The mixolydian scale is an important part of your jazz guitar toolbox. It’s an essential part of being able to play lines over the blues, and other essential jazz guitar chord progressions. This scale pops up just about everywhere in jazz – it’s hard to find a song where you don’t need it. Dominant 7th … Read more
Key centers are kind of an old-school way to approach jazz improvisation. Used correctly, they make your life easier. By giving you one scale to play over a progression, key centers let you think less. And listen more. It’s interesting to me. Because this was actually the first way I learned to improvise – back … Read more
When I started learning about different types of scales for jazz guitar, the dorian mode was one of the first things that popped up. No matter where I looked, people were saying this was one of the most important modes to learn. And there were also mixed messages about how to play it – or … Read more
5 Common CAGED System Problems for Guitar – And How I Solved Them CAGED system is a powerful tool for guitar players – if you know how to use it. You see, CAGED gives you a framework for creating any scale, chord, or arpeggio. And it’s also a helpful navigation tool for playing all over … Read more
The CAGED system is a common topic among guitar players – whether you’re into jazz guitar or something else. Some people love it, some people hate it. But just about everybody uses it. Let’s take a look at why the CAGED system is important for jazz guitar players. The CAGED system is a way of … Read more
The Circle of 5ths is an important tool for understanding music theory. So at some point, you’re going to want to know how it works. You see it everywhere – In the beginning of guitar books, music posters, and on chord progression charts you might pick up from Amazon or your local music store. In … Read more
Lots of students feel like they need to learn more music theory if they want to play better jazz guitar. In fact, it’s one of the most common things new students ask me. Especially if they’ve been playing for a while and they feel stuck. But most of the time, they don’t really need to … Read more
Mastering Intervals for Jazz Guitar At some point as your guitar skills improve, you get interested in music theory. And one of the most basic pieces of information you can find is intervals on the guitar. It’s natural to want to dive into the nuts and bolts of how our musical tools are put together… … Read more
If you’re a guitar player, you’ve probably heard of the CAGED system. You might have heard it in passing, and wonder what the big deal is. If you’ve been looking for ways to simplify your learning process, it might even seem like the magic bullet that will take your playing to the next level. There … Read more
Honestly, knowing the notes on the guitar fretboard was something I took for granted at one point. When I started learning jazz guitar, I didn’t know that it was important to know the notes on the guitar… I just did what my teacher told me to do. This led to me “just knowing” where the … Read more