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There is a classical guitarist named Gerald Klickstein who has recently put out a book called The Musician's Way published by Oxford Press. The book is not a technical manual tailored for guitarists but it is perfect for ANY musician. The goal is to teach musicians how to think divergently to solve ...

Learn to use your fingers to pick. The idea behind playing Chet's music is that his thumb plays a bass note, then skips up to hit some chord tones while his fingers are playing a melody. It's too much for just a pick and too much to even chicken pick (which refers to the specific technique of holdin...

Segovia scales are just supposed to work on your shifting. That's why they cover so much of the fret board and move up some strings on the ascent and down different strings on the descent. They are not boxes to play with when you solo or anything like that. Just a way to practice technique.

If you only look at charts that show you "shapes" then you won't ever learn anything. What you need to do is learn the theory behind chord construction and then learn the fingerboard. That way, you'll be able to see the best voice leading and all of the inverstions and things that go into a chord pr...

I agree. I did that for a long time. Everyone has at some point or another. But a real improviser hears it all first because they relate the notes to the chord and understand the function of the note. And they do this at the speed of light.

I waited a little over 4 years to learn notation. Its worth it. Just do it.

You should learn notation, period. I think (I hope, anyway) that Tab is on the way out and everyone will need to know how to read. If you can read music, a whole new world of music is open to you. With that said, start with scale patterns that only go up to the 5th and learn them in all keys. Then, ...

fuck... any time you see one of these: know that I typed the number 8 and then closed my parenthetical statement and wasn't trying to make a happy face with glasses.

The melodic minor scale (as well as harmonic minor) are used to make a minor passage have a stronger resolution. If you play a major scale, the half step from scale degree 7 to scale degree 8 makes the scale want to resolve. If you play the scale and stop on 7, there is no question as to what comes ...

Thats cool of Mike. Ayler is mind blowing.

Coltrane is amazing. Lately, I've been really into some of the lesser known guys that Coltrane respected a lot. Namely, Albert Ayler and Sun Ra.

word up on that

Thats fine and all. The quote from "Straight, No Chaser" was cute. But I still wouldn't call him anything special.

There is no reason to practice that much a day. You could probably pack all of what you're doing into 5 hours or less. Aspiring classical musicians don't even practice that much as BBB said. There is simply no reason to and the risk of injury is far too high. Don't practice so damn much. The only re...

I don't even think Cullum is a great piano player. When I think of great piano players, I think of Bill Evans.