Resources for learning and advancing

[Moondog Wily]

Over the years of my illustrious mediocrity in the guitar world, I have accumulated and in some cases fashioned my own set of resources for music/guitar knowledge. I know that we are in a "content rich" world at this point, and all of what I (or others) post here may be superfluous, but this is intended to be an easy access single point offering of music learning/knowledge. I will be putting each different resource in a new post to make them more digestible. If anyone else has resources that you think guitar players would benefit from, feel free to post them here.

If anybody sees corrections that would be needed in a specific resource, please let me know. I want accuracy and know that I am not perfect and have/will make mistakes. I will correct what I can, when I can and appreciate you bringing to my attention any material that does need a fix ;~))

If one person benefits from one thing on this page, it was worth the time ;~)) Looking forward to what others have to offer!

 

[Moondog Wily]

First up, here is a spreadsheet that I started building in 2002. It is NOT complete in my head, but there is a LOT of good info here in a way that is easy for ME to understand! Hope it helps somebody out!!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VMIGmPzunxztQ12f0_gCoApX1IXWSPDUzVTYwDauo8E/

As mentioned in the first post, if you see any corrections that need to be made, let me know and I will review and address!

This was built from a number of resources over the past 22 years and I created none of it other than putting it together in this spreadsheet. If you want to work with and modify this, and have a google account, simply choose "Make A Copy" from the "File" menu and you will then have your own copy to modify. I would love to be kept abreast of any changes/improvements you make to your copy of this spreadsheet, and would also appreciate the credit for source to be included in any modified version, but this ain't no holy grail and if you do not do so, nobody will be harmed ;~))

 

[Moondog Wily]

This link ( https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MgCfcP-CVAm0zDAgfUxJwR7A3uJ4dO9TwaljWaENifQ/ ) is for another spreadsheet that I created using some material I found online. It is a list of 892 chords. It is NOT complete! There are other voicings of many of these chords, but it is an very long list and worth having IMO. I pointed this list out a few weeks ago on another forum and somebody came back with a "useless" comment claiming that many of these chords could not be fingered. What they did not realize is that some of them are fingerings that would include using a capo. So if you see something like this:

x 5 7 5 7 2

That would be a capo on the second fret, and then using fingers for the 5th and 7th fret stuff.

I did not create this material, but I took it and reformatted some of it to show the structures in different forms (vertical and horizontal). Some people are more comfortable with one or the other, and I sometimes want one or another ;~))

If you want to work with and modify this, and have a google account, simply choose "Make A Copy" from the "File" menu and you will then have your own copy to modify. I would love to be kept abreast of any changes/improvements you make to your copy of this spreadsheet.

 

[Moondog Wily]

This is a link to a collection of over 700 songs I have put together that I would like to learn (the list keeps growing but this zip file is static). I have learned about 100 of them to my satisfaction, I have mostly learned another 100 or so of them. Another 100 or so I have pulled my hair out over and the rest are yet to be tackled. I would say 50% of these are as easy as they come. Another 45% of them are at a level just above that, and the other 5% are maybe advanced intermediate IMO.

NOTE: These are for the most part, chords only for the songs along with the lyrics. "Tablature" in any of these songs, it is transposed in 99% of the cases so that the string order from top to bottom is the same as it is on the guitar! More on this topic in the next post ;~))

Many of these songs are simplified versions of the originals. I am not the author or copyright owner of any of these (unless one of my originals is in the list and I don't think there is, but some could have slipped through).

If you would like to preview what is in that zip file linked above, here is a list of the artists these songs are from followed by a list of the songs (sorry, they are not "linked" lists, as in the artist name is not next to the song title). This is just for review to see if you would even want to download the zip file.

 

[Moondog Wily]

Tablature! I have a love hate relationship with this music notation format. What I love is, it is easier to read (at least for me) than reading classical music notation. It just shows you what fret to press on for any given string. Unfortunately, for hundreds of years, people have been putting the strings in the order opposite of what they are on the guitar. Crazy if you ask me, but it has been done this way for centuries. Homey don't play that! I have for years been modifying any tablature I come across where I transpose the "proper" tab layout to my preferred tab layout. Here is an example ("Stairway To Heaven" intro):

Classic Tablature:
e|-------5-7-----7-|-8-----8-2-----2-|-0---------0-----|-----------------|
B|-----5-----5-----|---5-------3-----|---1---1-----1---|-0-1-1-----------|
G|---5---------5---|-----5-------2---|-----2---------2-|-0-2-2----2------|
D|-7-------6-------|-5-------4-------|-3---------------|-----------------|
A|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-2-0-0----0-/8-7-|
E|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|

