Office Hours, Q&A

Question 1 from Mateus was about bending up to a note, then doing vibrato while staying bent, though it took me a minute to fully understand the question, I gave some good general pinky tips on the way there.

Question 2 from Ethan was pretty straightforward: "Are there more CAGED Basics II lessons coming?" And the answer is yes. Very soon.

Question 3 from Monster Zit was about how much time to spend on lessons: commit everything perfectly to memory or get the concept?

Question 4 from Ronnie was about the CAGED system. I launched into a mini lesson about one of my favorite CAGED concepts laid out in CAGED Soloing and the improved NEW CAGED Soloing, found here.

Question 5 was from Brock, who wanted some tips on how to get cleaner sounding notes from the guitar.

I explained a fun little mode exercise that I like

Office Hours, Q&A

Question 1: Leo was looking for methods to find the key of a melody.

Question 2: Conor wanted to know when to move on to the next lesson AND what, in my opinion, are the fundamentals of music and also the fundamentals of guitar.

Question 3: Sean was looking for tips to keep ideas organized.

Question 4: Will was working on figuring out chords in a key in the CAGED System and basically stumbled upon some stuff that I'm laying out in my New CAGED Soloing series.

Question 5: Tasha was looking for tricks to feel inspired to write music.

Question 6: Gregg was looking to expand soloing range - I strongly recommend CAGED Basics I and II

Office Hours, Q&A

Here are the timestamped questions from this week:

First off, some stuff fell on me, so that was fun.

The first question, was from Leo, who asked about singing and playing, but more specifically about "playing through a mistake." We got into a good discussion about it!

The second question, from Graeme, was asking why we play guitar in the left-right orientation that we currently do, as opposed to playing "left handed." I do not know, but I made a guess.

The third question was from acrvr who was essentially asking about how the guitar seems to be laid out in a "V of V of V of V of V...." kind of format.

The fourth question was from Tim, who asked wether it's best to lean into or try to avoid writing from a comfort zone where you tend to keep writing similar things.

The fifth question from David, was about how a capo affects things on the fingerboard.

MJ asked the sixth question: "what makes a voice suitable for singing?"

That was it! If you have more follow up questions or relevant info related to any of these questions, feel free to get involved on the community forum.

Office Hours, Q&A

Here were the questions for this week - please excuse the occasional mic malfunctions - I'm working on fixing that!

Question 1: Andy was wondering which CAGED Shapes are best for 7th and 9th chords. I talked about it a bit, and recommended both my Interactive Scratch Paper and my Rubiks Cubelessons to get comfortable with each CAGED Shapes' 7th chord possibilities.

Question 2: Wasn't really a question, but Mark wanted to show off a guitar project with jumbo frets! Looks great! You can see the post here, too.

Question 3: Trevor was hoping to troubleshoot some pedal noise problems. I gave a few tips, but if anyone has tips for Trevor, let him know in the comments or community forum! Also, please report back if you've made some progress, Trevor!

Question 4: Riccardo was curious if I prefer oldschool pedals and amp or newschool amp and pedal modeling box (like a Helix) directly into a monitor or something similar.

Question 5: Mathias wanted to know what to practice for only ten minutes a day. I launched into my soapbox routine about how you HAVE to be specific about your goals, or what to practice won't make any sense. And a lot more helpful advise.

From there we kind of had a discussion about practice in general. It was great, despite the occasional mic malfunctions. I'll get that fixed for the next stream.

If you have follow up questions, or for this stream in particular, if you, Trevor, find the noise issues in your pedal board, please let us know in the community forum.

Office hours, Q&A

Question 1: Mateus was curious about how to make an improvised melody sound like the chords are changing when there is no backing track.

Question 2: Mr K wanted to know if I have any advanced guitar setup tips. I launched into a little lesson about what your truss rod does and got into a few other little things.

Question 3: Kyle wanted to know if the classic blues riff we're all familiar with has a name. I don't know, but I went into a detailed lesson about Maj6 chords and how they relate to bass lines, rhythm guitar, and ultimately back to this riff.

If you have any follow up questions or want to continue the discussion, come hang out on the community forum.

Office Hours, Q&A

Another great stream with great questions, here they are, linked to the specific spot in the stream where they are addressed:

Question 1 was from Greylight, who wanted some ideas for how to stay focused on the current lesson rather than bouncing around. Or, to put it another way, how do you know when you knowthe material?

Question 2 was from Mr K, who was wondering what steps might be involved in setting up a guitar to be tuned a whole step higher! We discussed a few of the risks as well as comparing and contrasting what situations you'd simply just capo on the 2nd fret vs actually tuning your guitar higher. I also mentioned "Mitchell's Abrasive Cord."

Question 3 from Other Person was about how to practice as a beginner/someone coming back after 20+ years. As always, I ask Other Person for some more specific goals before I map out a little practice diagram (attached below)

Question 4: was curious about buying Kontakt software - it's great software, but make sure you can't get that stuff from Logic Pro X.

Question 5 as some point D Walker was curious about the software people use to remove different instruments from a track. I don't know! Does anyone know? Feel free to comment about it or send a link in the community forum.

Question 6: MJ was hoping for chat's recommendations on Tele's or Jaguar's in the Squier realm. Do you have a recommendation?

Question 7: Juan FM was wondering if there is always some sort of frustration or if the beginning phases of guitar are just inherently frustrating? When will there be more lightbulb moments?

Do you have follow up questions? Want to continue one of the topics mentioned here? Come hang out on the community forum.

Office Hours, Q&A

This was my first stream from my new studio in Orange County, CA and it was a good one!

The first question was from Martin, who wanted some advise about how to prepare for a jam session with another guitars, a pianist, and a drummer and bass player.

The second question was from Graeme, who was wondering how to branch out with practice time while working on CAGED Soloing.

The third question was a combination of Sean and Tim's questions about how to differentiate a verse, chorus, and bridge. It got a bit etherial, but it made me think we should spend some time digging in on these concepts.

The fourth question from Ethan, who was wondering about sliding in and out of chord tones along the fretboard using the G or D strings.

The fifth question was from Mark, who first had a comment about a cool interval exercise to help remember intervals and note names up the fingerboard. Mark's question was about writing a melody to lyrics. So gave an example by writing a melody to his lyrics and showing my thought process.

I introduce everyone to Betty

The sixth question was from Martin again, wondering HOW to go about practicing the skill of figuring out the key of a song - Austin had a similar question.

The seventh question was from Lyn who wanted to know how to figure out the chords in the key of B flat. I gave a little example, but my Music Theory Monday series is all about that kind of stuff.

If you want to ask follow up questions or continue a discussion about any of these topics, come hang out on the community forum.