The Real Reason You Get Lost on Guitar

[00:02:22]Thank you.

[00:03:16]Christmas day.

[00:03:26]This one.

[00:04:19]All right, guys. I'm just having some fun here. It's Saturday morning. It's been about 10 days since I've seen y'all. Oh, man. I had a crazy trip to the West Coast. Spent some time in the Redwood Forest and down in San Francisco. And I've got some great buddies down there in different parts of town. really cool little areas. Um, one's in Pack Heights, one's in the sunset. Um, and I've got some other friends down kind of in Russian Hill area. Um, I've been out there enough times to just uh know my way around enough to get in trouble, but man, what an amazing place. I know a lot of you guys are going to say, "Man, San Francisco, it's such a dump. The homeless population is out of control.

[00:05:09]The politics are insane. It's like all these things everybody says." Okay.

[00:05:12]Well, I'm going to tell you from my experience what what what this uh area is like. and then we'll get into to some guitar stuff. But I just wanted to check in with you. I do have some thoughts on how to not be guesting on the guitar.

[00:05:24]That was a little song uh the window that we did with Uncle Larry on in stereo.

[00:05:30]I'm out of tune. I got to get this guitar inated.

[00:05:35]It's not playing perfectly in tune.

[00:05:40]Not terrible, but it's not great either.

[00:05:42]Uh got to get your guitars worked on, man, all the time. constantly getting them set up and and inonation tweaked and they're they're wood they move around especially the newer ones they can move around on you changing into season to season cold you know warm dry wet all that stuff but guys look man I went out there to the Bay Area which I've been out there a bunch of times and I've been to the redwood forest I've been to Mirwoods big basin uh Athetherton Palo Alto Santa Cruz I've been all through there I've never really been to uh far northern California like um uh Humbult County and all that. I've never been up into that area. Uh but I've been uh pretty, you know, good tour of the of the of the area of the Bay Area and um I got to say, man, you know, I don't know who the new mayor is out there, but I think he's doing a really good job. The homeless uh situation is is a lot better. Um there's still the tenderloin where it's a little funky down there, of course. A little funky.

[00:06:39]It's a lot funky, but um but man, the rest of the town, it's it's great. I mean, there's nothing crazy going on out there. It's just um man, my experience is great people, amazing food, tons of stuff to do. Uh all these cool little areas, incredible drastic vistas, uh the coastline, the Golden Gate uh bridge, the the bay, Alcatraz, you know, the uh get up on the Twin Peaks and look out over the entire city. It's incredible, man. The food scene is amazing. Uh everything's just grander out there. I I just feel like growing up in the south, you know, we have the Gulf of Mexico, which is awesome, of course, and then we've got um we've got uh you know, the rivers and stuff around here, but I mean, and we've got the mountains, we got the Smokies and everything, but out there everything's just more kind of uh it's the Wild West. It's more rugged. I think the cliffs are, you know, more drastic going right into the ocean. Like if you've seen if you've ever been to Big Su and all that, it's just man, it's awesome. And not to mention the redwood trees. I mean, some of these trees are, you know, uh I think one guy said that one of the trees was like almost 2500 years old. There's at least a handful of the trees out there I know are like 11-,500 years old. 11 to,500 years old.

[00:07:59]So, I'm just out there walking around these amazing redwood trees. I mean, it's just if you haven't seen the redwoods and the giant sequoas, I mean, it is absolutely something to behold.

[00:08:10]It's like it's like I guess it would be like diving with a blue whale, you know?

[00:08:15]It's just it's one of these things that you got to experience. Uh I've never seen the Grand Canyon in all my years of touring around the United States. I've never seen the Grand Canyon, but I can imagine that's pretty cool, too. Um but those trees are spectacular and and the the experience I had out there was absolutely top-notch.

[00:08:33]Uh there's all that. Um lots to catch up on, man. There's a lot of work going on.

[00:08:36]I'm I'm building a nice team here. We have a a lot of uh background stuff going on. Uh new websites, all this kind of stuff is always churning in the background. It's like I wake up every day and go, "What can we do to make this better?" And you guys are going, "Why don't you get a real camera?" Uh well, that's not going to change because I can I can do these videos fast on my iPhone and and it sounds good and looks good enough. Brett, we leave the high-end video stuff to Brett Papa. Um, so you know, we've got the acoustic record coming out and, uh, I think I can confidently say that the acoustic record with Jed Hughes, Tom Bukavak is going to be released July 1st. I mean, that's coming up in like a couple weeks. Uh, happy Father's Day to everybody tomorrow. Uh, that's going to be a big one, of course. Um, you know, big happy Father's Day to all you guys out there.

