Why Does a Jazz Guitar Teacher With No University Post Still Livestream Every Sunday Night?
There was no faculty position waiting, and for a long stretch there was barely an audience — some nights just three or five people, sometimes none at all. Here's why the stream kept happening anyway, and what 'passing it on' turned out to actually mean.
Why Does a Ballad Ending Chord Sound Like a Tritone Substitution That Isn’t One?
The #ivm7b5 chord you hear right before a jazz ballad resolves isn't technically a tritone substitution — but it shares the exact same upper-structure triad as the tonic 6 chord it comes from, which is why it behaves like one anyway.
Why Do Your Comping Chords Sound Empty Compared to Your Solo Lines?
A bare triad sounds full and confident in a solo line, but hollow the moment you use it to comp behind yourself. The missing ingredient is the guide tones — the 3rd and 7th that actually tell your ear which chord you're on.
Why Do Jazz Guitar Teachers Make You Play Only Down-Picking First?
Down-picking only, for months or even years, is not old-fashioned discipline for its own sake — it is how you build one consistent attack before you ever add a second direction. Here is why jazz guitar teachers withhold up-picking, and how Wes Montgomery's own technique proves the same point.
es a Jazz Guitarist Actually Do All Day?Wes Montgomery Said He Never Practiced. So What Do
Wes Montgomery said he didn't practice, he played — and for Wes it was true. For the rest of us the honest routine is simpler than you'd guess: transcribe, then learn tunes in layers, forever.
How Did Wes Montgomery Build a Solo? Single Line, Octaves, Chord Solo — One Arc on Gone with the Wind
Wes Montgomery's solos climb in three layers — single line, octaves, chord solo — and land back in chord melody. Transcribing that whole arc, not one chorus, is what teaches his technique.
ange a Pop Song as Jazz? Hear the Melody in the New Groove FirstHow Do You Arr
To arrange a pop song as jazz, hear the melody inside the new groove before you touch a chord. Drums set the genre, but everything moves with them — and bebop and funk are closer than you think.
Is There a Secret Method in Private Jazz Guitar Lessons? No — The Path Is the Same, the Coaching Isn’t
Private jazz guitar lessons don't hand you a secret curriculum — the path is the same one in any good course. What a teacher adds is diagnosis: pointing at the one thing you should fix this week.
How Do You Make a V Chord Actually Pull? Put the Target a Half Step Above It
A dominant chord only pulls when every voice has somewhere to go. Take the voicing you would play on the tonic, place it a half step above the V chord, and let all of it resolve chromatically.
Why Don’t Jazz Guitar Licks Make You Sound Like a Jazz Player? Because Tunes Have Melodies
A lick is a chord progression with no melody attached, and that is exactly why it never sounds like jazz. Learn tunes melody-first instead, and the notes you choose start having a reason.
Stop Being Popular? It Didn’t Die — It Stopped Being PopWhy Did Jazz
Jazz was America's pop music and its Cold War export. Then studio technology, Miles Davis, and the teenage record market moved pop elsewhere. Jazz didn't die — it moved to the same track as classical.
re Does a Jazz Blues Actually Need Dominant Function? Three Spots, Not Twelve BarsWhe
Every chord in a jazz blues is a dominant 7th, but dominant function lives in only three places — bars 4, 8 and 12. Play the upper structure there and rest inside the tonic elsewhere.
There No ‘George Benson Line’ or ‘Grant Green Line’? Because Wes and Django Are the BaseWhy Is
George Benson and Grant Green don't need their own 'line' — both are built on the Wes Line and Django Line. Learn the one fingering difference and the right-hand habit that separate them.
Is Swing Just a Shuffle? No — Here’s How to Feel Two Against Three
Swing is not the dotted-triplet shuffle written in most method books. Swing is two and three felt at the same time. Learn the clap exercise that builds it and the records to listen to.
Why Do Wes Montgomery Transcriptions Sound Wrong When You Play Them?
Most jazz guitar transcriptions get the noteheads right and the guitar wrong — wrong positions, wrong voicings, wrong concept. The reliable sources are the recording and the line's underlying logic.
How Do You Comp a Jazz Ballad Without Sliding Into Double-Time?
Ballad comping stays grounded when it is built from the harmonized melody. Keep the tune audible on top, leave the roots to the bassist, and let the soloist set the rhythmic agenda.
Do You Start a Jazz Phrase on Beat One? No — You Land There
Beat one is where a jazz phrase lands, not where it starts. Aim at the 3rd of the coming chord, arrive on it, then travel toward the 7th and set up the next 3rd.
Why Did Wes Montgomery Say No to John Coltrane?
John Coltrane really did invite Wes Montgomery to join his band, and Wes really did decline — saying, with typical humility, that he had nothing to contribute. The full story touches McCoy Tyner's account, the guitar's strange position in jazz, and why the sounds Coltrane's band chased were already living inside Wes's lines.
Jazz Blues From the Voicings? Find the Dominant Function FirstHow Do You Solo Over a
Every chord in a 12-bar blues is a dominant 7th, but only a few carry dominant function — bar 4 heading into the IV, the V chord, and the turnaround. Hear those moments, then solo from the voicings themselves: minor upper structures on the I and IV, a half-step slide into each target, and the Wes Montgomery line through the 2-5.
How Do You Fill the Space Between Chord Tones? Connect the 3rds First
To fill the space between chord tones, build the skeleton first: connect the 3rd of each chord, cross through the 7th on the way, and fill the remaining gaps with scale notes — saving the target note for last. The melody of Fly Me to the Moon is built on exactly this mechanism, which means the fill notes were never random.