On Saturday afternoon, I rolled up to the Yarborough branch of the Austin Public LIbrary, and as I walked in, I realized with a start that I had possibly been back only once since the pandemic, if that, and then maybe only to finally return some stack of books I'd been holding, penalty-free, since before the world shut down.

Libraries were in heavy weekend rotation when my kids were younger; we had favorite branches to visit for certain books (like the fabulously oversized 365 Penguins at the Carver branch, which also had beanbag chairs) and were particular fans of the main branch downtown, which was always tight on parking but had the kind of wide, imposing main staircase and hushed, interminable upper-story stacks that make me feel all is still well with the world.

They eventually completed a new central library close to the river and the first time we slowly ascended the spiraling ramp leading up through the various atria, meeting rooms, media facilities and such my daughter turned to me and asked, "Do they have any books in this place?"

The Yarborough has a pretty good music section, but after making sure you could still check out books with your driver's license in the absence of a library card, I eventually found myself taking home a half-dozen books on writing nonfiction. It could have been books on lawnmower repair – I was just in the mood to learn more about how something is done.

As it is, by yesterday afternoon I already knew which one of the six I'd really wind up reading, but sometimes you just need to kick the tires and figure out which approach is going to work for you. Which is the cool thing about libraries, and, to a lesser extent, used bookstores – you can take chances, cast a wide net, and toss back all the metaphorically mixed fish you don't actually need.

It is also the reason for things like my recent live streams on Youtube – the three Groove workshops last week and yesterday's "Key To The Highway" preview and Q&A session. There are a gajillion ways to learn guitar out there. The least I can do is offer you a few hours' worth of tire-kicking to see if the way I teach and the things I cover are up your alley.

However, like library books, those live streams are not on offer indefinitely. They'll be moved inside the Fingerstyle Five membership later this week, as we get started on this fall's material: "Key To The Highway," the Fingerstyle Orientation class and my live reboot of "Six Steps To Playing Fingerstyle Blues in E."

For now, though, you can still find them on my Youtube channel, and you can still download the PDF, which has been updated to include the tab for two versions of "Key To The Highway" that I'll be teaching in October:

Key To The Highway Preview on Youtube

Download the Updated Tab

Two notes: 

1. The tab for "Key To The Highway" starts on page 10 of the PDF.

2.  I know it's the Central Library, but more often than not still find myself referring to it as the "main branch," which I realize is an oxymoron.

More soon,

David