This shorthand, like other shortcuts to reading music (like TAB): The downsides to guitar TAB and shorthand chord notations You still have to learn the right-hand pattern, but the left hand is easy to remember. You can jot 32000X under that bar in your music and lump all those notes into one easy shape. So…in a piece of music, this first measure Numbers represent which fret is to be played.An O means that you play the string open, with no left-hand fingers touching it.An X means that you do not play that string it all.From left to right, they represent the strings (low E on the left to high E on the right). But this “code” is a great tool that requires no other knowledge. Of course, we could use other devices (such as theoretical analysis) as well. We can use numbers to notate the left-hand finger positions on the neck. A shorthand can help us to simplify the left-hand shapes so we learn them more easily. On the page, the music may look like a sea of notes. So we could think of it as a chord or chord “shape”. We may not know what chord it is, but each finger is on a different string. Often, the left hand is playing a combination of notes that resemble a chord. In our music, it can be convenient to use a type of “shorthand” to jot down the left-hand pattern. It may be high on the neck or use open strings in an unusual way.įor these confusing times, it helps to have a special trick you can use to remember the new patterns. And more, it may be unlike any other chord we know. The more of these patterns we can find, the easier it becomes to memorize and play guitar music.īut sometimes, we don’t know the chord. We can learn to see, for example, a C chord in the music or in our hand on the guitar neck. With his combined experience as a working musician and artist and nearly thirty years of teaching private lessons, workshops, clinics, and college courses, Dave Isaacs has a rare and exceptionally wide perspective as an educator.Much of learning guitar pieces is pattern recognition. He was a full-time instructor of music and music technology at Tennessee State University from 2009-2013, and taught music theory and listening skills in the audio production program at the Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville from 2008-2016. On the formal academic side, Dave is an award-winning graduate of New York's venerable Manhattan School of Music, with a Master of Music degree in classical guitar performance. His ten independent CD releases run a wide stylistic range, from eclectic singer-songwriter to swampy groove-blues, bright country-rock, Southern soul, and lyrical jazz and classical guitar. He has jammed with Les Paul on a Manhattan nightclub stage, rocked in the mud at Yasgur's Farm, harmonized in Greenwich Village folk clubs, and chicken-picked hot licks on Nashville's Lower Broadway. Dave Isaacs has earned a reputation as one of the best: not simply a guitar and piano teacher but as a musical mentor to performing artists, songwriters, and performers as well as beginners, weekend warriors, and perpetual beginners.ĭave's approach to teaching develops not only guitar playing but the whole musician, building real skills, confidence, and musical knowledge.Ī dynamic performing artist himself, he played in venues across the US from small clubs to festivals and concert halls. He continues to write, record, and perform as well as arranging and producing projects for other artists.
He is also an instructor in the music department at Tennessee State University and is the coordinator and artistic director of the annual TSU Guitar Summit.Ī seasoned performer as well, Dave has released eight independent CDs and gigs steadily as a solo artist, bandleader, and sideman.
Nashville-based Dave Isaacs has made a name for himself as one of Music City's top guitar instructors, working with both professional and aspiring songwriters and artists at his Music Row teaching studio.