On The Beat with Totally Guitars

Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 17, 2026

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:30:43 +0000

April 17, 2026 I have been entrenched in Beatles songs lately (again, or for about the 500th time) and can’t imaging another band or artist who has more to offer to guitar students in terms of number of songs that are fun to play and offer techniques to master. The variety and breadth of their […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 10, 2026

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:27:13 +0000

April 10, 2026 This week we released The Definitive Rolling Stones Collection, which includes 23 lessons covering a wide range of their stuff. There are electric lessons from Max Rich, acoustic lessons, some Open G riffs and a half-dozen or so solo guitar arrangements. I started today’s Update with a solo stab at Wild Horses, […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 3, 2026

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:23:46 +0000

April 3, 2026 Recently I have had a few students asking about bass notes, and particularly alternating patterns used in country songs (like Folsom Prison Blues). After establishing that usually you want to alternate between the root and fifth of the chord, the question came up of when you might want to use the third […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 27, 2026

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:11:26 +0000

March 27, 2026 Continuing my John Prine kick from last week – this week we added a lesson on a bunch of intros to his songs, which was then added to our John Prine Package, along with a Fly On The Wall lesson. I played some bits of a couple of his songs, which led […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 20, 2026

admin — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 04:14:45 +0000

March 20, 2026 John Prine was on my mind this week, and on my recent playlists at home. Re-listening to a lot of his stuff, and a request from a student, led to a lesson on his last recorded song, I Remember Everything. It is a great example of his basic approach to fingerpicking and […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 13, 2026

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:07:46 +0000

March 13, 2026 A random improv started today’s Update, followed by some discussion on time signatures and strumming techniques. The time signature thoughts cited Nights In White Satin, Lucky Man and Stormy Monday. The technique primer was on using rest strokes to hit bass notes cleanly. The progression to Mr. Bojangles was used as an […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 6, 2026

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 01:00:08 +0000

March 6, 2026 I spent some time this week revisiting the early Loggins & Messina albums and realized I had not gotten to a couple lessons that I had planned on years ago. The remedy was to finish up Long Tail Cat and Whiskey, two of Kenny Loggins great tunes. They are live now and […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 27, 2026

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 16:34:56 +0000

February 27, 2026 Today’s Update was quite different from recent, if not most ones. It was inspired by a comment from a student just this morning who had recently been taken by an old, original piece of mine, Sweet Child. This was a tune I recorded for my 1992 album Yesterday’s News. I started with […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 20, 2026

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 11:27:57 +0000

February 20, 2026 A little Grateful Dead, some Neil Young and a few classic riffs were on my mind today, but the main thing I wanted to get to was a few thoughts on practicing, particularly with a metronome. At the top I went into some of last week’s TG Live where we went into […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 13, 2026

admin — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 01:25:26 +0000

February 13, 2026 Tomorrow, Saturday Feb 14, 2026, we are starting up TG Live for the new year. The topic is creating instrumental arrangements, and you can Register Here. I will be going over some of the things I think about and consider as I arrange things. One of the most important things is to […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 6, 2026

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 23:59:32 +0000

February 6, 2026 Lately I have been using a thumbpick for a lot of songs, due to a broken thumb nail a few months ago. I remembered that there are a few songs I usually like to use it for, even if my nail is intact. Windy And Warm is not generally one of those […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 30, 2026

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 23:55:04 +0000

January 30, 2026 We have a winner for the third week of our 3-Minute Challenge – PhotoMichael has a set of strings from the Santa Cruz Guitar Company on their way. We also have a new lesson on Lost In Love by Air Supply. On Saturday February 14 we have our next episode of TG […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 23, 2026

