Acoustic Guitar Lesson - Here Comes The Sun - Part 1

In Here Comes The Sun by the Beatles, we get to hear George Harrison at his best. This is a classic and one of the best acoustic guitar songs to be learned. If you can play an open D chord, then you should be able to play the biggest part of the song. You will need a capo and put it on the 7th fret.

As learning all songs, you should have a recording of Here Comes The Sun. This will help you out with all the phrasing and the arrangement of the song. It's important that you don't skip this part. Don't cut corners with your acoustic guitar playing. Lots of people do skip this part, but don't be one of them! Rise above friends. Ok moving on.

Put your capo on the 7th fret and play a D chord. Right away this should remind you of the tune. It's such a beautiful chords played there. By the way, this is now an A chord because we are playing it way up here. But for ease and lack of confusion we are going to refer to it as D in this lesson.

Can you take your second finger off the first string and hear it open. You will need to be able to do this. This gives you a Dsus 2chord. (Asus2 for the picky people). Now can you put your pinky on the first string, same fret as your third finger? This gives you a Dsus4 chords. You will need to be able to do this one as well.

At first these chords may seem a bit difficult, especially the Dsus2. Keep on them. Make sure your third finger is up and over the first string. You can't let it touch the first string at all or you won't get any sound out if it. The main part of the song will call for you to be able to get the D, Dsus2, and Dsus4 all ringing out perfectly.

To finish up this part, practice playing individual strings and getting all the notes to ring. If you can do this, then you will be ready to move on to the song.

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Bob Dylan Chords

Studying Bob Dylan chords is one of the most important things you can do as an acoustic guitar players. Not only are most of them easy to play, they sound good. They will also teach you how to put together different chords to make the best sounding tunes. I think just about everybody who has every picked up an acoustic guitar has learned Knockin On Heaven's Door. It's only 4 chords and it's an amazing song!

Bob Dylan chords will also teach you how to play rhythm in a way that moves the song but leaves space for the vocals. This is something that can be overlooked by some younger students when they are learning to play.

Most of the chords that you will learn will be what is called open chords. They use open strings and are played on the bottom fret of the guitar. These chords are often referred to as "Folk Chords" or "Cowboy Chords". You know the A- and D and E chords you probably learned the first day you got a guitar. Tough at first but probably easy now for the more experienced acoustic guitar player.

You will get into some bar chords. One in particular that comes up a lot is the F#- chord that is played on the 2nd fret. This one is used in Hurricane. It can also be moved up to the 4th fret to be played as a G#-.

As a guitar teacher I make sure that my students study Bob Dylan chords to get the basic foundation of how the guitar works as an accompanying instrument. It's important that they not think of the guitar as only a soloing instrument and focus on the flash and speed. I want them to know the importance of being part of an ensemble and this music is a perfect way to expose them to it.

When the students are getting a little better and moving on to bar chords one of the first things I will have them do is this little exercise that helps tons. Take Knockin On Heaven's Door. Instead of play G D A-7 as open chords, play them as bar chords. First using only root 6 bar chords and then only root 5 bar chords. Once you get that down switch to playing G on the 6th String and D on the 5th string and back to the 6th string for A-7. Repeat this exercise for the second half of the progression that uses C instead of the A-7.

Take this exercise and use it with all songs and Bob Dylan chords.

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Hey There Delilah Tabs

Is there an acoustic player not searching for Hey There Delilah tabs? Probably, but most are. It was quite a hit for the Plain White T's. As an acoustic guitar teacher, I have taught this song to tons of students. One of the things I think is great about this tune is the simplicity of it. It's easy for the students to learn and since everyone in the world has heard it, people want to her them play it.

Hey There Delilah tabs also can teach you some cool voicings and moving bass notes. The F#- chord (second chord in the song) is a voicing that most students don't learn. It is a small 3 not voicing instead of the big bar chord. Also exposing students to B- chords can be pretty tough sometimes because they don't want to practice it. It is a difficult chord, so often times the student will skip it just a bit. But with the inspiration of learning it in the tune, it always gets practiced.

