Don Chance Guitar Page
This page is a compilation of sites I have bookmarked over time and other stuff I have added as I began working on this page. No claim of quality either on this page or any of these links is expressed or implied. In fact, dubious quality is everywhere on the Internet and maybe even here.
If you have any suggestions, email them to me at dchance@lsu.edu. However, I may or may not add them, so don't be upset. I have gotten some interesting emails, including some from professionals. I would REALLY like to hear if any serious musicians find this page helpful.
Chord Finders
The following are sites that enable you to look up chords. Unfortunately, these sites are of varying quality. I rarely find that I can rely on any one site. I must admit, however, that there is some clever material on here. Too bad they couldn't all merge into one.
| ChordFind | Cyberfret |
| Crossroads Guitar | Guitar.to |
Tabs
These sites contain a massive collection of songs in which individuals, mostly rank amateurs have provided tabs and/or chords to popular songs. Like the rest of the Internet, there is no quality control, and I mean that in a big way. While occasionally you may find that someone has done a good job tabbing or figuring out the chords to a song, the number of mistakes is massive. Some of these kids cannot even tell the difference in sound between a D and a Bminor. What's even worse is the number of occasions in which some idiot tabs a few measures and then writes something like "I think that's pretty close. You can get the rest." or "That's all I've got right now. I'm tired. I'll try to do the rest later." Nonetheless, I find myself referring to tab sites often. If you know the song well enough and if your ear can tell when something doesn't sound quite right, you can usually filter out the trash and use the small amount of material here that's quite good. Of course, in that regard, even semi-professionals mess up. I'm reminded of what Paul McCartney said when he saw an advertisement for a guitar school that promised to teach "the special tuning used in Blackbird": "Well, I'd sure like to know because I play it in standard tuning."
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Guitar Tabs |
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Harmony Central Tabs |
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Fretplay |
***NEW COMMENTS ON TAB SITES***
Recently, two organizations representing the sheet music industry (the National Music Publishers Association and the Music Publishers Association) have thrown their weight around like an 800-pound gorilla to attempt to squash any sites that provide tabs. Thus, they have successfully shut down the above sites. They claim that publishing tabs is a copyright violation. I cannot imagine anything being any more wrong than this. An individual publishing his own interpretation of a song is hardly a copyright infringement. And, as noted above, many of those interpretations are incorrect. All the more reason why no one would confuse these amateur tabs with real sheet music or real tabs provided by the publisher, which always appear above or below the actual music lines. I am using this forum to voice my objection and to encourage others to avoid buying sheet music wherever possible. I realize there may be some sheet music you have to buy. Just remember when you do, you are helping this industry stomp out freedom of expression on the part of the thousands of amateur guitarists out there. You are helping these 800-pound lawyers, I mean gorillas, to stop every teenager who identifies the first four notes of "Stairway to Heaven" and wants to share it with the rest the world, who already knows how to play the entire song. Just think of how many copies of StH sheet music isn't sold because that kid shared his interpretation. How many? None, zero, zilch, nada.
Sheet Music
***PLEASE READ THE ABOVE ENTRY UNDER 'TABS'. As a result, I no longer include links to sheet music sites.
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Guitars
Listed below are links to over 100 manufacturers of guitars. Some of these companies are owned by other companies within the same list (e.g., Gretsch is owned by Fender, Epiphone is owned by Gibson) but I list them separately because they have their own web sites and are distinctly different guitars. (Well, ok, some Epiphones are practically the same as some Gibsons. Lighten up.) Some of these companies are small operations that make only custom guitars. Also, some of these companies make electric guitars as well. For companies that make only electric, see the list that follows this one.
If you're an independent luthier or a full-blown factory manufacturer and are not included here, please send me an email and I will add you.
Here are some companies and luthiers that make only electric guitars (to my knowledge):
Burns
Daisy Rock
ESP
Floyd Rose
Parker
Renaissance (Rick Turner)
Silvertone
Stewart
Andrew Wright
Strings
Of course, many of the large manufacturers such as Fender, Gibson, and Martin make excellent strings. For some good material on guitar strings, see www.stringitup.com.
| Black Diamond | Drstrings | Ernie Ball |
| Cleartone | Dunlop (strings and other) | GHS |
| D'Addario | Elixir | Dean Markley |
Speaking of strings, there must be as many ways of stringing a guitar as there are guitars. When I bought my Martin, I tried to string it the way the Martin manual said to do it. It worked, but frankly it looked like crap, and I was embarrassed at what the guitar technician must have thought when I brought it in for some minor repair work. I checked out a number of Internet articles on how to string a guitar, and I must admit, nothing beats this one. It's neat, tight, and simple.
Books
OK, I know there are probably more guitar books than there are guitars. Here are a few of my personal favorites.
