Hi fellow twang enthusiast. It's a big week this week ... where do I start?

1. Improvising and the Power of Chord Tones.
What's the secret to improvising? If you did an Internet survey, you'll find that 99% of teachers will say you "know all your scales, modes and when in doubt, use the pentatonic". I used to hear the same thing when I was starting out, but I never did figure out how to turn those boring, sequential, linear collections of notes into anything musical. No, decades ago I turned my attention to chords, and I've never wondered about scales or modes ever since. Chords, as it all turns out, are the holders of melody, not scales.

Read more here.

2. As promised, the second half of the dropped D finger style lesson is up and ready to go and as usual, it's a movie/tab/midi/commentary lesson. I also posted an mp3 of an improvised slide guitar melody line over the piece (which I call 'Summers End'), just to demonstrate, once again, the endless possibilities music offers.

Go to http://planetalk.thatllteachyou.com/home.html and follow the "Guitar Lessons" link.

3. There is a new finger picking lesson at http://www.GuitarForBeginners.com at the Lessons page. It's a basic 4/4 pattern that you will be able to use often, and one which can be embellished or simplified according to taste. There are other lessons there too.

All the best, happy twangin',

Kirk
www.kirklorange.com