[00:09:24]Uh, but yeah, make a note of this July 1st available on Band Camp. It's gonna be the acoustic record with me, Tom Bukavac, and Jed Hughes. And I gotta tell you, I'm super proud of this record. The music on this record is going to blow your mind. I can say that because I'm onethird of the project. So, I'm not just bragging on myself, but the the the the music on this record is it's you are going to love it. You're going to love it. Um anyway, there's that.

[00:09:56]There's the new Brett Papa course is is uh in the works. We keep working on that. You know, of course, you start these things and they just they keep evolving, right? So, we're working on the course and then the big goal is we're going to start a membership platform towards the end of the year and that's my ne that's going to be one of my next uh big big projects. We've got some new GT trio songs coming out for you. Uh one I did acoustically with Sam Griezmann who's David Grisman's son on the upright bass. And then another little track I did with I say trio, it was really not the trio. It was me and Matty Alger and a couple other um couple other guys on there. Um but we got some new music coming out. So I always say we can't just do social media without doing the thing. Uh talking about doing the thing and doing all the things that lead up to doing the thing are not doing the thing. doing the thing is playing a gig or recording uh uh some music uh original music in a high level uh professional studio environment. To me, those are doing the things. Doing the things are taking these things that we're working on and presenting them in a professional way. That to me is the end goal with all this. So, um we've got Trapped in Nashville, the workshop. I've been going through the master list of every everything that we're doing. I mean, it's it's crazy all the schedules and the whole thing that we're doing. I mean, it's it's it's a lot of damn work.

[00:11:20]I will tell you that. It's a lot of work, but it's going to be worth it.

[00:11:23]We're sold out. We've got a hell of a waiting list going into 2027.

[00:11:29]H if you guys want to join the waiting list, just um email [email protected].

[00:11:36]Check out the website trappedinashville.com.

[00:11:38]We're getting the website pretty up to snuff. We got some work to do on it yet, but but it's it's live and it's getting there. All a work in progress, but we we want to do everything right. We want to do everything on a high level. We we want to maintain a a very high level of um of professionalism and integrity. And that's what I have built my whole career on is good music, good people, um you know, no halfassing it and just um and keeping that keeping that thread going uh through our lives. And it's it's it seems like it's working. And so if it ain't, you know, we say in the south, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. All right, guys. Look, I want to show you a couple things on the guitar and then I'm going to get out into the into the day. It's a beautiful day here in Middle Tennessee in East Nashville. Um I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff to catch up on.

[00:12:26]There's been some crazy things. Uh went and saw Pat Burgess the other night. I I think I'm going to put a couple clips of Pat Burgess uh up. might not be at the end of this video because I'm running out of time, but but in maybe in the next day or so, I'll put up a couple clips of Pat playing at Jolton Hardware.

[00:12:42]It's a hardware store about 25 minutes outside of town towards Clarksville. And it's literally an old hardware store in a strip mall and they sell beer and they have music. And we went, me and Jack Rouch went out the other night and went up and heard Pat Burgess, Charles Treadway, and Bob Harson on the drums.

[00:12:59]And uh Pat is one of the most talented human beings I've ever seen in my life.

[00:13:02]He's a great friend. He's a worldclass musical talent. He's a he's a freakishly good uh guitar player and an and a world-class harmonica player. Uh and so just when you think he's blowing your mind on the guitar, he grabs the harmonica and and and it's just the greatest thing you've ever heard in your life. So I'll put some of those clips up there. Um other than that, man, everything's great. We're heading to Scotland in August uh for a little workshop with uh with the guys over there, Eric Johnson, Mike Stern, Greg Caul, Tom Bukavac, myself, Brett Poppins coming along along with the GT rhythm section, Jordan Pearlson, and Tim Marks.

[00:13:38]Um there might be a spot or two open left for that. It's called Guitar Dreams, and we're looking forward to that, too. So So, okay, so here's here's what I'm saying about about Stop guessing. I I see guys that I'm showing the chord shapes to and they're they're I'm trying I'm trying to show them a little line, you know. Um it could be like um you know, like just um you know, if I'm playing in the the the key of D in the A shape, I might try to get them to do something like this where your your note leading up to the major third.

