blueswede

rockin' out

The guitar can be a tricky little mofo. I've been taking
lessons for a few months now, and I've run across more than
a few problems. Most of these exist in the resources
available to guitarists. Here are a few:

1) Inaccurate or incomplete tablature. A diagram should
always be given for every chord involved, so that guitarists
don't have to spend 3 hours looking up F#m6 or Amaj5. And
chords should never be given as accompaniment if they end up
sounding like hell with an accurate rendition of the lyrics.

2) There is no textbook of chord mathematics. There is
meaning behind Fsus7, but it's damn hard for someone who
doesn't know all the terminology to figure it out.

3) Many guitarists have great mechanical skill, but can't
read sheet music and have little understanding of music
theory. This can become a problem during jam sessions. I
had to deal with this last year at school in the Guitar
Club. Pretty much everyone there had more skill than I did,
but couldn't read sheet music. So what ended up happening
was that they would have a little jam session while I was
trying to pick out the melody to "Will the Circle Be
Unbroken."

Working together, we can make the world a better place for
the guitar and all other instruments.