I have been singing as long as I remember. My voice
was my most important instrument. It still is
although I now have 31 instruments and play them
all. Not all well. But, I play them all. When I
fell in love with the sound of the dulcimer, I made
one.
I learned to play guitar to accompany my friend,
Bob, an excellent guitar player. He couldn’t sing.
I couldn’t play guitar. But, I made him sound good
voice wise. He made me sound good, guitar wise.
But I knew I would never be a great guitar player.
My fingers are not long enough nor quick enough.
When I was courting my first wife a party guest
took a shine to her. His approach to winning her
favor was to knock me through a glass shower door
and try to take my heart out with a claw hammer.
I was sitting in the tub with a huge sheet of glass hanging over my neck and
another piece had cut my left wrist half off. They
put my wrist back together but the nerves in the
two smaller fingers have never fully recovered. For a long time melodies were difficultand slow to play and some chords were impossible.
In addition I fell while skiing and flipped the
pole strap around my right thumb reversing it and then I
fell on it at about thirty five miles per hour. My
right thumb is ghastly looking.
So, little fingers, nerve damage, broken thumb. I
should probably forget about playing stringed instruments and just stick to my horns, especially the saxophone.
Later on I read about great guitar players with
handicaps. Les Paul, Django Reinhardt to name a
couple. I hate to be outdone without a good reason.
So on a whim more or less I started playing ukulele.
I still wanted to play guitar. Primarily (Bob long gone)
to accompany my singing voice.
I am also a good poet and a good song writer. So I
wanted my voice, my lyrics, my guitar and ukulele
to all work together. And as i started discovering my method it all opened up to me.
My guitar work needed better expression, quicker
response, and variability.
I set about creating a way to give maximum
expression to a minimum of complex, distracting
finger positioning for chords and melodies.
I eventually discovered it. I felt stupid taking so
long getting to it.
But I did. I did it. And I have to say it is
beautiful.
It works.
It works so well I want to share it with everyone.
But, I cannot. Because, some people are going to
feel good about clinging to the established ways of
playing. They can be even inimical to someone who
makes something easy that they made hard.
Especially if they make money from people they are
teaching to play the hard way, the traditional way.
And that is OK. I know as well that people who have
time invested in a skill are not going to
appreciate someone who comes along and demonstrates
the skill can be learned in a tiny fraction of the
time that they have patiently, exhaustively,
invested in learning to play.
And why should they? They know now how to do it
their way, the way they were taught. Here’s why. I
know both ways. When I want to and need to play a
chord in the old way I can. But someone who knows
only the old way cannot play the new way because
they do not know the new way, the PIAD way.
But, I know, I have seen, that many of these who
know how to play the established way will reject my
method: either because of show or money.
Especially people who teach others to play the way
that they themselves play.
It involves money. If you look at the net, you will
see it is littered with guitar courses. guitar
courses that will teach you the intricate fingering
of every chord in the universe. NO MATTER HOW LONG
IT TAKES. And how long it takes isssssss a matter
of money to them.
If you have a guitar teacher and you visit that
guitar teacher every week for a lesson, the guitar
teacher will charge you, say, $40 per lesson.
If that guitar teacher can count on you for $40 a
week, then why would that guitar teacher want to
teach you to play in ONE DAY?
If you look on the internet you can get free guitar
lessons. The online guitar teacher will take you
patiently over the same page of text or the same
video or the same diagrams over and over and over.
For free? No, trust me. Money is going to come into
the picture somewhere. Look for it. OK, if not
money to the teach for time taught then why would
that guitar teacher do that? Wow, you ask good
questions. Here is the answer. The guitar teacher
would do that because next to each video screen,
each diagram, each page of text is an
ADVERTISEMENT. Annoying, equanimity destroying
advertising. Every time a weary guitar student
gets tired and takes a break from the guitar lesson
to click on an advertisement, what happens? The
guitar teacher makes money, MONEY MONEY MONEY.
I am likely to do the same thing. Kinda. You may
see an ad next to this text you are reading now. Of
course, you could be listening to the recording of
this web page whose link I put at the top so you
could listen to me tell you all this as you drive
to work, or walk the dog, or hike Mt. Witney.
Here is the thing. I may have a thousand blog posts
on this blog. We may discuss a thousand things
about musicianship, the science of music, famous
guitar players, the structure of music, how chords
are constructed, how melodies differ. We may talk
about a thousand things but we will not talk about
the design nor details of my PLAY IN A DAY GUITAR
COURSE.
Here’s why. I don’t believe much. What I do believe
is what I can demonstrate. I can demonstrate to you
how you can play guitar or ukulele in a day.
I believe that someone who works hard, invests
analysis and testing time and discovers how to do a
new thing deserves to profit from that thing.
Therefore I believe that if I give you my
guitar/ukulele course that teaches you how to play
in a day and improve every day forever, that you
should give me money.
Separate from all the things about guitar/ukulele
playing and music that we will discuss on this site
is the material that I will share with you about
how to extend the basic knowledge in Play In A Day
so that you continue improving, learning, and
understanding why and how the method works and a
lot of things that the “experts” would never tell
you because they are lost in thoughts about their
own method and what I share with you might never
occur to them.
And after you start Play In A Day, you will have
questions. And I will always be available to answer
questions you have about things that pop into your
head about the course and guitar playing and music
and I will answer.
I will also be sending you newsletters periodically
that explain things that I discover that I never
thought of before related to elements of the PLAY
IN A DAY method.
Also, the method has a second part that I
discovered after I discovered the method. And after
a time, I will share that part of the method. In
fact, I will share that second part of the course
with you freely IF. IF you did not give away the
first part to someone else in the mean time.
Now, that does not mean that you cannot play
guitar/ukulele by having the first part only. No,
you will be able to, as I say, PLAY IN A DAY and
continue playing better and better every day.
Eventually the day will come when you are ready for
the second part of the course and then I will share
it with you. It will not be difficult but, it will
improve the scope of your playing tremendously.
Be well! Be a well! –jack
kukulele 