Magazines
My preference being acoustic, I recommend these.
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Acoustic Guitar (my personal favorite so far) |
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Fingerstyle Guitar |
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Guitar World Acoustic |
Guitarists
Obviously this is not an extensive list. There are just too many. My personal favorites are listed below. They're not all on the list so much because they're great guitarists (surely debatable on some) but because of what they accomplished with the guitar, i.e., the total package of songwriting, vocals, performance, etc. I may add some from time to time as I think of them and get more familiar with them.
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Lindsey Buckingham (one of the few fingerpicking rock guitarists) |
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Eric Clapton (needs no justification) |
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Sharon Isbin (created the first guitar department at the Juilliard school) |
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B. B. King (needs no justification) |
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Roger McGuinn (pioneered the 12-string when with the Byrds) |
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Jimmy Page (needs no justification) |
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Paul Simon (one of the first acoustic guitarists to be a rock star) |
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Stephen Stills (his "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is one of the greatest guitar masterpieces of all time) |
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James Taylor (after Simon, maybe the second acoustic guitarist to be a rock star) |
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Doc Watson (a constant reminder that you shouldn't have to look at your fingers to play) |
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Nancy Wilson (of Heart) (Well, ok, I don't know if I really have a reason. She just looks so hot jumping up and down playing her guitar. Well, yes, she really is a pretty good acoustic guitar player.) |
Amplifiers
Of course many manufactures make excellent amps, though most are geared for electric guitars. The following manufacturers make models specifically for acoustic guitars (though most make them for electrics as well):
| Acoustic Image | Crate | Genz Benz | Schertler |
| Ashdown | Fishman | Roland | UltraSound |
| Line 6 | Acoustic Electric Rsch | Soundboard | Walker Labs |
| Hartke (Samson) |
Miscellaneous
Stuff that doesn't fall in the categories above.
For anyone interested, feel free to read my product review of the glider capo.
Advice for New Guitarists
I know there are plenty who will disagree, but spare me the lecture. Read this list all the way through, especially the last item.
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Don't start too young. Small fingers can get easily discouraged. I think 12 is young enough. | ||||
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Guitar is a physically demanding instrument:
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Don't spend a lot of money on your first guitar. You may not take well to guitar. A fairly inexpensive one is enough to determine if this is just a fancy or something you'll stick with. | ||||
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Your guitar will get nicks, dents, scratches, you name it. It's like a car. You will absolutely hate it when it happens. But you must realize there is no way you can pick up a finely crafted piece of wood on a regular basis and have it sustain no damage. Barring a major catastrophe, most guitar damage can be repaired by experts, although at high cost. Just expect it to happen and don't act like it's the end of life as you know it. | ||||
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Get a capo. I can't say enough about how this little device will improve your range and build confidence in your ability to play a lot of different songs. | ||||
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Get an electronic tuner. People who tell you they don't need one are fooling themselves. In fact, there is no question that tuning is the most important thing you need to learn at the start. An improperly tuned guitar will either discourage a novice by spitting out disharmonious sounds or will condition the untrained ear to think these sounds are what it's supposed to sound like. | ||||
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Spend some time learning music theory as it applies to guitar, especially if, like me, you never had any musical training. | ||||
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Harmonics are overrated. You don't need them to tune your guitar. It'll sound the same regardless. Harmonics are also far too soft to get enough volume. Nonetheless, they sound pretty cool, so learn how to play them. When you first hear the "ping" of that twelfth-fret harmonic on the first string, you ear will be pleased. But that's about it. | ||||
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Don't ever act like you know more or less or play better or worse than the person you're playing with. If that person breaks this rule, be confident that some day you'll get revenge when they don't know what A#º7 is and you do. | ||||
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Keep your left elbow completely free ("right elbow" if you're left handed.) It should not be leaning on anything. My worst habit. | ||||
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Don't believe everything you read about guitars on the Internet and on this web site. Hey, don't even believe everything on this list. It might not apply to you. |
My Guitars
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| My Old Gibson LG-0 purchased in my teen years | My Alvarez 5022 purchased in 1997 | My Martin DC16-GTE purchased in 2003 |
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| I broke down and got an electric. This is my Telecaster purchased in 2004. | My Takamine EG535C 12-string purchased in 2005. | My Epiphone EJ200, which I received as a gift in 2007. |
And last but not least, my Deering Goodtime-2 banjo and Morgan Monroe Mandolin
And Finally
A rare photo from my teen years. That's me on the right at about age 16 playing a Fender Music Master through a Fender Super Reverb amp (not visible). I'm not left-handed. The photographer developed the negative reversed. But doesn't the left-hand look kind of give it a Jimi Hendrix-Kurt Cobain panache? Yeah, right.
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Last updated: July 6, 2008