Skip to content
WEISSGUITARFree 3-Minute AssessmentFree Assessment

The WeissGuitar Blog

For guitarists who run scales rather than truly improvise and want to escape the pentatonic box: free lessons on triads, arpeggios and phrasing, each one built on the last, so you always know what to practice next.

Start here: the core guides

Ten lessons in the order I teach them. Each one builds on the one before.

  1. Triads

    Play major, minor and diminished triads on all four string sets, and find them anywhere on the neck.

  2. Major Triads

    Play every major triad in root position and both inversions, and move between them by the smallest step.

  3. Arpeggios

    Know where each chord tone sits from where your hand already is, so you play through the changes without jumping around.

  4. Voice Leading

    Move each note of one chord into the next by the shortest distance, starting with the 3rds and 7ths.

  5. Shell Voicings

    Comp jazz chords with just the root, 3rd and 7th, closed and open, on three string sets.

  6. Diatonic Movement

    Take one idea, a triad shape or a short phrase, and move it through every degree of the key.

  7. Pentatonic Tricks

    Make the five pentatonic notes you already know sound modern: new groupings, color tones, a different pentatonic over the chord.

  8. Bebop

    Target chord tones, approach them chromatically, and play lines that swing.

  9. Diminished

    Use the half-whole scale over dominant chords and the whole-half over diminished chords, in all twelve keys with just three scales.

  10. Guitar Improvisation

    Hear the changes, target chord tones and build phrases over a ii-V-I, with your ear leading instead of scale shapes.

Most-read lessons

All lessons52 lessons

  3. Master Guitar Flow Over Chord Changes With Enclosures and Phrases
    Phrasing & Improvisation

    Master Guitar Flow Over Chord Changes With Enclosures and Phrases

    If you’re struggling to make your jazz comping sound authentic and professional, the problem likely isn’t your music theory knowledge – it’s that you’re playing overly complex voicings that muddy the harmony and limit your mobility on the neck.

    · 10 min read