Sometimes when I play guitar, I just jam to a drum track. Other times I like to figure out a new song and play along with it. I have a couple of tools that I use to learn to play, but one of my favorites is Capo, an application for Mac OS X. I can’t read music, so I rely on tablature and my ear to guide me. The tabs at Ultimate-Guitar.com are usually pretty accurate, but sometimes they can be wrong. That’s when using Capo comes in handy.

You can slow down the song and figure out the notes and chords that are being played. Sometimes, it’s a pretty fast process, other times it takes quite a while.

The most important thing is to have fun playing. I like the feeling I get when figuring out how to play a new song myself.

Learning songs also gives you insight into chord changes and scales — sometimes you don’t even realize how much you’re learning. Malcolm and Angus Young from AC/DC are two of the best at this, which is why I chose one of their songs for the video.