Projects

Learn Guitar With Ian Zickler

Website under construction from May 2nd, 2008

Notice:

The cover material that I'm presenting on this page is posted legally through licensing agreements.

To create this page, I record myself playing in a variety of styles so you, the prospective student, can get an idea of what might be possible through your studies with me. If any of the songs stop suddenly during the first 15 seconds or so of playback, just click play again and everything should have buffered by now. I record all of these songs in the same studio that I teach in. The dates given are the years that I made the recordings. While many of the songs here have been written by various artists, all the sounds that you hear on this page were created, recorded and mixed by me except for the vocal on Ziggy Stardust.

Ziggy Stardust ~ David Bowie (2011)

(Click on Song Title to Hear!)

This is a recent cover I made featuring my original guitar, bass, and drum transcriptions. This song also features the vocals my good friend and fine musician Johnny Snapps, from whom I've had the pleasure of learning much

over the years.

EZ Super Pawn~Ian Zickler (2009)

This is one of my own songs, inspired by a local pawn shop chain and other things Tucsonan.

Lesson for Two Lutes~Anonymous (2011)

This is a duet that I like. I recorded this for one of my rock students who is taking an interest in playing fingerstyle and reading music. He received three tracks: one like the one here, with both guitars, and one each of either one to practice along with.

Dead or Alive~Bon Jovi (2009)

(Click on Song Title to Hear!)

If you already have some experience with the guitar, you may have noticed that the quality and accuracy of even store-bought sheet music can vary considerably.

Not too long ago, a student brought in a Bon Jovi book he had bought

that had this song in it. I noticed some 'red flags' in the transcription that made me feel that the sheet music might both be trying too hard to be perfect, and at the same time landing far from the mark. Not having any Bon Jovi music in my music library, I bought the song from iTunes and set about trying to figure out what the real notes were that I was hearing. It was quite a bit different from what the book claimed. Then I turned the focus of the lesson to figuring out what the intent and spirit of the guitarist was without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. It also turned out this song was a good vehicle for a lesson on what I call "beat-dependent alternate picking," a highly effective way of articulating clear arpeggios with a flatpick. This track is what resulted--a summary of the ideas in the Bon Jovi hit as I heard them. The drum and bass transcriptions are also my own.

Winter Song~Ian Zickler (2003)

My song about the Connecticut River exploding when millions of tons of water smashed the ice in and around Wethersfield, Vermont in March of 1988.

I Will~Lennon/McCartney (2001)

(Click on Song Title to hear!)

For an example of my playing in a Beatles style, I've include my recording of 'I Will.' In it you'll hear me playing acoustic rhythm guitar, electric lead, bass guitar, African drum, and singing two-part harmony.

Dream On ~ Aerosmith (2010)

On this clip you'll hear my version of the classic song with some of the repetitive power chording removed. This is edited down from a full-length track I made that some of my rock students will be playing guitar to. All instruments--drums, bass, three guitars--are my transcriptions. No keyboards in this recording yet. Maybe some day.

Master of Puppets (Interlude)~Metallica (2009)

Click on song title to hear!

This song was my first serious attempt at transcribing drums. The bass, cello, and acoustic guitar are also my own transcriptions, and the lead guitars I refingered from widely availably published transcriptions. As far as unusual special effects illustrated here, I guess I should point out that the cello in the beginning is one I had fun imitating with a volume pedal and a lightly distorted electric guitar.

Shall I Come, Sweet Love, to Thee?>Minuet in Dm>Shall I come? (Campion/J.S. Bach/Campion) (2001)

An example of actual Renaissance lute music combined with a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach written for piano used here as something of a 'guitar solo' in between verses two and three to shake things up a bit.

21 Guns ~ Green Day (2012)
Click on Song title to hear!

This one's very popular with the kids these days, as well it probably should be. Every generation needs its protest songs. The problem teaching this one to to 10 to 14 year olds who request it was that it's in a difficult key, especially for those with small hands. I decided to transpose it to a more friendly key and then make a backing track in that key that they could play along with, and this is it. Since this is a guitar-teaching website you might not care, but this song is also my keyboard playing debut, as I transcribed and actually played the piano parts you hear in this song.

Californication Guitar Solo~Red Hot Chili Peppers (2009)

This one started out as just a backing track for one of my students whom I noticed was practicing this solo a lot. I decided to turn this into a music theory hook for him (we learned the whole neck in F# minor pentatonic) and I composed a drum/bass/rhythm guitar track for him to practice either playing the original solo to or improvising his own using the theory we'd learned. I then decided to record my own shot at playing the original solo to the track and put it up here. Unlike some of the songs on this page, no effort was made to make the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar just like the original as the intent was to provide a cd track for a student to practice to and do it in a timely fashion. I did make an attempt to achieve the slightly garage-band vibe that this solo evokes for me, however.

Parents: due to the title of this song, I don't teach it to kids under 16 except by request--that is, if they are already listening to this music.

Lady Nothynge's Toye Puffe~John Renbourn (2002)

This is an example of my fingerstyle guitar technique.
This song was written by one of my biggest influences, as an exercise in writing in the idiom of Renaissance lute music. The curious title results from a playful combination of two traditions--one, of naming one's pieces after the people who butter one's bread, and two, pieces with no particular meaning embedded into them were often referred to as "Nothynges," "Toyes," or "Puffes."

Black Waterside ~ Traditional, based on the arrangement by Bert Jansch (1998)

Way back when I first got my Taylor guitar, it was used and needed work. It rattled, and before I had it worked on, I decided to capture this rattle by recording this song on my stereo cassette deck. I learned this song in 1992 as well as I could at the time from Bert Jansch's arrangement. Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin also stole some moves from the same recording to create his song "Black Mountainside" on Zeppelin's first album.