How to play midnight rambler

Here’s a classic that’s not too hard to play. My favorite part is b3rd over the E chord- in first-position E that’s the G on the 3rd fret of the 1 string, and you can hear in on the lyric “hear” in the line “did you HEAR about the midnight rambler”. To play this tune you just need an E (with the G on top), an A and a D, all in the first position. Playing the tune like this is a pretty good and fairly simple way to use a fingerstyle technique so that the melody pops out on top of the rhythm. Enjoy!

Paul2023-10-12T13:09:14-04:00

How to play hallelujah

How to play Hallelujah

Hallelujah tab, chord sheet, lyrics and notation, part 1

Taking some time to figure out how to play ascending and descending chord tones is a great exercise for guitar students. The pdf linked above has tabs and chord charts for the first part of the song as illustrated in the video below. Enjoy practicing how to move slowly between chord shapes as you arpeggiate them! You can apply this technique to tons of songs.

Here’s a recording of the trio playing “Hallelujah”

Paul2023-04-25T08:54:50-04:00

How to play winter wonderland

These are pretty hand-friendly chords, strummed as quarter notes. If you hear a sort of flute-y sound following the guitar, that’s the Roland GR55 midi connected to a divided pickup on my tele. I found it works best for this kind of “soft” music anyway, to add a voice that has a different sustain and diminish than the guitar, so the sound sort of “continues” to the next strum. A work in progress :-)

Anyway- simple chords, timely tune. download the sheet below if you like. Happy Holidays!

The chord and lyric sheet is here looking for online guitar lessons? First one is free!

Paul2023-10-12T13:10:23-04:00

How to play am I blue

How to play am I blue.

Lead sheet for “Am I Blue”

“Am I Blue?” is a 1929 song copyrighted by Harry Akst (music) and Grant Clarke (lyrics), then featured in four films that year, most notably with Ethel Waters in the movie On with the Show. It has appeared in 42 movies, most recently Funny Lady, The Cotton Club and Downton Abbey: A New Era, and has become a standard covered by numerous artists. looking for online guitar lessons? First one is free!

Paul2023-10-11T12:17:36-04:00

Custom Video Lessons

Custom video lesson for the song you want to learn!

Let me know what song you’d like to learn to play and what level of guitarist you are. I’ll produce a video custom-made to help you with that song!

If a student of mine can’t make a previously-scheduled online lesson for some reason, I generally substitute a custom video lesson for the material that we would have covered in our session and post it to youtube. Besides being useful for my student, other guitar players might get some value from it too, right? But then I thought “what if I just make the video for someone who’s interested in learning the song?” So here we are. If you want to play a song, I’ll make a video to help you with that!

Here’s a page on my site with a link to some lessons done for students at various levels– from beginners to more advanced finger-style guitar students. I can help you with most techniques that involve playing chords and melody. Tapping and sweep-picking, sorry, not so much.

The offering generally includes an easily understood youtube video, description of what I’ doing, chord charts/tab or notation and/or mp3 file. Individual video lessons are $25 and you can pay for your own […]

Paul2022-07-05T14:28:46-04:00

How to play lets stay together

How to play lets stay together. “Let’s Stay Together” is a song by American singer Al Green from his 1972 album of the same name. It was produced and recorded by Willie Mitchell, and mixed by Mitchell and Terry Manning. Released as a single in 1971, “Let’s Stay Together” reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained on the chart for 16 weeks and also topped Billboard’s R&B chart for nine weeks. Billboard ranked it as the number 11 song of 1972.

It was ranked the 60th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine on their 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and has been covered by numerous other performers, most notably Tina Turner.

It was selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The song went on to claim the number 1 position on the Billboard Year-End chart as an R&B song for 1972. looking for online guitar lessons? First one is free!

Paul2023-10-11T12:19:39-04:00

How to play la grange

How to play la grange . This part 1 lesson is for solo guitar fingerstyle or voice accompaniment. A great tune, with a cool, identifiable and easily playable lick

Paul2023-10-11T12:21:03-04:00

How to play margaritaville

How to play margaritaville- a well-known parrothead tune. This part 1 lesson is for solo guitar fingerstyle or voice accompaniment. A great tune, with a cool, identifiable and easily playable lick

“Margaritaville” is a 1977 song by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. This song was written about a drink Buffett discovered at Lung’s Cocina del Sur restaurant (where High 5 is located today) at 2700 W. Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas, and the first huge surge of tourists who descended on Key West, Florida, around that time. He wrote most of the song one night at a friend’s house in Austin, and finished it while spending time in Key West. In the United States “Margaritaville” reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and went to number one on the Easy Listening chart, also peaking at No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Billboard ranked it number 14 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart. It remains Buffett’s highest charting solo single.

Named for the cocktail margarita, with lyrics reflecting a laid-back lifestyle in a tropical climate, “Margaritaville” has come to define Buffett’s music and career. The relative importance of the song to Buffett’s career is referred to obliquely in a parenthetical plural in the title of a Buffett greatest hits compilation album, Songs […]

Paul2023-10-11T12:23:05-04:00

How to play the way you look tonight

How to play the way you look tonight. This was very early on for Art and myself and one of the first trio gigs we had! Of course, something had to go wrong… Patrick Kersson’s car broke down on the way to Whiting so he couldn’t make it! So we quickly figured out which songs in the set we could do as a duo and frankly, we didn’t do too bad a job of it. There are real advantages to playing with a solid pro like Art Baguer!

Paul2023-10-11T12:24:45-04:00

How to play love and marriage

Lead sheet with chords and lyrics

Paul2023-10-11T12:25:37-04:00

About Paul

Custom video lesson for the song you want to learn!