Check your inboxes because TG2 has just been released. If you are not on our mailing list and want to get this in your e-mail go sign up here. If you are already a free or TARGET member you should get this automatically.

TG Newsletter #2 - May 29, 2009
 

 
In this issue you’ll find…

- What’s going on at Totally Guitars?

- Latest T.A.R.G.E.T. News…

- Information about the “lesson notes” found in the T.A.R.G.E.T. Program.

- Free lesson updates and more.

- The current T.A.R.G.E.T. song list (remember its growing)…

- *** SPECIAL: Q&A between members and Neil.

What’s Going On?
 

Here we are with the 2nd edition of the TotallyGuitars Newsletter. I’d especially like to welcome and thank our early TARGET members as we head into our second month of online guitar instruction. Here are some articles about the latest happenings at TotallyGuitars.

TARGET News
 

I am starting to spend a little more time adding new songs to the TARGET Program. I really appreciate everybody’s input on songs you would like to see and I am definitely listening to your suggestions. As I finished the first 50 songs, I already had a rough idea of likely candidates, including songs by the Eagles, Gordon Lightfoot, more Neil Young, and am glad to see that those are high on our viewers’ lists as well.
I also hear your comments about showing more than the way the song originally went and asking me to include some of the solo versions that I sometimes play in the 1st segment of each lesson. The next song coming your way will include this. I have been adding the finishing touches to Yesterday, showing how Paul McCartney played it but also presenting an intermediate level fingerpicking solo version. It should be up early next week.
After Yesterday we will be taking a very extensive look at most of the guitar parts in the acoustic version of Hotel California. I can’t exactly say when that will be done as I usually under estimate the time involved before I get started.
 
Following is a recap of some of the details about the TARGET Program.
 
The TARGET Program is pretty revolutionary as far as an online teaching system goes in that it is very interactive. There are many ways that I stay in touch and interact with my online students. We have an exclusive section in our Forum where I answer questions from members, as well as take requests for upcoming lessons.
This interactivity even reaches out to live broadcasts for our members where we play some songs, help resolve music problems, and generally have an online group get together in real time. These episodes are part of out TG Live! Series.
 
If you are serious about improving your guitar abilities I really encourage you to join our TARGET Program while it is still open. I can’t say how many students we will be able to handle but I know there will be a limit as to how many I feel I can work with. I want to be able to devote the same time and attention to my online students as I do for students I see in my studio every week.
 
Check out the TARGET Program here

Lesson Notes in TARGET Songs
 

Every song in he TARGET Program comes with a page of notes that goes over some of the things in the lesson, as well as a few trivial tidbits about the song. Here is an example from the Lesson Notes to Cinnamon Girl.
 
Background
Cinnamon Girl appeared on Neil Young’s second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The arrangement featured heavily distorted guitars that now can probably be looked at as the roots of the grunge movement. Neil’s one note guitar solo can be considered an influence as well.
This was one of three songs Neil supposedly wrote one day in mid-March, 1969 while he was sick with the flu; the other two being Down By The River and Cowgirl In The Sand.
There are many theories on who the Cinnamon Girl was. A book about Jim Morrison suggests it was his girlfriend, Pamela Courson. Neil has said she was a hippie he saw walking down the street playing finger cymbals. There also was a club in Southern California called the Cinnamon Cinder where the Buffalo Springfield played occasionally. Undoubtedly, many cute girls followed the group there. In any case, I’m sure he had some explaining to do to his wife.
 
Instrumentation
The original recording was done with Neil’s favorite backing band, Crazy Horse. Danny Whitten played the second guitar part and sang the high harmony part. The song also included an improvised solo guitar tag at the end, which helped create an interesting segue into the tongue-in-cheek title tune, which had a slight country feel.
 
Acoustic Version
Neil frequently performs an acoustic version of Cinnamon Girl with the guitar tuned to Double Dropped D (DADGBD). This makes for a lot of easy-to-play chords that are done with partial bars, sometimes across just the higher strings and sometimes just across the lower strings. The riffs from the original are played pretty much the same whether done on acoustic or electric.
The tuning creates some interesting chords that contain some unusual extensions (notes added to a triad, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths…). Most of these are very easy to play because the extended notes are just open strings.
 
Arrangement
The song features 2 similar riffs, one used as the intro and the other as a two-measure tag that follows a line of the verse. There is also a short bridge that follows the second verse and ends the song.

Latest Free Lessons/TARGET Previews
 

The free lessons section is full of short lessons on some great songs, most of which include downloadable TAB. We also have a video section that has previews of lessons available in the TARGET Program. These previews give you a little taste of the complete songs in the program.
 
The most recent addition to the free lessons section is a short look at Should I Stay Or Should I Go, by the Clash. It is a great basic strumming song, good for beginners, but includes a quick change to an F chord. Good practice for everyone.
 
