Persistence of Vision

Something I’ve been noodling with for a while.

“Persistence of vision” is an optical illusion where the brain retains an image for a fraction of a second after it has disappeared, allowing it to blend into a sequence of images to create the illusion of continuous motion, of course but I think of it also as adherence to a particular viewpoint or goal, say, deciding to become an accomplished painter. Tony Bennett described that as “brushing your teeth with it when you get up in the morning”. There was a guy who know what he was talking about for sure- a fella with a very persistent vision.

I added some guitar distortion and a drum track in Logic Pro. it is amazing to me how you can make the guitar fill so much sonic space with effects. I am not normally a pedal/effects guy, but I can see how it works for sure.

Download the tablature for this tune here: Persistence_of_Vision

“Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite.” – Thomas Carlyle

Paul2026-05-06T12:26:39-04:00

Spooky Numbers

Arpeggiating Am, Cm and Gm from the 6 string is a cool, spooky-sounding exercise that can also help us be more deliberate about finger position. These chords all have different relationships, depending on which of them is the tonic, but for me it’s enough to hear that eerie, floating musical idea they can produce. Here’s a chart illustrating the theoretical relationships though, if you’re interested:

Summary of relationships

Relationship to	Am	Gm	Cm
Am	Tonic (i)	The minor dominant (v) in the key of Gm	Chromatic mediant
Gm	The supertonic minor (ii) in the key of Am	Tonic (i)	Dominant minor (v) in the key of Cm
Cm	Relative major is E♭ major	The subdominant minor (iv) in the key of Gm	Tonic (i)

pdf sheet for this lesson with tabs, chord charts and instructions is available at https://paulelwood.com/wp-content/uploads/spooky-numbers-exercise.pdf

Paul2026-03-10T15:46:17-04:00

Paper Roses

Paper roses chords and lyrics

Paper Roses

Anita Bryant’s version of “Paper Roses” was originally released in 1960 as a single, backed with “Mixed Emotions” (Carlton 528). Monty Kelly provided the orchestrations. It was the opening track on her 1961 album Hear Anita Bryant In Your Home Tonight! (Carlton STLP 12/127), recorded in “Provocative Stereo.” “Paper Roses” was Bryant’s biggest hit on the Billboard Pop chart, peaking at No. 5 in 1960. Bryant continued to release singles following “Paper Roses”‘ success, and although some reached the Top 40, she never had another hit as big as “Paper Roses.” Tabs, notation and chord diagrams available at https://paulelwood.com. First online lesson is free!

“I write the songs first and in most cases teach myself the technique second.” – Joe Satriani

Paul2026-04-16T16:10:13-04:00

In Spite Of Ourselves

In Spite of Ourselves

In Spite of Ourselves is the 13th studio album of John Prine, featuring duets of classic country songs with various well-known female folk and alt-country vocalists, released in 1999.

The album was Prine’s first release since successfully battling throat cancer. The female duet partners include Iris DeMent, Connie Smith, Lucinda Williams, Trisha Yearwood, Melba Montgomery, Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane, Patty Loveless, and his wife, Fiona Prine.

“Only those who can see the Invisible can do the Impossible.” – Michelle Small Wright

In spite of ourselves chords and lyrics

Paul2026-03-17T08:41:59-04:00

Push Off

push off chord diagrams

“Push Off” is an acoustic ballad by the alternative band The Palms, noted for its focus on piano and layered, emotional vocals. The song explores themes of being overwhelmed by the world. It was featured on Last.fm and reviewed as having a distinct, piano-driven sound. “Push Off” is an acoustic ballad by the alternative band The Palms, noted for its focus on piano and layered, emotional vocals. The song explores themes of being overwhelmed by the world. It was featured on Last.fm and reviewed as having a distinct, piano-driven sound. “Push Off” is an acoustic ballad by the alternative band The Palms, noted for its focus on piano and layered, emotional vocals. The song explores themes of being overwhelmed by the world. It was featured on Last.fm and reviewed as having a distinct, piano-driven sound. How to play “Push Off” by the Palms for easy guitar. You can download the chord chart for this great song below, and view the video for strumming pattern and chord fingering positions. “Push Off” is an acoustic ballad by the alternative […]

Paul2026-08-19T16:28:43-04:00

Eb Rhythm Changes

Rhythm Changes
Eb rhythm changes! an excellent exercise to work out your improvisational chops.

Rhythm Changes

The Rhythm changes is a common 32-bar jazz chord progression derived from George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”. The progression is in AABA form, with each A section based on repetitions of the ubiquitous I–vi–ii–V sequence (or variants such as iii–vi–ii–V), and the B section using a circle of fifths sequence based on III⁷–VI⁷–II⁷–V⁷, a progression which is sometimes given passing chords.

