HOT LINKS
Blogs for Beginners
www.premierguitar.com
In our marketing department’s descriptions
of Premier Guitar, you may see the magazine
described as being for, “serious and accomplished guitarists.” While true, we know that
there are plenty of you out there reading who
do not fall into this category—either you’re
just starting the instrument, or have played
long enough to know you’re not going to be
the next Jeff Beck. We love all of our readers
equally, both those who can put our own playing to shame and those who are struggling their
way through new scales after work and on the
weekends. For the latter, we’ve found two blogs
that might help you along your journey.
Jeff approaches the subject with a heaping helping of modesty. While not as humorous as Play
a Little Guitar, the vibe over at Never Too Late
Guitar tends to be sharing—Jeff recaps each
guitar lesson he goes to and readers often comment their thoughts on what he’s learning.
One thing you can count on with Never Too
Late Guitar is visual appeal. Because of his
profession, Jeff has had the opportunity to
photograph a couple pretty cool guitars,
and he shares these photos (and sells fine art
prints of them as well). He also has impressive Photoshopping skills, which result in some
entertaining posts from time to time.
Never Too Late Guitar and Play a Little Guitar
are both blogs that embody the idea that not
every beginning guitarist is a 16-year-old who
knows more about black nail polish than they
do a Les Paul Black Beauty.
The blog features the gear reviews, news postings and videos of Jeff playing. Jeff says of his
videos, “…If you’re a beginner you can come
here and check out what someone else in your
shoes is going through. You can see in my videos that not every guitarist on You Tube is a rock
god mocking your inability. And, if you’re an
expert, you can come here and find some material to pass on to your friends under the ‘check
out this loser’ category.”
Never Too Late Guitar is a fairly young blog, so
there’s not a ton of depth, but with a couple
posts a week, it’s easy to keep up with and
easy to read. Jeff’s inclusion of videos certainly
helps connect with the stage of playing he’s in,
whether you’re long past that point, working up
to it, or right along with him.
nevertoolateguitar.com
Play a Little Guitar
Play a Little Guitar blogger has been learning guitar for almost two years, and describes
himself as “the eternal beginner.” His posts are
humorous and nearly-always self-deprecating.
A sense of his snarky style can be cleaned from
his About Us: “…I am in constant conflict with
balky and disobedient fingers, two tin ears and
a non-existent sense of rhythm. Just keep in
mind that this is written from the viewpoint of a
rock-bottom beginner.”
Sample posts include bad guitar jokes, musings
on his own playing and links to You Tube videos
and newsy bits. The gold in this blog is in his
sense of humor that even seasoned players can
appreciate. From a recent post: “The original
bridge pins on my Alvarez were white with black
dots. A while back I switched to black pins with
white dots. This did not improve my playing.”
Play a Little Guitar is one of those rare blogs
that has been around a couple years and is still
updated regularly. He doesn’t update daily, but
you can count on a couple posts a week with
which you can commiserate.
playalittleguitar.com
Never Too Late Guitar
Never Too Late Guitar blogger Jeff Singer is a
professional photographer who loves gear and is
in the process of learning to be better at guitar.
34 PREMIER GUITAR DECEMBER 2009
www.premierguitar.com