Should I Stay Or Should I Go joins these songs already available in the Free Lessons Section:
 
Roxanne
Down On The Corner
Southern Man
Ohio
Good Riddance
Free Bird

Here are some comments we’ve received recently:
 

Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Great song Neil and good for beginners. Very well taught also.
Marty
****************************************
Blackbird
From a newbie and first time poster..
 
1) Outstanding video!
 
2) General comment on this song- I cannot get over how many different version of this song are out there, with many different tabs. Makes it quite hard to ‘trust’ which one is correct - and accuracy is kind of important if one is to spend gobs of hours practicing!! At least here, on this site, there is a matched tab and video, and Neil, you espouse gobs of confidence, so that’s great, and I applaud your efforts !!
 
Many thanks,
 
Media Man
****************************************
Grandfather’s Clock- by James, May 25, 2009
 
Brilliant thanks what I’ve always been looking for
 

The TG Blog
 

I have started a new series of tips showing fingerings that I recommend for all the basic chords and they are being posted on the TG Blog. These are really short reference videos for beginners.
I also posted a new concert video that I thought had been lost a few years ago. Here is the post.
 
Highway Robbery-
Hi Gang,
 
I just found something pretty exciting, at least for me. A few years ago I recorded my last album (so far), El Dorado. It included a piece that I consider very high maintenance, Highway Robbery. A high maintenance piece is one that requires considerable time and effort to learn, and especially keep in performance condition over a long period of time. Highway Robbery is a very long (almost 10 minute) composition that has a few different parts and goes through a couple of mood changes in various styles. I was a bit intimidated as I was writing it as it was obvious I was going to have to work on some very rusty techniques that I really hadn’t used much since my early classical guitar days.
 
In December, 2001 I did a concert at a small local club, the Espresso Garden and decided to play the piece live. It was something I thought I would only do once in my life and then file the song away in the scrapbook and move on. I did have the foresight to record the show, with a camera set up near the foot of the stage, really just for my own home movie collection, to document the evening.
 
Somehow, a few months later, when I went looking for the tape, it was nowhere to be found. I was more than a little bummed as I remembered the concert going pretty well, especially Highway Robbery, which I had totally forgotten by then. I also remembered an improvised rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, as this was shortly after George Harrison had died.
 
As part of a spring cleaning project a few weeks ago, a VHS copy of the long lost tape surfaced at the bottom of a box that was just about to be tossed. Needless to say, I was thrilled and promptly put it into my video queue of projects. I figured I would share it with the TotallyGuitars community. It is over in the Video Section under the In Concert category. When I get a chance I might try to get to While My Guitar Gently Weeps as well.
 
In any case, I think I will be leaving Highway Robbery in the retired category but certainly am happy that I managed to perform it live once.
 

Q&A for Neil
 

Hello Neil
 
I read a guitar fretboard book awhile back and it included the D-A-F formation and how it’s used in many songs. Some that I am aware of that use the formation or fragmented chords of it are Give Alittle Bit, Jack and Diane and Soul Man. Can you expand on this theory and provide other song examples? Is this an older methodology or is it still used today?
 
Thanks,
 
Bill
 
Neil’s Answer
 
There are many uses for partial chords in guitar playing, although most of them apply to adding a second guitar part to the main rhythm part of an accompaniment. One of the best ways to do this is to use 3-string voicings or fragments of a chord and play them on the top three strings (1st, 2nd, & 3rd). This way you are playing just one of each note of the chord (root, 3rd, & 5th).
 
There are 3 common shapes used for these chords. I like to describe them as based on the open chords E, A, & D, and refer to these shapes as families. These would match up with your reference to “D-A-F Formation”, where the F formation is really part of the E family. Each family contains “members” that are different chord types. For now we will just consider major and minor.
 
A great way to add to the overall sound of 2 guitars is to have Guitar I play the chords in open or 1st position and Guitar II play these 3-string voicings based on the three families of chords. This will even end up sounding like a lead guitar part. Here is a simple representation of the frets that make up each shape, I will get a better diagram soon. The six numbers represent the frets involved for each shape in its lowest position.
 
E Major = X-X-X-1-0-0
E Minor = X-X-X-0-0-0
 
A Major = X-X-X-2-2-0
A Minor = X-X-X-2-1-0
 
D Major = X-X-X-2-3-2
D Minor = X-X-X-2-3-1
 
These shapes are then moved up the neck to whatever fret you need to get the chord you are looking for. As an example, here is where to play a C chord in all the shapes-
 
C Major (E)= X-X-X-9-8-8
C Minor (E)= X-X-X-8-8-8
 
C Major (A)= X-X-X-5-5-3
C Minor (A)= X-X-X-5-4-3
 
C Major (D)= X-X-X-12-13-12
C Minor (D)= X-X-X-12-13-11
 
I will be doing a full video lesson on this in the near future. I hope this gives everybody a good start on it.
 
 
That’s all for this edition.
 
 
Stay tuned and in touch,
 
Neil
 
P.S. – Feel free to get back to me on the blog and on the guitar forum to let me know what else YOU would like to see in this weekly newsletter!
 
Check TARGET out here