We’re kicking off a deep dive into the whole-half diminished scale—your secret weapon for both inside and outside playing. Symmetrical, slippery, and surprisingly versatile, this week’s routine sets the foundation for making it a real part of your voice.
We’re taking last week’s diminished scale work and flipping it upside down—literally. This week is all about descending diminished lines, applying them to a classic jazz blues move, and training your brain to resolve them musically from anywhere on the neck.
This week’s routine reveals a powerful shortcut: treat dominant 7 chords as 7b9s and use diminished 7 shapes to simplify your scale choices. We apply this to a ii–V–I–VI progression, using diminished substitutions to unlock new sounds and clean fretboard logic.
We’re wrapping up the modes with Locrian—a tense, unstable sound built on the m7♭5 chord. This lesson helps you hear and play Locrian clearly, using arpeggios, scales, and targeted melodic shapes.
This lesson explores Locrian using a creative modal progression (Ab/C to Gb/C), with 10 expressive licks designed to stretch your technique and ear. Learn the phrases, then use them as inspiration to shape your own.
These 10 licks build on last week’s cross-picking foundation, blending C, F, and G arpeggios into more fluid, melodic phrases. The focus is rhythmic control and harmonic color—not just running shapes.
This routine may look simple, but it reveals whether your fundamentals are truly solid. If the basics still trip you up, don’t rush ahead—this is the perfect chance to build real fluency.
This week’s all about locking into the E shape and seeing how far we can stretch it across a minor progression. With a chromatic warmup, pentatonic and blues scale drills, and two licks run through five key centers, this is focused, hands-on fretboard work.
This routine flips the usual order of pentatonic practice by cycling shapes out of sequence over a minor chord progression. It’s a focused workout in fretboard mapping and root-note awareness—no autopilot allowed.
This festive workout puts your triad chops to the test by drilling D major shapes up and down the neck using inversion slides. It’s a focused routine in seeing barre chords as moveable frameworks and unlocking smooth, creative voice movement.
New year, same mission: deeper fretboard fluency. This week, we’re reconnecting triad shapes around D major to strengthen your chordal instincts and build true on-the-fly adaptability.
This week we’re moving beyond triad basics and tackling a systematic workout that builds real fretboard fluency—by connecting G, C, and D triads across positions and string sets through inversion movement.
We’re back to triads this week—this time focusing on minor shapes, working through 12 C minor voicings using the A, E, and C forms. Once those are under your fingers, we’ll move through inversions just like last time, building toward full major/minor fluency.
This week we’re applying last week’s minor triads using the “Gospel Triad Trick”—alternating a major triad with a minor triad one whole step above to create soulful, melodic motion in your rhythm playing. We’ll start over a C groove, working first on the DGB strings, then the GBE set, all while building your rhythmic instincts along the way.
This week we’re expanding the Gospel Triad Trick by crossing string sets, shifting positions, and introducing a new chord change—from C to F. You’ll build four triad voicings per chord, work them across the fretboard, and explore the smoother I–ii motion in both C and F. Watch how the neck starts to open up as you internalize these sounds and transitions.
This week we flip the Gospel Triad Trick for minor grooves, exploring how major triads a whole step down (the ♭VII) can add color and motion to minor chords. Using an Am–G pairing, you’ll build rhythm fluency, triad movement, and real-world fretboard awareness across the top three string sets—all over a tight minor vamp.
This week we’re breaking minor vamp triad pairs into melodic vocabulary, using Cm and Bb as our core shapes. Starting with warmups and moving through arpeggios, rhythmic groupings, pentatonic integrations, and non-adjacent fingerings, we learn to weave these triads fluidly into real lines—no shifting, no guesswork, just pure fretboard fluency.
This week we’re blending D minor pentatonic with the half-whole diminished scale—a pairing that creates rich tension over a Dm7 vamp. The exercise walks through all five positions, revealing how these two frameworks overlap and stretch the way we think about symmetry on the fretboard.
This week kicks off our melodic minor focus, using a 4-note picking sequence across five keys in one position to train fretboard fluency, ear–hand connection, and real-time recall—no tab, no prep, just play.
This week’s all about building speed and consistency with ascending dominant 7 arpeggios—A7, D7, E7—played at 60, 75, and 90 bpm to train stamina, control, and smooth alternate picking across tempos.
This session explores colorful arpeggio fragments within A13 harmony—starting from each chord tone of A7—to create melodic movement and expand beyond basic shapes. We’ll connect these fragments in three positions and finish with a musical line to lock in the concept.
We’re tackling the iconic intro arpeggios from Eugene’s Trick Bag—but with strict alternate picking to build precision, consistency, and motion control. Over a six-chord progression (Am–E7–A7–Dm–Bdim7–Am), we’ll explore different fingerings and picking pathways to help internalize both the harmony and the technique.
We’re diving deeper into Eugene’s Trick Bag, focusing on the remaining arpeggios—especially the tricky Dm shape. The goal is to alternate pick everything, no matter how awkward it feels. This is strength training for your picking hand, so resist the urge to sweep. Watch the fingerings, choose what works for you, and keep it consistent. We’re almost there—next week, we tie it all together.
This week, we’re tying it all together—every arpeggio from Eugene’s Trick Bag in one full alternate picking workout. No new shapes, no surprises—just refining everything we’ve covered so far and pushing toward fluency and control. Watch your transitions, your tension, your technique. This is the moment where it all starts to click.
This week we’re focusing on double stops in A major pentatonic over an A6 vamp. You’ll break the scale into two-note chunks on adjacent strings—mostly 4ths, with the occasional 3rd for contrast. It’s a simple but musical way to build fretboard fluency and phrasing.
This week we’re tackling diatonic thirds—a foundational concept that reveals how scale tones connect across the neck. The goal isn’t just finger dexterity, but moving beyond memorized patterns into real musical fluency. Start in one position, then break free and explore.
Fresh off our work with thirds, we’re shifting gears into the world of sixths — same notes, new shapes, and a whole new picking challenge. These wider intervals are packed with melodic potential and lend themselves beautifully to sliding and voice leading. Get them under your fingers and you’ll start hearing harmony in a whole new way.
Ever feel like your playing’s in limbo—not sure if you’re leveling up or spinning in place? That’s where I’ve been lately. And it’s a reminder: the line between “basic” and “advanced” is blurrier than it seems. This week we’re running major chord scales—C, A, and F—across three-string sets. It’s not flashy, but if you can do this cleanly, musically, and in time, you’re ahead of the game.
This week’s routine continues our work in C major, shifting to a higher position and leaning into legato technique. Starting with a simple idea, the workout quickly evolves into a demanding study in three-note-per-string phrasing, precision, and endurance. It’s not about speed—it’s about timing, tone, and clean execution.
This week, we’re digging into one focused exercise: playing a major scale pattern while cycling through the circle of fifths. The goal isn’t speed—it’s coordination between your hands and your mind. Internalizing the key sequence while maintaining steady playing builds the kind of mental clarity that transforms long-term fluency.
