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Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time and are feeling sufficiently rested and recharged for another year of pushing your guitar playing forwards!

I've spent the past few weeks planning lessons, making backing tracks and thinking of new and exciting ways to bring fresh inspiration to you all for 2025. Although 2024 ended badly for me, I am genuinely excited to bring you a ton of new lessons this year.

Your enthusiastic comments and updates on your playing progress really bring me so much joy.. I couldn't ask for better students!

There are so many exciting lessons on the horizon; Stormy Monday lead study, Arpeggios Survival Guide & application, Essential gypsy jazz chords, more blues rhythm playing, more chord melodies, more triad application in jazz and country contexts, more must-know standards.. and that's just for starters!

You'll also see me post a couple of backing tracks up on my YouTube channel. Although I always include them in with the lesson materials, many of you had also asked me to upload them to YouTube so you can use them anytime, anywhere and on any device. I won't upload all of them, but just thought a couple of minor blues flavoured ones would be a good starting point. Patreon crew, please do head on over and leave a comment making your presence known!.. let's try and educate the guitar world on that killer Tom Waits/Marc Ribot vibe ;)

Lastly, it's time for another Q&A! So chuck your questions in the comment section below and I'll start filming a response video in a week or so!

Thanks as ever for your incredible support and thirst for knowledge. It's so rewarding to see you guys progressing and enjoying every step of the journey! 🙏🏻🧡

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Comments

Ben Biffton

I'll start then ! More a request than a question, I was hoping you'd could show us some Brian setzer stuff since he is a great bridge between blues jazz and rockabilly. I come from punk and I'm quite fan of this colourfull and rich sounds played always with a fun energy and attitude. A little fun with major and mixolydian would be much appreciated ! This said I'm having a great time learning the minor style which I love too ! Happy new year I wish you the best !

Alex Farran Guitar

Cheers Ben! Setzer rockabilly vibes are on the list for sure. Will get round to it asap! 🍻

MarkF

My goal for 2025 is to be intentional with my practice with this end goal in mind: learn to play the instrument first and foremost as a solo performer, continue to build my repertoire and build enough theory and fretboard knowledge to be able to, when someone asks “play something for me” I can just pick up the guitar and play freely not just noodle about. I look forward to 2025 and the great lesson materials on this channel to help me. Question is how should I focus my practice time to achieve my goal of learning the instrument as a solo (not lead) instrumentalist? Sorry for the lengthy question?

Daniel Baker

I am trying to learn all of the chord inversions for major 7, dominant 7, major 6 and minor 6 chords in drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4. Some of the chord inversions and string sets seem like more of an exercise in OCD than a useful trip to the woodshed. I am very interested in learning and coming up with chord melodies. When I look online, I see a lot of advice that I need to learn all of these shapes, but I very rarely see drop 3 chords bases on the A string or drop 2 and 4 chords actually used. I do not mind spending the time to learn all these chord shapes if they would have some meaningful benefit, but would they? Or am I really just learning these chords to say that I know them? I understand that greater chord knowledge gives greater options, but options that are never used aren't much of options. For a follow up question, how and when would you use drop 2 and 4 chord inversions? What would lead you to consider these shapes as opposed to a more familiar shape?

Alex Farran Guitar

Excellent question Mark, and a great goal to aim for too. I will certainly address this in the Q&A 👍🏻

Alex Farran Guitar

Thanks Daniel, I will certainly address this in the Q&A but as a quick answer right now; you’re NEVER learning these things just for the sake of knowing them. I am constantly applying and using all of these shapes and many more besides. It’s really down to you to make sure you are making these things a piece of your daily vocabulary when accompanying, or playing chord Melodies. I think the issue a lot of people have is that they’re not actually getting into situations enough where they are the accompanist or where they are playing chord Melody.. therefore your chances of using these shapes become very slim. Check out my lesson here which culminates in a chord Melody of “I Surrender Dear”.. pretty much everything is taking place with the shapes and inversions you mention; https://www.patreon.com/posts/84511854?utm_campaign=postshare_creator

Johan

I just picked up the Beatles Chord Book. I feel like my ability to analyze jazz/blues harmony is passable but I struggle with this in the pop/rock genre. Occasional pop/rock harmony study would be nice.

