January 12, 2024

This week I have been obsessed with working on some John Renbourn pieces. One of which I opened the News with–The Earle Of Salisbury. I have been promising a lesson on this for months and the arrangement is almost at a point where I am happy with, and the lesson will be underway in a few days. Another part of the obsession was fueled by finally finding accurate music to a couple pieces I found in a book of his about 50 years ago. I now see light at the end of the tunnel for two of his most ridiculous pyrotechnic tunes–Another Monday and My Dear Boy.

I have to say our 3-Minute Challenge was quite a hit with the TG Community and we will figure out a way to keep that rolling in some form or another going forward. We had a winner for our last week. DeanFran joined PelatonRider, NCrump93 and CariSpring, and now has a couple months Silver Membership to explore.

We also drew the Grand Prize winner, who will get a couple months Silver along with a private lesson. Check the video to see who it was.

Nesh brought us a pair of new lessons this week–My Way by Frank Sinatra and Bobby Vee’s hit Take Good Care Of My Baby.

I spent much of this Update musing about good paths for beginning students. This is something we talked about when TG was in its infancy, back in 2009, but it got relegated to a side burner somehow. I am putting together lists of songs I think everyone should learn as part of their journey. I would really appreciate anybody’s suggestions of songs you would recommend to others to help advance their skills.

I am thinking of Top 10 lists in multiple categories. Something like: Strumming, Power Chord Songs, Strumming w/Single Notes (My, My Hey, Hey for ex.), Riff-Based Songs, Accompaniment Fingerpicking (Landslide), Instrumental Fingerpicking Songs, and maybe even more. I will flesh this out a bit more and start a Forum Thread for your suggestions.

This week marked a birthday for a vital part of the TG Team. In Jameela’s honor I ended this Update with a short improv based on Happy Birthday. I hope you enjoy it.

Stay Tuned & In Touch,

Neil