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 23:49:27 +0000

January 23, 2026 A little improvising opened and closed this week’s Update, starting with a couple tunes you should recognize and ending with some random noodling. Along the way there was news about our latest lesson – the solo arrangement of I’ll Be Back by The Beatles, thoughts about a few movies, a mention of […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 16, 2026

admin — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 19:05:03 +0000

January 16, 2026 After a couple weeks of teasing a new lesson I managed to finish The Windmills Of Your Mind from The Thomas Crown Affair. It became a slightly bigger project when I realized I should start with an accompaniment version before moving on to the solo version. I also decided I needed to […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 9, 2026

admin — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 01:26:13 +0000

January 9, 2026 Heading in to the New Year I have had duets on my mind. Part of this is due to our recent lesson on Snap A Little Owl by John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman, That had me revisiting other duets of theirs and an old one of my own. This Update opened with […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 31, 2025

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:22:22 +0000

December 31, 2025 It has been a fun year at TG, and I hope everybody is enjoying the Holiday Season. Today I started with a couple tunes you should recognize, and catch the connection. I also ended with a couple of my seasonal favorites. In between there were just a few thoughts about practicing and […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 19, 2025

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 22:39:27 +0000

December 19, 2025 We are getting further behind in Holiday prep every day, so not much new on my guitar front this week. Although, we did get a new Bee Gees lesson from Nesh – How Deep Is Your Love. I did take the opportunity in today’s video to play a few of my favorite […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 12, 2025

admin — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 21:59:27 +0000

December 12, 2025 This week I started with a few bits of some Christmas instrumentals, talked about our special deal on the Christmas Sing-Along Bonus Pack (15 accompaniments and 6 solos), talked about reconnecting with Mike Walker and his new book of John Renbourn pieces, threw in a little theory and broke down a couple […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 5, 2025

admin — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 01:48:13 +0000

December 5, 2025 Sorry I missed everybody last week, Thanksgiving lasted a few days at TG Central. This week I figured it was time for a bit of a dive into music theory. I have done parts of this before but I have a way of learning triads that might help some of you out […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 21, 2025

admin — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 16:49:43 +0000

November 21, 2025 This week’s path, or detour if you like, headed back into the past as John Renbourn was on my mind. Ten years after we lost him he popped up big time when a student I rarely see came in to work on Sandwood Down To Kyle, a piece from his Ship Of […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 14, 2025

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 02:30:06 +0000

November 14, 2025 Just like last week, I got derailed from my planned direction and detoured into some Al Stewart related things. The trigger here was a recent Forum post suggesting that I do a lesson on his tune The Palace Of Versailles from the 1978 album Time Passages. It got me playing some of […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 7, 2025

admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 02:51:04 +0000

November 7, 2025 This week an unexpected project grabbed me and I had to drop everything and go where it led me. I became obsessed with The Weight by Robbie Robertson and The Band, and particularly a solo guitar version. At first it seemed ridiculous to even attempt, but as it played out I had […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 31, 2025

admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 17:31:31 +0000

October 31, 2025 This week I got sidetracked into catching up with lessons on some Tom Petty songs that I had been meaning to get to for years. Just a couple loose ends and now Wildflowers and Mary Jane’s Last Dance are in the TG Library. Most of his songs are relatively easy to play […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 24, 2025

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 22:02:35 +0000

October 24, 2025 Jim Croce’s music started the Update today, as a nod toward tomorrow’s TG Live episode where I will be going over intros and riffs from some of his songs. It is at 11:00 AM Pacific time Saturday, October 25. If you catch this soon enough you can register here. A few new […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 17, 2025

admin — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:25:27 +0000

October 17, 2025 We started this week off with a new addition to the TG Library with Flowers Are Red by Harry Chapin. For too long the only songs of his we have had were Taxi and Cat’s In The Cradle. We are certainly looking to add even more and would love anybody’s suggestions. Next […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 10, 2025

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 23:05:37 +0000

October 10, 2025 This week I spent a bit of time revisiting my Jim Croce albums. He was a big influence on me and I spent countless hours figuring out all his songs as each album was released. I even found myself singing most of them, although certainly not with the great style and delivery […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 3, 2025

