The Guitar Hour Podcast

Friend of the show Jake Willson returns for a reet banga! Smith and Beebs have nothing planned so they call in the big guns: Jake '2 L's in Hell' Willson. They talk about the hit musical he's depping on 'Hamilton' before embarking on what is the longest intro detour the podcast has ever had. A passing comment about a movie trailer sends everyone tumbling down a discussion on 'music films', and how...

In the first guest episode of 2019 the boys get their January Blues on with the outstanding blues guitarist, Seth Rosenbloom. They talk about Seth's career so far, working with Josh Smith, and his upcoming album Keep On Turning. Then it's off the deep end exploring improvised music in the studio, how much is sketched out vs totally free, song writing in the blues, and the impossible task of innova...

Happy New Year! A groggy start to the new year for the boys as life quickly kicks off again after the holiday season. The boys give you a little history of how the podcast came to life, as well as looking back over the past year and discussing favourite moments as well as lessons learned along the way. They also get on board with the new year, new you mantra and dicuss their non year resolutions a...

Ho ho ho it's TGHP Christmas special! Well, when we say special, we mean a casual show where we invite a bunch of friends around for beers and turn the microphones on. Apologies for weaker than usual audio quality and edit (everyone had coughs), however there's a lot of fun content flying around so hope you enjoy it :) I hope everyone out there has had plenty of festive fun, and normal service wil...

Following a hot potato of a Jazz article written by Ethan Iverson Dan, Beebs and friend of the show Tom Quayle sit down aroudn the microphones to have a good old jazz rant.... ahem... discussion. They discuss the idea of recieved wisdom, how to develop an understanding of jazz harmony and improvisation and equally how to pass the information on. Of course there is a little bit of a rant about elit...

This week Smith and Beebee sit in the virtual arm chairs with UK modern jazz monster Ant Law, for one of the most banterful episodes yet. They discuss Ant's career, new album 'Life I Know', and his experience studying at Berklee. The guys trade Beat It Solo horror stories and of course, Ant's unorthodox 4ths tuning (yes different to TQ!) results in Beebs dragging up THE question... Despite no alco...

This week Dan and Beebs are joined by fellow guitar bro Phil Short. The boys discuss Phil's Guitar Idol 1st place win in 2016 including the process of getting the final and jamming with the Quayle on the night. The chat also turns to the inevitable 'Guthrie' comments online, teachint at BIMM, what is a lick and having that eureka moment when it comes to playing changes. Enjoy!   Phil Short https:/...

TL:DL - Hardcore Harmony Reflections. Dan handles something terrible and has a fancy new purple helmet. Beebee busts his string and stomps on a model. Tom buys a house and also a graphics card lit enough to power Pixar productions. Together however, the guys combine to reflect on the difficulties of politely & robustly discussing ideas in public. Tom then takes us even deeper down the theory hole...

This week Beebs, Smith and Quayle welcome back YouTube jazz educator Jens Larsen to discuss their approaches to harmonic analysis, chord scale theory and tonal centres. This episode is not a lesson, much more of a discussion of ideas and gets pretty heavy into the weeds with the considerations of jazz harmony - but we know you guys love this deep nerd stuff! So grab yourselves a massive coffee, a...

This Week the boys sit down with cheerful Aussie and monster jazz guitarist Ben Eunson. Ben grew up in Melbourne Australia but moved to New York to study jazz and as a result has become a household name in the New York jazz scene. We chat about his move from down under to the US and the educational differences, about his upcoming album and its current kickstarter crowdfunding project as well as di...

This week Beebs and Smith catch up with the incredible Mark Lettieri. Funk, jazz, rock, (baritone even!) you name it Mark pulls from a diverse range of influences, bringing his own unique voice on the instrument to grammy award winning super group Snarky Puppy, a whole host of session credits and of course his fantastic solo albums. Mark's also a lovely chap to boot and the guys had a great time c...

This week the guys get deep and personal, discussing some of the mental health issues that can affect musicians and their guitar playing identities. Beebs candidly shares his experience of the last several years dealing with depression and anxiety and how it relates to his musical history and guitar playing. He also reflects on how he met and got involved with TGH boys, falling back in love with g...