The middle section of the tunes is where the guitar player uses a moving bass line between chords. This is a good thing to expose acoustic guitar players to because it teaches them some ways to spice up there accompanying skills. It teaches them to not just sit back and strum mindlessly while the vocals are passing by. They get to play cool stuff and stay out of the way of the singer. Very important!

The rhythm of the tune is simple and constant. This lets the player stay focused on the chords her or she is learning and not have to worry about strum patterns and stops and varying rhythms.

Another great thing about this song is it sounds great with one guitar, but also with 2-3 guitars playing the song together. It's a great song to improvise over so it lends itself to a good jam. So if you are looking for something new that maybe you wouldn't have normally tried, give this one a shot. The internet is loaded with sites that will have Hey There Delilah tabs.

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How To Sell Your Lyrics?

There are so many talented songwriters around the world who write lyrics. Many songwriters have always asked the question on how they can sell their lyrics to third parties in the hope of making money. Some songwriters just want to sell their lyrics and profit from them. There have been widespread success stories in recent years of songwriters who have made a lot of money selling lyrics. One of the most interesting cases is that of Ryan Tedder who wrote the lyrics to "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis. He has now made millions into selling his lyrics to major popular artists.

Song writing is somewhat of a passion for some people and some people find it as their favorite pastime. Selling your own Lyrics can have the benefit of making you a lot of money. Some people sell their lyrics everyday but in recent years there has been an increase in people having more and better opportunities to sell their lyrics and showcase their talent. More and more people are now using social networking websites such as YouTube and MySpace to show everyone how "good" they really are.

Selling your lyrics can also give you the benefit of making a name for yourself in the music industry. For example, imagine writing the words to a song that ends up being played on the radio, buses, airports - just about everywhere! People are desperate to showcase their talent in this day and age with more and more people turning to the Internet to display their talent. Moreover, one of the best places to showcase their talent has been social networking websites. This not only makes you more in tune with people but also gives people a chance to show what they are capable of doing. For example, the music artist Sean Kingston made a name for himself by Myspace. He is now one of the most famous young r and b acts in the world today. Another artist is Lilly Allen who also made a name for herself on Myspace. Her "fame" on Myspace led her to have a multimillion dollar record deal.

Anyway, to find out more information on how to sell your lyrics a good resource ishttp://www.SellingLyrics.com Everyone always wonders how you sell lyrics. Selling your own lyrics can give you several advantages. There are so many windows of opportunity if you want to sell your lyrics

Home Recording Studio Design

Once you have determined where your home recording studio is going to be, it's time to start the design of the space. Most often a home studio will be confined to a single room such as a garage or a bedroom. If this is the case with your home studio, you may need to divide the room to create some isolation between the performance space and the control room space.

In traditional professional recording studios, the space is typically divided into several different rooms. The hub of the space is the control room. This is where you will find the mixer, recorders, and other outboard equipment. All the other rooms, called tracking rooms or isolation booths depending on the size of the room, are connected to the control room. While the performer(s) sing and play in the tracking room, the engineer records the performance and monitors the sound in the control room through loudspeakers or headphones.

This same arrangement can and should be created in your home recording studio. It is important for the engineer to be able to monitor the sounds in an isolated environment like a control room. This is the only way he or she will be able to accurately judge the quality of the sound signal being recorded. If the artists were in the same room as the engineer, the engineer would only be able to hear the live performance and not the signal being recorded.

The most ideal setup would be for your home studio to have one room be the control room and another room be the tracking room. If this is possible, then setting up the space will be quite easy. Although it would be nice to have a window between the rooms so the engineer could see the artists during the recording process, as long as cables can be run between the two rooms this setup will work just fine.

