Phrase Expander Masterclass

Hey everyone, welcome to my Masterclass!

This masterclass is all about developing your creativity with melodic phrases.

Many years ago, I realised that my playing would never develop by only practising the comfortable stuff I liked. I realised that I would need to deal with all the concepts and musical situations I was avoiding. So, I built

a system of exercises, forcing myself to cover this material in the most efficient way.

Every guitar player has their own unique playing style. But among thousands and thousands of these styles, we really don’t use all that much musical information. My approach is that creativity is possible if you are able to use less musical information to create more complex or different melodies. If you can create great ideas with a minimum of “musical data”, then you’ll feel very comfortable when you add much more musical information in your playing in the future.

When I started my guitar journey, I thought I needed to know SO much about theory to be creative, to create something unique. But it’s not like that.

Yes, you do need to know the fundamentals of music theory to understand what to play over a backing track, or how to turn an idea into something bigger. But this is not the only thing. Even if you have great theory knowledge, it will be wasted if you don’t have the physical ability to respond to your creative ideas. Your fingers have to be prepared for the demands of every scenario.

It’s all about being flexible and adaptable: sometimes you will want to start a phrase in a particular fretboard position or on a particular beat, but if your hand position is wrong, or if you lack rhythmic awareness, you’re not going to get the sound you wanted.

Another thing I notice with plenty of guitar players is that they always play with a constant rhythmic feel. Now, I don’t say that as a good thing. Consistent timing is good, but creativity also includes the rhythms, whether that’s in the melody or the backing groove. A great melody can be ruined because of a groove that doesn’t work with it... or vice versa.

So, that’s why I made this JTC masterclass! I’ve split this package into five key concepts:

1. Dexterity

2. Rhythm

3. Chord Tones

4. Phrasing

5. Note Groups

There are 20 short licks, putting these concepts to work in a more musical context. And finally, there’s a full solo, giving an in-depth demonstration of how I apply the concepts in my own playing. Some of the licks are included in this solo.

Let’s go!