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The original Twelvemonth Music website was launched in 2004, a couple of years after I resumed work in earnest on projects in music education that I had begun many years before. This website was launched in 2009, and was initially designed as a shortened and simplified version of the original website. In June of 2020 the initial design was abandoned, and this website became a vehicle for the ordering and delivery of mp3s of rhythm guitar music, and an introduction and portal to the four other Twelvemonth Music websites, which are described below. The considerable content of these websites — three music manuals, each with an extensive complementary catalog of music, and charts and chord docs (innovative learning tools) for 780 songs — are the result of my lifelong commitment to making learning about music and learning to play music more accessible, more affordable, and more rewarding.

http://schools.twelvemonth.com

This is the original Twelvemonth Music website, which has not changed materially since it was launched in 2004. It includes An Introduction To Visualinear Tablature, the guitar notational system I invented around 1974 that subsequently became the basis for the two music manuals, each with a complementary catalog of music, that are featured on this website. Melody Guitar is a general introduction to the study of music, and a guide to playing melodies on the guitar. The Guitar Ensemble Core Catalog is a collection of 190 guitar ensemble arrangements, the e-scores for which make for a fascinating music learning experience. Rhythm Guitar is a comprehensive course of study in rhythmic (chord-based) styles of play on the steel string acoustic guitar. The Rhythm Guitar Core catalog is a collection of 160 rhythm guitar arrangements with accompanying study notes that detail how best to go about playing the music effectively. This website also contains the Articles, a collection of 12 essays detailing my philosophy of music education.

www.chartsandchords.com

Long before 2011, when this website was launched, I had become convinced that the innovative music learning systems I had advanced on the original Twelvemonth Music website were unlikely to gain traction. My extensive efforts to generate interest in my work in academia and in local schools and music studios were completely unsuccessful, mainly owing to an intransigent commitment to staff notation in all of those venues. And it occurred to me that most individual learners (amateur musicians) would tend to be resistant to such in-depth courses of study, and would likelier be mainly interested in learning to play popular songs. The Popular Music Catalog featured on this website is a collection of 120 songs, most of which are widely considered to be acoustic guitar icons. The charts and chord docs for these songs make it possible to learn to play the songs in only a fraction of the time it would take otherwise. The Compatibility Catalog, which was added to the website in 2016 and which also includes charts and chord docs for all the songs, is a 144 song collection of popular music spanning numerous decades and several styles and genres of music.

www.dlstieg.com

This is a unique musical artist website that combines my work as a music educator with my work as a singer/songwriter/guitarist and as an arranger and performer of cover songs and public domain songs. I completed the recordings and the charts and chord docs for the 15 album 180 song D.L. Stieg catalog in January of 2011. In January of 2015, not long before the launch of this website, I completed the recordings and the charts and chord docs for the 8 album 96 song 2014 catalog. Since then this website has been expanded by the addition of a third music manual (Acoustic Guitar Chords), a third catalog of 168 song accompaniments that were inspired by my work on Acoustic Guitar Chords (the Progressions Catalog), and a fourth catalog of songs (the Twelvemonth Catalog), which as of June 2020 numbered 6 albums and 72 songs. All together, the music on this website comprises 43 albums and 516 songs (344 originals, 136 covers, 24 Christmas carols, and 12 cowboy songs), all with correlative charts and chord docs that allow for learning to play the music efficiently and expeditiously.

www.politicalrock.com

This website, launched in May of 2020, is devoted entirely to my four albums of politically-themed music (Political Rock I-IV). The lyrics are reflective of my center-left political persuasion and of my conviction and hope that the political climate in America can be improved dramatically by the influence and actions of people of conscience and political goodwill. This website features free charts and chord docs and an mp3 player with the full length recordings of the 18 songs from the four Political Rock albums that have been released commercially on my Greatest Hits albums. Also included are an mp3 player for 16 additional songs, as well as complete catalog listings for the four Political Rock albums that include links for Introductions, lyrics, mp3 excerpts, and ordering options for all the charts or all the chord docs for each album.

D. L. Stieg, Founder
Twelvemonth Music