James Taylor Gives Free Acoustic Guitar Lessons Online

James Tay­lor has start­ed to offer free gui­tar lessons online. He is, after all, your Handy Man.

Now let’s get this out of the way: The jury is still out on whether these video lessons will offer seri­ous guid­ance or not. The first video offers a some­what detailed primer on … car­ing for your fin­ger­nails. And it comes cou­pled with a short les­son, “Lit­tle Wheel” in e minor, that is decid­ed­ly short on ped­a­gogy. More lessons will be com­ing soon though. Sign up for JT’s email list, and they’ll ping you when new videos are post­ed online.

What to do in the mean­time? Well, you can always turn to YouTube, which fea­tures a sur­pris­ing num­ber of free video tuto­ri­als. If you sift around, you can learn how to buy an acoustic gui­tar, tune it by ear, play stum pat­ternsfin­ger pick, play var­i­ous chord pro­gres­sions and so on. For more lessons, you can start rum­mag­ing around three help­ful YouTube chan­nels: Rock­on­Good­Peo­pleWatch & Learn Music Lessons;  and Mar­tyZ­songs. They pro­vide lots of free tuto­ri­als (while also try­ing to pro­mote paid prod­ucts on the side).

via metafil­ter


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Comments (15)
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  • Dr.James E. Kendall says:

    James…I am the den­tal stu­dent who ‘stole’ your and your bud­dies bicy­cle in 1962 or 1963..in Chapel Hill..I just want­ed you to know that I am proud of your suc­cess in music. Iam a fan..Someone asked me to name two events in my life that are unforgettable.One was that I armed and dis­armed a nuclear weapon from the bom­bay of a B47 aircraft…The oth­er event was that I “stole” James Tay­lor’s bicy­cle before he became famous..These things you dont forget..I would like very much to meet You again sometime.…Dr. James E. Kendall..Charlotte NC

  • My wife and i are two of your most ardent admirers.i have played now for 49 years. When my wife and i met i played “Don’t Let Me be Lon­ley Tonight”… your cds are sung along with con­stant­ly… we sound so much alike that all my chil­dren have said “lis­ten on the radio…it’s dad­dy. Love your knowl­edge of chord struc­ture and the some­times “odd” har­monies of Car­ol King”… please nev­er quit.… you are to impor­tant of an inspiration…Ray and Lisa

  • Paul Barci says:

    Thank you Mr. James for giv­ing back the gift­ed knowl­edge and craft­man­ship that has inspired so many through the years.

  • Gene Kelley Sr. says:

    James, hav­ing grown up with you and your music, I can­not say with more con­vic­tion that you have been instru­men­tal in sav­ing the life of my son
    Gene Jr. He was hope­less­ly addict­ed to
    Hero­in and what­ev­er he could lay his hands on. I spent my lives sav­ings of over 250K$$ and it made no dif­fer­ence at all. He remained addict­ed and head­ed for the after­life and I could do noth­ing but watch him fall from his once great musi­cal tal­ent into the abyss of noth­ing­ness. I had to give up on him because first off I was broke and could do no more, my dear wife was dying of Can­cer and I just wait­ed for the storm of life to end. I gave my son my only copy of Sweet Baby James on CD and he left for places unknown. He trav­eled around for a few years and when I saw him upon his return, he was clean, he had noth­ing but and old Walk­men and the CD I had giv­en him. He tells me often that he knew you had licked your demons and because he came to under­stand your music and your strug­gle, he was able to muster the strength he need­ed to break free of his addic­tion. James, Mr. Tay­lor I just want to say thank you for being alive when my son need­ed your inspi­ra­tion.
    For­ev­er Grate­ful
    Your biggest fan
    Gene Kel­ley Sr.
    Cape Cod

  • Terry Barron says:

    My first true love sweet 16 turned me on onto your music it has been with me ever since.53 yrs old now. We head­ed in oth­er ways as peo­ple often do but I got to see her about a year before she died of brain can­cer and J.T. was still one one of our unfor­getable mem­o­ries. I’ll always trea­sure those times we had as young kids dur­ing the peace move­ment think­ing if on only the world would lis­ten to your music how much things might have changed. R.I.P. Debra we all miss you and thanks James for your won­der­ful music.

