Paul | Guitar Lessons and Performance - Paul Elwood

How to play Summertime

Play Summertime

How to play summertime over a backing track. The trick to this- well, one of ’em anyway- is to hold the idea of the chord in your head while you’re playing extemporaneously. I wouldn’t expect you to believe that I’m thinking of the chord tones as numbers but in fact, if you can understand that one chords 3rd is the same note as another chord’s major 7th you can treat that note as having either role. Or any, really- that’s the beauty of making stuff up out of hand. Oh, plus the fact that you can find some tasty melody, commit it to some memorable form et voila! You have written your own music.

Paul2025-07-15T10:58:59-04:00

How to play “Eleanor Rigby”

EEleanor Rigby for solo guitar. “Eleanor Rigby” is a song by the Beatles, released in 1966 on the album Revolver.It’s known for its melancholic melody, string quartet arrangement, and lyrics that explore themes of loneliness and isolation. The song tells the story of two lonely individuals: Eleanor Rigby, who lives a solitary life and dies alone, and Father McKenzie, a priest who performs her funeral with no one in attendance.

“Eleanor Rigby” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1966 album Revolver. It was also issued on a double A-side single, paired with “Yellow Submarine“. Credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership, the song is one of only a few in which John Lennon and Paul McCartney later disputed primary authorship. Eyewitness testimony from several independent sources, including George Martin and Pete Shotton, supports McCartney’s claim to authorship.

“Eleanor Rigby” continued the transformation of the Beatles from a mainly rock and roll and pop-orientated act to a more experimental, studio-based band. With a double string quartet arrangement by George Martin and lyrics providing a narrative on loneliness, it broke sharply with popular music conventions, both musically and lyrically. The song topped singles charts in Australia, Belgium, Canada, […]

Paul2025-07-16T07:42:18-04:00

How to play peter cottontail

How to play “peter cottontail”

Here comes Peter Cottontail
Hopping down the bunny trail
Hippity-hoppity, Easter’s on its way!

This recording features bass and guitar in a kind of “country swing” feel. A little experiment with Logic Pro. Peter Cottontail is a name temporarily assumed by a fictional rabbit named Peter Rabbit in the works of Thornton Burgess, an author from Sandwich, Massachusetts In 1910, when Burgess began his Old Mother West Wind series, the cast of animals included Peter Rabbit. Four years later, in The Adventures of Peter Cottontail, Peter Rabbit, unhappy at his plain-sounding name, briefly changed his name to Peter Cottontail because he felt it made him sound more important. He began putting on airs to live up to his important-sounding name, but after much teasing from his friends, soon returned to his original name, because, as he put it, “There’s nothing like the old name after all.” In the 26-chapter book, he takes on the new name partway through chapter 2, and returns to his “real” name, Peter Rabbit, at the end of chapter 3. Burgess continued to write about Peter Rabbit until his retirement in 1960, in over 15,000 daily syndicated newspaper stories, many of them featuring Peter Rabbit, and some of them later published as books, […]

Paul2025-07-16T07:44:09-04:00

How to play dire wolf

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How to play dire wolf.

In the timbers of Fennario, the wolves are running round
The winter was so hard and cold, froze ten feet ‘neath the ground
Don’t murder me, I beg of you, don’t murder me
Please, don’t murder me

I sat down to my supper, ’twas a bottle of red whisky
I said my prayers and went to bed, that’s the last they saw of me
Don’t murder me, I beg of you, don’t murder me
Please, don’t murder me

When I awoke, the Dire Wolf, six hundred pounds of sin
Was grinning at my window, all I said was come on in
Don’t murder me, I beg of you, don’t murder me
Please, don’t murder me

The Wolf came in, I got my cards, we sat down for a game
I cut my deck to the Queen of Spades, but the cards were all the same
Don’t murder me, I beg of you, don’t murder me
Please, don’t murder me
Don’t murder me

In the backwash of Fennario, the black and bloody mire
The Dire Wolf collects his dues, while the boys sing ’round the fire
Don’t murder me, I beg of you, don’t murder me
Please, don’t murder me
Don’t murder me
I beg of you don’t murder me
Please, don’t murder me
No no no don’t murder me

I beg of you, don’t murder me
Please, don’t murder me
Please, […]

Paul2022-06-27T21:32:52-04:00

How to play the hobo song

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How to play the hobo song

Lyrics: Jack Bonus Music: Jack Bonus

Too late to feel sorrow Too late to feel pain
He’s just an old hobo And he’s Lost out in the rain

He’d never cause trouble. So don’t have no fear
He’s just an old hobo And he’ll soon be far away from here

Refrain
He used to be a gambling man just like you Until he sank so low that there was
Nothing that no one could do He used to be a gambling man just like you
Until he sank so low that there was. Nothing that no one could do

Oh, don’t make him ask you Oh, don’t make him beg
He was a war hero. And that’s how he hurt his leg

He killed thirty injuns With one cannon ball
Now he’s just an old hobo Asleep out in the hall

* Refrain

A wife and five children Who live in L.A.
They miss their dear daddy Who’s gone so far away

