I learnt how to play things on the guitar mostly because of great tabs published at https://frettedinstrumentsnyc.com. For me this was the only way to stay learning, because just doing “exercises” makes no sense to my brain as there is no music produced that is remotely pleasurable to hear.
With the tabs you instead can already mimic your favorite tunes - all that is required is some technical work to make your fingers accustomed to the changes in chord shapes.
Because of this exposure to masterfully done tabs, after some years I found I can also put down some tunes which I learned by ear (and eyes). Below is the list of these horrible experiments so far:
| Original Performer | Tune |
|---|---|
| Bruce Keener | Son |
| Chet Atkins | The House In New Orleans |
| Chet Atkins | Zing Went The Strings of My Heart |
| Chet Atkins | Chet’s Tune |
| Chet Atkins | Humoresque / Swanee River |
| Odell Martin | Hello Dolly |
| Jerry Reed | Another Puff |
| Chet and Jerry | I’ll Say She Does |
| Larry Odham | Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams |
| Hank Garland | Sugarfoot Rag |
| Arthur Smith & Chet | Sweet Georgia Brown |
| Chet Atkins | Man of Mystery |
I create the tabs with MuseScore3 since I like Linux more. I use GitHub to store them, so don’t hesitate to correct me via issues!
There are also many places where I found the inspiration to continue learning (with eyes and an unhealthy dose of rewinding):
| Who | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| Larry Odham | YouTube | The most faithful Chet playing I have seen anywhere. There is a ton of highest quality original material too! |
| Larisa Delisser | YouTube | Richard Smith plays Chet and Jerry tunes note-to-note live! |
| Dow | YouTube | Proper Jerry Reed spirit demonstration and cool lessons! |
| Phil Hunt | YouTube | Excellent Jerry Reed instructions. You can also get drawn into Eddie’s channel from there. |
| Jonathan Stout | YouTube | A breath of fresh air when you have a Chet-crisis! |
| Gombak Hillbillies | YouTube | Here’s an example of what real talent looks like. |
| The Real Merle Travis Guitar | Whereever you can get it | Thom Bresh explains what Travis Picking is really. |
| g0g0g0rilla | YouTube | A dedicated fingerstyle fan with a lot of originals. Just look at “The Claw” to get my idea of “dedicated”. |
| Francois Ledouc | YouTube | Perfect tabs, not only fingerstyle. |
| Valentin Voyer | YouTube | Again, perfect transcriptions. |
| Craig Dobbins | http://www.craigdobbins.com/ | Get everything you can. |
| James Shannon | YouTube | Check out Postman Pat! |
| Leon Grizzard | YouTube | How to play Western Swing, this is totally needed to play rhythm guitar in a non-boring way. |