For those of you shopping for a high quality guitar you will find yourself having to face the wonderful dilemma of which wood to go for.

For example; you’ve got Mahogany, Rosewood, Koa for the back and sides as well as what kind of top to decide on. The top could be Engelmann, Sitka, Adirondack or Koa.

Each of these woods will give the guitar a different tonal quality which when described in just words can get a bit confusing to say the least.

Usually the solution is to try a bunch out and see what you like but other factors play in to this as well.

• Does the guitar have a cutaway?
• Does it have a floating neck?
• Does the guitar neck join the body at fret 12 or 14?
• How old is the wood used in the guitar when it was built?

All these things matter and determine the sound of the guitar.

Because of all these factors it might be a good idea to dig a bit deeper into each topic, to learn what, for example, different guitar wood do to the sound.

Acoustic Addicts Guitar Wood

Carl Franklin and Richard Caruso of Acoustic Addicts have made a video aiming to explain what different guitar wood do to the sound.

These guys are experts with years of experience on the subject from two different angles, as a player and as a high quality guitar shop owner they give you their insight into what different guitar wood sound like.

In the video below you find them playing, discussing and analyzing four different guitars, two Taylor Guitars, one Santa Cruz and one McPherson.

They do this by looking at the frequency spectrum and making connections with wine, enjoy!

-Dan (your guitar guru)

P.S I would like to thank Stan for finding this video for me, nice one Stan, I thought it was really interesting!

What do you think? Comment below and let us know what different guitar wood sound like to you.

I recently posted a blog about how you can convert a YouTube video to mp3. It’s easy, free and puts you in a place where you start to transcribe using audio only.

This is all great stuff but what about looping and slowing down an actual video?

Well, this is slightly more complicated, I actually started with just this idea in mind when I first begun my online ventures, to develop the technology cost an absolute fortune and never really worked.

But that was back in 2006 and today we have come a long way.

Video Surgeon

Perhaps the best player on the field is Video Surgeon who with their downloadable software allow you to rip DVDs or even download YouTube videos.

Grab a free demo of Video Surgeon here!

Once the video is in the software you can also slow down, without changing the pitch as well as zoom in on details.

Not only is this useful when you learn Spy Tunes songs, there’s also a wealth of other guitar related material on YouTube that doesn’t actually exist anywhere else!

With Video Surgeon you can download these videos and learn them in slow motion!

This will ensure you don’t miss a detail and will speed up the learning process enormously.

-Dan (your guitar guru)

Following on from the post on The Stave and the Clef and a follow up thread The range of the guitar in TAB in the group Music Theory, Nal made a chart!

I thought this was so good I decided to blog this information, so thanks Nal for sorting this, let’s share this information!

What you find in this picture is the connection between the piano, the guitar and the stave.

The “middle C” as it’s called on piano sits between the treble clef and the bass clef on a ledger line for piano players.

This C is on string 6, fret 8.

Same note on different strings

On the guitar, unlike on a piano, you can find the same note on several strings.

Let’s explore this, using the diagram above:

Middle C can be found in two places, on string 6, fret 8 and on string 5, fret 3.

The octave of this C, which sits on the stave, can be found in 4 places:

1. String 5, fret 15
2. String 4, fret 10
3. String 3, fret 5
4. String 2, fret 1

The next octave of this C, which you find above the stave on two ledger lines, can be found in two places on the guitar:

1. String 2, fret 13
2. String 1, fret 8

Find more notes in more places!

A great exercises in order to find all the notes on the fretboard is to take a note like I just did and find it on as many places on the neck as possible.

Maybe you could pick a new note every day, like A for example, how many places on the neck can you find an A?

First start with the lowest, how many strings? Then move on to the next octave, find all A’s here.

As a variation to this exercise you could ignore what the octave is and just aim to find the note all over the neck.

Maybe this time you start at the lowest fret possible and then move up the neck, play all notes.

