So why is the Pentatonic Scale the Pentatonic Scale? How does it magically fit in so many scenarios and how does it work so well over so many genre's of music? Penta is Greek for “5”, Tonic is short for “Key center” or “First note of a scale”. Ess ...
Jazz is complicated due to the crazy Extended Chords and the fact that it changes keys all the time. This will be a series of blogs that will talk about how to spot keys and how to treat them in soloing and rhythm playing. The ii-V-I The ii-V-I ...
Playing along with songs is such an important skill. It is a lot of fun, plus it can really help getting your timing together. A way to start doing it is to start assigning parts of the song we hear to the rhythms I went through. The drum beat is ess ...
So we want to actually play along with a song in CAGED chord shapes. Why? To get a better idea of where chord tones are, where arpeggios will lay on top, to see things in one position instead of sliding all over the neck, to see how our chords ...
I sit in with a lot of bands and people. I'm constantly asked to play a song that I've never heard, with people that do know the song. It can be intimidating! Having a grasp on some theory concepts, common song structures and some listening skills, y ...
Capos are a tool and just like any tool, has it's own purpose and place. Some people use them as a crutch and I think for certain players, that's okay too. If you're just starting out, then yes by all means, use the capo on fret 3 and a play a G chor ...
What guitar player doesn't like a new toy? New guitar, new amp, new pedals... the reality is that while that may inspire you to play more, it doesn't matter in the bigger picture. Guitar players tend to think that without the latest gadget they're mi ...
This is a follow up to my "Know Not Memorize Your Fretboard | Steps" video lesson. In that video I talk about using the dots to learn the 6th and 5th string to learn half of the notes on the guitar neck (6th and 1st string are both E, so once you kno ...
They're the same fret, but why would I call something a Bb instead of an A#? Why are there two names for the same note, same chord or same scale? The basic answer is when spelling out a scale, each note name gets one degree... not two. There is ...
What you can do with licks is virtually limitless: changing the first/last note, playing with the rhythm and even changing what beat you start the lick on will give it a different feel (more on this on my blog “Phrase Development”). But one of the co ...
