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How to play “When I Paint My Masterpiece”

Tabs, chords notation and lyrics:

When_I_Paint_My_Masterpiece

Dylan himself first recorded the song at New York’s Blue Rock Studio when he was backed by Leon Russell and session musicians, including Jesse Ed Davis on lead guitar. The recording sessions lasted from March 16 to 19, 1971, and also saw the recording of the 45 RPM single “Watching the River Flow”, released by CBS Records on June 3, 1971. Both songs appeared on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II, released November 17, 1971, with Russell credited as the producer of the two songs.

During the March 1971 sessions at Blue Rock Studio, Dylan also recorded a solo version with slightly different lyrics, accompanying himself on piano. This version was released in 2013 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971).

Dylan and The Band performed the song together live, in the early hours of January 1, 1972, at a New Year’s Eve concert by The Band; a recording was released as a bonus track on the 2001 CD reissue of The Band’s live album Rock of Ages.

Douglas Brinkley, while interviewing Dylan for the New York Times in 2020, noted that “When I Paint My Masterpiece” was a song that had grown on him over the years and asked Dylan why he had brought it “back to the […]

2026-04-18T12:11:16-04:00
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Don’t know why

Download the Chord/lyric sheet

“Don’t Know Why” is a song written and composed by Jesse Harris that originally appeared on his 1999 album, Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos. A cover of the song was the debut single of American singer Norah Jones from her debut studio album, Come Away with Me (2002).

Jones’ version of “Don’t Know Why” was released on January 28, 2002, peaked at number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was a critical success. The single went on to win three Grammy Awards in 2003 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It remains Jones’s biggest hit single in the United States to date, and her only one to reach the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. “Don’t Know Why” was also a modest hit abroad, reaching number five in Australia, number 24 in New Zealand, and number 59 in the United Kingdom. The song was ranked number 459 in Blender magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born”.

Jones’ piano-playing has been compared to that of Floyd Cramer, having a “style and grace, a musical maturity not found in many keyboard players today.”

Your fretting hand is what you know, your picking hand is who you are

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2026-03-19T14:54:27-04:00
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how to play pink houses part 1

Little Pink Houses John Mellencamp. F,C and G. This is just the first part.

Pink Houses” is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on 23 October 1983 as the second single from his album Uh-Huh. It reached No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984 and No. 15 in Canada. “Pink Houses” was ranked No. 447 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Recorded in a farmhouse in Brownstown, Indiana, the song was inspired when John Mellencamp was driving along an overpass on the way home to Bloomington, Indiana, from Indianapolis International Airport. Mellencamp observed an old black man sitting outside his small pink shotgun house with his cat in his arms, completely unperturbed by the traffic speeding along the highway in his front yard. “He waved, and I waved back,” Mellencamp said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “That’s how ‘Pink Houses’ started.”

Mellencamp has stated many times since the release of “Pink Houses” that he is unhappy with the song’s final verse. At an October 2014 press conference, he stated: “A long time ago, I wrote a song called ‘Pink Houses.’ Now when I hear that song, all I can think is: ‘Why didn’t I do a better job on the last verse?’ If I had written it today, the last verse […]

2026-03-30T07:51:18-04:00
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Little Wing changes

“Little Wing” is one of Hendrix’s most popular songs and has become a standard, with interpretations recorded by musicians in a variety of styles. It is ranked number 188 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

How to play blues patterns over “little wing” changes. Once you have the chord changes under your hand and some sense of the blues/penta patterns in a couple of positions, the next hump to get over is your phrasing. I like students to start simply with just two or three note phrases that respond to the chord and resolve back to the target note. If this sounds interesting, just reach out- the first online lesson is free!

“To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also. ” -Stravinsky

2026-04-19T09:06:15-04:00
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Come Rain Or Come Shine”

“Come Rain or Come Shine” is a popular music song, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was written for the Broadway musical St. Louis Woman, which opened on March 30, 1946, and closed after 113 performances.

It became a modest hit during the show’s run, making the pop charts with a Margaret Whiting (Paul Weston and His Orchestra) recording rising to number seventeen, and, shortly after, a Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes recording rising to number twenty-three.

Lead sheet with lyrics and chords

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” – Confucius

2026-04-23T20:30:38-04:00
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How to play Someone to Watch Over Me

someone to watch over me. A great tune to play fingerstyle and not too hard to get under your hand.

Lead sheet with chords and lyrics for “Someone to Watch Over Me”.

Someone to Watch Over Me from “Nice ‘N Easy” July 1960

“Someone to Watch Over Me” was composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin in 1926 for the Broadway musical Oh, Kay. First recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1946 for his first album the Voice of Frank Sinatra and in 1954 for the film Young at heart.

Sinatra’s popular recordings of the song helped cement the standard slow style, and was notably covered by Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Sarah Vaughan, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Rickie Lee Jones, Elton John and Amy Winehouse.

Nelson Riddle arranged two lush orchestral versions, one backing Keely Smith (sang with and married to Louis Prima) and the other for Linda Ronstadt which won a Grammy Award. The song was also used prominently in the film Mr. Holland’s Opus

“The song tells me what to play.” – Joe Walsh

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2026-05-09T13:04:23-04:00
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Guitar Lesson: strumming guitar

Strumming guitar is one of the first skills most guitar players start with. No matter what stage we’re at with our playing though, we can all learn to strum more accurately… and more interestingly! Below are some resources you might find helpful. Take a look at the video and print out the two pdf files for your own use. Practice the strumming patterns slowly and once you see how this works, you can easily understand how to strum songs you hear. Or even better, you can make up your own strumming patterns!

Start with the simple concept of “down strums” and “up strums”. In 4/4 time there are four beats per measure, so to start, we only need to count to four over and over again. Practice counting without pausing between any of the numbers and especially between “4” and “1”. So we’ll count “one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four” etc. The thing to avoid is counting “one, two, three, four……. one, two, three, four”. So no pause between any numbers and especially not between four and one.

Next, hold any chord that’s comfortable for you and count while you strum down across the strings.  Often we might start with a G chord in the first position, and don’t worry about the 1 string too much- this exercise is more about working the right-hand […]

2026-03-10T07:16:19-04:00
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