My first guitar lesson

      The other day, a family I knew wanted me to give their daughter a "formal" guitar lesson. Since it was the first time anyone wanted me to teach them to play guitar, I was glad to give it a try. I thought back to my first guitar lesson years ago and I thought about what my old teacher taught me. Then, I remembered the first song I ever learned to play: Ode to Joy by Beethoven. Coincidentally, the daughter had that song in one of her books, so we started going over it. Fortunately for me, she already knew how to read music from playing piano, so the main thing we worked on was technique. From there on out, the lesson went pretty well. I constantly adjusted her left hand so that her fingers were curved and her thumb was positioned right.
      There is one thing I did that I now realize was a mistake. During that first lesson, I tried to show her how to play harmonics. I figured that it was an easy task to do because all you had to do was lightly touch the string. I thought even a beginner could do it. I started to think it was a bad idea to show her harmonics not only because she failed to play them right, but because I realized that teaching harmonics to a beginner guitarist was the last thing you wanted to do. When you deal with beginner guitarists, you want to enforce good habits for general playing, such as pressing hard with the tip of the fingers, right curviture in the wrist, and general hand strength and dexterity. Playing harmonics requires breaking all these rules, and therefore it is a more advanced technique than I previously thought.
      One thing I did that I think was unorthodox was that I gave the girl a food storage clip as part of her strength training. What I told her to do was to open the clip with one finger at a time, using the tips of her individual fingers. I got the idea when I saw an advertisement in a magazine for a fancy finger trainer. It goes without saying that my food clip idea is much cheaper.
      As much as I helped teach our family friend, I feel like I learned a lot as well. It is an interesting experience to teach something for the first time.

Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) tab 1

Intro:
                                                                                                                                                              
e---------------------------------|-----------------------------------------
B--3h5------0---0------3------|-----------------------------------------
G--------------------------------|---0------0------0h2------0----------
D--------------------------------|------------------------------------2---
A--------------------------------|-----------------------------------------
E--------------------------------|-----------------------------------------                          
      
e----------------------------------------|------------x
B--3h5----------------------------5---|---5-------x
G-------------0---0------0-------------|------------x
D----------------------------------------|------------x
A----------------------------------------|------------x
E----------------------------------------|------------x                                                                                                                                         (repeat 4x)            

After 4th time:

e---7------7---7h5------3-------
B----------------------------------
G----------------------------------
D----------------------------------
A----------------------------------
E----------------------------------

Main Riff:

e--------------------------------|-----------------------------|

B-------------------------------|-----------------------------|

G--------------0h2---0-------|-----------------------------|

D--------------------------2---|---------------------0h2---|

A-------------------------------|-----------------------------|

E--0-------0-------------------|------0------3--------------|

                                                               (repeat 2x)

(work in progress)

Voodoo Chile (Slight Return): Most popular guitar cover?

Watching many bands on Youtube, I noticed that a lot of guitarists/bands like to cover Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix. As a guitarist myself, it is definitely my favorite Hendrix song. Here are a few examples:

Jimi Hendrix (the original recorded version)

Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmesteem

Zakk Wylde, Slash

John Mayer

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Buddy Guy

Mato Nanji (Indigenous)

Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Henry Garza (Los Lonely Boys)

I apologize for the quality of the Los Lonely Boys performances. But that's not the point. The point is that all of these people are major recording artists and they all have their own version of the same song. They all have different styles and backgrounds, yet they all cover this song out of all the songs they could cover. This is the  question I am trying to answer: why is this Jimi Hendrix song such a popular song to cover? Please comment below. 

Introduction the Chop Shop

If you are into music, you may be interested in this blog. If you are a guitarist, then this blog is definitely for   you. If you are a musician and you feel like your style or your sound has been isolated solely in your basement or your garage, this is the blog for you. If you feel like your musical influences don't get the recognition they deserve, you can share your opinions right here. I am just getting started, but I hope that I could start an online community of guitarists who want to learn from other guitarists. To do this, people could post tabs, videos (performances, lessons, music videos, etc.), pictures, stories, or anything else guitar-related. The genre of music doesn't matter. Just post your favorite tabs, videos, or stories on the reply section.