[00:14:12]and they want to play, they're playing every single note except the one that's right under their fingers because they're guessing. And this I see this all the time. And so there's a very easy way to not guess. Uh, of course you have to hear this. The better your ear is, the better you're going to be as a musician. Um, that that's bar none. No question about it. the better you can hear this stuff and the better your ear is, the better you're going to be.

[00:14:43]There's no question about it. But these little intervals hearing, like if I'm on a note and I want this sound, you know, I know that that to go back a half step is going to give me that major third.

[00:14:58]Oh, sorry, E.

[00:15:02]Right. If I'm in D, let's go to D. So I can play the open string. I know if I want to go that G, that sus, I know that that interval, that half step is going to give me that sound. I know that if I want to go from A to the third of D, I know in my mind and with my hand that that's that move, that whole step is going to land me where I want to go.

[00:15:37]whole step, half step. Right? If I'm here, I know that going up, I know that going back a whole step from the root is going to give me the the the the flat 7. That's my dominant seven sound.

[00:16:00]Those little things like that.

[00:16:02]I know that that whole step pentatonic then flat three.

[00:16:10]Right? So, you just you're you're you're going to learn that what you're going to learn what the muscle memory feels like to obtain the sound that you're going for.

[00:16:22]And this is the mechanics of this a little bit more. It's it's hearing it, but it's also feeling and being confident of what note is going to provide you with the sound that you're you're trying to achieve, right? And so I hope that makes sense. But these are those are the those are the intervals, you know, knowing like do I want a half step in between? Do I want chromatic right?

[00:16:48]That's just a fancy way of going right.

[00:16:57]But I show something like that to a lot of people and they go, "Well, you know, they're they're they're hitting they're just shooting literally throwing uh uh uh darts at the at the map. There's no uh they're not seeing the framework yet.

[00:17:15]And so this is extremely important. The way to not get lost on the guitar, and I'm going to I'm going to say this till I'm blue in the face. You guys are probably going to get real sick of me saying this, but I say it because I know it works. I'm not trying to go to the next trend or the next thing or whatever. I'm sticking to this method for for life because I see that it's working. Uh it worked for me when I was a kid. I've talked to hundreds of other musicians that are that are my favorites and and professionals that I look up to.

[00:17:45]Uh and we're all thinking about this the same way. Sure, Pat knows a bunch of theory and can play the out of Bbop jazz, but he's also thinking about it the same way, playing over chords. When the chord changes in the song, your your lead playing changes with those chords.

[00:18:02]When the notes in the chord change, those exact same notes are the ones you play when you're playing lead. You're just using the scale to keep the intervals more interesting than just the arpeggio. But you have to have the foundation. This is absolutely crucial.

[00:18:19]The foundation that I talk about and the hand position for these chords is absolutely critical in your pursuit of of guitar, your journey on guitar. Because without the foundation, you can't build the house. And the h the chord is the foundation. Whether it's major, minor, or dominant, those are your three sounds. You can throw major 7 in there, but that's major. So major, minor, dominant 7. That's it. So you've got a G major chord that all this is are those notes organized in a way that presents a nice sound. G major. You're just using um you're playing a cordal way, which are the single notes grouped together, right? Instead of it's that's a chord. So of course you know that. But um as we dive into this, you know, even more, the guitar has a lot of duplicates. So when you play this big chord, there's a G there, there's a G there, there's a G, there's a D, there's a D. Your only third is right there defining major minor. Everything else is a a one and a five, right? So there's a lot of repeating going on.

[00:19:33]Every chord, every note in this G chord is in this chord, this chord, this chord, this chord, and that G chord. All the G inversions contain the same notes.

[00:19:41]They're all just repeating. If I play the major scale here, you know, if I start here, if I start here, uh, you know, it's just all the notes are on every one of these strings, but the way the guitar is tuned, you're just starting at different spots. That G there doesn't happen on the B string until up there.

[00:20:14]Doesn't happen on the G string till up there. But we've got we've got them all over the place. Uh sorry here.

[00:20:23]You know, they're everywhere. So, just trying to throw a lot of this like fundamental stuff at you. But back to the building the house analogy. This is where you're going to be able to stop guessing, which I know I'm titling this video that. So um the chord is the foundation.

