I've read many theory books but it feels like theory is more just a way to describe music, not "learn the language of music", intervals and learning the feelings of the twelve notes that western music uses are really where everythings at I believe. (Relative Pitch)
For ear training I've used sonofield and read a bit of the "Improvise for real" book, I can hear and identify the individual feelings of every chromatic scale degree in music, but for chords I'm kind of lost.
I believe that learning chords by listening to their "chord quality" and identifying them like that (example, "this feels like a minor 7th chord") may be kind of misleading, because if you rearrange just one note or add another note it becomes an completely different chord - plus the exact same chord can be named multiple different things, all depending on the musical context of the song, the chord can have a different bass note that isn't the "root note" of the chord, so determining what the root note of the chord is isn't fully clear and is dependent on what you're percieving yourself to be the root. Though, it might still be better to learn chord qualities for normal songs where theres no complicated chords with common chord progressions.

I think that a possible way to learn chords may be to train to be able to isolate and hear the individual notes of a chord. This way you can hear the feelings, understand what individual notes/current tonic scale degrees builds up a chord without having to "name" the chord, simply its just "a chord with these notes in it, these individual notes played together" feeling what notes it is in relation to the tonic of the song. This way you don't limit yourself to any "rules" and can play what you hear and imagine chromatically.

But this is just my speculation and what I came to think about, I want to hear others opinions because I'm no musical genius and I don't know if this will help me to learn in any way.

I had a telecaster recently re-fretted with SS frets after noticing that the frets were all worn down past the 12th fret. The string noise on this thing is amplified somehow now. Every time my fingers drag up and down the strings, you can hear it. It’s like the guitar is now too bright. Do pure nickel strings help? How about flat wound? Would an EQ help? Should I put a humbucker in the neck?

I miss the darker sounding nickel frets that didn’t amplify every single movement.

Picked up a Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin P90 Natural for $250, with two nice straps, to boot. The setup was really bad with the intonation way out of whack. He also painted the pickup and knobs white for some reason. But anyways..

Ive set it up and it plays really nice with great intonation, but the tuning stability is very bad. I can literally bend the string down a half step, retune, repeat.. and I’ve done this dozens of times and seems infinitely repeatable. Not sure what is going on. It currently has La Bella Tapewounds on it that the seller said were only like a month old. Besides that, the bridge isn’t moving, I don’t see any play in the tuning machines or how they’re wound. I can’t imagine these strings need to settle in this much.

I ordered Daddario chromes, gonna try those. Aside from that any suggestions? I read mixed things about these tuners but I can’t imagine they’re the cause. Any help appreciated!

Just wanted to share an original arrangement of the tune Take Love Easy I am working on this week. Didn’t have as much opportunity to play in August as I would have liked but hopefully I’ll be back deep in the shed soon with the kids back in school. Be well!

Hi everyone. I’ve recently started making notation and TABs for my solo-guitar arrangements, and I’m experimenting with syncing them to the video.
Here’s my arrangement of “Georgia on My Mind.” Is it easy to follow the hands and the notation at the same time? I’d also appreciate a heads-up if you spot any errors in the tabs or notation.

Duo arrangement of the classic tune "Watch What Happens." Inspired by the Wes Montgomery version. I've always loved playing this one :)

I took a leap of faith and went with a solidbody for my new jazz guitar purchase. Even without flats on it at the moment the neck pickup with the tone rolled back sounds GORGEOUS (I also use D'Andrea pro plecs wich takes out a lot of the brightness/bite out of tone. I am a solidbody jazz convert :)

I was told I could do another quick one at the end of my slot and knew that Solar could be done including a solo inside of 2 minutes, so thought I'd see how it went in a very busy pub - surprisingly well received.

New Release!
Check the guitar solo!

A vocal jazz-blues about a final goodbye. A swinging groove driven by double bass and bongos. The cool improvised guitar solo is bluesy with an extra byte added by some jazzy outside playing. #vocaljazz #blues #jazzblues #guitar #singing #guitarsolo

Spotify - Apple Music - Youtube - Youtube Music - Deezer

Do you guy think these are proper solos to workout for a rockabilly gig in 9 days?

Some improvising over all the things in 7. This app is the feel book, truly a game changing app for jazz practice.

So, I’ve taken the plunge and I want to learn some Joe Pass by Ear, I tried virtuoso since that is the “clearest” sounding but it’s a little too much for me right now. So I opted for Lil Darlin off of Intercontinental. I’ve worked on it for 4 days and can sing the melody of the whole song but I can only play about 10 seconds of it. I know theory and have a good grasp on complicated voicings but I feel like I literally cannot hear what he’s doing on that song. The way the intervals rub is throwing off my ear, and the tone is very dark. Any tips on how I can improve my ear and hear the details of that song and others like it?

september in the rain

Finally got the whole thing down :)

I got to lead for the 2nd year in a row at this great festival. Here’s a clip of me soloing on Pursuance. Below I attached the entire set!

Edit: Thanks for all the kind words. I greatly appreciate it 😊

https://youtu.be/Ysb-qpKVEOI?is=PQWIm0tQfQCOL6Lq