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Dave Milliken
guitar bass piano vocals
Performer • Songwriter
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guitar, bass & piano lessons
I've retired from teaching but I still publish free lessons, tips, and song tutorials on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@DaveMillikenAcousticGuitar.
I have a series of lessons on how to get faster chord changes on guitar.
And I'll be making more tutorials like this one on How To Play "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" by Joe Jackson.
Recommended Books, Websites & Apps
Here are some great books to help you improve your playing:
GUITAR
- PICK STYLE – LEARNING HOW TO READ MUSIC
- Fast Track Guitar 1 – Blake Neely & Jeff Schroedl (Hal Leonard)
- Progressive Guitar Method Book 1: Beginner – Gary Turner & Brenton White (LTP Publishing)
- FINGER STYLE – TECHNIQUE & LEARNING HOW TO READ MUSIC
- Classic Guitar Technique Volume 1 – Aaron Shearer (Franco Colombo/Warner Brothers)
- THEORY & SCALES
- Mel Bay’s Easiest Guitar Theory Book – Rob Goldsmith (Mel Bay)
- Music Theory for Guitar: An Introduction to the Essentials – Michael P. Wolfson (Hal Leonard)
- A Guide to Chords, Scales, & Arpeggios – Al Di Meola & Bob Aslanian (Hal Leonard)
- Practical Theory for Guitar – Don Latarski (CPP/Belwin)
- The Advancing Guitarist – Mick Goodrick (Hal Leonard)
- BLUES
- Beginning Blues Guitar – Arlen Roth (Music Sales Limited)
- JAZZ
- A Modern Method for Guitar – William G. Leavitt (Berklee Press/Hal Leonard)
- CLASSICAL
- Repertoire and Studies Albums (Guitar Series) – Royal Conservatory of Music (Frederick Harris Music)
- Guitar Music from the Student Repertoire – John Mills (Musical New Services/Wise Publications/Music Sales Limited)
BASS GUITAR
- Basses Loaded series – Rod Goelz (Santorella Publications Limited)
PIANO
- JAZZ
- Jazz Piano From Scratch – Charles Beale (Hal Leonard/ABRSM)
- Jazz Piano series – edited by Charles Beale (ABRSM)
- BLUES
- Improvising Blues Piano – Tim Richards (Schott)
- CLASSICAL
- Celebration Series Perspectives: Repertoire and Studies – Royal Conservatory of Music (Frederick Harris Music)
- LEARNING HOW TO READ MUSIC
- Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course – Willard A. Palmer, Morton Manus & Amanda Vick Lethco (Alfred)
Here are some great websites & apps to check out:
- www.good-ear.com – free online ear training
- www.emusictheory.com – free online music theory drills
- www.metronomeonline.com – free online metronome
- Amazing Slow Downer – app for Mac, Windows, iOs & Android that allows you to change the speed of a recording without changing the pitch, or vice versa. Helpful for beginners to be able to play along at a slower speed, for moving downtuned guitars to standard tuning, for slowing down difficult passages in order to figure them out, for creating loops to play along with, etc.
- Anytune – similar app for Mac & iOs
- MetroTimer – metronome app for iOs
- insTuner – chromatic tuner app for iOs
- Better Ears – ear training app for Mac, iOs & Android
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Resources
A good way to become a better musician is to transcribe the music that you are trying to learn. Spend some time listening to a song and experimenting with your guitar in order to figure out as best you can the chords, the melody, the rhythm of the strum, the nuances of the solo, etc. Write down whatever you can. This will improve your ear and your knowledge of theory.
You'll need blank sheets of notation paper for your transcriptions. Here are some PDFs that you can download and print:
Former Students
Dave is proud of these former students who are active musicians!
- Andrea Simms-Karp: Naviger
- Angelina Hunter
- Harley Card
- Keith McCuaig: Airliner Blues Band
- Kristine St-Pierre
- Michael Korn: Iconoclast
- Michelle Monette
- Sabrina Fallah