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 23:01:32 +0000

October 3, 2025 Somehow this has turned into a Beatles week for me. It may have started with campers at IGC playing Drive My Car late one evening. It made me wonder if I had a lesson on it, and was surprised to find we did not have one. Then I got a couple requests […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update September 26, 2025

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 02:43:59 +0000

September 26, 2025 I am still reviewing and reliving our Fall International Guitar Camp and it brought back some great childhood memories, well, really memories of the summer of 1969 when Mike Mullins and I got heavily into Neil Young. More on that later. First an update on our plans for the next camp in […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update September 19, 2025

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 02:32:57 +0000

September 19, 2025 Last week a small part of the TG Community had a great time hanging out at our 12th International Guitar Camp – Fall Edition. Twenty four student and the regular staff worked on music, studied theory and ear training, and played into the wee hours at the Green Mountain Retreat in Los […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update September 5, 2025

admin — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 17:40:56 +0000

September 5, 2025 A little look back on some very old standards that I used to play. You might recognize Ain’t She Sweet, Five Foot Two and Sweet Georgia Brown, if you are of a certain age. There was also a bit of a more recent tune I would call a standard of our generation […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 29, 2025

admin — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 17:33:46 +0000

August 29, 2025 This week I was inspired to look back at some original pieces that have been neglected for too long. At the top of today’s Update I played A Little Jolt and Paprika– a little bit of rust on both of them still to polish up. We added Blossom by James Taylor to […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 22, 2025

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 23:04:28 +0000

August 22, 2025 Last Saturday we had a fun time with our James Taylor TG Live focused on intros to songs from Sweet Baby James. The videos has been added to the TG Library as well as the Essential James Taylor Pack. This week I had quite a few students working on their listening skills […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 15, 2025

admin — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 22:20:12 +0000

August 15, 2025 Once again James Taylor is high on the bandwidth meter here at Totally Guitars. We released two new lessons on songs of his: Steamroller and Anywhere Like Heaven. These will be part of our TG Live event tomorrow, Saturday August 16 at 11:00 Pacific time. I will be going over intros and […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 8, 2025

admin — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 01:41:27 +0000

August 8, 2025 A lot of loose ends got wrapped up for me this week, well, at least a couple. The biggest was finishing up a lesson on the solo version of Itchycoo Park. The next was the plans for our next TG Live. It is coming along nicely now and I have a plan […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 1, 2025

admin — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 22:15:54 +0000

August 1, 2025 This week quite a variety of things crossed my path, so the Weekly Update is a bit scattered and disjointed, not that that is unusual. I started with some thoughts about The Doobie Brothers because of a message I got recently from Jim Page, the author of The Ivory Salamander (Busted Down […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 25, 2025

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 22:56:59 +0000

July 25, 2025 This week I was bitten by a bug from the past. In an earlier life I spent a lot of time playing Renaissance and Baroque music, on the guitar at first. But a couple years into that obsession I decided to get a lute and play John Dowland’s music on the instrument […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 18, 2025

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 14:44:38 +0000

July 18, 2025, My interest, obsession and admiration for Elton John tunes continued this week with three new lessons from his catalog – Tiny Dancer, Crocodile Rock and I’m Still Standing. This brings our TG Library up to 11 tunes from the desks of Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin, although in the interest of accuracy […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 11, 2025

admin — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 00:00:58 +0000

July 11, 2025, Recently I have been having a good time revisiting songs by Elton John, partially inspired by a couple students working on old songs of his (i.e. ones that came out when I was in high school). Today’s Update started with some improvising on Love Song, written by Leslie Duncan and appearing on […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 27, 2025

admin — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:25:50 +0000

June 27, 2025, Today’s Update started with some improvising in the key of D. This led me to talking about chord progressions that use secondary dominant chords, which related to the progression I started with. It was a string of sub-dominant chords. Each chord was followed by its sub-dominant (IVmaj7) chord. It got a bit […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 20, 2025