This pattern, “one of the most common vehicles for improvisation,” forms the basis of countless (usually uptempo) jazz compositions and was popular with swing-era and bebop musicians. For example, it is the basis of Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail” as well as Charlie Christian’s “Seven Come Eleven,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts,” and Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning”. The earliest known use of rhythm changes was by Sidney Bechet in his September 15, 1932 recording of “Shag” (two years after the first performance of “I Got Rhythm” on Broadway) with his “New Orleans Feetwarmers” group.

In pop culture, “Meet the Flintstones“, (c. 1960, Curtin/Hanna/Barbera) is based on the rhythm changes, thereby being a contrafact of “I Got Rhythm”.

Playing over rhythm changes is a great way to build your chops and listening skills! Rhythm Changes in Eb

Paul2026-03-10T07:18:14-04:00

Chord Construction Using Modes

Chord construction using modes. The first mode of any major scale is called the Ionian mode; “do re mi fa so la ti do”. We know the intervals for that! They go “whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step to the octave”.

Screenshot

You can play C Ionian wherever you like, ascending and descending; the chart below shows it in the first position.

Screenshot

From left to right, here are the notes in sequence, right from one through seven and one as the octave. Ascending and descending, those guys have a solid, dependable interval relationship! That means between 1 and 2 is always going to be a whole step, between 2 and 3 is always going to be a whole step, between 3 and 4 is always going to be a whole step, all the way up to the half-step interval between 7 and 1… but only for one particular mode of the scale, which is the Ionian mode.

Other modes are different in that the intervals between the notes are shifted. However, the note sequence doesn’t change, we just start at a different point. So let’s take a look at the Dorian or second […]

Paul2026-04-25T19:23:27-04:00

That’s Life!

“That’s Life” is a popular song written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon, and first recorded in 1963 by Marion Montgomery. The song has an uplifting message that, despite the ups and downs in life, one should not give up but keep positive, because soon one will be “back on top.”

The most famous version is by Frank Sinatra, released on his 1966 album That’s Life. Sinatra recorded the song after hearing an earlier recording of it by O.C. Smith; the song proved successful and reached the #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Following the success of Sinatra’s version, it was subsequently recorded by a number of artists including Aretha Franklin, James Booker, Shirley Bassey, James Brown, Van Morrison, David Lee Roth, Michael Bolton, Lady Gaga, Michael Bublé, Russell Watson, Deana Martin, and Holt McCallany. Sinatra’s version appeared in the 1993 film A Bronx Tale, the 1995 film Casper, the 2019 film Joker and its 2024 sequel Joker: Folie à Deux, the 2004 video game Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, as well as the sixth season finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, while a cover by Bono was on the soundtrack of The Good Thief (2002). The song was sung by Manny Delgado (Rico Rodriguez) in the episode “Bad Hair Day” of the television show Modern Family. That’s Life lead sheet in C

Paul2026-03-11T11:37:48-04:00

Tabs

Download the Reading Tabs pdf here.

Playing guitar tabs. Tabs- short for “tablature” – are a great way to get your feet wet with playing guitar! They’re not hard to use and they can be a great way to help you remember where to put your fingers to get the sound you want. In the simplest form, like the example below they are simply a way to write down the order of the notes in a melodic line (or chords, as you can see when they are all stacked up in a vertical line that will represent a chord). They can be a wonderful quick shorthand for you if you are writing your own music, for instance.

They won’t tell you, at least not in this simple form, how long to hold the note for, although there are tabbing systems that will help you with that. I think they are most useful to help students remember a particular pattern on the neck. Have a look at the video and download the attached pdf to get started.

Download blank tab sheet for guitar

Download blank tab […]

Paul2026-03-18T09:47:11-04:00

There can only be one… But it is also eight.

I’ve been saying that any note can be the “one” note to guitar students for years but it occurred to me recently that if that’s true, then that one note has two functions at the same time! Number theory says that it is the tonic, because that’s what the one note is- the tonic in a sequence of notes that moves up (or down) to its octave. So at the same time, the one note is the tonic for the octave ascending as well as the octave for the descending sequence below it. The same numeric sequence, ascending or descending is available from that first note!

Here’s an example. Play one twice. Go up to flat 3 then down to 1 again. Now down to b7 and continue down to sharp 5 then down to 5…
With a little imagination you can hear the first part of the lick from “7 Nation Army”

You can see how useful it might be to understand the notes as numbers! Shifting that sequence of notes to start at a different one note simply means changing your sequence to another key.

Most guitarists, when we start, tend to think about notes and chords as patterns but I’m beginning to wonder if it might not be more useful to think about them as numerical relationships.. not “instead” but rather “as well as”.

Here’s another simple example: […]

Paul2026-03-09T15:46:56-04:00

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Chord Construction Using Modes

Download the Reading Tabs pdf here.