I’m thrilled to be making this announcement. There is one computer program that is totally and completely indispensable for my teaching. I open this program for almost every lesson that I teach. That program is called Guitar Rig 5. This program does many useful things for a musician, but here are a few important things that Guitar Rig 5 can do for you:

• Change the key of a song
• Change the tempo of the song
• Tune the song higher or lower
• Loop, slowly, an important section of a song you’re trying to learn, like a guitar solo

Are you singer, and have you ever wished that your song was available just a little lower so you can hit all the notes? Are you a guitar player, and have you ever wanted to practice with the original recording, but it’s just too darned fast? Are you an ‘ukulele player and want to hear Jake Shimabukuro play his songs at half speed?

Now you can. I love this software.

These are the most important functions that it does, but it also can get you a guitar tone like Santana, or aid your songwriting creativity. I’ve bought this software for $199 for many years, but just recently the manufacturer is offering a stripped down version of the program for free.

That’s free folks. Doesn’t get any cheaper than that.

Here’s the link:

Guitar Rig 5 by Native Instruments

Available for Mac and PC. Get it. You won’t regret it.

Travis picking is a common name for a style of finger style picking where the thumb alternates between the bass notes and your pointer and index fingers play alternating treble notes. It's a great pattern to learn if you're interested in finger style guitar, and can be modified to fit many different genres. For those of you familiar with slack-key guitar, the basic movement is very similar. Here's a short video to illustrate the technique.



The Boxer (Paul Simon) - Beginner | Full Sheet Music PDF | MP3

This is Travis Picking at its simplest, alternating thumb notes and treble notes.

e|-----------------|-----------------|
B|---1-------1-----|---1-------1-----|
G|-------0-------0-|-------0-------0-|
D|-----2-------2---|-----2-------2---|
A|-3---------------|-3---------------|
E|---------3-------|---------3-------|


Dust In The Wind (Kansas) - Beginner | Full Sheet Music PDF | MP3

This Kansas riff adds a pinch into the beginning of the riff.

e|---------------|---------------|-----------------|
B|-1-------1-----|-0-------0-----|-3-------3-------|
G|-----0-------0-|-----0-------0-|-----0-------0---|
D|---2-------2---|---2-------2---|---2-------2-----|
A|-3-----3-------|-3-----3-------|-3-----3---------|
E|---------------|---------------|-----------------|


Windy And Warm (Chet Atkins) - Advanced | Full Sheet Music PDF | MP3

Chet Atkins was a masterful user of this technique. Learn this to impress your friends.

e|----|-----------------------|------------------------|-----------------------|
B|----|-------1----3h-1-------|--3b---3----1-----------|-------1----3h-1-------|
G|-0h-|--2----2----------2----|-------2-------2-----0h-|--2----2----------2----|
D|----|-------2----------2----|-------2----------2-----|-------2----------2----|
A|----|--0--------------------|--0---------------------|--0--------------------|
E|----|------------0----------|------------0-----------|------------0----------|

e|-------3--------------|
B|--3/5----5\3p1--------|
G|----------------2h-0--|
D|----------------------|
A|--0-------------------|
E|---------0------------|

I found Andy Mckee on youtube several years ago and I was totally floored. He’s a true internet phenomenon, in that he was an amazing but unknown guitarist. He put up some videos of him playing, namely a cover of “Africa” and some great originals. And he just bubbled to the top. He is now touring all over the world and I’m thrilled for him. This guy’s got skills.

Any of his videos are worth checking out, but just to highlight his cover of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears For Fears. Here are a few things to be looking for that are noteworthy:

• His use of a fan fretted guitar. Supposedly it keeps better intonation along the fretboard.
• He uses his thumb to slap the top of the guitar and the lower strings on 2 and 4 of each measure to add a percussive rhythm.
• He’s using both upstrokes and downstrokes for picking with his right hand
• He’s using an alternate tuning with a dropped D
• Check out his use of harmonics in the melody for the bridge