So, you’re tired of being a bricklayer?

Many guitarists learn one thing well and spend years piling the same ideas on top of one another. I call it the "bricklayer" syndrome. A lot of blues and rock players, unfortunately, are trapped in this scenario, building a wall of “brick licks” so high they can’t hear the difference between what’s fresh and what’s worn. No musician has to be in this predicament. With thoughtful focus, any guitarist can become more of an “architect” — creating and designing new blueprints for advancing their guitar skills and the way they play.

Still, with few exceptions, most of us will retain some aspects of being a bricklayer. It’s very hard not to build on the same tried ideas in some areas of our playing throughout our musical lifetime. Even today, after years of study, I still find myself operating in a bricklayer mentality in some spheres of my playing. Nevertheless, each of us should strive to be more of an “architectural” player. The turning point for me was 26 years ago, when a great teacher and guitarist, Mick Goodrick (who was the closest thing Pat Metheny ever had as a teacher), helped me design my first blueprint for being a more creative and interesting player. It is to him that I offer my internal thanks in showing me I could grow much faster as an “architect” than as a predictable journeyman. Alex DeGrassi is another great player whose input on playing the guitar and genuine kindness towards me is something I will always be thankful for. (I sincerely apologize if I’ve offended any real bricklayers).

For the past 25 years, I’ve been teaching guitarists a variety of styles. Primarily, my focus has been teaching the rock, blues and fingerstyle oriented player how to become more of an architect and less of a bricklayer. Giving guitarists ideas on how to develop the skills they already have, and providing them with new directions in harmonic and melodic concepts, technique, and creative development is at the center of my teaching.

Although I’ve taught a few beginners, most of my students have been intermediate and advanced players — many with considerable creative and technical skills. I owe the people I've taught a depth of thanks for giving me feedback on what works instructionally, and what doesn’t. I've learned a great deal from my students.

Important areas of instruction

Below are a few areas I try and focus the student's attention on. There are thousands of teachers and instructional materials that cover these areas. My intention is to present them in a refreshing and personal way.

My improvising teaching stresses:

• Intervallic soloing and arpeggios approaches.
• Enhancing a student’s existing skills with new approaches.
• Technical exercises for improving accuracy and speed.
• Mental exercises for developing a stylistic identity.
• Soloing with chordal shapes.
• Diatonic Harmony and other chord/scale relationships.
• Concepts for composing.
• Techniques for developing melodic ideas and personal motifs.
• Getting a good guitar sound.
• Vibrato techniques.
• Improvising over altered chords.

My acoustic and classical guitar teaching focuses on:

• Alternate Tunings.
• Concepts for chord/melodies.
• Fingerstyle techniques.
• Classical techniques.
• Left and right hand exercises.
• Vibrato techniques on the nylon stringed guitar.
• Approaches for getting a good acoustic sound.
• Solo guitar approaches.
• Approaches for working in a group.
• Writing techniques.

Using the above tools, I concentrate on helping the student develop a style, increase their skills, and enhance their technique. To get a greater sense of my thoughts on the art of playing the guitar, please visit my guitar page. Currently, the articles on the guitar page are focused on the improvising guitarist. However, in the future, I intend to add more articles on playing both the electric and acoustic guitar.

I always try and introduce my students to guitarists they haven’t heard before or reintroduce them to guitarist they know and then shed some new light on these familiar guitarist’s styles and techniques. Please visit my guitarists' web links for a partial list of some of the guitarist I admire. Many of the guitarists you'll probably be familiar with. If not, please check out the players that are unfamiliar, each of them brings an impressive voice to the guitar.