Remember what happened in the last lesson? We looked at how every major scale has a set of ‘native’ chords that are built only from the notes of the scale, and therefore fit pretty well under melodies made from the scale. This time we’re going to move on pretty quickly and add three more thingsContinue Reading

When people start writing their own songs, they often get stuck because they don’t know which notes and chords sound good together. It’s great when you can write a fully formed song by ear, but in reality we usually have to take simple ideas and work at them… swapping chords around, trying different alternatives. ThisContinue Reading

If you’ve downloaded Denny Ilett’s fantastic new ‘Jazzin’ the Blues’ package, you’ll be hearing a whole new sound for Jam Track Central… SWING. Swing was the pop music of the 1930s and 1940s, and both jazz and blues players absorbed influences from the swing style. The primary blues player associated with swing is of courseContinue Reading

Most people play their first solos using the minor pentatonic scale, usually with a simple ‘box’ shape. Here’s the most common one, showing the A minor pentatonic at the 5th fret…   The great thing about box shapes is that you can move them to different positions, to suit the song you’re playing. For aContinue Reading

It’s a scary thing, but we all have to face it at some time. You’re jamming with friends, just taking it easy, when someone goes… “Hey, go on, take a solo!” Oh noooooo! Don’t panic, though. We’re here to help, and it doesn’t have to be too scary. We’d all love to be Guthrie Govan,Continue Reading

We’ll be absolutely honest… we can’t make you play like Guthrie. We can show you some cool licks and explain the theory, but we can’t recreate the years and years of practising, listening, composing, recording, experimenting and everything else that have made Guthrie the player he is today. What we can do is show youContinue Reading