The Bolero is a popular Spanish dance of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. It originated from the folk dance the Seguidilla from Madrid and Andalusia. One of the palos (styles) of flamenco is derived directly from the dance, the Seguidillas Boleras. This piece moves from a dance feel to a more melodic feel, […]
This Brasilian dance is by Argentinian guitarist and composer Jorge Morel’s and his most famous piece. It has a fast and lively tempo with a samba feel, and there are also elements of choro found here. Let’s explore the first half of the piece including the technical and musical challenges. Full Score, Interactive Play-Along […]
In this lesson, we’ll look at how I created a solo over a circle of fifths chord progression. We’ll look at the chord tones and modes that I am using so that you can work out how to create your own solo improv ideas. Here’s the chord progression: Here’s the solo with a description above […]
Astor Piazzola was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. One of his most famous pieces is called Libertango which roughly translates to freedom tango. We’ll look at the first part main melody and […]
Interactive Play-Along Track
In this video we will look at what the Latin jazz chords are in a major key. We will also look at how these chords are constructed and give a few examples of common jazz progressions. For this example, we’ll explore the chords in the key of C major. We derive the chords in a […]
We’re going to look at the start of Manha De Carneval and use chord tones to do get you thinking about improvising. Chord tones will give you a starting vocabulary of notes you case to improvise with. This lesson will help to famillarise you with where along the fretboard you can find certain chords […]
Água de Beber by Antônio Carlos Jobim This song was featured on the album The Composer of Desafinado, Plays released in 1963. The title means “Water to Drink”. Music written by Antônio Carlos Jobim and lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. The song was inspired by a walk that Jobim and Moraes were having in the governor’s house in Brasilia looking for somewhere […]
With many years of teaching and performing experience under my belt, I have found that there certain exercises that have improved my guitar technique the, most. In this video I’ll show you what these exercises are and why they are important. Pressure As you get more advanced your hands will become stronger, it takes time […]
In this lesson, we’ll look at the first half of Desafinado by Antonio Carlos Jobim (full version available for LGM Members below). The Bossa Nova pattern will be as follows with the bass note on beats 1 and 3. We start with F maj7 with the bass note on the 6th string, this is over […]