Paul | Guitar Lessons and Performance - Paul Elwood

Practicing with a metronome

Practicing with a metronome: timing is everything! Using a metronome to help you get a handle on tempo is just smart.

If there is a piece you are working on but you can’t play it accurately at speed, it just takes some practice to get “up to speed” with the correct notes and the correct timing. Use a metronome to slow the piece down. Slow down till you can find your one beat consistently. The metronome helps you play the correct notes in the correct order and slowly bring the work up to speed as you increase the tempo.

Start as slowly as you need to in order to play the work correctly! That is, play the part exactly the same way you will when you do it at speed; it should sound just how it’s supposed to, but slower (if that makes any sense).

Perhaps start at half speed. If a song is supposed to be played at 160 bpm then start your metronome at 80 bpm. If that speed is still too fast, slow down a bit more. Once you get the song under your hand at the speed of the metronome, speed up by 5-10 bpm. Then, practice at that speed. If you can play that, continue speeding up. If not, go back down and practice until you […]

Paul2026-04-15T07:58:47-04:00

Diminished Chords

Diminished Chords for Guitar Players

Ah, diminished chords. I knew this question was going to come up eventually. Have a seat.

You see, after a major chord has flourished for a while, it begins to lose its luster. It’s just not as shiny as it was when it was new! And it starts to get a little soft, particularly around the 3 and 5. Eventually of course, the 3 and 5 each slip completely down a half step, and we shake our heads and say the chord is half diminished.

It is still strong though, never doubt it! Its character has just changed. It moves with more nuance, has greater gravitas and I believe, a greater appreciation for the chords and notes around it, generally speaking.

Eventually it’s 7 also flattens out, and we say that it is completely diminished. It certainly looks and sounds different than it did when it was a sprightly young major chord, but it has attained a more profound way of communicating its essence that it ever would have been able to, had it not reached this certain level of maturity.

Respect your diminished chords!
They have been around the block, and can show you a thing or two.

Diminished chords need a place to […]

Paul2026-03-17T17:34:27-04:00

Pentatonic exercise: 1 and b3 over 1/4/5 in Gm

Pentatonic exercise. Download the attached PDf and follow along with the video exercise. This will be helpful for practicing the idea of “position”, that is having your first finger on the fret that 1 note is available on.

penta exercise

The best thing about learning guitar is that nobody can take it away from you

Paul2026-04-08T18:19:26-04:00

Turn The Page

Download the PDF

“Turn the Page” is a song by American singer Bob Seger written in 1972 and included on his Back in ’72 album in 1973. It was not released as a single until Seger’s live version of the song on the 1976 Live Bullet album got released in Germany and the UK. The song became a mainstay of album-oriented rock radio stations, and still gets significant airplay on classic rock stations.

“Turn the Page” is about the emotional and social ups and downs of a rock musician’s life on the road. Seger wrote it in 1972 while touring with Teegarden & Van Winkle. Drummer David Teegarden (of Teegarden & Van Winkle and later the Silver Bullet Band) recalls:

We had been playing somewhere in the Midwest, or the northern reaches, on our way to North or South Dakota. [Guitarist] Mike Bruce was with us. We’d been traveling all night from the Detroit area to make this gig, driving in this blinding snowstorm. It was probably 3 in the morning. Mike decided it was time to get gas. He was slowing down to exit the interstate and spied a truck stop. We all had very long hair back then – it was the hippie era – but Skip, Mike […]

Paul2026-04-13T14:15:34-04:00

Can’t help falling (in love)

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Can’t Help Falling in Love” is a song written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss and published by Gladys Music, Inc. The melody is based on “Plaisir d’amour“, a popular French love song composed in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini. The song was initially written from the perspective of a woman as “Can’t Help Falling in Love with Him”, which explains the first and third line ending on “in” rather than words rhyming with “you”.

Recorded by singer and actor Elvis Presley, it was part of the album Blue Hawaii (1961), the soundtrack to the movie Blue Hawaii. The song was recorded subsequently in the 1960s by Perry Como, the Lennon Sisters, Doris Day, Patti Page, Andy Williams, Al Martino and Keely Smith. In the 1970s, the song was recorded by Marty Robbins, Bob Dylan, the Stylistics, Shirley Bassey, and Engelbert Humperdinck.

“I don’t think about what other people expect or anything. I mean, I sit and worrying so much about what […]

Paul2026-04-13T14:16:49-04:00

Dead Flowers

Dead Flowers

“Dead Flowers” is a song recorded by the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it appears on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers as the fourth track of side two.

Recording of “Dead Flowers” took place in April 1970 at the Olympic Studios in London. The lyrics to the song are notably dark, and feature the line, “I’ll be in my basement room, with a needle and a spoon”, a reference to injecting heroin.

“Dead Flowers” was written during the period when the Stones were stepping into country music territory, when Richards’s friendship with Gram Parsons was influencing his songwriting. Jagger commented in 2003:

The ‘Country’ songs we recorded later, like “Dead Flowers” on Sticky Fingers or “Far Away Eyes” on Some Girls, are slightly different (than our earlier ones). The actual music is played completely straight, but it’s me who’s not going legit with the whole thing, because I think I’m a blues singer not a country singer – I think it’s more suited to Keith’s voice than mine.

