PRESENCE - Volume 68
Inspiration For Guitarists
Were They Right?
Last week two comments on my "Let It Be" video told me I was wrong. Not "worth reconsidering" — wrong. And that's worth thinking through.
I had made the claim that 99% of the time, whatever the first chord of a song is, that's the key you're in. If a song opens with a C chord, you're probably in C Major. If a song opens with a B minor, you're probably in B minor.
Two viewers took issue with that, and one of them — a fellow guitar teacher — responded with a detailed case built on jazz theory, historical context, and a long list of Beatles songs that don't open on the same chord as the key they're in. It read less like a correction and more like a credential. And that's something I see a lot in the guitar education world, especially on YouTube: teachers demonstrating how much they know rather than making things clearer for the student sitting in front of them.
But I didn't dismiss it. I went and checked.
I pulled the set list from the gig I played the night before. Twenty-two songs — heavy on the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, Clapton, The Band. Twenty-one of them started on the chord that names the key. I'm also working up a set of original tunes with a singer/songwriter friend for a festival gig in a couple of weeks — every single one of those songs starts on the chord that names the key too. Then I went through every song I've made a YouTube video on. Let It Be, Comfortably Numb, Sultans of Swing, Hotel California, Blue Sky... The only one I could think of that doesn't follow the pattern is Hey Joe — and Hey Joe is a genuinely weird song from a music theory standpoint.
So was I wrong? Maybe a little. Call it 97% instead of 99%.
But here's what I kept coming back to as I thought about it: the debate over whether it's 97% or 99% isn't really the point. And if I'm being honest, focusing on the exceptions — however valid they are — is something I see a lot in guitar education, and I think it quietly does students a disservice.
My approach has always been to teach the big picture first. The patterns that show up every single day. The knowledge that unlocks song after song after song. When you deeply understand how most music works, you have a foundation that lets you figure out the exceptions on your own when you encounter them.
There's a rule in golf called the cactus rule. Some of the most beautiful golf courses in the world are desert courses, and occasionally your ball ends up right next to a cactus. The USGA actually has guidance for this — you're allowed to wrap your arm or leg in a towel to protect yourself from the needles when you play your shot. It's a real rule. It matters, when you need it.
But you don't learn the cactus rule on your first lesson. You learn to drive, you learn your short game, you learn to putt. You build the foundation. And when the day comes that your ball rolls up next to a cactus, you go find out what to do.
The songs that don't follow the patterns are real. They exist, they're worth knowing about, and eventually you'll come across them. But they're not where I want to spend most of our time together — not when there's so much rich, useful, immediately applicable territory in the other 97%.
That's the bet I've made as a teacher. I think it's the right one.
— Dustin
P.S. — The Essential Skills Course covers the Number System, the Landmark Pentatonic System, and the CAGED System — the three frameworks I've used for 40 years to learn songs, navigate the fretboard, and actually understand what I'm playing. If that sounds like what you've been missing, the link above will tell you everything.