The Christian Guitarist

Found this helpful when working with my collection: How to update/rescan your iTunes library if you have:

- Added new songs: This was one of the most frustrating thing about iTunes. I would add a few songs to a folder which had already been added to iTunes but there was no way to tell iTunes to rescan that folder and pick only the updated songs. Every other jukebox software I know has this feature. Winamp even lets you schedule when you want to rescan the folder! What did I know. This is actually simpler in iTunes. Just add the folder again to iTunes. If you have not moved the existing files from their previous location, have not renamed them, or done anything else to them, they would be ignored and only the new files would be added. All the old songs would maintain their playcount and rating etc. I regularly point iTunes to my top-level song folder and they get added just fine.

-Updated tags outside iTunes: I use GodFather to edit ID3 tags for my mp3s but since iTunes maintains its own database, the changes are not visible in iTunes. You can clean your iTunes library and add those songs again but you’d lose playcount and rating. The correct way to make those changes visible in iTunes is to select all files (using ‘Ctrl-A’), click on ‘Get Info’, and click ‘Ok’. iTunes will pick up all the tag changes without losing playcounts or ratings. Do NOT check any of the checkboxes for any of the tag fields. You’d nuke all your tags. Just click ‘Ok’ and it’d be done.

From: http://manishbansal.wordpress.com/2006/02/10/how-to-rescan-a-folder-in-itunes-and-keep-song-ratings/

People have asked how I’m learning to play the guitar right now. For the last couple years, I’ve been playing very much on-and-off as I was in school. Now that I’m out of school, I have a little more time on my hands and have jumped into learning the guitar more aggressively.

While in school, I used mostly books. My favorite were Guitar From Scratch, which brings you through all the basics, and the Fretboard Workbook, which helped me learn how to easily find any note on the guitar fretboard in record time. I highly recommend both these books.

Last year, I went to a guitar school and took four lessons (they were a birthday present for me). While it was a good experience, it was expensive (about $100/month) and it wasn’t extremely structured. There were times I came home wishing I knew exactly what I was supposed to practice for the week. I didn’t extend my learning there.

Now, I’ve started learning how to play the guitar almost exclusively online. I’m currently enrolled at 8 Chords 100 Songs, which is a Christian-song based school taught by worship leader Eric Roberts. I’ve been learning to play praise and worship music on my acoustic here. I’m about 1/3 of the way through his course, and will provide regular updates of my progress here.

If you’re looking for good online guitar instruction, I also recommend two other stellar schools taught by guitar professionals: Jamplay and WorkshopLive. Both are comparable. Jamplay has better video and a really cool MySpace-like community. WorkshopLive has a nicer 3-part interface, more instructors and therefore, more lessons. But really, they’re both about the same as far as learning good content. I recommend signing up for both and seeing which one you like best. Happy learning!

Hello! My name is Chris and I’m a mid-30s guy who’s decided to take up the guitar and record my journey to becoming a true guitar hero.

In real life, I’m a writer and a couple years ago, I received a book contract. As a reward, I bought myself an electric guitar and received an amp for my birthday. A couple months later, an acoustic showed up online for under $30 shipped, so I grabbed that, too.

For about 6 months, I self-taught myself to play via the Guitar From Scratch book and the Getting Started on Electric Guitar DVD. All was going well, but then I decided to get my Masters in Writing and my new love had to be put on hold.

Two years passed and I picked up my guitar only on occasion (usually the acoustic since it was always handy). I just tried to remember the chords I had learned during those first 6 months: G, C, D, A, E and F. At once point, I had three half-hour lessons with a real person at a guitar school, which was fun, but nothing I could continue due to my workload. The best thing I did was learn the basics of the fretboard layout in the Fretboard Workbook—all knowledge I retained while not playing much.

Now, here I am two years later, proud to have my degree, but ready to have a life again! So I’m self-learning guitar once more. So far it has been like riding a bike—all I learned in those first 6 monhs has come right back to me. Now it’s time to get rid of the training wheels.

I think the best thing I can do is record my journey as I enjoy it. This tumblog will record my progress, reviews of the material I use, pointers I pick up, links to my favorite guitar music, favorite guitar pictures, links to great guitar and music stories and more.

I hope you join me on my journey. I could use the encouragement!

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at chris [at] thechristianguitarist.com.

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