If your home studio must exist in a single room, there are a few things you can do to create some isolation between the artists and the engineer. The best way to do this is to build a wall and just divide the room into two rooms. This would provide the most isolation, although it is also the most costly and time consuming method. Another option is to build a sort of isolation booth within the control room. This can be done by setting up screens, hanging heavy curtains, building partial walls, anything to isolate the sound of a vocal or instrument. Having the engineer use headphones to monitor in addition to whatever isolation you can create with a booth should be adequate for most recording in a single room. Of course you will likely be limited by the size of the room to recording just a single vocal or instrument at a time. This method of recording does usually take longer than recording an entire performance at once, but the availability of simple multitrack recording hardware and software should allow anyone with patience and desire to make quality recordings.

If you plan on just recording yourself as a solo artist for demo purposes, podcasting, or even just for fun, then isolation becomes even less of an issue. If you're doing it all yourself, you will just have to experiment with mic placement and listen to some test recordings until everything sounds right. Once you get the setup right so that the recordings sound clean and accurate, you can then go back and mix it down using whatever effects you desire.

One last issue to consider when designing your home studio is while the layout of the space and isolation are important when designing a home recording studio, just as important is the "feel" or "vibe" of the space. Your studio should be a place that makes you feel comfortable and inspires creativity. Use some of your own personality to decorate the space. If your studio is drab and uninspiring, the performances within will be too.

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American Idol and Network Marketing - Branding Yourself

I never cared for the concept of American Idol until I got hooked watching the auditions last year. Now, its a weekly ritual (and set to record on the DVR in case I'm gone). Its interesting to me...I actually get hooked on the performers and how they do.

For the longest time I figured the baby-faced 17 year old crooner David Archuleta would win it all. After all, he is (in my honest but educated opinion) the most talented vocalist. He has a great future ahead of him but he lacks originality.

Enter David Cook.

I've always like David's style. He's a rocker with a good voice. What makes him stand out is his ability to take a song, put his touches on it, and make it sound like an original that could be a #1 hit all over again.

Take this week's theme: Mariah Carey. She is one of my favorite all-time female vocalist but I'm not a HUGE fan of some of her songs. "Hero" was huge hit, as was "One Sweet Day" (combined with Boyz II Men...my all-time favorite song. Ever. Period). However, I never really cared for "Always Be My Baby" as a song. It was a little too, well, bubbly for my taste.

Again, enter David Cook.

David C. takes the song, adds his touch (whoever is helping him with arranging these is a genius, and if no one is helping him, David C. is a genius), and makes a song that I believe will be #1 again. It reminded me of Aerosmith and Bon Jovi in the late 1990's: A great song, darker than the original (more "rock" than "pop"), and performed very well.

My take on it is this: While David A. is talented vocally and a hit with the "teeny bopper" girls, he lacks one thing that David C. has. Yes, both have great voices, a great stage presence, and great careers ahead of them. David A. lacks a certain flare and originality.

David C. (boy its confusing marking who's who, even I get confused typing it) has the ability to take a song, here it through his ears, and make it a hit. The other David just sings really, really, REALLY well.

By the way, this is a great point in marketing. David A. has a great voice and a great following, but he has yet to really brand himself. David C. brands each performance with his own touch (other than great vocals). You hear in marketing of anything that you should always brand yourself and not just your products or company. This is a great example of just this.

David C. has managed to brand "David Cook" as a future star, regardless of how the voting turns out. Tonight's performance is just one great example of that. His voice, his arrangements, his personality on stage, everything about him sets him apart from just a singer or just a guy with looks. He has set "David Cook" up for a successful run in the music business.

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Comedy Meets Frankenstein

Frankenstein has taken on many forms since the novel was written by Mary Shelley in the 1700s. He has been reproduced in many different movie adaptations, some serious and some not so serious. This semester we have studied a bunch of these adaptations and the most recent, and most interesting, was the comedic spin taken by Gene Wilder in his film version of the story, Young Frankenstein. This essay will outline the main concepts that Wilder kept and how he made the story go from a tragic drama to a comedy.

The opening credits rolled over a shot of the infamous castle of Frankenstein. The music and flashes of lightning resemble that of James Whale's original Frankenstein film from 1931. The opening has an eerie "horror" film look and feel to it which makes the audience think it is going to be a frightening film. The original set from Whale's film is used for Wilder's movie and is easily recognized by anyone who has seen it.

