Take On Me - Neil Zaza Guitar Cover

New Years' Resolutions 2020! (Or: Why I Suck, And What I Intend To Do Ab...

New Years Resolutions! Why I Suck – And What I Intend To Do About It..

….and here we are in the future. 2020. A a new year, whole new decade, and disconcertingly, my fourth wielding a guitar!

Now, over the last couple of years I've set out my practice plan for the year and shared it on this blog to ensure that I don't get stale, that I don't forget what it's like to learn new things, that I keep on improving and pushing – partly for myself, but of course what use is a teacher who can't learn anything new himself?

Seeing as I've been playing since the winter of '94, I'd pretty much got all the useful stuff covered – pentatonics, modes, triads and inversions... so I started off with good intentions to master the harmonic and melodic minor scales (detailed here and here), some more exotic pentatonics and arpeggios... but by the end of last year I found myself practicing scales that really I didn't even like the sound of, let alone was likely to use at a gig. This coincided with a student very kindly giving me a copy of Joe Bonamassa's Live At The Greek Theatre album, and listening to it I was struck by how powerful and authentic his phrasing was. Jamming along with it, I just found myself sounding... amateurish. Cluttered. There's still a little too much of the 17,18,19, 20 year old me in there, wiggling his fingers to impress the audience rather than having the courage and conviction to milk that one note just right.

So – this year, that ends. Back to school. I'm going back to the roots of it all, old school blues, and I'm transcribing as much as I can by ear. Those of you on Instagram can find me at @jmguitartuition where I'll be sharing my notes and can all let me know how badly mistaken I am.. ;-)

January – Albert King

February – Freddie King

March – B. B. King

April – T-Bone Walker

May – Albert Collins

June – Buddy Guy

July – Jimmie Vaughan

August – Mike Bloomfield

September – Eric Clapton (John Mayall era)

October – Peter Green (John Mayall era)

November – Jimi Hendrix

December – SRV

I'm going to be posting a vlog on my YouTube channel (JM Guitar Tuition), so invite any and all interested parties to join me on my journey! I may lose a little speed and technique but I think that will be more than outweighed by the benefits to my phrasing.. this is going to be an interesting ride!