Kyle 
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
Learning how to do modes is high up on most jazz guitar players to-do lists. And it seems like a good idea, too. Lots of good players talk about learning scales and modes – so it’s probably a good idea to learn about them. And modes are an important part of playing jazz. You do … Read more
What if I told you jazz guitar chords could be simplified? That you don’t need to struggle or have a PhD in music theory to understand how chords work? Now on the surface, chords are one of the most overwhelming parts of learning jazz guitar. Tricky finger patterns that feel unnatural to your hands. Chord … Read more
Learning how to play jazz chords can be intimidating for guitar players. Especially at first. There are a lot of numbers and symbols you might not have seen before. And if you’re mostly used to playing open chords… … things like Eb, Db, Gb are going to be kind of scary. I get it. This … Read more
Pentatonic scales are a guitar player’s best friend. And for some good reasons: Guitar players from all different styles love to play pentatonic scales. But most of them don’t really have the full picture. Even intermediate players usually only know how to play one, maybe 2 of the scale shapes. And they’re missing out. There … 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
Shell chords just might be the most important thing for new jazz guitar players to learn. Sometimes I’ll have a new student that needs to learn jazz guitar fast. And shell chords are the first thing they learn. And for a good reason. Shell chords just sound good. They’re easy to learn, and they’ll be … 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
Sometimes it’s hard to know how to get into jazz guitar. Especially if you’re already pretty good at a different style, like rock or blues. I’ve heard from some of my older students that they always wanted to get into jazz – but it just seemed too intimidating. That there’s too much to learn. They … 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