Hello all guitar players.

My name is Tomi Paldanius and I play guitar like many others all around the world. What you think if you have a possibility to learn plenty of songs in very fast pace? It is possible if you are willing to practise the right things and think about guitar playing and music right way. Click for more info and sample lessons of Livin' On A Prayer here

October Lessons

I had a pleasure to play with Khun Chob from Thailand. He is a great fingerstyle player and he taugh me Robbie Williams - She's The One song and I almost learned it :D.Members check out my learning process from the videos.

You want to learn my version of Livin' On A Prayer (Video below)?

Click here to watch free step by step instructional videos/tabs of Livin' On A Prayer.

In this lesson I will talk you about chord degrees which come from natural minor scale and also teach how to play Joan Osbornes One Of Us.

Go straight to the One Of Us - intro & chorus lesson

Go straight to the One Of Us - verse lesson

Joan Osborne - One Of Us tabs now available at the members area.

When you think about guitar players. Most of the guitar players. They want tabs and it takes lot of time to learn songs. If someone asks you to play whole night famous popular songs, can you do it? Hundreds of songs just like that?

My idea is simple and uses chord degrees and basic structures used in popular music.

 Simple example:

Watch my videos Timbaland & One Republic - Apologize and Joan Osborne - One of Us. For me those songs make very much sense because there is same chords used. Same chords, you ask? No way!!! Normally you would think that it's not true because:

In Apologize I play Am-F-C-G/B

In One Of Us I play Em-C-G-D

But if you know about chord degrees from minor and major keys it makes sense. In both keys there is  7 different degrees.

Apologize is in Am and One Of Us is in Em and they are the first degrees and the keys of the songs. Let's use simple matkematics. There is 7 basic root notes used in music and you can count them starting from A-B-C-D-E-F-G. After that the counting starts from A again. So lets count degrees from the both songs.

Apologize

1st chord = Am = I (1st degree)

2nd chord =F = VI (6th degree)

3rd chord = C = III (3rd degree)

4th chord = G/B = VII (7th degree) /B means only that the B is on the bass and don't affect to the degree.

One Of Us

1st chord = Em = I (1st degree)

2nd chord =C = VI (6th degree)

3rd chord = G = III (3rd degree)

4th chord = D = VII (7th degree)

Now it makes more sense. The degrees for both songs are I-VI-III-VII

Those two songs are just in different keys. Learning the simple chord progressions with degrees you can play any song in any key. How about Eagle Eye Cherrys song Save Tonight ? Yes you're right it is also  I-VI-III-VII progression!!! And believe me theres plenty of more with that same progression.

Song library is all the time growing database about these chord progressions. You will learn so much easier so many songs that you never get bored. I did it so you can do it also.

If you have any questions, you can use contact me form.

I have to admit that playing from tabs can harm people to become good guitar players. Let me explain. First of all the best players I personally know do not play from tabs (Tommy Emmauel, Joscho Stephan etc...) Maybe sometimes but 99% of time its something else. I do not mean that people should not practise from tabs but it really can harm if you are just a player who practise songs using only tabs.

Timbaland song for example;I figured out the 4 chords included in that song and build the melody  for the whole song using my ears. Many people should also know how simple things really are when you think about western popuar music. Theres not that many chords used in different songs and after you get hang of it: you can start to play the melodies and improvise around the chord changes. In my online guitar school I will add lessons that people will understand how songs are structured and how you can use your ears to develop yourself as a musician who can play hundreds of songs without looking tabs. Im just a simple guy and I can do it, so I believe you can do it also. Tabs are ok and I also sight read alot but for simple songs I prefer different way to learn songs. Theres few other issues also to make you play better but I will add those lessons to my members area liitle later.