Marinho Del Santo

Alex and all: Happy New Year! My best wishes to all of you. First, I sincerely thank the privilege of accessing such high-level discussion and learning paths. This is a blessing. Secondly, I make myself "a favor", which reduces anxiety and brings me peace: I acknowledge my limitations, walking through the learning curve parsimoniously. Lastly, basics first. I am still learning triads and getting some fluency in shifting around. But the good news is that the path is clear; I do not doubt its importance. Fingers on the guitar, folks!

Kim Wilkinson

Would love to develop my use of intervals in chord melody. I grew up listening to Bacharach/ David songs. Would be great to see you work on something by them eg Look of Love, A House Is Not A Home, Walk on By. Happy New Year !

Zohar

Great stuff Alex, looking forward to anything and everything you share! Though working thoroughly on your lesson is much more than a week’s work for me so I am far from going through everything. Not sure if this is the place to ask, but in some of your jazz chord progression lessons you mention thinking about dominant chords as a V chord and then moving to a ii for colour or movement. My question is - is there a “user friendly” way of knowing or practicing knowing which chords would be the ii to any given V? I hope I am making sense….

Rob Brazier

Lots of good questions here already. Maybe one I’ll add: how would you approach improving speed and accuracy,’particularly in the right (picking) hand? And perhaps a related one—how much should I be committed to one particular right hand technique (bluegrass-style alternate picking for example) versus fluent with a variety of techniques? Most of the advice I find for improving speed elsewhere is rooted in “shreddy” metal riffs that just don’t appeal to me musically. I can pick up a few gems from these lessons, but I feel like learning the Alex Farran approach might be more effective!

Guy Roberts

Happy New Year Alex, My playing, hearing and recognition ability has improved vastly since I started following your lessons. I’m left handed but play right handed. That’s become much less of a problem. So thank you and let’s keep at it! One problem: I ordered your signature pickups from Sunbear. I paid in advance for them. It’s been a month and no pickups and no response from Sunbear when I wrote to them asking for an ETA. Is there something you can do? PS Three note chord voicing are a huge benefit and add a lot of speed and harmonic flexibility to my playing. Every guitar player should learn them.

Alex Farran Guitar

Thanks for the comment Guy, I’m so glad to hear your playing is progressing in the way you wanted.. amazing news! 🙏🏻 Regarding Sunbear pickups, Stu is the nicest guy I know, I have no doubt that the busy-ness of the Christmas period has slowed his response time down, (I myself am at least 2 weeks behind responding to emails/comments/messages etc!). He says on the site that the current build time for a set of pickups is 45 working days so that would be around 9 business weeks. Hang in there Guy, you’ll get them without doubt! 👌🏻

Alex Farran Guitar

Great question Rob, I have some thoughts and exercises for building speed so I’ll go into that in the response video. Have your metronome at the ready! 😉

Alex Farran Guitar

Thank you for the comment my friend, it makes me so happy to hear that you’re enjoying the lessons and the learning process! 🙏🏻🧡

Nick L

Happy New Year Alex! Thanks for all the great lessons in 2024. I’m always looking forward to the next lesson. In 2025, I’d love to see a lesson on Tex-Mex inspired country incorporating a lot of intervals.

Randy Yount

Hi Alex. Really loving the channel. This has been the most useful guitar instruction I've found. Keep it going, I'm a big fan. My question: Do you perform live or with a group?

Ron Bogdanoff

Do you have any nylon string guitars? be it classical or a 'crossover'? I have broken out the two I have (classical and a Rick Turner with the 1 7/8 nut) generally to play bossa nova. Any technique advise on nylon playing is helpful

David

Happy New Year to all guitar players on this comunity! And many thanks to Alex for all the brilliant content. Just one guitar question, do you think there is a “best neck radious” for chord melody? Or it’s just a personal preference. Many thanks!