If this was an A you would move up like this:

1. Open A string
2. Fret 2, string 3
3. Fret 5, String 1 and 6
4. Fret 7, string 4
5. Fret 10, string 2
6. Fret 12, string 5
7. Fret 14, string 3
8. Fret 17, string 1 and 6

Music Theory in The whole Enchilada!

These days my latest eBook Music Theory is now available in the package The Whole Enchilada which is only £74.95 (a combined value of £105.69).

In this package few stones are left unturned as you get 8 eBooks, 29 videos and 254 Jam Tracks!

-Dan (your guitar guru)

Rewind – Paolo Nutini

Below you find the lyrics for Rewind by Paolo Nutini, but what do they mean?

Comment below to let us know what Rewind’s lyrics means to you!

Rewind Lyrics

Picking up the pieces
Of the wreck you went and left
And I’m dealing with dilemmas
In my now so stressful life

And I’m drinking stronger spirits
I made my home here on the floor
And I’m losing all ambition and goals

And I’m going all out
And I’m thinking you’re just as bad

No sleeping at night
But I’m going from bar to bar
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?

Oh remember at 16
Oh the crazy drunken night we had
When I kissed you in the hallway
Then I took you straight to bed

Oh two years on
And I’m still that same boy and I’m

Not sleeping at night
But I’m going from bar to bar
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?

Oh and I’m not sleeping at night
But I’m going from bar to bar
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?

Oh you might blame it on me
But you insisted that we fall
Wiped your hands of me
And said you needed more, more, more

And I’m not sleeping at night
But I’m going from bar to bar
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?

Oh and I’m not sleeping at night
But I’m going from bar to bar
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?
Why can’t we just rewind?

Oh whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
Can’t we just rewind?

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One More Cup Of Coffee – Bob Dylan

Below you find the lyrics for One More Cup Of Coffee by Bob Dylan, but what do they mean?

Comment below to let us know what One More Cup Of Coffee lyrics means to you!

One More Cup Of Coffee Lyrics

Your breath is sweet
Your eyes are like two jewels in the sky
Your back is straight your hair is smooth
On the pillow where you lie
But I don’t sense affection
No gratitude or love
Your loyalty is not to me
But to the stars above

One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
To the valley below

Your daddy he’s an outlaw
And a wanderer by trade
He’ll teach you how to pick and choose
And how to throw the blade
He oversees his kingdom
So no stranger does intrude
His voice it trembles as he calls out
For another plate of food

One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
To the valley below

Your sister sees the future
Like your mama and yourself
You’ve never learned to read or write
There’s no books upon your shelf
And your pleasure knows no limits
Your voice is like a meadowlark
But your heart is like an ocean
Mysterious and dark

One more cup of coffee for the road
One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go
To the valley below

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The Drugs Don’t Work – The Verve

Below you find the lyrics for The Drugs Don’t Work by The Verve, but what do they mean?

Comment below to let us know what The Drugs Don’t Work’s lyrics means to you!

The Drugs Don’t Work Lyrics

All this talk of getting old
It’s getting me down my love
Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown
This time I’m comin’ down

And I hope you’re thinking of me
As you lay down on your side
Now the drugs don’t work
They just make you worse
But I know I’ll see your face again

Now the drugs don’t work
They just make you worse
But I know I’ll see your face again

But I know I’m on a losing streak
‘Cause I passed down my old street
And if you wanna show, then just let me know
And I’ll sing in your ear again

Now the drugs don’t work
They just make you worse
But I know I’ll see your face again

‘Cause baby, ooh, if heaven calls, I’m coming, too
Just like you said, you leave my life, I’m better off dead

All this talk of getting old
It’s getting me down my love
Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown
This time I’m comin’ down

Now the drugs don’t work
They just make you worse
But I know I’ll see your face again

‘Cause baby, ooh, if heaven calls, I’m coming, too
Just like you said, you leave my life, I’m better off dead

But if you wanna show, just let me know
And I’ll sing in your ear again

Now the drugs don’t work
They just make you worse
But I know I’ll see your face again

II: Yeah, I know I’ll see your face again :II x4

I’m never going down, I’m never coming down
No more, no more, no more, no more, no more
I’m never coming down, I’m never going down
No more, no more, no more, no more, no more

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Convert Youtube to Mp3!

