Hard Bop And Boogaloo

I received more than one email this past week asking about where things were headed with my Practicing Blues Guitarist series. One person wrote, "Is there somewhere in all of this that addresses playing changes over jazzier...

February Album Writing Month is over. I'm pleased to say I "won" for the eighth year running, which means that, along with around  2,500 other people, I completed and posted my fourteen songs within the 28-day deadline. It's taken several...

Here's what happened. I was at the National Guitar Workshop one week back in the '90s when someone attached my name to a course listing on a bulletin board. I'd mentioned in passing that I could offer a one-hour elective class on blues...

So, a couple of years ago, I taught an online course I called The Practicing Blues Guitarist. I've always thought the whole trick to getting better at playing the guitar was learning how to practice better. And since a lot of what I was thinking...

Start Early, Bloom Late

I didn't drink coffee for about twenty-five years. Well, with the exception of two weeks in Italy when I drank espresso every afternoon, because after eating truck stop pasta and drinking red wine from a pitcher, it was the...

I pretty much quit performing when my kids were born. I didn't stop doing music, I just did nearly all of it in a less-than-300-square-foot room in a commercial building a few blocks east of downtown Austin. I was writing music for other people,...

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Under The Bodhi Tree

I always thought the phrase "Once more to the Bodhi Tree" was some official Buddhist quote, but a quick search, at least, does not reveal this to be so. What I know about...

My old friend Paul dropped me a line this past week to ask about books on fingerstyle blues guitar. It seems he's got a student who's worked her way through all of my Fingerstyle Guitar Method book and is looking for what to do next. I wrote back...

It being the first post of the new year, I suppose I ought to be talking about practicing resolutions, or guitar playing goals, or something like that. In theory, I'm certainly a fan of the reboot, the dramatic plan, the epic self-styled makeover,...

On some level, last week's post about saxophone giants Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane represented the antithesis of everything I imagine Fretboard Confidential to stand for. That is, it's been a long journey from baffled and insecure jazz student...