Paul | Guitar Lessons and Performance - Paul Elwood

jingle bells

I’ve been playing this on solo guitar, adding to my Christmas repertoire a little this year. I downloaded a nice drum track from wikiloops.com where you can get some really great (and free) tracks to experiment with.

In Logic Pro the guitar track went down over the drums and then the bass (which Art Baguer said is “stylistically on point” and so I am inordinately proud of that for sure)!

I should have the changes up here shortly as a pdf download for any folks who are interested. Enjoy!

Paul2026-03-11T16:54:48-04:00

let it be part 1

“Let It Be” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 6 March 1970 as a single, and (in an alternative mix) as the title track of their album Let It Be. It was written and sung by Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The single version of the song, produced by George Martin, features a softer guitar solo and the orchestral section mixed low, compared with the album version, produced by Phil Spector, featuring a more aggressive guitar solo and the orchestral sections mixed higher.

At the time, it had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100, beginning its chart run at number 6 and eventually reaching the top. It was the Beatles’ final single before McCartney announced his departure from the band. Both the Let It Be album and the US single “The Long and Winding Road” were released after McCartney’s announced departure from and the subsequent break-up of the group.

“I adore art… when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.” – Guiseppe Verdi

Paul2026-03-10T18:07:19-04:00

hands on the wheel

notation and lyrics for this song

Paul2026-03-10T15:47:25-04:00

All that love for you!

It struck me how much his in-laws love him- really adore my kid! Typically when I’m composing I keep a picture of something in my head to focus on while I’m inventing and In this case I was thinking about his wife’s family, how lovely they are to him and to Deb and me as well. I worked this up to a built-in drum track in logic pro and the idea is to substitute a track that my son makes in Beats, and then sort of present this to his in-laws as a token of our appreciation for them. That’s the idea anyway.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

Paul2026-03-16T08:17:51-04:00

pentatonic power chords

The minor pentatonic scale has 5 notes: 1, b3, 4, 5 and b7. We can find all of those on one string by understanding the intervals between them. Let’s start with the 1 note on the 2nd fret of D/4

If we want to play E minor pentatonic on the D string, our 1st note is E, and that’s on the 2nd fret of the D string. If we move back two frets to the open D string we can get our flat seventh, often written “b7” and referred to as a ‘dominant’ 7. In this case, that’s a D, a whole step below E. Moving back to 1 on the 2nd fret (E), we can find our b3 note (G) on the 5th fret one whole and one-half interval above the 1. Next up is the 4 note, a whole step up from the b3 so that’s A on the 7th fret. Now the 5, a whole step up from 4 so that’s B on the 9th fret of D. The pattern repeats with b7 (D) on the 12th fret.

Now this is the really cool part: a ‘power’ chord is a diad (two note chord) with no 3rd! It just has the 1 and 5 notes. Because the A & D strings are a 4th apart, the 5 of any note on the […]

Paul2026-03-09T18:16:12-04:00

silent night

“Silent Night” (German: “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht”) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011. The song was first recorded in 1905 and has remained a popular success, appearing in films and multiple successful recordings, as well as being quoted in other musical compositions. You can download the pdf notation and tab sheet here

Paul2026-03-11T16:54:55-04:00

I think Robin Williams saw it coming

I think Robin Williams saw it coming

I think Robin Williams saw it coming.
He was as sensitive a soul as you could find
A gentle true spirit with a razor sharp mind
A genuine human exclamation point
And one of a kind

I think Robin Williams saw it coming
And it must have made him awful sad to see
The day beyond the day beyond the day of his demise
And that he wouldn’t be here To brighten peoples eyes

I think Robin williams saw it coming
All the anger and the stupid, stupid shit
And it rose within his mind
And it broke his fuckin heart

It broke his fuckin heart.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Paul2026-03-16T14:38:42-04:00

Play more melodically with this simple technique

Play more melodically with this simple technique!

The sound you create with your instrument is the vehicle that the idea- that is, the music- uses to communicate itself. When you listen to an instrument playing a melody, can you hear the “words” that are being sung? We can begin to think about music as if it was language (which it is) and so consider it “syllabically”

Think about a common word… how about “kitchen”? If you were going to describe the sound of that word, you might say it has two syllables – a short, percussive one: “kit” and a longer one that starts off sharp – “ch” – and sort of trails off the “n” sound till it’s done… “chennnn”. Also when you say the word “kitchen” is the first syllable higher or lower than the second one? Higher, right? So how might you represent those two ideas on your guitar? How about playing a short, sharp note and then a slightly lower one that kind of trails off? Does that sound like the two syllables in “kitchen”?

This kind of thinking about music in a different way needs to be practiced for sure, but look: the tiniest change in the way you think about something can have profound effects in the way you perceive it. Thinking about musica “syllabically” might be the change that drives […]

Paul2026-03-09T18:16:33-04:00

How to play Box of Rain

Box Of Rain – Grateful Dead

chord and lyric sheet

“Box of Rain” is a song by the Grateful Dead, from their 1970 album American Beauty. The song was composed by bassist Phil Lesh and lyricist Robert Hunter, and sung by Lesh.

The song

Key: G
Time signature: 4/4 (with an occasional 2/4 measure)
Chords used: A, Bm7/A, A4, D, Am, Em, C, G, Bm

“Box of Rain” is drawn from American folk and country musical roots. This is true of many Grateful Dead tunes, including most of the songs on American Beauty and their other 1970 release, Workingman’s Dead. As the first song on American Beauty, it was also the first Grateful Dead song released on record to feature Phil Lesh as the lead vocalist.

The song also featured two musicians who are not in the band. Dave Torbert played bass, while Lesh played acoustic guitar. David Nelson (of New Riders of the Purple Sage) plays the lead guitar with a Fender Telecaster, while Jerry Garcia plays the piano. Bob Weir sings harmony with Lesh and Garcia.

“Sight-reading is like playing. It’s a question of doing.” – Johnny Smith

Paul2026-03-09T18:16:44-04:00

How to play I’ve got the world on a string

lead sheet with lyrics I’ve got the world on a string

“I’ve Got The World on a String” is a 1932 popular jazz song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It was written for the twenty-first edition of the Cotton Club series which opened on October 23, 1932, the first of the Cotton Club Parades.

The song was recorded and popularized by Cab Calloway who had a #18 hit in 1932. Bing Crosby recorded the song on January 26, 1933, with the Dorsey Brothers and their Orchestra.

The song was one of the first recorded by Frank Sinatra when he transferred to Capitol Records in 1953. His recording on April 30, 1953, with an orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle reached #14 on Billboard’s most played list.

Paul2026-03-09T18:16:56-04:00

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The song