This video demonstrates how I teach my students to master all 12 keys within any five-fret span on the guitar neck. Sheet music (including tablature) is available for download right here.

I’ve been enjoying working with the music therapy students at Ohio University for the past couple of years now. One thing we’ve never fully addressed in class is when and how to change their strings. I’ve purposely avoided dealing with this in the past because I felt that no matter how well I explain the process, unless the students receive have hands-on experience they’re not likely to remember it when they change strings down the road. Eventually I realized that many of the students were playing on the strings that came on their guitar when they purchased it. In at least one case this meant the strings were over two years old – yikes!

So last night I gave a presentation to the Ohio University chapter of AMTAS. The good folks at D’Addario Strings sponsored the event and provided strings for everyone in attendance and enough string winders for those who wanted help changing their strings during the workshop. The left over strings were donated to the music therapy department and will be used for student and client guitars as needed.

I was a little chagrined by the students eating pizza while changing strings, but there’s only so much I can control.

Download Music Here (PDF Format)

How To Play The Music of The Jackson Five is Adam Rafferty’s newest instructional DVD for fingerstyle players. Included are four of Adam’s signature arrangements: “I’ll Be There”, “I Want You Back”, “Never Can Say Goodbye”, and “ABC.” The DVD/booklet includes full standard notation and tablature and sells for $34.97 at www.adamrafferty.com. Running time is 1 hour and 58 minutes.

This release is a natural follow-up to Adam’s previous instructional DVD, How to Play the Music of Stevie Wonder [Review]. It follows virtually the same format and offers the same high quality playing and instruction. Adam begins the video by offering up some valuable strategies for how to go about tackling new and difficult pieces including: warming-up, playing slowly, focusing on one piece at a time and engaging in positive self talk while you practice. Adam points out that although immediate results are not usually apparent, after a good practice session your mind will continue to process the music while you are doing other activities. I’ve found this to be true in my own experience, but I’ve never heard anyone else express it before.

After the introduction, each song is shown as a complete performance followed by an instruction segment lasting about 25 minutes. You could basically consider the package as a series of four in-depth half-hour lessons that you can review at your leisure. Quite a value when you think of it that way! Here’s some of what I said about the Stevie Wonder video. All of it holds true for this video as well:

“Adam is comfortable in front of the camera and is obviously used to breaking down information into short, easily understood phrases. There is enough detail given to the specialized guitar techniques used that you can’t misinterpret how to recreate them. Once enough explanation has been given, short sections of the tune are demonstrated at a slow enough tempo that intermediate-level players should be able to start playing along with only a little practice. Adam ends most instructional segments with some performance notes and often points out places where he has slightly changed elements of the original songs in order to make them groove harder and sound more at home on the guitar. The booklet that accompanies the DVD contains very detailed scores in standard notation and tablature. Left-hand fingerings are included for every note and occasional right-hand fingerings are indicated as well.”

The attention to detail given to the right- and left-hand fingerings here is something rarely seen outside of classical circles. Adam takes his time explaining each arrangement and gives specific demonstrations that compliment the written music perfectly. He has clearly put a lot of time into not only the arrangements themselves, but the way in which he chooses to execute and teach them. It’s meticulous but never tedious. Adam’s skills as a performer and arranger have obviously developed since the last video too. The songs in the Jackson Five video are funkier and a bit more technically advanced than the Stevie Wonder portfolio and the collection seems to have a few common elements that are evident throughout. Luscious chords and deep grooves abound. Percussive slaps and funky muted lines are used liberally as well as cool percussion breakdown in “ABC” which will definitely turn some heads.

The only thing that I found a bit confusing at first was the way in which the songs that use a capo were notated in the tablature staff. Most publishers tend to notate the capo location as the nut and notate all other frets in relation to the capo. Instead, the tab here shows the actual fret number where the capo is positioned and indicates all of the fretted notes in their actual location as well. The choice to notate the songs this way actually makes a lot of sense – especially as you will be moving all around the neck – but it may throw some folks for a loop until they get used to reading the TAB in this format.

I absolutely loved watching and working with the Jackson Five DVD. Any fingerstyle guitarist willing to spend time practicing will surely be rewarded with some uplifting new repertoire and gain some new insights as well. I can’t wait to hear what Adam does next. Whatever it is, I hope that he will continue to share his knowledge and arrangements with like-minded guitarists.

Visit www.adamrafferty.com to find out more about Adam or check out his YouTube channel to enjoy more of his music.

If you’d like to hear all of the arrangements that are available on the new DVD follow this link: http://krunchd.com/raffertyj5tunes. You can scroll through the videos using the arrows in the upper right corner of the screen. Below is a short trailer for the DVD.

Guitar geeks: pimp out your computer and iPhone with this collection of guitar-themed wallpapers. I created the Hendrix and Van Halen images a few years back by scanning in some photos from an old guitar magazines and goofing around in Photoshop. The rest are just collected from around the web. They vary quite a bit in resolution. I do not have other resolutions available, sorry.

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