The first time Young Frankenstein is seen he is teaching a science class, science of course is an important theme in all of the Frankenstein tales. We learn that the lead Frankenstein character is Victor's grandson Frederick. Frederick is a science teacher and when a student questions his relation and connection to Victor and his mad workings the first comedic spin is shown as Frederick pronounces his name differently. Instead of Frankenstein, he pronounces it Fraunken-steen. This becomes a reoccurring, and thematically important, joke throughout the film. The movie has just about every element necessary to make a horror film, but it is the witty dialogue that turns it from a drama to a comedy. This new pronunciation of the name is the first example of this dialogue, but there is plenty more to come.

When Frederick is taken to his grandfather's castle he is greeted by Igor, which gets pronounced differently after he learns how Frederick pronounces his name. There are many plays on words that occur throughout the film as well. When Frederick first meets his female assistant she is lying in a hay wagon and asks him if he wants to go for "a roll in the hay." A sexual innuendo is assumed until she begins literally rolling around in the hay. Another example is when Igor walks down the steps with a cane he tells Frederick to "walk this way." Frederick took the cane and walked hunched over and slowly the same way Igor had done. Other examples of sexual innuendos include "what knockers" when referring to the door knocker on the front of the castle, and "elevate me" which was said during the creation of the monster.

After Frederick finds the book, "How I Did It", written by his grandfather he decides that maybe his granddad was not as crazy as he thought and decides to try the experiment himself. A sequence of similar shots from Whale's film follows, as Frederick and Igor go to a graveyard to get a body. Some of the same dialogue was even used in the film. While the characters are hiding behind a fence in the graveyard Frankenstein tells his assistant to "Get down you fool!" in both versions. The scene was made silly though as they splashed dirt all around the area as they dug up their body. Igor went to get a brain and ended up dropping the good brain and bringing home an "abnormal" brain, just as it happened in Whale's film.

As the monster was being created there was a quote that Frederick said that was similar, and possibly even exactly the same as, a speech that Victor gave in the novel. They ran the same exact experiment as in Whale's film version and when the monsters hand moves and it groans Frederick yells the infamous "It's Alive" quote. They made this part funny because when Frederick was excitedly yelling "It's Alive" he looked at him with a confused face.

The monster is immediately afraid of fire, which was a major theme in both the film adaptations and the novel. When the monster flipped out from the fire they gave him a sedative as they did in Whale's version, only this time, it was made comedic as they played charades and ended up spelling out "sed a give." A violin made an appearance in the film as it has in Branagh's version and other adaptations that we viewed. In the novel a lonely old man plays the violin and helps the monster learn. In this version, the violin's music puts the monster into a trance and he is drawn to it. The old man is featured, only he is absolutely crazy and they put a hilarious spin on his part of the story.

As the monster moves around outside of the castle it is obvious that his outfit and mannerisms were taken from Whale's version. As he is out in the open he runs into a little girl, like in the novel and some of the adaptations, only this time she is throwing flowers into a well. The scene is made comedic as she asks the monster, "what else could we throw in" and he looks into the camera at the audience with a funny look on his face implying that he should throw her in.

The movie twists away from the classic Frankenstein story as Frederick tries to show the monster that he is loved. They form a bond and a freak show act that ends badly as a light blows which scares the monster. Fredericks fiancé comes to town and is named Elizabeth which is a clear parallel to Victor and Elizabeth. A strange twist occurs as Elizabeth ends up with the monster and Frederick with his assistant. The monster took Elizabeth to a cave and ended up sleeping with her. After they were finished she looked like the "Bride of Frankenstein" which referenced that film.

The movie ends with a transference so the monster will have some of Fredericks brain. Through this we see that he is the opposite of Victor as he has learned from his mistakes and taken responsibility for his actions. The themes and events were extremely similar but in the end the comedic spins and changed ending give a different feel to the film.