Guitar for Beginners and Beyond Newsletter - December 8, 2006
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Weekly Guitar Lessons
Christmas is almost upon us! 17 days to go and counting. I figured another carol would come in handy for after-dinner entertainment and there's still time to practice up. I came up with a nice arrangement of Silent Night, but realized when I'd finished that it was still a little too tricky for those just starting out, so I stripped it back to the bare bones and created another much simpler version. They're both in the same key, A, which suited this tune better than the usual key of G. Here they are:
Silent Night - easy version:
Silent Night - easy version
Silent Night - tricky version:
Silent Night - trickier version
There are also two other carols from last year that you might want to dust off:
White Christmas:
White Christmas
Jingle Bells:
Jingle Bells
They're both on the tricky side, as I recall...
Or, for those of you who are not so into Christmas carols, the other lessons I've done since the last newsletter are:
C-Breeze ... an original of mine, a sort of rolling finger relaxing finger-picked tune, lots of fun to play and not too difficult. You'll find it here:
C Breeze
... and a lesson on transposing and using a capo, two subjects that are closely related. If you've been wondering how to change the key of a tune (to suit your vocal range, for example) I've described the two ways to do that: with or without a capo.
Transposing and using a capo
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The Guitar for Beginners and Beyond Community
We're up past the 23,000 mark now -- that's a whole lot of twangers -- and a big thank you to all members and moderators for making our community a great place to hang out. I visit other forums and newsgroups from time to time and I'm often shocked at the behavior of some of their members.
If you've been a member but never posted, don't be shy. Drop in, introduce yourself, and join in! You'll feel right at home in no time.
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Donations
If you've benefited from the free lessons and enjoy the forum, why not consider donating and become one of our Star Members... Donations help with the huge running costs incurred each month (we now go through over 8 gigs a day in bandwidth!). To donate, all you need to do is go here -
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...llspaypal.php? - donations of any amount are welcome and every little bit helps... It's all done through Paypal and takes just a couple of minutes. Once you've donated, you'll get a star (or stars) next to your username to reflect your generosity...
Thanks to all our starred members! We certainly do appreciate it.
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Give the Gift of music this Christmas!
Looking for a musical Christmas gift for a friend or family member (or like to give someone you know a hint)? - be sure to check out
MusiciansFriend -
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/cg...Friend&afsrc=1 for some great online deals. If you're having trouble chosing the right gift, they have a pretty neat Gift Finder Wizard located here -
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/cg...Wizard&afsrc=1 which will help you chose a gift in your price range... or if you are completely confused, take the easy way out (always sure to please) and send an online Gift Certificate (E-Certificates and Paper Certificates both available) from MusiciansFriend here -
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/cg...ficate&afsrc=1
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PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book >
http://www.thatllteachyou.com
It's not too late to treat yourself to PlaneTalk as a Christmas present if you're at that stage in your playing where you've hit the wall and want to move up to the next level ... meaning: you've got all the basics under control; you're starting to look into improvisation; you'd like to be able to use the whole fretboard with confidence; you've realized that playing scales does not equate to playing solos; you'd love to be able to harmonize the lines you play ... all of those aspects of playing guitar are made a million times easier once you know the simple 'trick' that PlaneTalk teaches.
Check it out at
http://www.thatllteachyou.com
There are dozens of testimonials here:
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=43 and once you become a true-blue PlaneTalker, you can join the private forum.
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The
Slide Guitar in Standard and Dropped D tunings DVD
Who doesn't like the sound of slide guitar? I still haven't met anyone. I think many players put off learning slide because they hear that they need to learn open tunings and it all seems way too complicated. Not so! I've been playing slide in standard tuning for decades. It is in fact a great tuning for playing slide and is in a sense a bunch of mini-open-tunings all living together. I also drop the low E string down to to D to get a bonus power chord that loves to be slid upon.
I recently loaded some videos of some slide playing up on YouTube ... check 'em out:
The Yuppy Blues:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMkcE87CzCg
Blue Groove (from the DVD):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRJdRNYUA0o
Walkin with Kirk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmFIVWIYNgw
I reveal all in the DVD I recently finished: 'How to play Slide Guitar in Standard and Dropped D Tunings' which you can check out at
http://www.bottleneckguitar.com
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That's it for this week, enjoy the lessons, enjoy the site!
Kirk