Andrew Blackard

I would love something on combining arpeggios and pentatonics to make lines if you can work that in. Thanks for everything and Happy New Year!

paul keim

Anyone else interested in the relationship between Dim7 and b9 chords? And between 6 minor and major 7 chords. Particularly in how these sub for each other

Dan T

Happy new years Alex! I would love to see a lesson on doing some melodic soloing over a tune such as “Isn’t she lovely” by Stevie wonder

Alex Farran Guitar

Hey Andrew, sure thing, I’ll give some of my thoughts on that in the Q&A and will do a deeper dive lesson on it in the near future 👍🏻

Alex Farran Guitar

Thanks for the question David, I’ll speak about that in more depth in my response video but in short, it doesn’t matter much really and I don’t have any preference. My Gibson es175 is my favourite sounding guitar for trad jazz chord melody tones and that has a 12” radius.. But it’s not the reason I reach for it.

Julian Gurr

Happy New Gear - oh, sorry, ‘Year’. I’m clearly still struggling with Guitar Acquisition Syndrome urges evidently! I’m hoping to develop more repertoire in the swing/jump blues genre this year and would be really interested in any specific tune/song listening and learning suggestions from Alex. Thanks.

Andrew Blackard

If it suits your taste, Duke Ellington C Jam Blues is where sax players start to incorporate the ii-V-I in the third phrase of the blues. That might start you in the direction you want to go.

Gail Lipfert

I really enjoy the old-style swing tunes, so more of that would be appreciated. My question is about practicing. As an advanced beginner to jazz, I'm easily overwhelmed by all the things I need to practice (and distracted by yet another tune that I MUST learn). Any suggestions on what to focus on?

robi

Greetings and thank you for sharing the knowledge. Could you do some Jerry Garcia style lessons. Maybe take one of his tunes he played with the Jerry Garcia Band that has a simple melody and show how to play and improvise around that melody. Also could you write an original piece of music around a concept or two and use those concepts in the construction of that new song. That would give me concepts to learn and a song to play using them. That would be cool. Been watching you for a while now and just recently joined the community. I look forward to learning from you this year and at almost 69 years old I still hope to be in a band and maybe have a hit someday. Peace!

Gert De Groof

Alex, crew, may 2025 be the best one yet for all of you! I would pick your brain with a thousands questions Alex if you let me, but I’ll start with these: - can one become as good as yourself with excellent lessons as yours or should we all be transcribing ourselves? - how important (percentage?) is playing in front of an audience (which wrecks my nerves) for a players progress? - probably a weird question. I’ve always been a believer of the fact that a great player can make a cheap guitar sound expensive. So at what point did you or should one (non professional) invest in a more expensive instrument? I’ve been playing on cheaper guitars for most of my life and only recently bought 3 of my dream guitars, partly because I inherited some money and partly because I only recently started feeling as if I made enough progress on the instrument to ‘deserve’ a better one. I’ll leave it at that, so everyone gets a shot in the Q&A 😀 Looking forward to it for sure. Take care man. Burning with impatience to skyrocket my playing with upcoming lessons!

Wayne America

Hi Alex, How about a lesson focused on the simpler three note voicings. Where you demonstrate improvising over a 2 5 1 cadence.

Ron Culbertson

Noticed the comments on performing live. It’s the last part in the circle, sharing the gift you have been given. Pick up your guitar the next day after a live performance and see how much better you play. Alex I’m sure your playing on all these great lessons has made you a better player. A reward for you, sharing you extraordinary gift with us. God gives us gifts, it’s up to us to work them and then share. Nothing is easy in this challenge but it is a circle that will work. Ron

Alex Farran Guitar

Very true Ron, every time we perform we improve in some way. I’ve been gigging since I was 10 years old, toured all over the world and still do two shows per week most weeks and I never stop finding new ways to improvise my solos and parts; it’s what keeps it fun and engaging. 👌🏻 I feel that I’ve improved a lot over the years doing studio work too.. the pressure and the need to get a perfect take is something that makes you focus. Your process gets more and more efficient, the more you do it. Another form of public performance I guess!

