Post your questions for Monday's Live Lesson!

Hi Jake, glad you replied anyway :). What do you mean exactly by focusing on major + minor arpeggios? As in understanding which notes of that chord are being played on which position, or more as in improvising over jam tracks using arpeggiated version of the chords that you're soloing over?

Arnoud Hoorn

Wolverine gave you some good advice, and I think learning bass is an excellent idea. As a fingerstyle player, the bass concepts can translate DIRECTLY over to the acoustic guitar. It's really fun to arrange a simple melody + bass line on the guitar, then try to fill in chords around it, you're guaranteed to get something pleasant. And yes, knowing your chord tones is essential, and developing bass skills is a great way to become more familiar with where they are on the fretboard. However you could also focus on major + minor arpeggios, connecting them on your guitar, and then eventually learning how to turn them into 7th varieties (maj7, min7, dominant 7, etc).

Jake Lizzio

Thanks! I'm glad somebody responded haha. I'm from Holland, so the time zone made me go to sleep before the end of the stream. So I realized this morning that he hadn't refreshed the page to see my question. And yea, I'm also thinking I should get more into the pentatonic, but I feel like the pentatonic is so much more satisfying to get into, that I will totally ditch my diatonic practices. So I'm gonna wait with it a little more haha.

Arnoud Hoorn

@Arnoud Hoorn, your reasoning makes logical sense to me. when I fiddle on bass I usually just try and land the "root" note of the chord timed with the change. Playing guitar I also have desire to target notes of a chord, but for me it requires planning out the piece. However when improvising I seldom leave my comfort zone, that being pentatonic box of the song key, regardless of the chord change.

Hi there, love your work and glad you'll read this. So I'm mostly a chord strumming guitarist with some fingerstyle skils. However I'm noticing that when I'm improvising, I'm finding it difficult to connect my improvising to the chords being played. Mostly because I rely on the patterns I learned instead of knowing which notes I'm playing. Soooo, I've been thinking of learning bass. Also because I'm interested in producing full songs by myself, but mostly because I think it will help me keep track of which notes I'm playing when improvising. With bass you play the "important" notes of the chords, so I think it will be a great way to get a stable basis for when I'm improvising but an octave or so higher. Anyways, I'm still pretty new to all this theory and I would love to know your view on this.

Arnoud Hoorn