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Practice an hour a day, every day.  In six months you'll be amazed at what you're doing.

In the United States, copyright is implicit upon authorship.  That is, once you put it in a tangible form (record it, write it down, etc) it is copyrigted, and you don't have to do anything else.

You can register that copyright with the government, but that isn't necessary.  What that does is aid you in your civil litigation should someone else try to use your work without gaining your permission first.

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>Baba30 wrote on Mon, 23 October 2006 03&#58;02</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
is it really that simple that those of us with little formal music education and knowledge can do it?

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Well yeah!   You aren't putting together an opera just yet, and modern music is pretty basic.   

Start with a 12 bar blues.  Write some clever lyrics about how your baby don't love you no more, or your dog running off, or something.   Because you're playing a blues, you don't have to write the music, as it's already been written for you.

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Are there any further tricks other than "what sounds good?"
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Start with well recognised musical forms.  12 and 16 bar blues.   Three chord wonders are wonderful!

And practice a lot.

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>jus10case2 wrote on Fri, 20 October 2006 21&#58;21</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
another way :

middle finger 6th string 3rd fret

index finger 5th string 2nd fret

ring finger 2nd string 3rd fret

pinky 1st string 3rd fret

with this method you can move your middle and index fingers both down one string and you have a C.  good luck.
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Using that fingering,  just moving your middle and index fingers down one string won't result in a C, it will result in a C9 (I think) as it adds a D to the chord.

Lots of ways to play G

At the nut

-3-

-0-

-0-

-0-

-2-

-3-

Barred at the third fret.

-3-

-3-

-4-

-5-

-5-

-3-

Barred at the 10th fret

-10-

-12-

-12-

-12-

-10-

-X-

C shape at the 7th fret

-7-

-8-

-7-

-9-

-10-

-x-

There's lots of others.  Get a chord book and learn some of them.  The "right" one is the one that fits with what you're trying to play.

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>sanguine wrote on Sun, 15 October 2006 06&#58;24</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
hmmm interesting thing to say...the only problem is that i live in the middle of no where (nebraska) there arent any real good radio stations withg music i like (oldies mainly). the other thin is im new in town and unknown and largely disliked or 'tolerated' by my peers so that is not really a possibiblty at the moment but thnx any way
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You can get good radio on the internet, too.

KEXP in Seattle is a great station that is always playing new music.   KGSR in Austin plays nothing but good music.  They both have streaming feeds availble.

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>noise wrote on Thu, 12 October 2006 17&#58;01</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
your right. its a nasty habit i didnt even realise i had until now. thanks for tips though. chords are sounding a lot clearer now and even started attempting barre chords which i was too scared to even look at before. they dont sound great yet and are making a mess out of my chubby fingers but i feel like im progressing once more. still long way to go yet. tell me its worth it!!!!
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It's totally worth it, or so I'm told.   <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_biggrin.gif" border=0 alt="Very Happy">  I'm not "there" either.  I think it's a lot like golf, in that you're never really "there,"  so you should at least enjoy the trip.

Having said that, *absolutely* learn to barre.  Just form a barre across the neck, and play each string until it resonates clearly.  Don't even try to play a chord just yet.   Do that a lot (every day), until you can do it and not feel like you're strangling the neck.  Then add some fingers.   Your hands will cramp a little (or a lot!), but as you practice, they will get stronger, and it will become second nature.

Barre chords open up the fretboard for you.  It's one of those techniques that will kick you up to the next plateau in your development.   At least it did for me.

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>bedrock wrote on Wed, 26 July 2006 03&#58;48</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
Other than black gospel and some cracker spirtuals (like in O Brother Where Art Thou), "Contemporary Christian Music" can best be used to put you to sleep.

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Seems like you answered your own questions there.

Gospel and "cracker spirituals" (we like to call it "bluegrass") is great music.  If I were God, that's what I'd invent to celebrate "me."

I think you're projecting the "%90" rule a bit.   %90 of *everything* is crap.   Christian music is no exception to that rule.   Neither is whatever you like.

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>Hendo wrote on Sun, 08 October 2006 13&#58;18</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
Thought I'd affirm that this is a common thing to feel.  I struggled with it in the past, especially G to C when I was starting as it was such a big move for my fingers.  I almost packed it in but as the good advice said before, practice it all day and all night all week.  You will see improvement soon.
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Certainly you want to practice chord changes until you can confidently fret all of them.    But there is another reason to practice chord changes, and that is to learn the fretboard.

Playing G to C is a pretty big jump *if you play it at the nut.*   D -> G is even bigger.

G           C

-3-         -0-

-0-         -1-

-0-         -0-

-0-         -2-

-2-         -3-

-3-         -0-

That's a whole lot of finger moving.  But it doesn't have to be that way.

G -> C is a perfect IV interval, and there is a much easier way to play that in pretty much any key, as long as you can barre well.

You can also play G as a barre chord at the 3rd fret.  It's an "E shape" chord, so it's pretty straight forward.

G

-3-

-3-

-4-

-5-

-5-

-3-

C can also be played as a barre chord at the 3rd fret.  It's an A shape chord, so transitioning from a barred G is as simple as moving from E to A and back.

C

-3-

-5-

-5-

-5-

-3-

-3-

That's a much easier change for the exact same progression.

Take that C chord down the neck two frets (so you're barre is at the fifth fret) and you're playing D.  G C  D with hardly any movement at all.

But the real beauty of that is that it's portable.  You can move that barred E shape anywhere, and it's the I  IV  V progression.   Bar the 1st fret, and you're playing F Bb C  Bar the 2nd fret, and you're playing F#  B and Db, etc.

When I practice chord changes, I have two specific goals.   

1.  Fret them confidently and consistently.

2.  Find the most efficient way of doing it.   The best players I've ever seen have an uncanny efficieny of motion in their hands.  They'll be ripping along, and it hardly looks like they are moving at all.  That's how I want to be.

So practice the barre, and it will open up the fretboard for you, and make chord changes a lot easier.   And practice a lot!

Prince (the artist formerly known as...) also slings a mighty axe.

No, seriously!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh8dYJWcsdg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh8dYJWcsdg</a>

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>admin wrote on Mon, 09 October 2006 16&#58;31</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
Delete the songs first, and then you will get the option to delete the book.
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That works for songbooks I create, but it doesn't work for the default "My songbook" songbook.  That's the one I wish to dispose of.

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>noise wrote on Mon, 09 October 2006 18&#58;45</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
hi all. just started learning the marvellous guitar however do lack of time and funds im teaching myself and am getting through pretty well through sheer determination.however when praticing chords my thunb seems to wander off towards the top of the guitar orslip overthe top. ive watched other people play to try and answer this yet they all have different rules regarding the thumb. in general( and when practinsing basic chords E A d etc)where does my thumb go and how do i keep it there. plus any other practice tips would be much greatly appreciated.i seem to have hit a lull and really want get better.cheers guys 
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One of the best "tips" I ever got was to keep the pad of your thumb planted firmly on the back of the neck.  It gives you much better reach with the rest of your fingers, gives you a stable platform to pivot the hand, gives you a good marker for moving reliably up and down the neck,  and gives you a good "pinch point" for the barre.