Hi again … it’s me, Kirk.

I hope you enjoyed last week’s lesson, and that you’re chomping at the bit for part 2. This is the part where the chords take a very interesting turn and move completely away from the “batch of seven” related chords that any key holds. This song is a wonderful example of such an excursion away from that center of tonality that glues a piece of music together. There are, of course, many different avenues of attack when you’re writing songs and looking for a way of leading the ear away from the comfortable, not all of them are natural winners. The problem often becomes how to get back to the comfort zone. EC has certainly done a nice job of choosing among the possibilities here. Part 3, coming next week, also moves away from the comfort zone, but in a different way.

You can find part 2 at Guitar for Beginners and Beyond … follow the Weekly Lesson link … the usual.

Do I need to do a “PlaneTalk – The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book” promo again? Probably not, but I may just mention that a twanger who bought my book last year wrote me yesterday telling me, amongst other things: “I can’t thank you enough for PlaneTalk. It is one of the major mile stones in my life”. I guess he means that the lesson PlaneTalk delivers showed him the way out of the wilderness that is the fretboard and has allowed him to see the music there, instead of a maze of scale and mode patterns … boxes and other bewildering mental devices. PlaneTalk teaches a method of navigating the fretboard so succinct and compact and simple that you’ll be kicking yourself for not seeing it yourself. Go to the PlaneTalk site and read all about it. The price is going up soon, so get in there before it does! There are quite a few free lessons there also.

The Guitar for Beginners Forum is hotting up with more and more members helping each other out. I’m there too, of course, so if you have any questions or just want to hang out and discuss other stuff, please do so. We’re a very civilized bunch.

The same applies for the Slide Guitar Forum, a slightly more specialized forum, but full of helpful members with great advice and information. ‘LightninBoy’ is an encyclopedia of all things bottleneck, resonator and slide. Come and join in there too!

One last plug: Listen to my music! That’s what it’s all about in the end, isn’t it? The music. I have my own slidin’ brand of music, some of which has reached # 1 in the charts at Soundclick.com.

All the best, make the World a better place by playing that guitar!

Kirk
http://www.kirklorange.com