Student Recordings

Qanik was written and recorded by Nick Lewrence of Bolton. Qanik is the Inuit word for "falling snow". It is divided into several sections, and Nick made them all with no help from me! He's learning modal improvisation and uses a B string ostinato during most of the piece. At Nick's request, I added some swirling modulation effects to a few of the parts.

Latin Magic by Luke Yavorsky of Bolton was recorded in GarageBand without any help from me. It showcases his use of pentatonic scale improvisation , powerchords, and silence! A fun tune to jam on.

Will Idea by William Graham of Bolton was authored by one of my long-time students as a jam track to solo over. Will recorded the initial riff and I added some extra tracks to make it sound more full. Will's guitar has a tremolo effect, which turns the volume up and down very fast.

Jam Tracks

Blues in E is a great jam track for soloing with the E pentatonic scale. You can do this for hours. Literally.

Jam in G is another song you can solo using E pentatonic (even though it's a totally different genre than the blues). For my more advanced students, you're in the key of G here, which means use those modes. This song was recorded with my friend Nate. The percussion you hear is his body percussion - slapping and clapping!

Bb Minor Jam Track is in the key of Bb minor. You can use the Bb pentatonic or the modes in the major key of Db on this one.

Bb Phrygian Jam is kind of electronic sounding. The "phrygian" part means it's really in the key of Gb major, but has a unique minor sound. Solo using the Eb pentatonic scale or modes in Gb. There's a little noodling by me in the second half; I just couldn't resist a little soloing!

Obnoxious Latin Jam This song can be soloed to in D major (B pentatonic). Don't listen to this song by itself. Ever. You might go crazy. Make sure you solo over the entire thing!

D Loops Jam This song was supposed to have words and stuff, but I never got around to it. There's a lot of guitar layering, just ignore it and solo in B pentatonic or D major modes!

A Jam This great jam tune was created by Keith Moore, a guitar teacher in California. He also has a few jam tracks on his site, and this was my favorite (I have his permission to post it here). It's a simple A ostinato, which means you can play in ANY key that has an A in it! You can use A pentatonic, F# pentatonic, and try others! For modes, you can use any mode starting on A! There are seven keys with A in it, and seven modes for each key, so this tune works with 49 different modes.

D to G This jam track helps you learn to change keys in the middle of a song. It changes from the key of D (B pentatonic) to the key of G (E pentatonic) and back a few times. For me, it helps think ahead about where I am modally!