  • DEAR JAMES,ABOUT2 YEARS AGO I HAD A VERY CLOSE CALL WITH DEATH ON MY WAY HOME FROM WORK, I’M NOT GONNA GIVE U A STORY ON HOW BAD, I WAS BUT JUST TO GIVE U RUFF IDEA I SPENT 10 MONTHS IN A WHEELCHAIR, BEFORE MY MISFORTUNE I WAS A SELF TAUGHT GUITARIST AND PICKED IT UP NATRALLY, JUST BY GROWING UP AROUND FREINDS THAT WERE IN BANDS,AS I WAS TOO. BACK THEN. BUT THE ACCIDENT BROKE 7 BONES IN MY BODY THE GOOD NEWS IS IM RECOVERING QIET WELL, ONLY 1 PROBLEM JAMES MY LEFT RIST IS FULLY FUSED AND IF THERE’S 1 THING IVE MISSED ITS PLAYING, IT WAS MY ESCAPE AND SOCIAL SCENE.
    BUT IM STILL DETERMINED TO START AGAIN MY MUSICAL COMRAD. THE ONLY THING IS I HAVE 2 TRAIN MY LEFT ARM TO PICK AND STRUM AND MY RIGHT TO PLAY CHORDS. IM EVEN HOPEN I’LL BE ABLE TO ACHEAVE SOME SORT OF IT BACK MAYBE IF IM LUCKY I MIGHT PICK UP A FEW LEAD SOLO’S AS USE TO BE ABLE TO MATE,I WISH, BUT I GOT STAY POSITIVE AND DO THE BEST I CAN AND KNOWING ME I DONT GIVE UP VERY EASILY, MUSIC’S ALWAY’S BEEN MY PASSION AND AFL. BUT LIKE ISAID IVE JUST GOT OF THE CRUCTHES SO AFL IS DEFINATLY OUT OF THE QUESTION, I GARRENTEE U I,LL DIE TRYING IF I HAVE TO RETRAIN THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF MY BODY TO GET BACK INTO PLAYING GUITAR AGAIN, NOT ASKING FOR MUCH MAYBE A COUPLE OF BOOKS AND MAYBE IF YOUR A KIND SOUL A DVD OF YOUR SELF, SO THAT WHEN IM PRACTISING, ILL ALWAYS KNOW THERE STILL ARE DECENT PEOPLE AROUND OL’MATIE . SO IM ASKING KINDLY IF YOU CAN SEND OUT WHAT U CAN,IT DOES NOT HAVE 2 BE TO MUCH STUFF, I’D REALLY APPRICIATE IT. AND DON,T BE SHY IF YOU WOULD LIKE SOME MONEY FOR GUITAR BOOKS WITH CHORDS IN EM. JUST I CAN GET MY RIGHT WRIST AND FINGERS AROUND THE THREAD, ID REALLY APPRECIATE IT. YOU CAN CONTACT ME VIA EMAIL OR DIRECTLY ON MY MOBILE, IM OUT TOWARDS THE WEST OF MELB, JAMES I REALLY MISS PLAYING AND EVEN IF I HAVE TO RETRAIN THE OPISIDE SIDE OF MYSELF TO DO SO AND BE HAPPY TO PLAY. I LOVE ALL MUSIC, BUT MY GUITAR IS AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY FIRST LOVE SINCE A 14 YR OLD TAKER DOWN TOWARDS WILLIAMSTOWN. I AM NOW 39YRS OLD AND THERE IS NO WAY ILL GIVE UP ON ANYTHING I LOVE, BESIDES I KNOW MY SELF AND IT WONT BE AS HARD AS IT WAS WHEN I WAS A KID AND MY DEAR OLD POP USE TOO TAKE ME TO GUITAR LESSONS WHEN I WAS JUST A LITTLE TACKER. SO JAMES, GEE IT FEELS LIKE IM WRITING THIS EMAIL 2 MYSELF.COZ WE GOT THE SAME FIRST NAME.…… I’D REALLY LOVE TO HERE FROM U EVEN IF U CANT HELP. WISHING YOU ALL THE BEST„„„„,BIG JIM 0458576723 THANKS ONCE AGAIN FOR EVEN TAKING THE TIME OUT 4 ME TO READ THIS. CHEER’S