James

Alex ... I want you to know I really, really enjoy your honesty, hard work, care, and authenticity. With so much content online I consistently find your contributions to be so rich in value. A giant wealth of knowledge perfect for me in my journey. I have noticed just recently a giant leap in my triad usage. Still a bit to go to work them into a fluid mindless expression that I can use but WOW, BIG, BIG jump recently. It's so nice to see such concentration on quality concepts. Thank you!! I always walk away inspired.

Santi M

Happy New Year Alex and all. I just wanted to see if it is just me but I find that improvising in minor blues gives more tolerance (if this is the right word) than major blues. I feel more comfortable. Is it a general feeling? Thanks for your lessons Alex

Alex Farran Guitar

Hi Santi, I'll certainly address this in my Q&A response video, but let me tell you that it's an extremely common thing. Mostly down to the level of comfort people have with the minor pentatonic.

Alex Farran Guitar

Hi Wayne, you mean using triads to solo over 2-5-1?.. that's something coming soon for sure.

Alex Farran Guitar

Good question Gail, thank you. And yes, many more old style swing tunes coming soon!

Alex Farran Guitar

Haha nice one Julian, and thanks for the Q&A question my friend 🙏🏻

Alex Farran Guitar

Thanks Robi, I'm glad you enjoy my lessons! Sure thing, I'll add some Jerry Garcia Band lessons in future. I'm not overly familiar with their stuff to be honest, so if you have a particular tune in mind, do let me know.

Alex Farran Guitar

Thank you Randy! Oh yes indeed, I gig most weekends and have been gigging constantly since I was around 10 years old! At some point in future I intend to setup a small group where I can play my own instrumental music too.

Alex Farran Guitar

Great questions Gert, thank you! All will be addressed in my response video!

Alex Farran Guitar

Thank you James, that really does mean a lot to me. I'm so glad you see progression in your playing and that you find my lessons to be inspiring! Getting those triads truly locked down is such a huge step forward! 👌🏻

J Bays

Fabulous content , Alex. La Vie En Rose … might we see that in the future ?

Brendan Allen

Happy New Year Alex! Thanks for a great year of lessons- looking forward to the next 12 months! 5pm on a Saturday is no longer just for the football results! There have been lots of great questions and requests already and apologies if someone has already asked this one, but could you give your opinion on an “essential” 4 pedal pedalboard? A range that would cover a wide range of sounds, but do it well. Thanks and all the best for 2025.

robi

How about I Shall be Released. Listen to some of the JGB from the middle and late 70’s.

Sava Kalbachou

Happy New Year, Alex! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season and were able to recharge. I cannot wait for new lessons from you! Although, frankly, there are so many of them already in my learning pipeline that it'll take ages! 😅 My question for Q&A is an abstract one about improvisation, solo and song creation: how do you choose which flavour to use when? And I'm asking not about which ingredients work over which chords or progressions (as you cover it very well in your lessons already!), but about choosing from known ones. For example, in your Dead & Lovely solo you are using a ton of cool things: Coltrane patterns (with enclosures), arpeggios, triads, blues scale, melodic minor etc. etc. And you could have used each of these at any point in the solo. So I'm curious how did you decide what to use when, in what proportion and mixture?

Manfred Stenzel

Hi Alex, happy new year! Not really a question, but I wanted to share a personal insight/observation. A few months ago I picked up the drumsticks again after not playing for more than 10 years. That led to a huge wake-up moment: 'that's what playing the guitar should feel like'. Completely relaxed and grooving, almost dropping the stick, letting the rebound work for me. Since then I've been playing on the practice pad every day and trying to transfer that basic feeling to the guitar. It's almost like relearning the songs, I've reduced my guitar practice time to 10-15 minute slots followed by short breaks so I stay fully concentrated. Of course, this is not the first time I have heard that tension and pressure should be avoided, but after learning so much about theory, triads, 7th chord inversions, etc. over the past 5-6 years, i realized that tension has unconsciously built up more and more. Perhaps you can show a few examples or other strategies that can help to play relaxed and uninhibited and thus improve the rhythm, tone, flow, speed and everything else.

Tim Wallace

If you can possibly swing it, the Beatles complete scores is an invaluable tool to have. I've been playing a long time and not only have I learned a ton from that compendium, it really opened my eyes to the genius of the Beatles. Analyzing that book could take a lifetime and these guys did it all in six years before the age of 30. McCartney's basslines alone are worth the price of the book. What he plays on Nowhere Man is nothing short of breathtaking.