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:56:17 +0000

June 20, 2025 This was the week that was supposed to be the Hogan Ohana return to the real world after the family trip to Nani’s ancestral home. Last week I mentioned how the trip started with a 17-hour flight delay, getting us into Oahu in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The next eight […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 13, 2025

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:13:16 +0000

June 13, 2025 Welcome to the Hogan Ohana Aloha Trip. Nani and I planned a trip for the whole family to Hawaii, which is why there was no update last week (17-hour delay on the first flight). We spent a few days on the North Shore of Oahu then to Waikoloa on the Big Island […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 30, 2025

admin — Fri, 30 May 2025 23:00:28 +0000

May 30, 2025 Continuing with my Dropped D adventures, I went through some of what was mentioned last week (Ladye Nothinge, and Embryonic Journey) and added some John Denver and John Fahey to the mix. The lesson that triggered this was, of course Bert Jansch’s Black Waterside, which is now finished and added to the […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 23, 2025

admin — Sat, 24 May 2025 00:52:39 +0000

May 23, 2025 I have had Dropped-D Tuning on my radar lately, mostly due to an upcoming lesson that I talk about near the end of today’s Update, and I play some of Ladye Nothinge’s Toye Puffe by John Renbourn and Jorma Kaukonen’s Embryonic Journey. At the start though, I played a bit of Dear […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 15, 2025

admin — Fri, 16 May 2025 21:53:38 +0000

May 15, 2025 Coming in a day early this week due to a trip I have to make tonight. We are heading to Morro Bay and staying in Los Osos, a place I have a very fond memory of because of a trip there about 25 years ago. The story brings up an old tune […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 9, 2025

admin — Fri, 09 May 2025 23:05:04 +0000

May 9, 2025 This week we had a couple nods to the world of jazz. We brought my old friend Jim Bruno back in the fold with his lesson on Misty, the way he or I might back up someone singing it. Not surprisingly, he backed himself singing it as he is a phenomenal vocalist […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 2, 2025

admin — Fri, 02 May 2025 22:10:26 +0000

May 2, 2025 Last weekend we held our Spring International Guitar Camp (IGC), and had a blast. Today’s Update started with a day-by-day recap, followed by a short lesson, or possibly another way of thinking about modes. This was inspired by one of our long time campers thinking the subject was clearing up at camp […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 18, 2025

admin — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:33:01 +0000

April 18, 2025 A really fun tune derailed my train this week as I got infatuated with arranging Itchycoo Park for solo guitar. The song is pretty infectious and gets stuck in your head. It opens with a bit of percussive playing, which I gave a little tutorial on near the end of today’s Update. […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 11, 2025

admin — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 23:41:58 +0000

April 11, 2025 Lately I have been looking for some songs to make easy solo arrangements of. CCR and John Fogerty came to mind and today I tried out a couple of his songs. More to come on that soon. Continuing a little Guitar Geography (probably more Geometry this time), I went into interval relationships […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 4, 2025

admin — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 23:42:23 +0000

April 4, 2025 We wrapped up our 30-Day 3-Minute Challenge as March came to an end and congratulations go out to our four winners of strings from the Santa Cruz Guitar Company, as well as our grand prize winner in the U.K. who will be having a private lesson over Zoom with yours truly. We […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 28, 2025

admin — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 22:26:37 +0000

March 28, 2025 Some Blues book-ended today’s Update – starting with a nod toward Steely Dan, passing through a little Doc Watson, and closing with some improvising in E (along with a mention of blue notes). Expanding in the theory department, there was a challenge of sorts. We might call this one our 3-String Triad […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 21, 2025

admin — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 04:32:11 +0000

March 21, 2025 This week our 3-Minute 30-Day Challenge led to a related subject – scheduling practice and how long should you try to practice. We lean towards the 3×3 approach. That is 3 minutes at least 3 times a day. You get much more out of multiple short practice sessions than one long one, […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 14, 2025

