Measuring Snowfall by GUITAR FRETS

The snow is piling up fast here in the Northeastern U.S., and us true diehards know just how to measure it properly: by GUITAR FRETS! (not inches, silly!)
Watch as Lisa keeps up with the Big Storm, measuring snowfall by frets.
Click to watch the video now.
SnowByFrets4

7 Secrets to Supercharge Your Progress on Guitar! Hot New Video Course, Free!

7-Day video mini-course, hot off the press, and FREE for a limited time.

Blast away the roadblocks to
getting really good on guitar
(or even just a lot better than you are now).

Get started today!

Finally – a Fingerpick I Can Love!

WATCH the VIDEO!

What? You don’t have perfect fingernails for fingerpicking your guitar?
Join the club.

I’ve been fingerpicking since I was deep in an adolescent funk,
and have always been frustrated by the nail issue.

Nails break. Nails grow back slow. And then they break again.

Never able to get comfortable with using fingerpicks,
I resorted to getting fake nails put on at the nail salon,
just on my fingerpicking fingers.

(“What? Just 3 nails?”, the nail technicians would always ask, looking at me like I’m nuts.)

The fake nails work great, but are a little high-maintenence for my tastes.

Good news: Just this week I discovered a new (to me, anyway) kind of fingerpick
that seems extremely promising!

Made by a Mom & Pop operation in Michigan, USA,
Fred Kelly Freedom Picks are customizeable to the size and shape of your fingertips.

The picks fit right over your natural nail,
so the playing techinque doesn’t feel all that different than playing with strong natural nails.

For me personally, I still prefer to use my God-given thumbnail, if it’s up for the job.

But for the other two fingers, these Freedom Picks are very cool, and allow me to go straight from digging in the garden, to playing my guitar with good strong “nails” (after a rinse in the sink, of course).

WATCH LISA’S VIDEO REVIEW of FRED KELLY FINGERPICKS.

Start Where You Are: The Power of Baby Steps


I’m trying to make a vision come true, one in which my little machine functions so elegantly that I can make it do anything I want, at any time.

The problem is, I can get way ahead of myself. I stare off into space, my head full of ideas and speculations, how it will be and what I’ll be able to do once X, Y, and Z are finally in place.

Or, will X, Y, and Z ever really be in place? Am I kidding myself?

And then I realize that in order for any of that to actually come true, my only option is to start exactly where I am at the moment. And that can be distressing because it forces me to contend with the truth of exactly where I am at the moment, and I may not be particularly happy to have that fact rubbed in.

It makes me feel far from my goal, discouraged by the current state of affairs.

But the truth is, it is actually bringing me that much closer to my goal, for this reason: it is pretty much guaranteed that I will never get there if I don’t properly string together all the little things I need to learn to do and understand and operate my machine. I will never get there. My goal will never come true if I live in fantasy mode all the time.

The very first step to bringing it closer is to start exactly where I am now, and advance it just a little bit. Baby steps. Even the greatest marathon runner that ever lived moved in baby steps at one time.

Starting where you are is powerful. It is so powerful because it is the ONLY way to get there. It is busting with pure potential.

Anticipate the anxiety and the angst that will come up. Say to it, “ah yes, there you are, I figured you would show up.”

But don’t listen to it. Let it sit there and watch you courageously move ahead despite the fear, the inertia, the doubts that say you can’t get from here to there.

The ONLY WAY to get from here to there is to start here, and inch your way towards there.

I Need Your Input! 9-Question Survey.


Help me to shape the direction of
Getting Started With Guitar
and Guitar Life for the coming year
by filling out this 9-question survey.
I will use the answers to create the kind of content and resources that you want to see in the coming year!
(BTW, the survey is anonymous. I will not know who wrote which answers. Feel free to be candid!)

Midnight Deadline for Guitar Lesson Super Sale

Midnight tonight is the cut-off for the 45% off special on guitar lessons at Guitar Tricks. Just between you and me, all subscribers are in line to receive a really cool holiday gift in December. Join today, save big bucks, get cool stuff. Just sayin’

Take Lessons with Lisa at Guitar Tricks

3 Free Christmas Songs, using just G,C,&D

Help yourself to this free Christmas music download!
The sheet music and tablature download
for three traditional holiday songs is from the book
The Easiest Holiday Songs Ever for Guitar,
featuring 12 classic songs arranged to be played on the guitar
using just the chords G, C, and D.
It really is that easy! And this sample download really is free! Enjoy!

Download yours right now.

The Partial Capo = Simple Magic

Ever wonder (or even hear of) the “Partial Capo”?
This week I was invited to be the guest host on the Guitar Tricks YouTube Channel, and I talked about the simple magic of the Partial Capo.
You can even make your own!
Click HERE to watch the video!

How to Make a Living as a Guitar Player in Vermont

Journalist Joyce Marcel does a great job describing my patchwork multi-faceted music career in this article for The Commons, a local paper here in Southern Vermont.
Read the article HERE.

Hotel California: Free Guitar Lesson!

Learn the guitar chords, ornaments, and pick technique to play this Baby Boomer classic in this free guitar lesson with Lisa McCormick.

Sooo, does this song bring back some memories?
Aw, c’mon, tell us a story.