Tim Wallace

You may have already done a lesson on open triads, but something as complete as what you did for your triad study with applications would be really cool. I started really incorporating these in the last year or so and they have not only given me a much bigger vocabulary but have improved by ability to see the whole neck as integrated. But I need a deeper dive, especially on extending the concept to other chord types - dropping the root and adding the b7 for example to give dominant chords. Also little tricks like taking an open C triad, raising the G to A thereby creating an Am triad. There's a ton to be mined there.

rudbin

Hi guys, the second part Gil mentioned is also my main question. Where to start with learning improvising (triads, pentatonic,..) without getting overwhelmed and where to prioritize. Thanks for the interesting and extensive lessons!

Johan

I actually bought that a long time ago. It sucks me into trying to learn the song note for note. The Beatles Complete Chord Book slims it down and makes me explore the ideas of the songs if that makes sense. I can try to analyze the progressions. Try to come up with ways to play it with one instrument or just use the progressions as a basis for exercises.

paul jacobson

My wife and I too understand your loss these holidays. Less than 36 hours ago, we let our sweet Daisy of 15 years go to Heaven. She fought the good fight , living nearly three years with feline leukemia. Every right note and wrong note she witnessed, lying on the bed next to me where I practiced. We had her for 15 years to little as I'm sure you understand. I'm feeling the sting of separation and I wanted to let you know you're not alone as I'm sure you understand. I really appreciate your mix of genres and standards. It has been helpful in discovering my own musical voice. For 2025, I would like to see more Western Swing lessons, especially in the rhythm and voice leading areas. My comping is OK but needs more development. I'm a big fan of the "Hot Club of Cowtown". I'm not sure how much interest there is in this period, but I'd sure be thankful for some more attention payed to it. Thanks and HNY!!

Charlie

Very much enjoying your lesson on the tune “Sleepwalk “. Great arrangement! Have you done a lesson on “Rhythm Changes “? I’m a newbie and like your examples and explanations. Thanks. 😊🎶🎸

Tom

Hi Alex, maybe this topic has already come up here, my question would be how you structure a solo. For short solos within a song, my imagination is quite sufficient. However, when I think of a guitar-focused instrumental piece, I find it difficult to come up with a theme that starts simple and becomes more complex and interesting over time and that I can then develop into a "climax". I am aware that you already deal with this in principle in almost all of your lessons. Perhaps you can still go into it specifically and make your process transparent. Perhaps you can even point out wrong turns that you discard for some reason. It may be that the question goes beyond a Q&A and is more of a lesson topic. I hope 2025 will be surprising and educational for all of us. Thanks to you, I have already spent a very Ribot-heavy guitar Christmas :-)

Tom

I have another question that might align better with the Q&A concept: In one of your replies, I read that you plan to form a small group to play your original music. I’d be excited to hear more about that! Are you aiming for something like a power trio? I’m imagining an upright bass and strong Reinhardt-Ribot influences!

Andrew Blackard

Q&A question: Do you use the melodic cell technique? I just recently learned of it. I bought a jazz fusion course a while back with lots of 32-bar solos that I could find no way to use at first esp over differing chord progressions. But since i started breaking them down into melodic cells (per chord) it's been an epiphany and I found dozens of 4-8 note cells that I can apply to improv easily. And even if I learn complete lines from my fusion course material, now they make sense to me and are not just a huge string of notes. Like that's a 6 down to 1 cell, or root up to b7 cell. I am using melodic cell technique to study your lessons now too and it helps me.

Johan

I have often pondered if I should learn the basics of drumming to improve my overall musicianship. It seems daunting though.

Sava Kalbachou

yeah, I also heard that it might help. It's daunting though indeed!