  • des says:

    i am look­ing for a gui­tar lessons pick­ing etc and boo­gie woo­gie not for noth­ing i am pre­pared to pay. des

  • JJ says:

    when­ev­er I open your page, it opens sev­er­al pages. one right after the oth­er, which locks up my com­put­er. would you please have your tech look into that. It is only your page that does this… and I would like to feel your page is safe to use.
    thanks

  • Steve says:

    I’m very inti­mate learn­ing a lot more dif­fer­ent styles of play­ing acoustic gui­tar

  • Joe says:

    Thats what I need: gui­tar instruc­tion from a guy that can’t play a D chord cor­rect­ly. No thanks. James you made your stat­ments with some won­der­ful songs over the years. Its time to main­tain a dig­ni­fied silence now.

  • William says:

    Dear James , I start­ed play­ing the d and a chord like you do your songs and it makes it eas­i­er ham­mer on and off and find myself play­ing that way on oth­er songs it’s great don’t every retire your music is time­less

  • William says:

    Dear James , I start­ed play­ing the d and a chord like you do your songs and it makes it eas­i­er ham­mer on and off and find myself play­ing that way on oth­er songs it’s great don’t every retire your music is time­less

  • David says:

    Joe who left a com­ment is an idiot, the alter­nate fin­ger­ing for D and A is a great way to speed up chord changes, and ham­mer ons, I’ve seen some blue­grass pick­ers do’in that way. Thanks a mil­lion for the free lessons James, it’s helped me a lot!!

  • Tj. Lester HANLON says:

    Dear James, if you can believe this at about the same time (mine was beat in ’88. 22 years lat­er) we bat­tled the same demons rose and fell got up and fell down again ( hell is a tram­po­line) and played gui­tar. You in your inim­itable way and me in mine: every time I see your smil­ing face it is like see­ing a long lost friend; every time I hear a new song or tune I think Hal­lelu­jah. Thank you on behalf of at least 2 if not 3 gen­er­a­tions for your music and now your lessons. Play on Mr. Tay­lor, you’re the real thing.

  • BZ says:

    I’ve worked through a few of these lessons and would like to offer a few com­ments. First: peo­ple don’t seem pleased that JT gives lessons on fin­ger­nails and tun­ing? If you look around the clas­si­cal world you’ll find that fin­ger­nail care is a top­ic of much dis­cus­sion. Prop­er nails are essen­tial to good play­ing, and the addi­tion­al chal­lenges added when try­ing to play a steel-string acoustic with your nails make his insights very valu­able indeed. As to the tun­ing, as some­one who has avoid­ed using a capo for decades because they tend to pull the gui­tar out of tune, I’m thank­ful for his detailed expla­na­tion on how he tunes.

    Now, as to the lev­el of ped­a­gogy in the lessons, it’s true that they are not for begin­ners and are some­what short on expla­na­tion. If you want some­one to tell you to put your index fin­ger here and your mid­dle fin­ger there, there are plen­ty of peo­ple out on youtube who will do that. C’mon. The man is a world-class artist who has tak­en the time to give a close-up view of his play­ing. Be thank­ful for it. The extra work you may have to put in to get all the details will pay you back many times over in your under­stand­ing of the music and your abil­i­ty to play it.

    Per­son­al­ly, I’m very grate­ful to James for tak­ing the time to share the insights into his prep and play­ing.

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