – A handful of the tabbed videos that Sawlon now have a link to a tabbed file that you can download and printout right alongside the video (makes things a little easier when playing along with Sawlon).
2. Favorites – You can now save your favorite videos and articles on this website and access them later. Just hit “add to favorites” at the bottom of the article. To view later hit “view favorites.” Favorites are stored as a cookie – or in the database if your a registered user.

Les Paul dead at 94

Published on 08/13/2009 by Elwood

Hanging your Guitar on the wall

Published on by Elwood

What do you need?

• Guitar Hanger (hardware)
• Stud Finder
• Screw driver or drill

First, the Hanger

Guitars are hung on the wall using specialized devices that are easy on the neck. Pick up one from your local music store or grab one of these ones below from Amazon. These hangers will fit most guitars.

You may have to look a little harder if your trying to hang a 7-string or guitars with strange neck widths, but I have used them to hang an acoustic, classical, electric, and 12-string acoustic without any problems. These are some of the bestselling and highest rated.

Continue reading Hanging your Guitar on the wall

Ovation Makeover

Published on 08/08/2009 by Wayne

Background

Every so often your guitar needs a tune-up. It can be as simple as buffing your frets or a wax job
while changing your strings. Reminds me of that Mott the Hopple song, “Man, that’s your instrument! I felt
so ashamed!”

Anyway, we all have different skill levels when it comes to working on our guitars. The more complicated work should be left to qualified luthiers .
Not all luthiers are qualified. Me? I’m not a luthier. I’m crazy!

I bought my Ovation in 1974. It’s a Custom Balladeer model 1112 and I’m the original owner. In those days they came with a lifetime
guarantee as Ovation guitars were relatively new to the market and they needed help from people like
Glen Campbell
and others to promote them. I remember people saying Ovation guitars were “toys” and “real” guitars are made of wood.

Let’s face it. All guitars have their own sound and personality. You can hear it and you can feel it. That’s why
God
made so many different guitars in so many different styles for so many different players. I think I read that in the
Old Testament.

My Ovation has met many people over the years. It performed for the passengers in the First Class Lounge of a 747 on a commercial flight from O’Hare to LAX. There were people dancing in the street as I sang solo in a bar for free beer on Bourbon Street.

When we played the 4th of July on the Santa Monica Pier, mounted cops were called to disperse the crowd. There were so many people they thought the pier might collapse. We’ve been on ski trips to Mammoth, campfires on the Colorado, countless parties, weddings, gigs, recording sessions and the list goes on.

Makes my head hurt just thinking about all the beer. My Ovation has been a great companion and a friend. It’s the guitar I reach for when I write. It’s also a Chick Magnet. Don’t believe me? Ask my wife. I can’t get her to leave!

I’m not a luthier so I can’t take responsibility if you mess up your guitar by reading this. I’ve
always worked on my own guitars but never any re-finishing stuff. In fact, I’ve worked on just about everyones guitar I know and then some. My guitar buds would have me work on their guitar buds guitar.

Did that make sense? Kinda like three guitar buds on a blind date and two don’t know Jack from Adam. Let’s get started!

Sometime before Christmas

I started out wanting to do the usual. Adjust the truss rod, buff the frets, clean it up and change the strings. Then, as I took inventory of it’s condition, I felt so ashamed! Man! This guitar has been so good to me over all these years and this is how I’ve treated it! Then the other side of me said,”Yeah, but look how old it is. Almost 35. Why don’t you trade her in for a couple of 20 year olds?” I started looking at the dents and the scratches and remembering the story behind each one. Then I started looking at the dents and the scatches I couldn’t remember.

Wow! This guitar could look like new if I refinished it! Haha, you laugh! I took a piece of sandpaper to the back of the neck and I was committed. Ah, feels pretty smooth. Hmmm, it doesn’t smell like paint. It smells like a surfboard.

As I wondered aloud my fingers were busy on the net finding out what kind of finish I was sanding off. I fired off an email to Ovation and continued sanding. I’ve seen guys play with sanded necks. It looked different and they were all good players. Maybe they knew something I didn’t. They must be cool to sand down the neck of an expensive guitar, right? Turns out my Ovation was sprayed with a cataylized polyester. I masked off the places I didn’t want to scratch with some musicians brand duct tape, removed the hardware and continued to sand.

On my next trip to the big box hardware store I see that MinWax makes a waterbased product called Polycrylic in a spray can. It’s too cold to test on a sample so I continue to sand. I also debated on staining the wood to its original color and decided not to. So, I’m sanding everything to the bare wood except the front of the headstock. I wiped the neck down with a little alcohol (just to see) and it looked beautiful.

Continue reading Ovation Makeover

Guitar Storage

Published on 08/07/2009 by Elwood

Don’t…

• Don’t store your guitar in a car for a prolonged period of time.
• Don’t store your guitar in a basement!
• Don’t store your guitar in an attic!
• Don’t store your guitar near windows, where it can get heavy exposure to light.
• Don’t store your guitar below an anvil being held up with dental floss.

Continue reading Guitar Storage

Huge List of Guitar Chords

Published on 08/02/2009 by Elwood If your looking for a rare chord you can use your browsers built in search function to find it. Just hit Control + F for windows or command + F and enter it in. These apply to standard tuning (E A D G B e) only.

A

A or Amaj [0 0 2 2 2 0] (Db E A) : major triad
A or Amaj [0 4 x 2 5 0] (Db E A) : major triad
A or Amaj [5 7 7 6 5 5] (Db E A) : major triad
A or Amaj [x 0 2 2 2 0] (Db E A) : major triad
A or Amaj [x 4 7 x x 5] (Db E A) : major triad

Continue reading Huge List of Guitar Chords

Blank Fretboard Diagrams

Published on by Elwood Use these blank fretboard diagrams to learn which notes to play during a solo, learn the notes on the fretboard for finger-style playing, show chords, or show a chord progression. Continue Reading