<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Just realized I sent you guys the wrong one here is the correct article. Sorry about that.<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> "David Goldfield via groups.io" <david.goldfield=outlook.com@groups.io><br><b>Date:</b> September 19, 2024 at 2:02:24 AM PDT<br><b>To:</b> tv <tech-vi@groups.io><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[Tech-VI] Accessing online guitar tutorials with a screen reader</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> tech-vi@groups.io<br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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<p>Sound Without Sight - Wednesday, September 18, 2024 at 7:17 PM</p>
<h1>Accessing online guitar tutorials with a screen reader</h1>
<p></p>
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>In this article I’m going to discuss some of my favourite guitar websites. I want to stress that this is a very personal view, reflecting my own ability, needs and preferences, I am an amateur musician, and this is just the view of someone who plays for
pleasure, and only occasionally to entertain. However, I have written it in the hope it may lead some players to useful and informative sites, but also to encourage others to put forward their thoughts about their own favourite sites and ideas about what could
be provided but isn’t currently, or to suggest types of support they have yet to find.</p>
<p>Below I list the guitar tuition websites I am going to cover, partly to avoid anyone already familiar with these sites wasting their time reading about what they already know, but also to give a brief overview of what follows:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.jerrysguitarbar.com/" title="">Jerry’s Guitar Bar</a>. Principal genre: singer-songwriter, but also has some classical guitar pieces.</li><li><a href="https://www.justinguitar.com/" title="">JustinGuitar</a>. Genres: rock, blues, singer-songwriter.</li><li><a href="https://www.licklibrary.com/" title="">LickLibrary</a>. Genres: rock, blues, singer-songwriter.</li><li><a href="https://truefire.com/online-guitar-lessons-cc" title="">TrueFire</a>. Genres: rock, blues, singer songwriter, jazz, latin, South American, flamenco, classical.</li></ol>
<p>An important pre-requisite for me is that the site must be reasonably accessible using a screen reader. If the content is really good, and largely meets my main criterion below, I can put up with a bit of hassle getting around it, but there are, thank goodness,
enough fairly accessible sites that meet my needs that this is not a major concern. </p>
<p>My number one criterion for deciding whether a guitar tuition site is going to be any use to me is simple. It must provide full note by note spoken explanations of what to play and how to play it. While I can figure out relatively easy note and fretting
sequences, I am quite limited in that way so to be useful to me, a lesson on how to play something must provide all the details in audio, note by note, with fingering and fret information. Not surprisingly, many sites do not do this, relying on pictures and
diagrams for some of the details, which is frustrating. One has to decide for one’s self of course whether there is enough information provided, given your ability to identify notes, fingering and fretting, to enable you to get what you need from a specific
lesson or website. Finally, all the sites I am going to mention here require you to pay for their content, though some certainly provide some free material. </p>
<h2>Jerry’s Guitar Bar </h2>
<p>Probably my preferred site currently is Jerry Lambeth’s “<a href="https://www.jerrysguitarbar.com/" title="">Jerry’s Guitar Bar</a>”.</p>
<p>This site specialises generally in singer-songwriter and rock material. For example there is a lot of material by: The Beatles, Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Crosby Stills and Nash, John Fahey, Ralph McTell, Pink Floyd, America, Richard
Thompson, and the Rolling Stones.</p>
<p>There are many things to like about this site. Firstly, I have not yet come across a lesson in which Jerry skips over any details of how to play a given song. Secondly, in my opinion, the site is very accessible to a screen reader user. It uses headings
well and has a clear, logical layout. If you follow the link for “all the songs”, you have options to browse them by the following categories: free lessons, by artist, collections (usually these are for a given artist but sometimes by other features such as
playing style), by difficulty level: easy, intermediate and advanced, by bar chord usage or not, by thumb-over chords or not, by playing style, lessons with separate solos, finger style instrumental pieces, guitar courses (here Jerry groups lessons at a certain
level and playing style to form courses), tips and tricks, latest lessons, coming up.</p>
<p>Buying a lesson for an individual song typically costs between 5 and 6 dollars, with slightly harder material being a dollar or so more. For example Paul Simon’s “Something So Right”, which contains four lesson videos, currently costs $6.97. </p>
<p>If you purchase one or more individual songs, you’ll receive an email with a link to download the lessons(s). They download as zip files. When you open the zip file you’ll find one or more lesson videos, a performance play through of the video of the song
and pdf files of the tabs and chords/lyrics. Once you save them to your computer, they are yours to keep. If you ever lose them then you can email Jerry and they will send you a replacement link. If you click on a song title, included on the purchase page
is a preview video showing part of the lesson. You need to be aware that download links expire in 72 hours and you can only download a file a maximum of 5 times. Again, if you fall foul of any of these limits, you can just email them and they will send you
a fresh link.</p>
<p> Jerry’s site has an active forum. A relatively new feature is articles written by Jerry on particular topics of interest. An interesting recent one was on the science of guitar tone, which discussed the different woods used to construct guitars and the
influence these have on the sound of the instrument.</p>
<h2>JustinGuitar</h2>
<p>I haven’t gone over as many lessons from <a href="https://www.justinguitar.com/" title="">JustinGuitar</a> as from Jerry’s Guitar Bar, but with everyone I have used, Justin has meticulously detailed every note, fret and fingering.</p>
<p>To get the most out of this site you need to sign up, which is free. There is masses of material on this site, including structured courses starting from beginner and going to pretty advanced. There are also specific courses on particular subjects or musical
areas such as Blues. There are also many individual song lessons, as well as lessons on other topics such as Jazz chords on the guitar, ear training, guitar technique, guitar gear and guitar anatomy. </p>
<p>The site has an app for which you pay a subscription, and I believe also has a one-off life membership you can buy. However, I have not yet explored the accessibility of the app on IOS or Android. </p>
<p>The website is generally accessible and well structured, with good use of headings. Justin has made a huge amount of the material on his website free to access on YouTube. The main benefit you gain from using his website is structure, the lessons on his
website are logically organised, where as his YouTube entries are just linked from his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBNkm8o5LiEVLxO8w0p2sfQ" title="">YouTube page</a>, but are not organised into any structure, albeit there are thousands of them.