admin — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 02:13:50 +0000

March 14, 2025 A couple new lessons this week, both with Eagles connections or implications… It recently came to my attention that we had missed some important Eagles tunes in the ever expanding Totally Guitars Library (now well over 2000 songs!). That was remedied with a new lesson on After The Thrill Is Gone and […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 7, 2025

admin — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 19:43:06 +0000

March 7, 2025 This week we jumped back into The Eagles catalog with new lessons on New Kid In Town and Joe Walsh’s Help Me Through The Night. Coincidentally, a question on the TG Forum brought up double stops on the guitar. The term is just a fancy way of saying play two notes together, […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 28, 2025

admin — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 23:41:45 +0000

February 28, 2025 A couple new lessons this week – Wade in The Water by Eva Cassidy and Lou Reed’s Perfect Day. One of those inspired and reminded me of a bunch of songs that have something in common. The first one was Blues Land by Jerry Reed, which I used to open and close […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 21, 2025

admin — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 03:14:44 +0000

February 21, 2025 This week I spent a little too much time down a rabbit hole that started with British One-Hit Wonders, well, really just one of them led off. Their hit was what I messed with at the opening of this Update. That took me into a bit of genealogy from the Small Faces, […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 14, 2025

admin — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 02:23:48 +0000

February 14, 2025 I have spent way too much time recently revisiting some old Neil Young recordings, particularly those on some of his Archives Volumes, which inspired me to get on something we have had many requests for over the years. The request was to make it easy to find lessons in Dropped D or […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update February 7, 2025

admin — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 03:12:51 +0000

February 7, 2025 Hot Tuna, Rev. Gary Davis and Blind Blake were on my mind this week, and as the camera started rolling I felt a little Death Don’t Have No Mercy coming on. It took on a little life of its own and wandered off a bit but was a lot of fun. There […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 31, 2025

admin — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 02:13:49 +0000

January 31, 2025 A few new lessons this week- Nesh brought us another tune from Passenger, Golden Leaves, and Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Browne. I finally got around to Stephen Stills’ iconic Carry On, the opening track from CSN&Y’s 1970 album Deja Vu. It is always fun to mess with songs of his in […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 24, 2025

admin — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 02:43:46 +0000

January 24, 2025 Cat Stevens and Chord Solos were on my mind this week. I tend to go on binges of listening to a specific artist or artists. This week it was Cat Stevens and I really had a great time reliving some of his early albums. I encourage everybody to check our Mona Bone […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 17, 2025

admin — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:03:21 +0000

January 17, 2025 Just a little playing and a short tutorial on fingerpicking were on today’s agenda. I started the Update with some of my tune Tickle Me, then had a couple short announcements, and ended with a mini-fingerpicking course. The new stuff this week included a lesson on It’s A Heartache by Bonnie Tyler, […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 10, 2025

admin — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 23:47:11 +0000

January 10, 2025 In last week’s Update I spent most of the time talking about some different ‘D’ Tunings. This week it is Open G. I want re-encourage you to not feel intimidated by trying something other than standard tuning. For Open G you simply lower three strings a whole step each. This opens the […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update January 3, 2025

admin — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 02:29:41 +0000

January 3, 2025 Heading into the New Year I thought I would put together some thoughts on alternate tunings, particularly D-based ones. The hope is to show that it does not have to be as complicated as many students think to tackle songs that use one. This Update starts in standard tuning with a bit […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 20, 2024

admin — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 22:56:49 +0000

December 20, 2024 This week we discovered that our lessons at Totally Guitars now include closed captions, an upgrade from our server that we are thrilled with. Only lessons since 2022 include them automatically but if we get specific requests for the feature on any older ones we will try to update them. A couple […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 13, 2024

