What is a chart? In musical terms, a “chart” is short for a written arrangement of music. Don’t worry, there are no bar graphs, tables or spreadsheets!

For those of you that have taken lessons with me, you know that I am BIG on making charts. In short, charts take out the guesswork and allow you to play along with recordings and other people with full confidence. Over the past year I have been uploading select charts from my personal collection to our library page. I just uploaded a new batch of charts including songs by Stone Temple Pilots, The Beatles, The Who and more! Please use these only for your own educational purposes and enjoyment. Disclaimer: they are free to download and may contain some errors or be incomplete.

Feel free to explore and see if you can start charting out songs you are working on now!

P.S. Charts are also very helpful when writing or sharing your own songs

Our students played a diverse and challenging selection of material to a packed house at the Summer Recital! With everything from Bach to Leon Bridges; gospel and folk songs to jazz, rock and hip hop; piano, guitar, bass and ukulele, this night was a beautiful representation of our little music school. We strive to be rooted in the past and forging ahead to new musical territory. I couldn’t be more proud of all of the performers and hope you take it on yourself to keep hopping up on stage and honing your craft. Not only is the recital a venue to show friends and family what you’ve been working on in your private lessons, but it is a creative outlet to connect with other musicians and students. There is a great deal to be learned from each performance opportunity and it is a gift and privilege that I hope you all cherish.

Big thanks to our Guitar Shed photographer in residence, Cindy Wnek for capturing some great moments at the Summer Recital! Also, big thanks again to the Red Light Cafe for having us back. Until the next one…. keep on Shedding!

P.S. If you haven’t already downloaded the audio from the evening, you can login and download the file from our library page. You can also click on the link below for pictures!

Summer Recital Poster by Kayla Shults

Summer Recital Poster by Kayla Shults

….our online Guitar Shed Library that is. I am constantly looking for ways to improve my teaching and a
student of mine suggested in a guitar lesson that I should upload some charts to the website (see we are actually learning from each other).

I have begun the process of adding new songs that students are working on every week. Not only does this show other students at Guitar Shed what songs are being learned, but it saves some valuable lesson time. Now I can just print out a chord chart and we can dig right in. Better yet, students can print out a chart at home if there is a song in the library they are interested in learning. Right now, there are only about 30 songs on the site but hopefully one day there will be hundreds.

Also, feel free to explore the rest of the page for other educational resources. Yesterday, I added a list of GUITAR SHED PRINCIPLES that is also posted in the lobby at Guitar Shed. Until next time, stay tuned and keep shedding!