If you search for a guitar lesson for any well-known song from the last 50 years, there is a fair chance that Justin has covered it.</p>
<p>Whereas with Jerry’s Guitar Bar site you get to download and keep what you buy, on Justin’s site you buy access to the video on the site. You don’t get to download it. </p>
<h2>LickLibrary</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.licklibrary.com/" title="">LickLibrary</a> is another site where you need to register, but again this is free. It also contains a huge volume of material. The purchase model here is like Jerry’s Guitar Bar, you buy and download the lessons
you want. </p>
<p>In terms of detailed descriptions of how to play songs, this site is a bit more variable. On the whole it is pretty good, but the level of detail does vary a bit between different tutors. I would particularly recommend Danny Gill as an outstanding tutor.
His technical ability, very clear explanations, and general enthusiasm are very engaging.</p>
<p>This site tends to sell collections of song lessons by individual artists or bands, or occasionally it groups songs from artists with a broadly similar style into a collection for sale. It also went through a phase of recording lessons for all the songs
on some classic albums, including Hotel California and Joshua Tree. Because what you buy from this site tends to be collections of song lessons, purchases tend to be more expensive, typically around £20 for a collection for a given artist or band. But of course,
you are getting more for your money. You can also by courses on Blues, Rock Guitar and many others. There are also lessons available for bass guitar. There are loads of jam tracks and lessons in the style of particular artists, e.g. Santana or Pink Floyd.</p>
<h2>TrueFire</h2>
<p>This is another very interesting site, but in my opinion the most variable in quality of the ones I cover here. It has a wide range of lessons on many different topics, mostly on the guitar but I have seen a few for bass guitar and two for harmonica. The
variability, in my view, comes in relation to two aspects of the lessons. One is the level of detail provided about how to play songs. Some tutors are very good and provide all the detail you could need, while others tend to gloss over some details and rely
on the pictures to tell the full story. My advice would be, if you find a tutor who provides enough detail for you, use the site feature which allows you to see all the lessons that tutor has contributed. </p>
<p>There are also some lessons on more advanced classical and jazz guitar, and here generally tutors rely on the pictures, sheet music or tab to provide all the details. The other variable aspect, in my opinion, is the content of the lessons themselves. Again,
some lessons are packed with information, ideas and techniques. Others have left me feeling frankly that I have paid for more than I have got from the lesson or course. Again, sticking with a tutor who you consider provides value is a good strategy. </p>
<p>One particularly good aspect of TrueFire is how well the app for this website works on iOS (I have not tested Android). The app is very accessible, has good help support, and allows easy navigation around individual song lessons and the features of the site
more generally. The app is free, and you can use it to buy lessons from the site. Very occasionally I have had to use the “clear cache” option to get something to work on the app. On those occasions I found their support people very helpful, and they got back
to me in good time, allowing for the fact the site is based in the United States. </p>
<p>Overall, in spite of its more variable quality, I would recommend this site, not least because it covers some genres for which it can be hard to find accessible lessons. However, I would advise a bit more caution before buying than I feel is necessary for
the other sites. It’s worth previewing lessons or courses if you can, and checking reviews.</p>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>All sites listed offer great ways to learn guitar and are mostly accessible using a screen reader. Jerry’s Guitar Bar and JustinGuitar offer the most detailed and consistent lessons, with Jerry’s website offering you the ability to download and keep lessons
to listen offline. </p>
<p>LickLibrary and TrueFire offer a huge range of content and genres at the expense of the description within their lessons being more variable. TrueFire also offers an accessible iOS app. </p>
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<div>
<h2>Note from the editor</h2>
<p>Also check out Bill Brown’s “<a href="https://www.musicvi.com/store/guitar-by-ear/" title="">Guitar by Ear</a>” courses and lessons, which have been designed specifically for VI learners. These are available to purchase as downloads or on CD and are covered
in more detail in a separate <a href="https://soundwithoutsight.org/hub-articles/bill-browns-music-for-the-blind-audio-described-instrument-courses/" title="Bill Brown’s ‘Music For The Blind’ audio-described instrument courses">
Knowledge Hub article</a>. </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://soundwithoutsight.org/accessing-online-guitar-tutorials-with-a-screen-reader/">
Accessing online guitar tutorials with a screen reader</a> first appeared on <a href="https://soundwithoutsight.org">
Sound Without Sight</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="https://soundwithoutsight.org/accessing-online-guitar-tutorials-with-a-screen-reader/">https://soundwithoutsight.org/accessing-online-guitar-tutorials-with-a-screen-reader/</a></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">David Goldfield,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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