This week Beebs and Dan are joined by recurring characters and good friends of the podcast Dave Brons and Jake Willson. The guys discuss the process of crowdfunding an album and the triumphs and pitfalls along the way. After a 3 week journey down the CAGED rabbit hole Beebs and Dan reflect on what they have learned and put the subject to bed… for now. Jake reveals his brand new self-produced phras...

Beebs is on location in Shanghai at the China Music 2018 show. After day two, and a night of eating Hairy Shanghai Crab Sperm, Beebs sits down with Smith to record an intercontinental episode. The guys talk about the guitar/trade show experience and then how gear can inspire creativity. Excuse the somewhat muffled whisper in Beebs' sound quality. This was recorded in a hotel room at 3am Shanghai t...

While Dan is away gigging Beebee catches up with Tom Quayle and Martin Miller in the midst of their UK run of Ibanez Clinics. They discuss the touring life and Martin's upcoming projects before delving into the differences and similarities between their visualisation methods, in what is the epic conclusion to the recent run of episodes on CAGED and fretboard visualisation. Episode Links 5 Out Of 7...

This week the boys sit down with Levi Clay to chat about his work as a professional transcriber, and also continue the CAGED discussion. They attempt to find the differences and similarities between CAGED and the root note/geometric interval mapping as used by Quayle, Beebs and (for the most part) Smith. This has unintentionally become part II of an epic trilogy on CAGED and fretboard visualisatio...

Another early morning podcast recording the the boys. So much so that we discuss time management and the plate spinning of being a self employed guitarist working in multiple fields. There's a deep dive into the pros and cons of the CAGED system, a brief trip to greggs and some talk of playing mindset and what works for the individual.

Tom, Smith and Beebs follow up some of the points raised in Andy Wood episode with a deep (and at times very personal) discussion about what makes an artist today. Oh yea..and the problems of male moose knuckle. Episode Notes German music reviews: Manu & Davide Tom Melodic Minor Improvisation Tom & Martin UK Ibanez Tour Dates Show Links Live stream on Tom's YT channel www.theguitarhour.com TGHP Fa...

Beebs & Smith break their rule again and briefly talk about gear before Beebs shares a specific legato technique problem accidentally discovered since the Everest break. This weeks trip down the rabbit hole is all about deciding what to practice and developing those squishy creative skills like aural, phrasing and writing etc and how to nurture them in ourselves and others. Beebs does not die duri...

Strap in guys, this might be the longest, deepest and best show yet! Beebs & Smith sit down with the face and heart melting Andy Wood to discuss his musical journey, mandolin vs guitar fretboard visualization, telling stories with your art, philosophy of improvisation, integrity, and a million other inspirational things. Everyone had a blast recording this episode, huge thanks to Andy for coming o...

This week the guys experiment recording whilst on instagram live. What could possibly go wrong?! Content wise, they finally make sense of the podcast numbering system, Dan has a new axe on the way whilst Beebs is shaking virtual maracas dressed as Batman. In other news they talk about how to play with a piano player in a duo/trio situation, re-imagining tunes you've played a million times, old vs...

With a very hairy Beebs returning from Mt. Everest the guys talk about taking a break from playing guitar. Can it be a useful thing to get space, recharge ideas and rebuild enthusiam? Things then turn to practising through the basics of a Jazz Standard, before Dan reads out a very strange Facebook 'guitarist wanted' ad that has him all triggered. Episode Links Matt Munisteri - The Roots of Jazz On...

Hi Guys. Dan here truly wearing the Daddy pants as Beebee is finishing up his mountain retreat but the team will reunited next week. This week however I invited my good friend Mr. Danny Short on the show. I have depped for Danny on a couple of shows recently and wanted to get him on to talk about his work as a reading guitarist in London on the west end as well as other things. Its a really insigh...

After the excitement of the Michael Dolce interview just minutes before, and the looming departure of Beebee's mountain holiday... Dan and Beebee meander through some loose ends and talk about Beebee's new guitar, Dan's experience depping on Dusty Springfield The Musical and how to gain experience for those kind of situations. The boys also discuss whether you should work for free, going professio...

Dan and Beebs sit down (remotely) with Aussie guitarist Michael Dolce to talk all things guitar. Michael is an incredible tasy and melodic player with various guitar projects in the works. Perhaps most notably playing guitar in the band for The Voice Austrailia. We pick his brains about what it's like working in that high pressure world as wel as maintaining his own original music and improvisatio...