Best Guitar Scales for Blues Soloing

Fri, 04/10/2015 - 3:51pm
Written by KeithW

Gotcha! That title would definitely have captured my attention when I began to get seriously interested in playing blues guitar.

Among my first inspirations was the initial wave of British guitar heroes (plus Hendrix, of course), and after painfully roughing out a few solos by ear I found what seemed to be the common ingredient: the minor pentatonic scale.

jimi hendrix soloing

When I began to gravitate toward traditional blues, I thought that it must just be a different scale blend – mix the minor pentatonic with the major pentatonic and add a flat-five now and then – but my attempts to turn scales into legitimate-sounding blues solos never seemed to hit the mark. At the same time, I noticed that traditional blues guitarists never mentioned scales – if they talked about their playing at all, they would usually say something mysterious like “I just play what I hear.”

I was confused: If blues solos don’t come from scales, then where do they come from? 

It took a while, but I eventually figured out that “play what you hear” isn’t vague at all – it’s a literal prescription for how to play blues.

A Musical Life in Photographs by Martin Taylor

Mon, 04/13/2015 - 7:35am
Written by MartinT

This limited edition photobook includes over 200 photos capturing the life of the GRAMMY nominated guitarist Martin Taylor from his early years growing up in the British Isles to his success as an internationally acclaimed touring and recording artist.

There are many behind the scenes photographs documenting his collaborations with Stephane Grappelli, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck, Bill Wyman, Jamie Cullum, Tommy Emmanuel, Barney Kessel, Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Emily Remler, and many more.

This book is a unique photographic insight into the life of an extraordinary musician.

To order your copy go to: http://martintaylor.com/photobook/

Andy Hall on Dobro Legend Tut Taylor

Wed, 04/15/2015 - 10:31am
Written by ArtistWorks

tut taylor with dobro

We are sorry to hear of the loss of Tut Taylor, who was known as the "flatpicking Dobro man." He was an influential player on ArtistWorks Dobro instructor Andy Hall who has written a nice tribute:

"A little note about Tut Taylor, the flatpicking Dobro man. I was saddened to hear of Tut’s passing the other day, and it brought back a flood of memories. Tut was the first hero Dobro player of mine that I ever met. It was at Winterhawk bluegrass festival which went on to become Grey Fox. He was giving a very informal Dobro workshop with Pete Reischwein if I remember correctly. I sat right next to Tut on the ground and listened to him play. I was very familiar with his playing from Aereoplane and from Norman Blake records. We all know that feeling of being close to a player you’ve heard and look up to for the first time. At one point I walked with him up to his camper and we sat and talked and picked a bit. Incidentally that was also the first time I ever went to bluegrass festival. He was always welcoming and for a young player that so huge. So inspiring. As far as his playing, I think using a flatpick made his style so clear and un-cluttered. It was simple but powerful and really stood out. His sound is forever woven into the fabric of some of the most influential bluegrass music ever made. So grateful for you Tut!"  - Andy Hall

Jazz Guitar Scales and Modes: What Does It All Mean?

Fri, 04/17/2015 - 2:18pm
Written by JakeHertzog

Aspiring guitarists often hear about the importance of guitar scales for learning how to improvise. In jazz in particular, we so often hear things like "scales go with chords", "we have to practice scales", and "which scale goes with DMaj7#11(add #9)?" – but what does it all mean? To become fluent musicians and improvisers we must develop our understanding of all guitar scales to a high level, but let's first look at some fundamentals.

In the lesson called "Introduction to Constructing Scales" from the Online Jazz Guitar School with Chuck Loeb, we have a very helpful review of how guitar scales fit into the scheme of things. Chuck goes over how to build a major scale, which as he mentions, is paramount because we relate all other guitar scales to the major scale. Ex 1

guitar scales exercise 1

Jason Vieaux Discusses Classical Guitar Recordings

Tue, 04/21/2015 - 2:48pm
Written by ArtistWorks

Jason Vieaux, fresh off his GRAMMY win, was in the ArtistWorks studio recently to record new Sor studies (among other things) for his online students. You can see a list of the new classical guitar lessons below, but while he was here we also took some time to discuss recordings from some of the 20th century's greatest classical guitarists. We showed Jason some records which we like to listen to in the office and recorded his natural reaction. You can clearly see how much this music means to Jason, and how influential many of these classical guitar recordings remain to this day. 

An update from Europe

Sun, 04/26/2015 - 10:15am
Written by andreas

Hey all,

A little update from the road. I just spent 4 great days in Switzerland writing w DJ Antoine for his next album together w Mad Mark and Yannis. Antoine is a huge name on the European DJ scene with a string of hit songs like "Ma Cherie" and he is also a judge of the German Idol show. 4 exciting songs were created together and it was a great hang  

This week I also had another Nr 1 in Japan (my 11th total on the single/album charts combined), this time w the boyband Johnny's West. The mini album has sold around 80k so far during the first week and there's still a shot a gold record. The song "Party Maniacs" that I co-wrote is included on the album. Glad it finally found a home!  This week I also had two songs on the 1st mini album by the Korean band "Oh my Girl". Thx to my hard working publishers partners in Japan, Germany and Korea. More 2 come soon, now back to the studio :)

Have a great Sunday!