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Gary’s Blog
The Blog of Guitarist, Gary Lee | www.garyleemusic.com
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A reflection:
When confronted horrific events in history and in present times we often could never imagine how anyone could ever do such a thing, or be…
Gary Lee
Jun 3, 2020
3-Note 7th Chords
3-Note 7th Chords
An Introduction to Jazz Comping
Gary Lee
Nov 6, 2019
Recycling Chord Shapes
Recycling Chord Shapes
We tend to think about chords on a one-to-one basis, meaning one chord shape has only one use. However, if you start thinking of each…
Gary Lee
Oct 5, 2018
Barry Harris talking about Cm7
Barry Harris talking about Cm7
I recently became aware of the teaching videos of legendary pianist, Barry Harris. What an incredible educator. In the video below he talks…
Gary Lee
Oct 1, 2018
From scales to improvising
From scales to improvising
Some thoughts on making the jump from playing scales to improvising in no particular order.
Gary Lee
Sep 29, 2018
How Chord Symbols Work
How Chord Symbols Work
I’ve seen this subject trip up a lot of people. There are a lot of rules, exceptions, and disagreements. In addition, musicians tend break…
Gary Lee
Sep 28, 2018
Improvising over V7 chords
Improvising over V7 chords
I think it’s important to have some personal ways of approaching different musical situations. As an example, here are a few of my go-to…
Gary Lee
Sep 27, 2018
Life is full of difficulty. Thank God there is music like this.
I’m just starting to dive deep into Andrew York’s catalogue and it’s breathtaking. I wanted to share with you this gem of piece I…
Gary Lee
Sep 26, 2018
Thank you, Mike
Thank you, Mike
Congratulations, Michael Kozubek, on your Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Guitar Society!
Gary Lee
Sep 24, 2018
Hejira (featuring Lia Booth)
I had the honor to perform on Melvin Davis’ new album, Genre: Music Chapter II (Joni). This Joni Mitchell song, Hejira, is probably my…
Gary Lee
Sep 23, 2018
Advanced Triad Arpeggios
Some of my favorite practice exercises lately have been going back to basics. I’ve been practicing regular ol’ triad arpeggios across all…
Gary Lee
Sep 22, 2018
Practice excruciatingly slowly
One of my hobbies over the last 2 years has been sleight of hand card magic. Like guitar, it requires a lot of fine motor skills to do…
Gary Lee
Sep 21, 2018
Recognizing Intervals Visually on Guitar
Recognizing Intervals Visually on Guitar
As I began to study guitar seriously in college, I had a decent understanding of how chords were built (1, 3, 5, dom7 = Dom7 Chord, for…
Gary Lee
Sep 20, 2018
First String Index Finger Vibrato
This is one of the most difficult phrasing techniques to do well on guitar. Index finger vibrato on the first string requires moving the…
Gary Lee
Sep 19, 2018
Naturals, Sharps, and Flats
This is an interesting way to view key signatures. Normally, we’re taught about how many flats or sharps there are in a given key and how…
Gary Lee
Sep 18, 2018
Always more to learn
There’s always more to learn. This is cliché, of course, however, I was reminded of this in a recent lesson with one of my guitar students.
Gary Lee
Sep 17, 2018
Embracing the visual nature of the guitar
Often the guitar is looked down upon because it’s so visual and pattern based. Once you learn one major scale pattern, for example, you can…
Gary Lee
Sep 16, 2018
5 Useful Approaches to Scales on Guitar
24 years and still learning the basics
Gary Lee
Sep 15, 2018
Please don’t give up
I started posting short guitar tips on my YouTube channel a few weeks ago. Just short actionable videos that I think would be helpful for…
Gary Lee
Sep 12, 2018
Producer’s Mindset
One way you can set yourself apart in the endless sea of talented musicians for hire is to develop a producer’s mindset. Producers take…
Gary Lee
Dec 26, 2016
Now is the best time ever in the history of the world to be a music maker.
Now is the best time ever in the history of the world to be a music maker.
Producing music is the cheapest it’s ever been. The infrastructure to distribute your music at scale is essentially free. There are no gate…
Gary Lee
Oct 12, 2016
Finding Time to Practice
Finding Time to Practice
I recently spoke at a music careers class at Azusa Pacific University, my alma mater, and met Brianna. She reached out to me on Facebook…
Gary Lee
Oct 12, 2016
Why Music Matters
Why did I become a musician? I’m not exactly sure. I remember my parents watched Country Music Television back in the day and seeing all…
Gary Lee
Oct 4, 2016
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