When we last left off, ArtistWorks founder David Butler was finally learning how to play guitar after receiving a Sears Silvertone (read Part 3 here). David's experience learning guitar ultimately inspired him to develop a new way to learn guitar online by establishing ArtistWorks, a company dedicated to providing a better way to teach and learn music. We find him now in the waiting room of the Jack Marshall Music Store, waiting for his first guitar lesson.

David encapsulates his musical journey in ArtistWorks’ newest course, Beginner's Guide to Acoustic Guitar. Taught by David, these online music lessons provide fundamental acoustic guitar lessons for beginners in a fun, approachable manner. You’ll learn how to play acoustic guitar through lessons that are based on the songs of your youth, including tunes by The Beach Boys, Van Morrison and Neil Young.

I soon found myself sitting in the music lesson waiting area at the back of the Jack Marshall Music store.  I was twelve years old, and my mom sat beside me on the worn couch.

A cacophony of beginner music lessons was in the air -- I could hear squeaky clarinets, belching trumpets and tubas, pianos and snare drums.  I had my trusty Silvertone with me (I carried it around with no case).

As much as I loved my guitar, it looked shabby compared to the racks of new guitars in the store.  Hanging along the periphery were rows of Gibson and Martin acoustic guitars, Fender and Hagstrom electric guitars and basses.  Against the wall were tan guitar amplifiers and also the newer-style black Fender amplifiers. There were banjos and mandolins and autoharps, and even an accordion.  At the front of the store was a glass counter, and in inside it were hundreds of styles of picks (nickel each), guitar strings (buck-fifty a pack), and harmonicas.  I loved being in the store, it was a sensory feast of color and sound. 

"Sit down," he said with the lit cigarette flipping up and down in his mouth.  I sat down with my guitar on my knee, and Duane sat down in his chair and looked at me, obviously bored.  To him, I was another kid at the end of a long day, another three dollar lesson.

I quickly computed that his guitar was worth over four hundred dollars more than mine.  Wow.  Duane reached over to the Alfred's Basic Guitar Method Book on the music stand, and opened it to page one.

"Kid, first thing you have to do is learn to read music."  He played the first exercise from method book, a line of single notes all within the first 3 frets, played on the 'E' and 'B' strings.  He never asked me to show him what I already knew.  He never asked me want I wanted to learn.  And he never called me anything except "kid".

He taught from the method book, that's just what you got for $3.00, like it or not.  And the line he played from exercise one had nothing to do with anything. My heart sank.