A Minor Jazz

Hello once again, fellow plucker.

This week is yet another finger style lesson. You have no doubt guessed by now that I don't use picks of any kind. I gave them up a long time ago when I was a youngster traveling around Europe with my guitar. They were hard to find when they went missing, so I decided to learn how to play without. I highly recommend it.

I've done a fairly simple arrangement of 'Summer Time' for you this week. It's a minor key blues/jazz feel of the tune we all know and love. As always, there is a movie to watch so you can see basic positions and moves, tablature to see the exact fingerings, midi files generated from the tablature to play along to and a blow by blow written description of what's going on finger-wise and theory-wise. I always like to talk about the 'theory' side of things because until you get some kind of idea of how music hangs together, you're going to be struggling.

Go to http://www.guitarforbeginners.com and follow the weekly Lesson links, negotiate the speed-bump and enjoy it. I've written a neat little 'twiddly bit', a semitone run that links two sections. Don't worry about not being able to nail it right away ... it's only for those whose fingers have become nimble enough.

I have completely re-vamped my PlaneTalk site. I've made it a php site and it will be much easier to maintain and update now. The book and DVD continue to sell to the World, teaching the 'trick' to seeing the whole fretboard as friendly, familiar territory ... not a terrifying wasteland of potential bum notes. There is nothing quite as confidence-building as being able to look down at the fingerboard and literally see the music laid out the length of the fingerboard.

Here is a post from the Seymour Duncan Forum I found the other day:

"I recently purchased our fellow forum brother Kirk Lorange's book entitled Planetalk. I must say that it is a very well written, very easy to follow and very informative piece of literature. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to break out of a rut, it definitely did the trick for me. I think that Kirk's method can be helpful to anyone no matter what skill level you are at. I've read through it a couple of times, and I can tell you that it has me looking at the fretboard in a whole new light. My improvisation has already increased by leaps and bounds just by breaking out of my usual modes, etc. Thanks Kirk!! " -- Matt

Check it out, and the new look site at http://www.thatllteachyou.com

Cheers, and all the best until next time.

Kirk