I’ve just started to rewrite the intermediate course, it’s all about getting as much out of one concept as possible.

Like, how many ways to fret a chord shape or playing scales using different patterns, stuff like that.

This and a recent comment in the community about more explanations, or perhaps deeper learning, of a song in the video lessons got me thinking.

Learn Spy Tunes songs note for note

The new TAB group has had a lot of members signing up, so it seems to me like some of you guys want to learn Spy Tunes acoustic guitar songs, just like I play them.

Now, if you are a conspiracy reader then you know that I don’t believe in copying, I prefer a more free and improvised approach and aim to teach a bit more vague, using ideas of what you could play rather than the “this is exactly how it’s done” approach.

To make a long story short, to me, there is much more value in the numbers of the chord progression and an understanding of the song than what lick to play in a specific section.

So some TAB members might have been disappointed with some of my TAB charts which only show half the truth so to speak.

Why never note for note?

The thing is, my heroes, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton etc don’t play like that, the recording is just one version and it didn’t come from a specific part, it came from experimentation, improvisation and adjusting to all other instruments.

I realized this in my teens when I was learning to play guitar, that time when it all seemed impossible, a huge universe and TAB seemed like the only way.

I felt as if I could play a solo Hendrix recorded then I could play like Hendrix, off course this is not true, I could play Hendrix solos but I definitely couldn’t jam like the man!

When I realized this I stopped copying what one musician had happened to do on a specific occasion and started to adjust to what other musicians did that I played with.

So in the case of Spy Tunes songs I didn’t have a specific part for most of them, I had an understanding of the songs as in chords etc but how I played it was all down to how the singer sang it.

I was adjusting to them, I wasn’t thinking “what is my part”, because I didn’t have one!

However, this is off course not true when it comes to Blackbird or Wish You Were Here since these are one acoustic guitar classics, the part is there, just learn it.

But in general, to have you copying what I do is in my opinion chasing the wrong goal.

Saying that, if you enjoy memorizing I’m not gonna stop you, it’s not a bad activity to engage in, maybe learning what I do first and then developing a version is what is best for you.

What I’m trying to say is that it wasn’t my intention to be copied, I was trying to get the idea out there, like, this is my version, what can you do, video response and we’ll all learn more.

Transcribing

A very important part of learning guitar is to transcribe what someone you like play, note for note. Write it down, analyze, memorize.

This is all good stuff and I really think you should be doing lots of this, I guess I just didn’t expect you to do this with my material…

So why am I writing this blog, what am I trying to say with all this?

Convert YouTube Videos to Mp3

Well, there’s a cool website called youtube-mp3.org where you can take a YouTube video and hit convert, out the other end comes an mp3 version which you can download and play in a media player.

I’ve done this with Ain’t No Sunshine as an example, find it here: Ain’t No Sunshine mp3.

If you use Amplitube or similar software you can loop a section and slow it down.

This way you can play along with just a few bars. Should it bee too hard, slow it down!

I do his all the time when I learn songs myself, it’s really handy.

I would expect you to do this with songs you learn in general, if you do it with one of my You Tube video versions I’d be very honored, still would prefer a video response though

-Dan (your guitar guru)

Learn how to Change Key!

In order to play in a different key, higher or lower than C, we need to make alterations to the stave.

For example, let’s say that when playing in C major it was a little bit too low to sing, we can then transpose this a tone up to D and make it easier to sing.

But this means we need to make adjustments on the stave in order to maintain the same relationship between all notes.

In the image below you see how I simply start on the note D but the intervals aren’t actually the same anymore.

C (T) D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S)

D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S) C (T)

Between E and F we only have a semitone, between C and D we should only have a semitone, so let’s change that:

C (T) D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S)

D (T) E (T) F# (S) G (T) A (T) B (T) C# (S)

In order to get the same intervals between the notes when we changed key from C to D we had to sharpen two notes, the F to F# and C to C#.

This way we have changed key signature.