admin — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 04:31:12 +0000

December 13, 2024 This week we published a Free Lesson on Carol Of The Bells, a not-too-difficult look at the main themes with some variations. That traditional Ukrainian melody kicked off today’s Update, leading into snippets of a couple other traditional Christmas Carols. Most of this Update turned into revisiting some tunes I have played […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update December 6, 2024

admin — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 14:50:10 +0000

December 6, 2024 Last week I played a bit of some of the songs from our new strumming packs (Neil’s Top Strumming Songs Volumes 1 & 2) and a few of my students wanted to work on the melodic strumming improv I did on Solitary Man. That reminded me of a recent request I got […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 30, 2024

admin — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 03:04:18 +0000

November 30, 2024 Thanksgiving week was a huge blast around the Hogan house, so the only News I have is that we released a couple new strumming packs, based on some of my recent lists. They are Neil’s Top Strumming Songs Volume 1 and Neil’s Top Strumming Songs Volume 2. Of course, all these lessons […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 22, 2024

admin — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 23:21:20 +0000

November 22, 2024 Our latest lesson was Singin’ Call by Stephen Stills, and since I still had my guitar in the D5 Tuning (DADDAD) today’s Update opened with some improvising and pieces of other Stills’ tunes that use it. There were snippets of Carry On, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, 4 & 20, Love The One […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 15, 2024

admin — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 00:30:13 +0000

November 15, 2024 Neil Young had a birthday this week so I had some of his songs and albums on my mind heading into the TG news. I think I mentioned most of them by name as I strolled down memory lane but I might have missed a couple. Some of the turned out to […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 8, 2024

admin — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 01:17:03 +0000

November 8, 2024 This week I had a chance to offer some particular advice to a couple students, which turned into keeping a log with the status of everything they had ever played. That became a focus of today’s update. The rest was a trip down memory lane related to my second album, A Beatles […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update November 1, 2024

admin — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 22:28:29 +0000

We put out a couple interesting lessons this week, a slightly obscure Eagles’ tune and another big hit from David Gates and Bread. The Bread tune is Make It With You, featuring a lot of chords with open strings droning, which led to my short discussion of chords in the key of E and some […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 25, 2024

admin — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 08:30:03 +0000

October 25, 2024 The Five Man Electrical Band hit Signs, from 1971 was running through my head as I started the camera so it turned into the introductory music today. Along the way I also played The Last Steam Engine Train and my tune Paprika. Other than that, there was a short review of intervals […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 18, 2024

admin — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 21:16:37 +0000

October 18, 2024 You may have heard that I have been asked to play for a few hours at an event here in Los Gatos next Saturday, October 26. It has been many years since I have worked on a concert set, let alone 3 hours of playing. I managed to recruit a few friends […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 11, 2024

admin — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 21:18:31 +0000

October 11, 2024 I still have intervals on my to-do list for students, and while reviewing thirds Dance With Me popped out of my guitar. Being in the key of D, it led me into Al Stewart’s Time Passages. I improvised a bit of an instrumental take on it before getting to the main stuff […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update October 4, 2024

admin — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 01:35:17 +0000

October 4, 2024 It is October and high time to get started refreshing your Christmas tunes, more on that later… I had some Beatles songs running through my head today, and eventually did get to a bit of a couple. Before that I started with a short improv in G (at least for a while), […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update September 27, 2024

admin — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 00:37:44 +0000

September 27, 2024 New Eagles lesson this week from Nesh – Train Leaves Here This Morning. I just ran across a shot of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady playing live from a few days ago and it reminded me of what a huge influence they were on me with the first two Hot Tuna albums. […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update September 20, 2024

admin — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 23:09:33 +0000

September 20, 2024 As I look back and review some of the things we did at TG’s International Guitar Camp last week, a couple things come to mind that I thought I’d share with this audience. One of the workshops I gave was essentially ear training but using a classic Dylan song as an example. […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update September 13, 2024