Wayne America

Yes, but more like 3 note voicings using guide tones like the 3rd and 7th, 6th or 9th, and disregarding the 5th Somehow today, I just got a notification on my phone, from Heaven, to revisit your Marc Ribot Gypsy Minor style from 13062023. I like this a lot...its approachable and it is backed by great harmony notes. By the way, ABRSM, for their Jazz Piano, they use a question and answer style. For the question, they supply the melody and chords. For the answer, they supply a few measures of just chords and some guide tones. Therefore, performance of the answer requires improvisation.

robi

After thinking about it a bit Jerry used to play a version of Russian Lullaby that I would love to hear you break the code on. I will learn the version you did a lesson on but no one played it like Jerry in JGB band. Also I would love to know how you would break down and teach a Grateful Dead song. No one can teach it the way you would. Maybe “Stella Blue” the chord progression is like no other, or a lesser played tune but so beautiful, “If I Had the World to Give”. A lot of people offer Grateful Dead tutorials but most don’t have the knowledge and insight of the guitar like you do. I am very inspired by your method of teaching and will spend this year burning the midnight oil working on your past and present lessons. Your whole vibe is so chill earthy and real which resonates with me to my core. I will be 69 soon and been playing guitar since the 70’s, studied music in college in late 70’s early 80’s and feel now I have a teacher who will help me get to a level of playing and song writing I most crave. You’re like Heaven Sent Brother.

Rupert Hawkes

Hi Alex, couple of ideas, and sorry if already covered. 1. More Marc Ribot style stuff like the Am blues one you updated recently. That’s gold dust! 2. Maybe a brief gear used, guitars, pedals, amps. But really everything you do is amazing, love it and so inspired!

David Dewees

I would also vote for some content and direction on practicing approaches especially for the intermediate to advanced player that is looking to learn new genres - but who may have some bad practice habits build up over the years.

Tim C.

Happy New Year !! I am humbled to be in the company and fortunate to have found this channel. A lifetime of musical journey is within this content and presented so well that it is my daily go to regardless of practice, play, or viewing. With respect to right hand technique, I keep shifting back and forth from Flat pick to flat pick+hybrid, thumb pick +hybrid, to no pick. Recommendations on how to gain proficiency ? Thanks for the contribution

Johan

I have a book on melodic cells that I have completely forgotten about. I like the concept of internalizing a phrase that moves from a given scale degree to another but for me, I feel using that concept to come up with my own cells or lines makes more sense.

Ivan Lavrov

Merry Christmas! That could be an interesting question for Q+A. Let’s explore why jazz musicians often turn to old pop ballads and think about which modern melodies could become future jazz standards.

Todd Grubb

Happy New Year Alex, A couple of questions -- How should I go about learning and practicing the melodic minor scale. And, any advice on using a looper? For example, where do you put it in your signal chain, and any tips and tricks on getting the timing of the loop right? Thanks

Jason Barnham

I absolutely loved your Jump blues / swing blues improvisation. Would love more pointers to really get going in this style. A full lesson would be fantastic.

Christoph Martiny

Hi Alex, first of all: thanks for all the killer content you are posting, it's very much appreciated and I love the ribbot stuff. But my question is the following: I remember you once mentioned that one can book private 1:1 zoom-lessons with you and that there would be some kind of schedule tool to check what slots would be available. Unfortunately, I can't remember how to do the booking for these type of 1:1 lessons. Can you help me out? Would be cool if it was working out.

David Lemon

Hey Alex - happy new year to you. For the Q&A, would love to know how your landscaping/gardening makeover is going. I know things are dormant for us folks in the northern hemisphere, but how far did you get in 2024 and what lies ahead this spring?

John Olenski

Alex, I have the same goal as Mark for 2025. So, how to go about a focused practice routine to achieve said goals. Thanks

Patrick Lyons

Hi Alex: I'm a new petreon member & just getting to understand how to use it. Your teaching is amazing. A perfect balance between theory and vocabulary. You lessons have suggestions & recommendations on how to get the information into your hands and become a part of your playing. Have you ever done a lesson on just that.