Moondog Tablature (aka Taba The Hutt):
E|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-2-0-0----0-/8-7-|
D|-7-------6-------|-5-------4-------|-3---------------|-----------------|
G|---5---------5---|-----5-------2---|-----2---------2-|-0-2-2----2------|
B|-----5-----5-----|---5-------3-----|---1---1-----1---|-0-1-1-----------|
e|-------5-7-----7-|-8-----8-2-----2-|-0---------0-----|-----------------|

As you can see, in the second instance, the strings are in the same order from top to bottom as they would be on your guitar! Which is how it should always have been IMO!! The arguments I have heard for doing it the other way are:

1. The standard music notation has lowest notes low and higher notes higher
2. When a guitar player is playing, they see the fretboard upside down so the tablature should be the same
3. This is the way it has been done since the 15th century

IMO, these are all worthless arguments that do NOT justify having to vertically transpose what you are seeing on paper to what you are hitting on your fretboard/strings.

Long and short is, I have a short fuse on "classic" tablature, so if you see something from me in tab format, I will most likely have "corrected" the tablature to the way it should be (so says Taba The Hutt) ;~))

If you want to make this happen yourself for tabs you have and would like to convert, I recently built a macro in Notepad++ that allows me to do just that. I simply hightlight a "classic tab" section, hit my keyboard macro and it flips it to my version of tablature. I used to do it by hand line by line, but a few months ago the lightbulb came on and I built the macro. If you need instruction on how to do this, send me a PM and I will walk you through it ;~))

So all of this for what? So I can publicly shake my fist at the tab cloud, that's what ;~)) Maybe others will see the light as well!

 

[TheCraftsman]

Excellent and generous idea and initiative, I’m always wary of opening links but will check these out for sure!

 

[Moondog Wily]

Excellent and generous idea and initiative, I’m always wary of opening links but will check these out for sure!

If you or anyone else is wary of the links here, I can generate PDF's, but that would also involve a link considering we can not upload stuff here to the site. Or I can email you materials as attachments if you would prefer that. If you (or anyone else) would like that, PM me and I will email you this stuff ;~)) Hope you can find something useful!

 

[Daryl Jones]

That is a pile of work you have done and willing to share with others. Full marks man!
Tab can be a Godsend, but also frustrating to a beginner or a player that hasn't gotten past the rough stages in the learning process. I know it drove me nuts for a long time. Took a long time for me to "hear the music" in tablature when looking at it. So maybe it was my limited brain power and the upside down thing that had me hooped for so long.
I bought a book 20-25 years ago when I first picked up a guitar and started learning. Back then it might as well have been written in Greek or Latin it was so confounding to me. I was so used to sheet music for piano and wind instruments that I just couldn't wrap my head around it. We all have our limitations, I just didn't know I had so many.

 

[Juan Luis Vidal]

What a wonderful and generous idea Wily! I'll take some time to check what's on there and hopefully I can contribute with something

 

[Moondog Wily]

Thanks for the kudos fellas! One of the reasons I did this is, about 6 months ago, a 30+ years friend of mine and I were talking about the new AI stuff. At one point he said "yeah, this stuff is great, but most of it is just going to sit on hard drives on our desktop, doing nobody any good". That really hit home with me and one of the things that prompted me to start building music videos from the AI stuff. I had always intended on using the AI stuff to help me along in artwork for my music stuff, but suddenly wanted to get more of it out there. I have decided I am going to put my AI collection on line in some form as well, but trying to figure out how I can properly tag the 250k images I have so far! Anyway, same thing here, I don't want this stuff just sitting in my quiver, fire the arrows!!! Besides, I am so bad at practicing and using some of this stuff that others may as well put it to use ;~))

Looking forward to any contributions others can make. As we all know, some things that click with one person do nothing for another, so maybe something will get posted to coax me into a more formal learning process (but I admit, it is unlikely) ;~))

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Great share and kindness Moondog.

 

[bodia]

Great share and kindness Moondog.

Ditto this. Big time!

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

Just saw this and will review it this evening.

 

[d4rkst4r]

Great, great stuff Moon! Just like the music shares, these are some innovative ideas that are already appreciated. Just chilling on the patio enjoying a cool breeze, a sip of Angels Envy, (and some momentary peace and quiet now that the cicadas have shut up for the night), and taking this all in, definitely thank you for the generosity.

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

Yeah, so far lots of good stuff here!