A lot of women express concern that they are not very good guitarists and feel they won’t be able to keep up at a session. If you are one of those people, I have some good news for you. You don’t have to keep up. FOLKSLINGERS isn’t about “keeping up” at all.
As you may have already experienced, lessons often fail for the rhythm guitarist. Guitar instructors typically place their first emphasis on learning the notes of the guitar fingerboard and learning to read music. Reading music is a wonderful, fulfilling enterprise, but for a person whose main interest is on accompanying themselves as they sing, it’s like asking someone what time it is and being told how to build a clock! It’s a detour from what we’re really interested in and as you can see from how many blistering fast lead female guitarists we see out there, it seems the majority of women don’t go in for it.
I believe learning to play rhythm guitar requires a different approach.
I’ve created a series of Chord Families that are built around the Nashville Number System and each FOLKSLINGER attendee gets a set for reference. A Chord Family — one for each of the major keys of A, C, D, E and G — is broken into Most Commonly Used, Sometimes Used, and Rarely Used groups. Using a Capo and these five Chord Families, you can play and sing in every key possible. We train your ear to anticipate changes and show you how to keep track of what’s happening by counting by twos and fours.
You only have to know seven major chords — A, B7, C, D, E, F and G — five minors — Am, Bm, Dm, Em & F#m — and where to put the Capo. And if you don’t know all those chords, it’s yet another reason to attend.
In a FOLKSLINGER session, we’ll show you how to put it all together. “Keeping up” will happen quickly.
If you are a complete novice, please consider taking one-on-one lessons. I have a beginner guitar course that will teach you how to play by ear in 12 lessons using common children’s tunes. Then you can pick up more songs at FOLKSLINGERS.
Susie Coleman
FOLKSLINGERS was initially created with the solo musician in mind.
Please come and experience a Folkslinger session for yourself.