I’ve got to keep on keepin’ on
You know the big wheel keeps on spinnin’ around
— Steve Miller, Jet Airliner
At this point on my guitar learning adventure (as previously chronicled in such posts as The Impatience of Learning Guitar and Manchild with Guitar), I’m trying to challenge myself to play in more difficult territory and perhaps be able to claim to have some intermediate skills eventually, rather than to be just a beginner.
I’m still taking lessons from the same rock guitarist and music producer I’ve gone to for several years. They are funny kind of lessons, but they have evolved over time and suit me. I bring in a piece I want to learn how to play. One time it was a simplified, if still complicated, Bach tune, another time a very fast (for me) blues-rock number.
I’m not quite sure what Eddy thinks when I bring along something like these to learn, at the edge of what I’m able to do. He very patiently goes through each piece with me as we work on phrasing and technique. As a working musician and quite a good teacher for a young guy, he’s a master at simplifying, if only temporarily, until I get up to speed on difficult passages. I tend to throw my hands up in dismay at my effrontery in even thinking I can play them. But we work through that, and with more practice than I like to say, I make progress.
Because Eddy loves to work with music, even my efforts, he’s taken to recording them in his home studio. I think he likes to record me because I’m not going anywhere in particular with what I’m doing, and there are no expectations or demands or requirements on him for the finished results. We just get to play around.
I now have a half-dozen or more recordings of my renditions. They sound pretty good after he’s done splicing and editing them meticulously together. They’re fun to have and to show off to any friends or family whom I can impose upon…. And I get to learn a little about music production, although half the time I’m not quite sure what he’s talking about.
All Along the Watchtower
My latest project is to learn to play All Along the Watchtower, that wonderful version of a Dylan song by Jimi Hendrix. I think that’s my favorite Hendrix tune. So I gathered together a bunch of instructional videos off of YouTube, got some sheet music together and backing tracks, and presented it to Eddy as what I wanted to do next. I have to hand it to him, he didn’t blink, and started putting the backing tracks and the original song into ProTools to work on.
I want to do it like a Ventures tune, an instrumental version including the voice parts, which you don’t find done so much. Although I had started trying to learn the opening rhythm section and the first intro solo, it was a bit of a shambles. It’s another example of me ruing my ambitiousness. So we’re going through the song step-by-step. We’re up to the second solo and it’s starting to sound not too bad.
Hendrix was a monster player, as every guitarist realizes. He played like there was absolutely no barrier between his musical will and his hands and fingers expressing that will on the guitar. And he must have had incredibly strong hands to bend the strings like crazy as he does. Eddy has got me cheating on some of the more extreme bending, but it still sounds good. And there’s one very fast passage so far — I’m working hard to get it into my fingers so I don’t have to think about it, and just do it.
There are many great solos in this song, and even if I’m not able in the end to play any of it very well (although I hope for better than that!), I’m still learning a lot by pushing at the boundaries of my ability in this way. Even if I feel like a schmuck when I flounder, as I often do….
Useful Guitar Learning Resources on the Web
In my guitar journey, in addition to the useful sites mentioned in previous posts such as the great Robert Renman’s two — Dolphin Street and Master Guitar Academy — I have found some very good additional sites. Almost all of these sites have a free lesson component and then offer lessons or material to buy. The proportion of free on the ones I’ll note here is quite high.
The kind of free instructive material is also important — some of the most commercial sites just offer fragments to entice you rather than anything useful. I think the better sites like Renman’s are actually very smart marketing — I’ve learned a lot from his free stuff and I’ve gone on to buy several lessons I wouldn’t otherwise have been interested in. I know the detail and care he puts into them.
1) Fundamental Changes — Lots of lessons “In the Style of ….” (Dave Gilmour, B.B. King, Keith Richards, etc.) which are good for picking up new licks, and also many videos on theory and technique (Harmonics on Guitar, Chromatic Notes in Solos, etc.).
2) Fret Jam — Very clear and well taught videos (and written material) on many aspects of guitar musical theory, in particular. For instance, one recent free lesson is on “Suspended Guitar Chords — How and When to Play Them.” Another recent article is “The Best Guitar Chord Software & Chord Tools On the Web” which will lead you to a number of other good and informative sites.
3) Fachords — Although it also has free video lessons, the most interesting part of this site I find are the free online Guitar Apps . These include a scales finder, a chord finder, fretboard trainer, speed trainer, interactive scales harmonization, and more.
There is just so much good guitar instructional material on the web. I am guilty of buying more books, having more links and downloading more videos than I will probably ever go through in the detail they deserve. I just wish it was all available when I was a kid, when I made my first unsuccessful stabs at learning the instrument.
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Quirk 
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