How to Solo over Circle of 5ths Progression

In this lesson, we’ll look at how I created a solo over a circle of fifths chord progression. We’ll look at the chord tones and modes that I am using so that you can work out how to create your own solo improv ideas. Here’s the chord progression: Here’s the solo with a description above […]

Libertango by Piazzola

Astor Piazzola was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. One of his most famous pieces is called Libertango which roughly translates to freedom tango. We’ll look at the first part main melody and […]

Understanding Jazz Chords

In this video we will look at what the Latin jazz chords are in a major key. We will also look at how these chords are constructed and give a few examples of common jazz progressions. For this example, we’ll explore the chords in the key of C major. We derive the chords in a […]

How to Improvise with Chord Tones on Guitar

  We’re going to look at the start of Manha De Carneval and use chord tones to do get you thinking about improvising. Chord tones will give you a starting vocabulary of notes you case to improvise with. This lesson will help to famillarise you with where along the fretboard you can find certain chords […]

Agua De Beber Guitar Bossa

Água de Beber by Antônio Carlos Jobim This song was featured on the album  The Composer of Desafinado, Plays released in 1963. The title means “Water to Drink”. Music written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. The song was inspired by a walk that Jobim and Moraes were having in the governor’s house in Brasilia looking for somewhere […]

Guitar Tips for Intermediate Players

With many years of teaching and performing experience under my belt, I have found that there certain exercises that have improved my guitar technique the, most. In this video I’ll show you what these exercises are and why they are important. Pressure As you get more advanced your hands will become stronger, it takes time […]

Desafinado Bossa Nova Guitar

In this lesson, we’ll look at the first half of Desafinado by Antonio Carlos Jobim (full version available for LGM Members below). The Bossa Nova pattern will be as follows with the bass note on beats 1 and 3. We start with F maj7 with the bass note on the 6th string, this is over […]

Lesson 4 Picado: Beginner Course

Our next lesson will involve practicing picado or rest stroke. Picado is used for melodic passages and scale work. It’s important that the right hand fingers are always walking or alternating. Keep practicing this walking as talked about in lesson 2. Here are some exercises and scales to practice your picado. We will put picado […]

Top 5 Mistakes Guitarists Make

Counting down my top 5 mistakes guitarists make. Note that these mistakes are not entirely just guitarist mistakes but are still very important things to try and improve on: 5. Right Hand Organisation I often see guitar students pay a lot of attention to their left hand but not enough to their right-hand work. It’s […]