Bert lives on in StrumSchool

When I was 11, my older brother returned from a long trip abroad with a Hofner electric guitar, which he had tried unsuccessfully to learn. He gave it to me, along with a copy of Bert Weedon's Play In A Day, the now legendary book which enabled tens of thousands of British people to learn the guitar. Just like scores of guitar superstars from the 1960s, I started with Bobbie Shaftoe Went to Sea.

I went on to teach guitar in my spare time for some five years or more. And when I discovered computers, just about my first programming project was to put together what I called the Apple Guitar Workshop on the Apple IIe.

Well, last week Bert Weedon died, aged 92. But his spirit lives on in sites such as StrumSchool. Oh how Bert (and me when I was teaching guitar) would have loved to have access to modern technology. StrumSchool is a site, set up by Benjamin Shapiro, that teaches beginners how to play basic guitar fundamentals for free, with a curriculum of instructional videos, downloadable documents and 'a dash of personal attention'. From what I can see it's funded by donations and ads. I watched a few of the videos and they're pitched perfectly for the beginner. Sorry, Bert, but this is much more fun than Play In A Day and doesn't even cost five shillings.

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