admin — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 14:54:10 +0000

Friday September 13, 2024 We just wrapped up our 2024 Fall IGC and took a little time to chat with some of the campers. We were at the Green Mountain Retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains, just outside of Los Gatos, in Northern California. We have been holding the IGC since 2013 and are now […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update September 6, 2024

admin — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 04:40:23 +0000

September 6, 2024 This week we brought out a couple tunes from the 1960s- It’s My Party by Leslie Gore and More Today Than Yesterday by Spiral Starecase. This inspired me to start with a little of the melody to More Today Than Yesterday, which led to a breakdown of some standard jazz fingerings for […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 30, 2024

admin — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 23:49:02 +0000

August 30, 2024 The response to last week’s instrumentals I ran through was so positive that I figured it was time to get to my list of heavily recommended instrumentals. Of course, we added a couple new lessons- Baby I’m-A Want You by Bread and John Renbourn’s Lord Franklin, also from Pentangle’s Cruel Sister album. […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 23, 2024

admin — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 22:20:31 +0000

August 23, 2024 John Renbourn has been on my mind a lot lately, obviously triggered by this week’s lesson on Cruel Sister from Pentangle’s album. I was inspired to get back to practicing some of his more technical pieces, particularly ones I have not done lessons on yet. This also meant a lot of playing […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 16, 2024

admin — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 02:14:45 +0000

August 16, 2024 Just this morning I joined a small band of teachers at my daughter’s school (she teaches 4thgrade there). They were doing a few sing-alongs with the whole school and one of the tunes was Take Me Home, Country Roads. It gave me an opportunity to play it in a different key than […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 9, 2024

admin — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 00:17:22 +0000

August 9, 2024 Continuing with my lists of favorite songs for students to work on, this week I mentioned some of my top intermediate fingerpicking lessons. These are mostly a bit more complex and varied than last week’s alternate bass ones. Before I got to those, I started with a short improv that just popped […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update August 2, 2024

admin — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 23:57:56 +0000

August 2, 2024 This week Nesh brought a new artist into the TG Library: Danny Vera and his song Roller Coaster. Danny is well known in The Netherlands, where Nesh grew up and still lives, but might be not as well recognized in the U.S. The tune fits nicely into my main topic of discussion […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 26, 2024

admin — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 22:56:57 +0000

July 26, 2024 Getting back into lesson production this week, a song was brought to my attention by a student recently that was very interesting: Neil Diamond’s reworking of I’m A Believer. This appeared on his 2010 album Dreams, along with great covers of some of his favorite songs, and had more of a soulful […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 19, 2024

admin — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 00:23:53 +0000

July 19, 2024 I recently took some unplanned time off playing and practicing, due to an ugly finger injury, but a few days ago got back into the swing of things. I had a lot of fun resurrecting some pretty complicated pieces and started out today with John Renbourn’s My Dear Boy (warts and all!). […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 12, 2024

admin — Sat, 13 Jul 2024 01:20:38 +0000

July 12, 2024 This week we rolled out some great new lesson packs. These are sets of 5-6 songs by a classic band. The new artist packs featured The Alan Parsons Project and REO Speedwagon, along with my solo arrangements of Rolling Stones tunes and Fingerpicking Beatles Volume 3. We also added Lesley Gore to […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update July 5, 2024

admin — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 01:45:50 +0000

July 5, 2024 This week I had tunes in the key of E running through my head, both major and minor. Listen closely and you might hear and you should recognize Jorma Kaukonen, Doc Watson, The Beatles, The Allman Brothers, and maybe Santana, to name a few. The ‘E’ theme also opened the door to […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 28, 2024

admin — Sat, 29 Jun 2024 00:19:54 +0000

June 28, 2024 What do George Harrison, Michel Legrand, Leon Russell, Rodgers & Hart, and even yours truly, have in common with Randy California and Jimmy Page? The answer may be obvious when you hear some of the tunes I tackle at the top of today’s Update. Another topic of discussion was big artists rearranging […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 21, 2024

