Hello All!

So I have been a little MIA the last few weeks because I have been in the middle of big move out West! I will be camping out here for a while enjoying the California sunshine and cool vibe.

I have lots of musical friends out here and will be doing a lot of production and touring from here for a while.T he look of my VEs and welcome messages is a little different now - right in front of my work station/studio.

Hey Gang!

As the title says, I am hitting the road again this month and actually I am writing and posting this note from the Delta Airlines Lounge at LaGuardia Airport in NY heading up to Detroit to play with Fourplay tonight!

After this my travels will take me to California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, NJ, NY, Rhode Island, & Florida! I will be with Fourplay, Jazz Funk Soul, and also I am excited to be presenting the CD "BOP" which I have mentioned before. It is a great lineup of contemporary Jazz Artists playing their favorites fromthe hallowed Bop era - tunes by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk and more. The players include Jeff Lorber, Everette Harp, Harvey Mason, Brian Bromberg, Rick Braun, Till Broenner, Eric Marienthal, Randy Brecker, Brian Dunne, and fellow AW Prof John Patitucci! We will debut it at 2 shows of Big Band concerts at The Berks Jazz Festival April 14th & 15th which is where the project was born.

The greatest thing of alll about it is that all the proceeds from the sale of the CD go to The PKDcure Foundation to find a cure for Polycystic Kidney Disease. Jeff Lorber and his family suffer from this genetic condition, and it can be very serious and even fatal.So, when you pick upyour copy you will enjoy the music AND support a great cause at the same time!

Buy it here: http://artistshare.com/v4/Projects/Experience/343/462/1/Jeff-Lorber-BOP?v=2 or on iTunes.

Here is the LOTW which deals with V7 chords inserted in a melodic line. Hope you dig it!

Have a great time with your journey to jazz guitar and please have patience with me if it takes me a while to respond to your vids.... and it may be from a hotel room or an airport ehan I do it ;-)

Seeya 'round campus,

Chuck

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick hello and welcome to The Jazz Guitar Crew! 

I am off the road for a short spell & working on several recording projects: Fourplay's 25th Anniversary CD "Silver", a wonderful project wit Eric Marienthal that includes fellow Prof here at AW John Patitucci and drummer par excellance Byron Landham, a new CD from my favorite singer Carmen Cuesta and a few other things...

So here is a new short Lick Of The Week with a slight alteration, and there are some nice new VE's up for you all to check out.

Keep 'em coming and many thanks!

Chuck 

Hello Jazz Guitar World!

So I am heading out to LA to try and snag a Grammy and wanted to get this message out before I ship out.

Here is a new lick of the week based on the first four bars of a blues in Bb.

Cross your fingers for me on Sunday night February 8th!! 

See you all soon around campus!

Chuck

Hey Everyone!

Of course I want to wish everyone a very Happy 2015 full of good health, happiness, prosperity, and of course an abundance of Jazz guitar ;-)

I want to thank everyone for the well wishes on the Grammy nomination, and ask you all to keep your fingers crossed for us on February 8th!

Hello Jazz Guitarists All!

I want to say HEY! Welcome all the new students, and wish everyone all the very best for the Holiday Season.

I got some very nice news for my birthday and an early Christmas present, and I want to share it with you all.

Hey Guys!

So, I was up in Northern California, pretty close to AW headquarters playing with Fourplay a couple of weeks ago, and my good buddy, band-mate & fellow ArtistWorks Prof, Nathan East and I headed up to Napa to visit. While we were there we made this Greeting Message.

We play a part of a song of mine that we recorded and perform wih Fourplay called "Sonnymoon", and I would like to include that as this week's "Lick Of The Week".

Hello Jazz Guitarists One & All!

So I am in between tour dates at home for 3 or 4 days and my next tour takes me out to California with Fourplay.

I will be visiting ArtistWorks headquarters while I am there so my next greeting message will be from there. 

So because I usually do my Lick Of The Week in my greeting message, this time I will take a different tack.

Bill aka BBLegrand has been so kind (and industrious!) to transcribe some ideas I recommended to him in a VE and I am posting one of them here as the LOTW.

Thanks Bill!!

Please take any part (or all) of this and use it the same way that I recommend always: learn in one position and then try and play it in as many different areas of the neck as you can find.

Also - try applying it to improv on one of the play-along tracks too!

I will be checking in to see how you're doing with it!

Best to all,

Chuck

My trajectory towards jazz improvisation began roughly when I was about fifteen years old.

Before then I was steeped in the world of rock, blues, pop and folk music. I would teach myself guitar by listening and copying songs and licks from my favorite artists. I ruined my fair share of vinyl records this way - dragging the needle over the same spot until I got a particular phrase or chord progression under my fingers. I also took an occasional guitar lesson from local teachers, and annoyed my older sister's guitar playing friends until they would show me their licks.

But then one day I heard some music playing in the local record store. The music had the sound of a rock band, but with these other-worldly rhythms, and an amazing array of new notes!

"What is this?!?" I asked the owner of the shop. He told me it was a new record, Inner Mounting Flame by a group called The Mahavishnu Orchestra, led by the amazing guitarist John McLaughlin. I went home with a copy under my arm. 

Hello and Welcome!

Back from Japan and off and running again!

Here's LOTW 8!

Keep the great vids, comments and forums coming!

Yours Guitaristically,

Chuck