This week’s lesson is a finger style look at a great chord progression probably best known as the backbone of ‘Little Wing’. It’s a perfect example of how the related chords of the work together, with a little help from one outsider, the bVII chord. As many of my lessons have shown, most tunes revolve around the I-IV-V chords of the key; this progression uses all of them, I – ii -iii – IV – V – vi, and the way each leads to the next is a music lesson in itself. SRV’s way of playing through these changes is dripping with The Blues; this finger style version is almost classical sounding, proving once again that styles and genres have little to do with the musical structure of any piece, more to do with attack and execution.

That lesson, along with close to 100 others, can be found at Guitar for Beginners and Beyond, and like the rest, consists of a movie (showing both hands), tablature, midi files to practice to, the Guitar-Pro file for those who have this great tool, and written plain English commentary describing the theory behind it all. It’s always better to know the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’.

The forum there is an absolute beehive of activity, populated by some of the neatest cyber friends I’ve ever made, from all corners of the globe. It’s chock-a-block with guitar related info, growing at the rate of 70 to 100 members per day, so if you haven’t already, join up and join in! We’d love to have you!

You’ll also see at that site a section dedicated to my book ‘PlaneTalk – The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book’. I wrote (and illustrated) PlaneTalk not for beginners, but for all those players who find themselves well down the track, but still unable to take full advantage of the whole fretboard, unable to improvise properly, unable to get out of the rut they find themselves in … for those who have hit the wall.

Here is an excerpt from a post at the PlaneTalkers Forum from a recent buyer:

I’m from the DFW airport area, and been a PlaneTalk disciple for a little over a month now. I have to say PT’s been the best thing to happen to my playing since the alternating bass thumbstyle … Scale studies left me as cold as the ‘hunt & pick for a lick’ technique. I knew a bunch of ‘Travis’ chords up and down the neck, but I was not all that productive in pulling an improvised melody out of them. PlaneTalk … was just what the doctor ordered. It’s kinda scary, but IMHO PT truly empowers a player with so many possibilities (as well as a ‘duh – why didn’t I see that?’ feeling) that every old tune becomes a new adventure – every time!. Very, very well done indeed Kirk.

This is typical of the feedback I receive, so if you’ve hit the wall and are looking for the next step, drop in to the PlaneTalk site and read all about it.

The Slide Guitar Forum is where you should visit if you have any interest in the art, and what guitar player doesn’t want to know how to play slide? There are many great players there, all willing to pass on their expertise and discuss the most fun way of playing guitar.

Finally, if you’d like to hear my brand of music, drop into my Soundclick site … I noticed today that just about every tune I’ve posted is top 10 in its ‘genre’ according to the charts compiled there. If you like bluesy slide, it will be right up your alley!

All the best, ’til next week,

Kirk
http://www.kirklorange.com