Find all Key Signatures

To fully explore all keys we start on the 5th of the previous key and then make our alterations:

C (T) D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S)

G (T) A (T) B (S) C (T) D (T) E (T) F# (S)

D (T) E (T) F# (S) G (T) A (T) B (T) C# (S)

A (T) B (T) C# (S) D (T) E (T) F# (T) G# (S)

E (T) F# (T) G# (S) A (T) B (T) C# (T) D# (S)

B (T) C# (T) D# (S) E (T) F# (T) G# (T) A# (S)

As you can see, every new key is a 5th up and has one more # added.

When we get to the key of B almost all notes have been sharpened, but we only covered 6 keys.

In order to continue with this system and cover all 12 keys we go up a 4th from C and flatten the intervals instead, like this:

C (T) D (T) E (S) F (T) G (T) A (T) B (S)

F (T) G (T) A (S) Bb (T) C (T) D (T) E (S)

Bb (T) C (T) D (S) Eb (T) F (T) G (T) A (S)

Eb (T) F (T) G (S) Ab (T) Bb (T) C (T) D (S)

Ab (T) Bb (T) C (S) Db (T) Eb (T) F (T) G (S)

Db (T) Eb (T) F (S) Gb (T) Ab (T) Bb (T) C (S)

Gb (T) Ab (T) Bb (S) Cb (T) Db (T) Eb (T) F (S)

This time we add a “b” every time we create a new key.

Pictured above are two examples of how this looks in the Song Writers Swivel (key of A and Eb), a tool you find in the section Practice Guitar.

Next we shall find out what this means on the fretboard.

-Dan (your guitar guru)

Matt Cutts is the man who deals with Spam at Google.

It is difficult to get in touch with him (or anyone at google) so I’m writing this blog with my question and will try to get his attention this way (I can send a link via twitter etc).

If anyone else has an answer, please let me know!

Hi Matt,

I have an awful amount of Spam hitting my site Spytunes.com, it comes in several different shapes and forms.

The usual blog comment spam is not a big problem, I get hundreds a day but most get caught in my spam filter, all other comments I manually approve so it doesn’t really bother me that much.

The main issue I have is with people who sign up and then spam from their profile.

I get about 10-20 of these per day, they are obviously looking for back links since there profile name is “Job Opportunities in Texas” and similar, nothing to do with guitar which is what I do.

It drowns the community and takes up a lot of my time to just mark these people as spammers.

Here’s the thing, pretty much all of them sign up with @gmail.com emails so my question is:

Is there a way to submit these emails to google as spammers?

Here’s what a typical spam email look like: j.akqga.brall.a.l.bek.ariw@gmail.com or ja.kqg.a.bra.llalbeka.r.i.w@gmail.com, they usually do a bunch at the same time.

Seems to me that if these got reported and it stopped paying off to spam like this, the spam online would become less of a problem, but maybe I’m wrong…

Anyway, hope you see this post and let me know.

Cheers

Dan Lundholm

spytunes.com

Don’t Wait Too Long – Madeleine Peyroux

Below you find the lyrics for Don’t Wait Too Long by Madeleine Peyroux, but what do they mean?

Comment below to let us know what Don’t Wait Too Long lyrics means to you!

Don’t Wait Too Long Lyrics

You can cry a million tears
You can wait a million years
If you think that time will change your ways
Don’t wait to long

When your morning turns to night
Who’ll be loving you by candlelight
If you think that time will change your ways
Don’t wait to long

Maybe I got a lot to learn
Time can slip away
Sometimes you got to lose it all
Before you find your way

Take a chance, play your part
Make romance, it might brake your heart
But if you think that time will change your ways
Don’t wait to long

It may rain, it may shine
Love will age like fine red wine
But if you think that time will change your ways
Don’t wait to long

Maybe you and I got a lot to learn
Don’t waist another day
Maybe you got to lose it all
Before you find your way

Take a chance, play your part
Make romance, it might brake your heart
But if you think that time will change your ways
Don’t wait to long
Don’t wait
Don’t wait

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