MTR-approved Resources
Magazines and Learning
- www.guitarcollege.com
- Guitar College offers online lessons and a "video magazine" in DVD format with surprisingly high-quality content.
- www.acousticguitar.com
- Acoustic Guitar is a great monthly magazine for all styles of acoustic music, including classical. It's published in the bay area, so local artists and luthiers get a lot of coverage.
- www.guitarplayer.com
- Guitar Player, also published monthly from the bay area, covers the gamut of electric and acoustic guitars and the Babel of genres springing forthwith.
- www.justjazzguitar.com
- A magazine merely about jazz played on the guitar. Website features lessons, articles, and links to jam tracks.
Tab/Sheet Music
In general, my advice is that if you really want to learn a song, it's worth it to buy authorized, professional sheet music. Not all of it is perfect, but even the worst published transcriptions are better than the typical amateur TAB on the internet.
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
- TABs with ratings, vastly superior to the venerable olga.net (OnLine Guitar Archive) because the star-rating system gives you a way to separate the wheat from the chaff (although nothing is guaranteed to be 100% accurate, and you can count on some mistakes...but hey, it's free!)
- www.led-zeppelin.org
- the most superior Zeppelin TABs
Gear
- www.harmony-central.com
- THE place to go for gear information and user reviews
- www.musicyo.com
- www.musiciansfriend.com
- www.juststrings.com
Bay Area Links
- www.gspguitar.com
- San Francisco store and mail-order retailer; a superior place for classical guitars and other acoustic instruments.
- www.gryphonstrings.com
- Palo Alto guitar shop with acoustic and electric instruments, banjos, mandolins, etc. They also do repairs.
- www.sfcgs.org
- The San Francisco Classical Guitar Society, which hosts occasional concerts, open mic nights, and other classical guitar related events in their coffee shop in the Outer Sunset. You can sign up for their e-mail list to stay informed.
- www.sfgate.com
- Up-to-date listings on local music (and lots of other stuff).
- www.brawer.com
- Gary Brawer, my favorite repair guy in San Francisco. Don't expect the work to be fast or cheap, but do expect it to be flawlessly done.
Mandolin
- www.mandozine.com
- A complete resource for all things mando.
Ukulele
- www.ukulelia.com
- A fantastic resource for all things ukulele
- www.fleamarketmusic.com
- The official site of the great Don of the uke, Jumpin' Jim Beloff! Jumpin' Jim (who happens to be a fellow Choate Rosemary Hall alumnus) has the best ukulele books around, and you can buy them here. Plenty of other good info, too.
- www.ukulelestrummers.com
- www.taropatch.net
- www.tropicalstormhawaii.com
- All of these sites provide a wealth of varied information on the uke, including lessons and songs.
Please send ideas for additions to mike@hotmike.com
Thank you!