You Can Learn Guitar with Spytunes!
Beginner Acoustic
This collection of beginner acoustic tunes will teach you how to arrange for one acoustic guitar, as well as how to create a supporting part.
Playing songs will help you with switching between open-position chords and give you the context you need to understand how music works theoretically.
Intermediate Acoustic
Most intermediate acoustic tunes can’t be played using just basic open-position chords. We have to move up the fretboard and play CAGED barre chords as well.
We incorporate bass lines, add licks, extend chords, and play vocal melodies. Most importantly, we’ll invent second guitar parts and play these songs together.
Advanced Acoustic
The advanced acoustic tunes use big chord extensions and sometimes, unique and complex chords that incorporate open strings.
Study these in-depth and you will gain a complete understanding of the guitar fretboard, including how to build any scale, arpeggio, or chord.
Intermediate Electric
The intermediate electric tunes will help you with learning the CAGED system all over the fretboard, both for chords and pentatonic scales.
Learn these Motown/Soul classics, and you’ll not just improve dramatically but also gain yourself a repertoire.
Categories
A-Z Songbook
As a guitarist, a repertoire is the greatest asset you can acquire. It is your ticket to playing with other musicians.
To help you, I’ve gathered all the tunes in a Songbook you can play with acoustic duos, Jazz trios, Indie/Rock/Pop bands, and Funk/Soul/Motown ensembles.
Ballads
The perfect first dance or an emotional piece for your next audition, this collection of Ballads is great for working on your expression.
Learn tunes from Burt Bacharach, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Eva Cassidy, Ben Harper, Etta James, Chet Baker, Elvis, Norah Jones, and many more.
Blues & Jazz
The foundation upon which popular music stands, Blues & Jazz tunes must be explored in depth by the serious guitar player.
Learn from the best by studying the greatest tunes of the genres. Study the iconic licks and melodies to grasp the language of these most important styles.
Country & Folk
In the primarily acoustic genres of Country & Folk, you must acquire what matters the most: A repertoire. Nothing else will give you the gig.
Learn tunes by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, America, Don McLean, and many more.
Dance, Disco & Funk
Indie & Heavy Rock
Riff-based Indie & Heavy Rock tunes must be studied in depth in order to understand why a tune in these styles work.
Learn songs by Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, Green Day, Kings Of Leon, Jack White, Blink-182, and many more.
Motown & Soul
Motown & Soul is the best place to start if you want to get better at playing the electric guitar. The harmony is simple and there is room for improvisation.
Learn tunes by The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, and many more.
Pop & Rock
Whenever a tune doesn’t fit into a specific genre, it tends to end up here, in the Pop & Rock section.
Learn tunes from Tom Petty, Eagles, Toto, Oasis, Elvis, Clapton, John Mayer, Kings Of Leon, R.E.M., Radiohead, Bruno Mars, and more.
Reggae & Ska
Originating from Jamaica as Reggae & Ska, these musical styles were largely made popular once records started to appear in the U.K.
Learn tunes from Bob Marley, Madness, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Afroman, 10cc, Men At Work, The Police, and many more.
Rock n Roll & Early Pop
As popular music was starting to take shape, the earliest styles that came out of Jazz and Blues were Rock n Roll & Early Pop.
Learn tunes by The Beatles, Elvis, The Monkees, Chuck Berry, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones.
More
About
Find out more about me, my journey, and why I ended up teaching guitar online after working in a music college and writing for Guitar Techniques Magazine.
Most importantly, discover why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
Artists & Bands
Behind every single tune you learn, there’s an artist or band with an entire catalogue of music, waiting to be discovered.
Find out more about these great Artists & Bands, and let their tunes guide you to success.
Blog
Spytunes blog includes a weekly update of everything going on here with new lessons, and biographies.
This is also where you’ll find anything that doesn’t fit into any of the categories, tunes, or lessons.
Chordacus
Spytunes chords, scale, and arpeggio software, Chordacus is a refined version of the so-called CAGED system.
Now available as both a chromatic (original version) and “within a key”, developed with the help of a Spytunes student.
Ebooks
Before the step-by-step courses, Spytunes used to sell eBooks focusing on various aspects of playing the guitar.
Now, when you become a member you get all these eBooks as a reference manual called The Spytunes Method.
Guitar Chords
The best way to understand the guitar fretboard is to adopt the so-called CAGED system for playing guitar chords.
Launched in 2000 by a man called Paul Foad, this concept has taken the guitar world by storm. Once understood you can build any chord, arpeggio, or mode.
Metronome
Spytunes Tap Tempo Metronome can help you when practising songs and exercises by getting yourself organized.
Manually enter the tempo or simply tap it in. You can also add accents, helping you learn complicated rhythmical patterns.
Online Guitar Tuner
When playing along with Spytunes video guitar lessons and backing tracks, or any of the original recordings, you need to be in tune.
You can set this online guitar tuner to 440 Hz, or adjust it to work with any song, even those set to the magical frequency of the universe: 432 Hz.
Top 10 Chord Progressions
In order to understand music, you must understand chord progressions. This is best done by studying songs and finding the same movement in different songs.
This top 10 chord progression list gives you the most important chord progressions to memorize, with several song examples for each.