Patrick Lyons

I spent a couple of weeks on your Charlie Christian "Found a new Baby" lesson. After learning it I worked some of the licks into other tunes to get a better understanding in my hands of how they fit together over similar changes. It is one thing to be able to play a lick or solo and another to understand it and how to apply it in other tunes and for it to become a part of my playing. I would appreciate any additional tips on how to approach and make your teaching become a part of my playing and how students can learn how to pace themselves. Your material is coming out so fast and you have provided so much amazing material that I cannot wait to get to, but I do not want to move on to quickly before the learning becomes a part of my playing. I guess it might be different for each player, but have you ever posted anything about a sequence on how to proceed through your lessons? Also, at some time could you please expand on vibrato and bend techniques that you started to cover in your Chicago Blues lesson Oct, 2023. I am working on those but need help with a fast vibrato and maybe tips on pitch. I am also practicing my bends to my tuner. Thank you again for your dedication and providing such great education. Wishing you and all a Happy New Year.

Lillefar

Tusen takk! Your content is fantastic, I love your authentic swing guitar lessons. My question is - how do you get that clean sound from the es125 (non cutaway) ? I have a hollow body ( Gretsch 6120 and amp is a Fender deluxe reverb - my sound get so mushy when I try to get a nice comping sound. How do I get a clean nice comping sound from my gear ? What kind of strings do you use on that 125?

Rich

Hi Alex - my question is about how to structure a daily practice routine for someone who is a self-described intermediate but has a lot of gaps in fundamentals. I recently learned about playing scales/chords in the circle of 4ths/5ths, so I can apply/practice a scale/chord in all 12 keys in a practice setting. That has been very helpful but if you only had 15 minutes a day to practice, how would you set up the curriculum so I'm not left wondering what I should be practicing?

Joe Bauch

Hi Alex, Joe here from Missoula. I’m totally digging all of your stuff, but am especially interested in r’n’b type playing. Any chance you could do a little something on Roy Buchanan’s “Can I Change My Mind” (originally done by Tyrone Davis) or maybe “Hot Cha”? Roy was a bad man…

Alex Farran Guitar

Hey buddy, thanks for the comment. Sure thing, I'll add those to the lessons list!

Joe Bauch

Hi Alex, Joe again from Missoula. I’ve been delving into the blues scale a little bit-when and where do you find this to be particularly effective? For example, do you call on the flat five note when going to the five chord, or just use it a little more randomly? Thanks, Joe

Alex Farran Guitar

Hey buddy, good question and I’ll certainly address that in the Q&A video, but essential you can do as much or as little with the b5 as you like.. it’s kind of a flavourful note that can work everywhere as long as you don’t hang onto it for too long. Do check out all of my blues lead studies for examples of this 👍🏻

Simon Modig

Hi Alex! I have a question if you did not record you Q&A yet. I wonder if you could share some insight on how you practice challenging chord changes. I'm working with Goodbye Pork Pie Hat now and I'm really struggling with some of the chord changes and getting them on point. Do you just slow it down and grind each change again and again? Thanks!

Tim

Hey Alex, I was wondering if you might post sometime about your experience with tube amps. After working on your lessons for about a year I’ve gotten the itch to venture out past the modeler, but it’s been a tricky subject to research through comments and reviews. Any ~5-15W recommendations for vintage jazz/blues/roots? I’ve read tons on Swart, Carr, Victoria, Fender and would love to hear about the ones that stuck for you. Thank you as always for running this outstanding library of material.

Brian

Hi Alex. I hope your well. You are one of the best instructors man, just so you know! Would you ever consider doing a lesson on the style of Val McCallum (Jackson Brownes guitar player)? - I just know you would pick apart what he is doing as you seem to have a similar style and taste. Love his solo on this one but have no idea what he is thinking in terms of his approach to the harmony - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAw-nY8hL6c

Alex Farran Guitar

Thanks for the comment Brian, I will certainly check it out and put it on the lessons list! Thanks for the suggestion mate.

James Cordeiro

Hi Alex, great stuff as always! Could you consider doing a video in the melodic style of David Gilmour and Andy Latimer (of Camel)? Thanks!

Herfst Mys

Hi Alex, any update on the Arpeggios survival guide and application you mentioned in this post?

Alex Farran Guitar

Good question! I have it filmed and edited, just need to type out the accompanying materials for it. So, let's say within the next month hopefully!