admin — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 22:40:36 +0000

June 21, 2024 This week there was a lot more playing and only a bit of News to talk about. A list of the tunes I remember touching on will be at the end. As some of you may know, I tend to go on ‘Band Binges’, and get really into a specific artist for […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 14, 2024

admin — Sat, 15 Jun 2024 01:17:41 +0000

June 14, 2024 This week I spent a little time with some guitar players in the Phoenix Guitar League. One of the main topics of conversation was harmonics, and particularly artificial harmonics. This is a way to get any note as a harmonic, not just the natural ones at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets. […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update June 7, 2024

admin — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 23:09:33 +0000

June 7, 2024 This week’s events and TG additions were driven by, or at least inspired by requests and suggestions from students. I was asked by a couple students about what we had at TG for absolute beginners. It reminded me of some lessons we had in the past that were nowhere to be found […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 31, 2024

admin — Fri, 31 May 2024 22:36:00 +0000

May 31, 2024 Today’s Update started with some musings on one of our new lessons this week. Nesh brought us Willie Nelson’s version of Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain and For A Long Time by Broken Fences. My thoughts on Blue Eyes led into talking about 3-chord progressions that use chords I-IV-V, and how […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 24, 2024

admin — Fri, 24 May 2024 23:10:55 +0000

May 24, 2024 This week I was still ruminating on Rolling Stones and quite a few of them made their way into today’s Update, along with a couple Dylan tunes. One of those demonstrates a very interesting chord progression using chords I through V in sequence, and the other is one I use as an […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 17, 2024

admin — Fri, 17 May 2024 23:42:01 +0000

May 17, 2024 A couple Rolling Stones tunes were running through my head today, and I realized I don’t think I have done any instrumental arrangements of their tunes. I will pursue this a bit but I am open to suggestions. The News of the week includes our first winner of the 3-Minute Challenge, a […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 10, 2024

admin — Sat, 11 May 2024 01:06:27 +0000

May 10, 2024 This week was a bit disrupted as the Hogan family welcomed our first grandson into the fold. Iokepa Anthony Hogan Frausto joined the clan on Monday, May 6 and all are doing really well, other than a bit sleep deprived. The name is Hawaiian for Joseph (both grandfather’s middle names) and he […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update May 3, 2024

admin — Sat, 04 May 2024 01:01:33 +0000

May 3, 2024 Just getting back into the swing of things after a really fun International Guitar Camp last weekend. I talked a bit about some of the events at camp, mentioned our recent new lessons – The Turn Of A Friendly Card by The Alan Parsons Project and The End Of The World by […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 19, 2024

admin — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 03:28:45 +0000

April 19, 2024 Just a couple things on my mind today made it into the News – a bit of another Alan Parsons tune that is under construction, suggestions about adding YouTube videos to lesson requests (which got me trying to piece together a beautiful Gordon Lightfoot song), some hints about James (the pretty advanced […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 12, 2024

admin — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 22:03:07 +0000

April 12, 2024 I mentioned last week at the end that frequently things pop up that I had not seen coming, or had planned to get into the lesson library. This week the Alan Parsons Project tune Old And Wise cut into my lesson queue and I just had to jump on it. The beautiful […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update April 5, 2024

admin — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:16:32 +0000

April 5, 2024 A bit of a golden oldie started off today’s Update. For some reason I had a very old fake book on my mind which brought up Sweet Georgia Brown from the memory banks. The main announcements this week were the latest winners from our 3-Minute Challenge and a couple new lessons. Nesh […]

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Totally Guitars Weekly Update March 29, 2024

admin — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 22:24:59 +0000

March 29, 2024 A couple new, and unexpected lessons crossed our path and joined the TG Library this week. Last week it was I’ll Be Here In The Morning by Townes Van Zandt that cut the queue and turned into a lesson because a student and I had been working diligently on it. This week […]

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