Both Richards and Mick Taylor contribute the ‘honky-tonk’ style lead guitar lines throughout the album version. Richards’s choppier fills act primarily as a response to Jagger’s vocal lines during the verses, while […]

Paul2026-04-30T07:46:40-04:00

Dream a Little Dream

Music producer Thom Donovan has described Dream a Little Dream of Me as both a lullaby and a love song, noting its “comforting, childlike quality.” The lyrics by Gus Kahn portray two lovers parting reluctantly, with one asking the other to remember them through dreams while asleep.

In 1930, a handwritten manuscript titled Dream a Little Dream of Me, dated January 6, 1930, and written in the hand of composer Milton Adolphus, documents the melody of the song prior to its commercial publication. Contemporary newspaper accounts report that Adolphus sold the song outright that year for $12.50, receiving no royalty interest.

Handwritten musical manuscript titled Dream a Little Dream of Me, dated January 6, 1930, in the hand of Milton Adolphus.

The melody preserved in the manuscript corresponds to the later published version of the song. Adolphus did not receive formal songwriting credit when the song was subsequently registered and published, and he did not pursue ownership or attribution in later years. The song was later credited to Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt as composers, with lyrics by Kahn, and went on to become a widely recorded popular standard.

“There is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.” – Edward Elgar

[…]

Paul2026-04-13T14:23:39-04:00

Stormy Monday

“Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)” (commonly referred to as “Stormy Monday“) is a song written and recorded by American blues electric guitar pioneer T-Bone Walker. It is a slow twelve-bar blues performed in the West Coast blues-style that features Walker’s smooth, plaintive vocal and distinctive guitar work. As well as becoming a record chart hit in 1948, it inspired B.B. King and others to take up the electric guitar. “Stormy Monday” became Walker’s best-known and most-recorded song.

In 1961, Bobby “Blue” Bland further popularized the song with an appearance in the pop record charts. Bland introduced a new arrangement with chord substitutions, which was later used in many subsequent renditions. His version also incorrectly used the title “Stormy Monday Blues”, which was copied and resulted in royalties being paid to songwriters other than Walker. The Allman Brothers Band recorded an extended version for their first live album in 1971, with additional changes to the arrangement. Through the album’s popularity and the group’s concert performances, they brought “Stormy Monday” to the attention of rock audiences. Similarly, Latimore’s 1973 recording made it popular with a later R&B audience.

“Stormy Monday” is one of the most popular blues standards, with numerous renditions. As well as being necessary for blues musicians, it is also found in the repertoires of many jazz, soul, pop, and […]

Paul2026-04-15T08:07:17-04:00

Bye Bye Love

Download the music: “Bye Bye Love“

Bye Bye Love is a popular song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and published in 1957. It is best known in a debut recording by the Everly Brothers, issued by Cadence Records as catalog number 1315. The song reached No. 2 on the US Billboard Pop charts and No. 1 on the Cash Box Best Selling Record charts. The Everly Brothers’ version also enjoyed major success as a country song, reaching No. 1 in the spring of 1957. The Everlys’ “Bye Bye Love” is ranked 210th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

In 1998, The Everly Brothers version of “Bye Bye Love” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

George Harrison reinterpreted it for his 1974 album Dark Horse, changing the words to reference his wife Pattie Boyd leaving him for his friend Eric Clapton. “Bye Bye Love” has also been covered by Simon & Garfunkel.

The song had been rejected by 30 other acts before it was recorded by the Everlys. The guitar intro was not originally part of the song, but was something that Don Everly had come up with and was tacked on to the beginning. Chet Atkins was the lead guitar player on the session. Floyd Chance was the upright bassist and Buddy Harman was the drummer.

“Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit and never dies.” – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Paul2026-05-02T10:02:00-04:00

Straighten Up and fly Right

Straighten Up and Fly Right

“Straighten Up and Fly Right” is a 1943 song written by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills and one of the first vocal hits for the King Cole Trio. It was the trio’s most popular single, reaching number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for ten nonconsecutive weeks. The single also peaked at number nine on the pop charts. “Straighten Up and Fly Right” also reached number one for six nonconsecutive weeks on the Most Played Jukebox Hillbilly Records.

The song was based on a Black folk tale that Cole’s father had used as a theme for one of his sermons. In the tale, a buzzard takes different animals for a joy ride. When he gets hungry, he throws them off on a dive and eats them for dinner. A monkey who had observed this trick goes for a ride; he wraps his tail around the buzzard’s neck and gives the buzzard a big surprise by nearly choking him to death.

The song’s harmonic structure is based on that of the George and Ira Gershwin’s song, “I Got Rhythm”.

The King Cole Trio recorded the song, along with “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You”, “If You Can’t Smile and Say Yes” and “Jumpin’ at Capitol”, for Capitol Records during a three-hour recording […]

Paul2026-04-19T18:52:59-04:00

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Diminished Chords for Guitar Players