So you got yourself a guitar. Fantastic! Congratulations! And you would LOVE to be Big Mr. Shredder McGoo, but right now you’re… well… not. But that’s OK! I’m here to help. Introducing: THE GUITAR BLOCK SYSTEM!

Over the past near-decade I’ve spent teaching music, the biggest puzzle I’ve faced on guitar is scales. Try as we might, I’m convinced that there is no good, foolproof way of teaching scales on guitar. Even the simplest scale diagram can make a student go cross-eyed. What do we do? Well, I decided to  make my own system designed to teach the concept of scale playing: THE GUITAR BLOCKS.

After poring through books and wandering around on my own guitars, I’ve broken it down to ten (10) blocks – four of which contain two notes per string, the other six contain three. These ten blocks are found in all scales – Normal, Pentatonics (which will show up first), Modes, and even the weird ones. I’m going to introduce the blocks first then apply them to scales later on. I will also include some technical and melodic exercises as I talk about each block. The melodic exercises will serve as a way to introduce lead playing while the technical exercises can be used for warming up before you practice/record/rehearse/gig. They’re kinda like Legos, except they won’t hurt your feet when you step on them.

So there you have it. See you soon for the first block… and a little theory review while we’re at it.