Bebop For Beginners

Both. Swing-era guitarists soloed on acoustic archtop guitars right up until Charlie Christian plugged in in the late 1930s. Mainstream jazz guitar (and its country cousin, Western swing) has been amplified ever since, but you can hear the influence of earlier acoustic guitarists like Eddie Lang, Carl Kress and Lonnie Johnson in the playing of more recent musicians from Dan Hicks and Tony Rice to Matt Munisteri and Julian Lage.

So even though we think of swing soloing as primarily an amplified sound, the style has serious acoustic origins. Which only matters for context; once you learn these scales and licks in this style, you can do whatever you want with them.

You don't. Classic swing-style soloing was originally played with a flatpick, or standard guitar pick, so if your main interest is to emulate that style, a pick will help you come closest to that sound. But you can play these licks with your thumb (Wes!), use a combination of thumb and fingers (Chet!), or even adapt them to fingerstyle blues.

No. The Reliable Source workshops are a new and separate series, and their focus on swing and jazz soloing and rhythm guitar are complementary to but distinct from the Fingerstyle Five's focus on solo blues repertoire and fingerstyle technique.

You don't have to be part of the Fingerstyle Five membership to take this workshop. If you are already a member of the Fingerstyle Five, you will need to register and pay separately for any Reliable Source workshops, and they will have their own separate location in your Fretboard Confidential library.

Nope! Each of the three workshops coming this spring is designed to stand on its own.

However, these three workshops are designed to be cumulative: if you understand how the swing version of the blues chord progression works, you'll find it easier to start improvising over those chords with the combination of blues and major pentatonic sounds I refer to as "the swing scale." And once you understand the essence of how swing musicians solo on the blues, you'll be better equipped to start incorporating bebop elements like altered and chrcomatic tones into your playing.

Yes! If you sign up for all three workshops at once, you'll save $40 compared with what it would cost to sign up for each on individually.

To get this discounted price, go to to the registration window below and enter your email and payment method. Under that, where it says "Get all three workshops for $197," scroll down and click the box to "add Reliable Source bundle." Your payment should now indicate a total of $197 due. Once you've completed your order, you should receive an email with login information and all three workshops should appear in your Fretboard Confidential library. (Please note that the Swing Scale and Bebop For Beginners workshops will not actually take place until May 20th and June 24th, respectively.)

You can! You can sign up for just the Bebop For Beginners workshop for $79, OR you can pay $197 for a bundle of all three workshops, which gives you access to the Freddie Green live stream, the Swing Scale live stream and the upcoming Bebop For Beginners workshop. When you choose the bundle, you'll save $40 off the total price, too.