“It’s on the AND OF 3” Ok, ok. I get it. My teacher of (many) years ago was shouting at me (again). Granted, he wasn’t wrong. The lick came in about halfway through the third beat. No problem! Right? Wrong. Look. You learn a song 3 times. 1. By yourself, with the recording. 2. With the band - you play with them and fulfill 80% of the recording (80% accurately is great!) 3. In front of an audience. Ahhhh yes. Add the element of people, time and place…and you have the secret recipe to life as a musician…

The secret chords inside each pentatonic box. E minor pentatonic = G major pentatonic Same scale and finger patterns Homework: play thru both pages, calling out each circled note as “E” and each squared note as G. Play the chords in that box neighborhood by forming the grip with your fingers, saying the name, then running the scale. Run the scales ascending and descending. I find my students do the best when they have mindful practice - saying the note, and thinking about what’s going on in that box. 5 minutes of this mindful approach is better than 30 minutes of mindlessly running scales Lmk if any questions

I’ve been playing guitar since about 1995, starting with a cheap Yamaha acoustic I borrowed from my grandfather. Of course, a fine Albany High student made sure to steal it the first time I brought it to school. My early days were a mix of library chord books and learning bar chords from friends just so I could hack my way through REM and Nirvana songs. . From there, it was hours of "play, rewind, play" on a cassette deck, painstakingly dissecting tracks by the Pixies, Nirvana, and U2. I took private lessons for the last two years of high school. No tabs. By the time I was in college, I could play easy songs by ear on command—or at least get close enough to fool a crowd. In my mid 20s I took lessons from blues legend Scotty Mac. He refused to write anything down. He’d sit across from me, show me these beautiful blues or jazz licks, and send me on way with the LP or tape to listen to at home. Those licks stuck with me for years. Fast forward to now. I’ve been trying to patch the "self-taught holes" in my playing by tackling the legends—Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Queen. But I’ve noticed a frustrating pattern: I can spend an entire afternoon on a site like Songsterr, grinding out a solo until I’ve got it at 90% speed. But if I step away for two weeks? It’s gone. My brain resets, and it’s like I’m starting from scratch. Contrast that with a random Clapton riff I caught once on MTV back in 1991. I don't even know the title, and I haven't heard it since. But because I spent thirty minutes figuring it out by ear 30 years ago, I can still play it perfectly today. So, what gives? There’s that saying—**what comes easy won’t last**. Tab-based licks I teach in lessons, maybe 5 student requests a day, don’t last more than 5 minutes in my brain. It’s basically “Hey Andrew show me the licks or chords to this song”. We pull up the tabs, I help the student and by bedtime, the lick is gone. When you're just following numbers on a screen, the music doesn't sink in; it’s just a temporary shape your hands make. It’s a finger exercise, not a permanent skill.

Computer broke while recording a version of “Stormy Monday Blues” as featured in “In Session” album with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King - for student Dana G!! Computer died when I was just warming up 😂 Key of A flat.