An Operator's Manual for Guitar

Like most beginning guitarists, I dream of being able to effortlessly “trade licks” with other players, switching freely between rhythm and lead, and creating beautiful melodies on the fly. Rhythm (accompaniment or “comping”) and melody (lead or soloing) are far more intertwined than you might think. Both require that you truly and thoroughly understand (i.e. KNOW) basic scales. I believe that both are utterly dependent on knowing, really KNOWING at least the minor pentatonic scale and a few chord/arpeggio shapes. [Read More]

Contrary to what I thought when I first started, the blues are far from simple! Even though the blues uses just three chords, the reasons behind them all being dom7 chords, for example are pretty complex. Things really get interesting when people like Brian Wilson or Ornette Coleman get involved. Still, a 12-bar blues almost always follows roughly the same chord changes. It usually moves to the IV chord in bar 4, for example, then back to the I in bar 6, and has some sort of turnaround in the last four bars. [Read More]

Nobody improves without practice, regular practice. But too many people (myself included) unconsciously start to dread (and thus avoid) their practice sessions. I believe this happens for just two reasons: motivation and time.

[Read More]

Hopefully our exploration into minor pentatonic scales wasn’t too exhaustive. We are going to speed up a bit as we delve into the major pentatonic scale. This isn’t because it’s any less important (far from it) but rather because all of the study methods we’ve already covered are equally applicable. It’s basically just rinse and repeat, but with a different set of five (or six) notes in a slightly different shape.

[Read More]

Let’s wrap up our look at the minor pentatonic scale by looking at some of the “between” notes, especially the b5 note that lies between the p4 and p5 (known as the “blue” note).

[Read More]

Let’s continue our discussion about the frying pan shape. Things become even more fun when you realize the same shape exists all over the fretboard.

[Read More]

This post discusses The Frying Pan, which I consider to be the ideal first scale shape for a beginner to study when learning how to solo.

[Read More]

What better topic for the first post on my new guitar site?

Almost everyone who’s ever picked up a guitar knows good ole “box 1” of the Am pentatonic scale. What could possibly be wrong with that as a starting point?

[Read More]