I met John Knowles, C.G.P., when I was maybe 23 years old, so we've known each other a long time. For the past ten years, he's been telling me to come check out CAAS – the annual meeting of the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society, also known...

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Improvisation Manifesto

About three months ago, I was sitting around playing guitars and talking too much with my pal Bret, as I often do. Sometimes...

The great jazz guitarist Gene Bertoncini once observed, “I think I’m like most guitarists in that I like almost any kind of music played on the guitar.” I know I’m the same, and yet you know the snag: when there’s so...

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...

Mission Control

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...

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...