[00:20:40]Then the first level of framework, it's extremely sequential. It has to be sequential. That's the thing with all this, guys. You know, I'm pushing up on you a little here. I get fired up and intense about this because I know that it works, but you have to plan the work and work the plan, right? So G major, here's your arpeggio. root third fifth root third fifth root second octave first octave second octave but just because I play this chord with my first finger we're not going to start the arpeggio on my first finger we have to be able to steal that third from the open position otherwise I'd have to grab it right up there well that's the D shape so I'm out of position so I need to start so have I have everything right there under my finger so I'm going to start with my my middle finger then the pentatonic Then the major scale.

[00:21:36]That's the first octave. If you want to keep going, it's all right there in sequence, right?

[00:21:47]Chord, arpeggio, pentatonic, major scale. If I go to minor minor pentatonic uh sorry minor arpeggio, we'll just flatten the three. But we're not going to go there because that's o that's another shape. Uh that's open, right? You would never play G minor down there really, you know, but you're going to steal it from here to stay in the right hand position. It's all about the the the being in the right hand position because if you're playing one note with one finger, that puts me in a completely different spot. If I play that E note with a with my first finger, these fingers are ready to go here. If I play it with my little finger, they're ready to go here. So that's why the chords and the hand position is ultimately crucial.

[00:22:38]Okay, check this out. Minor Now, minor pentatonic.

[00:22:46]And here's the minor scale. I like just add the A. It gives you this that nice minor nut sound.

[00:22:56]Okay. Now, here's the full octave up both octaves.

[00:23:04]Here's the pentatonic.

[00:23:09]Here's a scale.

[00:23:16]Okay. Now, dominant 7. You don't get a pentatonic for dominant 7. So, you get the chord, the arpeggio, and the major scale with the flat 7.

[00:23:32]Instead of that, you're you're flatting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 flat to seven. That gives you the dominant seven sound because that's the note that changes in the chord. So all we're doing is emphasizing the notes in the chords that change when we're playing lead guitar. We're playing the same notes. We're targeting the same notes. So um it does take some time, but this is it. So of course, what would a video be in East Nashville without the train, right? Okay. So here's your there's your arpeggio. Here's your scale.

[00:24:09]You can see it contains the root, the major third and the flat 7 are our crucial notes. Of course, the fifth as well, but mainly the the these are our money notes, right? So, go to C7.

[00:24:29]Play the same scale in C, the C dominant seven scale.

[00:24:36]Go to D7. Play the D dominant seven scale.

[00:24:44]Go to F7. Same thing.

[00:24:48]So it doesn't matter.

[00:24:53]Doesn't matter what chord we go to.

[00:24:56]You go right to that. If I'm going from some weird change, if I go to G7 to B flat, I'm going to just play out a B flat. So, it's not anything that you're missing as far as any secrets. It's literally know the information around the chord with those three sounds. And when the chord changes, you outline the chord and you listen and you you're able to start creating melodies. You have to know the song. Uh you you know you you need to know um what some basic um chord relationships are. One to the four, you know, the five chord. You have to be able to navigate through the blues to be able to play melodically over other kinds of music. to me uh that's extremely important because those tensions and releases are the are what all this is built on um to begin with.

[00:25:54]So there's a little bit of my Saturday afternoon now at this point um thoughts.

[00:25:59]And so um just you know I constantly am waking up and wondering how can I share something with you that's going to mean something? How can I eloquently or somehow in my Alabama public school system uh lack of education I can uh convey some of my uh things that I've learned over the years to you guys? Um but other than that, man, everything's good here. I'm Last week was a mother uh trying to get back to being caught up after being on the West Coast. Yesterday I did t tons of lessons and tons of of uh planning and phone calls and meetings and stuff for the uh workshop and these other things we got going on. But um that's what we do. We just say yes. We work. We do it. And uh and we don't flake out. We don't we don't you know the communication is good. We try to keep everything that we're doing here on a high level. So um thank you guys so much. You know who you are. Sorry for all the rambling. Um hopefully you got something out of this. Um, and I just look forward to seeing you guys soon, hopefully tomorrow. Have a great Father's Day. Check the links below. Hit the tip jug if you're feeling inspired.

[00:27:02]Check out all the things I offer on my website as far as private education, the mentorships, uh, the immersions, and of course the workshop, and everything that we're doing. I'm getting all this under my umbrella to have creative control.

[00:27:14]I'm not on True Fire anymore. Uh, artist works is is is kind of still there, but that might be changing. Also, uh I'm taking control and doing all this on my own. So, it's just going to get more boutique and more dialed in as we go. Uh again, friends, thank you so much.

[00:27:31]Really appreciate it. And uh I'll see you guys soon. Have a great weekend. All right. Bye.