Work, with Miles Okazaki

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Danny Boy

2025-10-2139:36

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. Here's I am working on "Danny Boy," and talking about the history of the song via my friend Jacob Garchik. If you haven't seen the George Benson version, check that out here. The video gets pretty long as I go into explanations of how I get the guitar voicings from the Percy Grainger arrangement. That arrangement is attached, and I'd encourage you to make your own arrangements of this lovely melody, which can be instructive about how to harmonize a diatonic melody without getting too fancy.

Mailbag: Melodic Minor

2025-10-2131:30

A deep dive into Melodic Minor from a recent member question. We cover uses of this sound as a tonic and dominant in improvisation, a brief look at Raag Charukeshi (a related Indian raga), and then some exercises for getting it under your fingers.

Bach on Sunday: WTC Book I, Fugue in E minor

2025-10-2109:08

Today I look at a two part fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier. This one is especially well suited to the guitar. Two guitarists could play it together without any alterations of the sheet music (attached). I demonstrate this with an overdubbed recording.

Guided Practice, All-Interval Tetrachord

2025-10-2134:34

Today's shape turns out to be All-Interval tetrachord 0137. In the video I go through what this means, and look at some of the sounds that we can get out of this shape in various transpositions and voicings. Sheet from 351 Shapes attached.

"Hot House" part II

2025-10-2131:41

In this video I go through the fingerings that I've found for this somewhat tricky melody. I also talk about the language used in the lines, and how this relates to octatonic scales and expansions of the dominant chord developed by improvisors in the bebop era. My transcription for the tune is attached.

"Hot House" and the mysterious minor ii-V

2025-10-2134:40

This is part 1 of two long videos about the bebop classic tune "Hot House," by Tadd Dameron. In this episode we don't actually get into the tune itself, but work on the background by taking a close look at the underlying harmony, which comes from "What is this thing called love" by Cole Porter. I go through the original piano sheet music for this tune (attached) and then a long discussion about what to do on the common chord progression known as a "minor ii-V" such as Gmi7b5 C7 Fmi. Readings from Dizzy Gillespie's autobiography reveal how he thought about it. The Emily Remler version that I talk about is here.

Anatomy of a Groove: Dog Star pt. 4, "Lush Life"

2025-10-2016:08

Here's a part of live concert in Brooklyn where we combine the Dog Star groove with Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life." Check out the whole concert for free here. We made a vinyl album out of this series of concerts that's a little different from the video that you can find here. This is the end of the Dog Star series - I hope you've enjoyed it. Let me know if you'd like more of these behind-the-scenes looks at my compositional process. Next week I'll be beginning a new series looking at some standards.

Anatomy of a Groove: "Dog Star" 3

2025-10-2014:14

Here's a second version of the Dog Star groove, after we had been playing it live for a while and it had turned into a different tune. Although there is a studio version of this tune, I opted for this video so that you can see the drummer. This is a "live" album recorded during the early days of the Covid lockdown in 2020, where I sang scratch tracks for the entire concert and then the band recorded to these tracks individually. A bit of an original scratch track is at the beginning of the whole video.

Anatomy of a Groove: "Dog Star" 2

2025-10-2016:36

Here's the groove we talked about yesterday in it's first incarnation, at a recording session at the old Systems Two Studios, one of my favorite places in the world that is sorely missed. The full video can be seen here, along with other tunes from that session that led to the debut album for the band Trickster.

Anatomy of a Groove: "Dog Star"

2025-10-2025:26

This is my first post about composition, a much-requested topic, but one that can quickly go down long rabbit holes. I try to limit the topic by talking about just the drum part from one of my tunes. This one has to do with the possibilty of people in the band feeling a groove different ways, and the idea that maybe this is ok or even desirable. In this post, I'm teaching the groove as I would to a band member - further videos will show this groove in its full context.

Bach: Cello Suite in C minor, "Sarabande"

2025-10-2013:30

Here's a look at an amazing melody by JSB, from Cello Suite no. 5 in C minor.

Guided Practice: Shape of the Day

2025-10-2023:46

Looking at the shape for Feb 26 from the book 351 shapes.

"Epistrophy" and the Ukelele

2025-10-2014:26

Here's a parenthetical episode while we're working on Charlie Christian stuff. Something I discovered recently while messing around with the ukulele.

Bach: BWV 1005

2025-10-2022:46

This episode is a recording of me playing the four movements of J.S. Bach's violin sonata in C major. Two movements on acoustic guitar, and two movements on electric.

Bach on Sunday: Chorale 98

2025-10-2011:11

A look at a Bach chorale, with improvisation.

Meet your heroes

2025-10-0818:28

Random thoughts on the way to work

Guided Practice, sight reading, intervallic playing

2025-10-0825:38

A guided practice using only one scale, progressing from easy to difficult

Charlie Christian 06: Stompin' chorus 3, 2nd half

2025-10-0831:54

This series of videos takes a close look at one of the greatest improvisations of all time, Charlie Christian's solo on "Stompin' at the Savoy" from May of 1941, live at Minton's playhouse. It's focused on the guitar, but other instruments may also dig it.

Charlie Christian 02: Stompin' chorus 1, 1st half

2025-10-0631:28

Charlie Christian 03: Stompin' chorus 1, 2nd half

2025-10-0625:44

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