February 3, 2023

I spent a lot of time playing this week, probably too much as things started to hurt a little. One of my obsessions was revisiting songs from a John Renbourn book I got as a teenager. That book definitely sent me in the direction of cool instrumental pieces at a very early age. I played bits of quite a few of them in the middle of today’s video.

Another huge influence from about that same time/age was the first Hot Tuna album. This week I finally got to a lesson on one of Jorma Kaukonen’s dazzling tunes from that album – Mann’s Fate, a piece that uses quite a range of advanced techniques. One of those became part of today’s tips. There was also a tip on getting better at big left-hand stretches. This came up because of a Forum comment.

Some of you may have noticed that we have not had any new lessons from Nesh in a while. I am happy to say that more are on the way soon as he is on the mend and excited about getting back to work. We should see songs from Cliff Richard, Seal and Randy Newman in the near future.

Something really unusual happened this week at one of our YouTube channels. The views on a lesson preview skyrocketed. I got a message that Linda Ronstadt’s Long, Long Time appeared as a centerpiece in an episode of Just Like Us. All of a sudden, my two lesson previews caught fire and a lot of new people (not all guitar players I’m sure) found Totally Guitars. This reminded me that I had a couple other songs that she made famous on side burners. I took quick stabs at playing a bit of Willin’ and Different Drum. Those may have to become lessons soon.

On the International Guitar Camp front, we have started getting some of the videos from last year processed and there is now a highlight video that Larry and Kevin (our video crew) put together. Check out the IGC Highlights video below.

So until next week…

Play till it hurts…

Then stop!!!

Neil