They still have his picture It’s hung on the wall
Now he’s just an old hobo Asleep out in the hall

* Refrain

He used to be a gambling man just like you
Until he sank so low that there was
Nothing that no one could do

Paul2023-10-11T13:08:39-04:00

How to play Gentle on my mind

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How to play gentle on my mind. This part 1 lesson is for solo guitar fingerstyle and includes tablature

How to play “Gentle on my mind” fingerstyle guitar.

tab for Gentle on my mind

“Gentle on My Mind” is a song that was written and originally recorded by John Hartford, and released on his second studio album, Earthwords & Music (1967). Hartford composed the song after watching Doctor Zhivago in 1966, as he was inspired by the film and his own personal experiences. The lyrics describe the reminiscences of lost love of a man as he travels through the country. The following year, Hartford released the song as a single on RCA Records.

It then caught the attention of Glen Campbell, who recorded his cover version with a group of session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. Campbell’s cover of “Gentle on My Mind” peaked in the top 30 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart. In 1968, between Campbell’s and Hartford’s recordings, the song earned four Grammy Awards. It ended up being popularized by Campbell, whose version became by 2001 the second-most-played song on the radio in the United States.

Paul2025-07-16T07:48:46-04:00

How to play deep elem blues
How to play deep elem blues

How to play deep elem blues

(also spelled “Deep Elem Blues” or “Deep Ellum Blues”) on solo guitar. Deep elem blues is an American traditional song. The title of the tune refers to the historical African-American neighborhood in downtown Dallas, Texas. Known as Deep Ellum, this was home to music legends Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson, Lead Belly, and Bill Neely. This is a great tune to get started with blues.

history

The first known recording was made by the Cofer Brothers in 1923 under the band name the Georgia Crackers. The title was “The Georgia Black Bottom” on OKeh Records (OKeh 45111). The song alluded to the dance craze called Black Bottom of the 1920s which in part referenced the community of Black Bottom, Detroit. The change from Black Bottom to Deep Elm occurred sometime between 1926 and 1933.

The Shelton Brothers recorded various versions of this song, the first being cut in 1933 with Leon Chappelear under the pseudonym of Lone Star Cowboys for Bluebird Records. They recorded it again in 1935 for Decca Records followed by “Deep Elm No.2” and “Deep Elm No.3”. Les Paul (as Rhubarb Red) recorded “Deep Elem Blues” and “Deep Elem Blues #2” on Decca in 1936. The Sheltons also recorded it in the 1940s as “Deep Elm Boogie” for King Records.

other versions

Other versions of the song were made between 1957 […]

Paul2025-08-13T08:33:37-04:00

How to play scotch and soda

How to play scotch and soda on guitar, A stand-up member of the great american song book with a mysterious past. Lead sheet here

This great Kingston Trio song “Scotch and Soda” was discovered by the Trio through the parents of the baseball player Tom Seaver, who had first heard it in a hotel piano lounge in 1932 when on their honeymoon in Phoenix, Arizona. They liked it so much that they had the piano player write it down for them so it would be “their song.” One member of the trio (Dave Guard) was dating Seaver’s older sister (Katie) at that time, and heard the song on a visit to the Seaver home. Although it is credited to Guard (he had it copyrighted in his name on March 30, 1959), the trio never discovered the real songwriter’s name, though they searched for years.

Here’s Scotch and Soda by the Kingston Trio:

Paul2025-05-21T12:44:32-04:00

How to play “blowin in the wind”

how to play blowin in the wind. this audio is an mp3 midi file of the notes in the pdf (linked below)

Blowin_in_the_Wind chords tabs and lyrics part 1

“Blowin’ in the Wind” is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released as a single and included on his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” has been described as “impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind”

In 1994, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

Dylan originally wrote and performed a two-verse version of the song; its first public performance, at Gerde’s Folk City on April 16, 1962, was recorded and circulated among Dylan collectors. Shortly after this performance, he added the middle verse to the song. Some published versions of the lyrics reverse the order of the second and third verses, apparently because Dylan simply appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, rather than writing out a new […]

Paul2023-09-22T11:23:49-04:00

how to play till there was you

How to play Till there was you. Tabs, chords notation and lyrics:

Till there was you

“Till There Was You” is a show tune written in 1950 by Meredith Willson, originally entitled “Till I Met You.” It was originally recorded October 25, 1950, by Meredith Willson & his Orchestra and Eileen Wilson. The song was retitled and used in his musical play The Music Man (1957), and which also appeared in the 1962 movie version. It is sung by librarian Marian Paroo (performed by Barbara Cook on Broadway, and by Shirley Jones in the film) to “Professor” Harold Hill (portrayed on Broadway and in the film by Robert Preston) toward the end of Act Two.

In 1959, the song became the first of four US Top 40 hits for Anita Bryant. “Till There Was You” was covered by the Beatles in 1963.

Paul2022-05-27T08:11:08-04:00

About Paul

Play Summertime

How to play the hobo song

How to play deep elem blues

history

other versions