The Guitar Hour Podcast

Beebee & Smith sit down in an empty (yet noisy!) NY coffee shop with the legendary Wayne Krantz to dig into practise, improvisation, artistry, ears and more. They discuss the background to Wayne's book 'An Improviser's OS', it's legacy and the upcoming 2nd edition/revision. Apologies for some background noise and a few jump cuts, the location based recording wasn't quite as clean as hoped! Hope you enjoy :)

Beebee, Smith and Willson reconvene to discuss how tone can positivley and negativley affect performance and the difficulties being ‘on it’ when playing unfamiliar or rental gear. They also ponder the romantic ideal of being able to sound comfortably like oneself through any rig in any situation. We also follow up on the New York Fibenare clinic and how the events of the last few weeks have inspired the guys.

Casual check in from a sub-zero New York City. It’s post namm, pre-Fibenare clinic and Beebs, Smith and Jake huddle together on a sofa (for platonic body warmth) to chat through the show and the upcoming Rudy’s event. As ever, they stumble into some meaty musical areas such as time feel and counting in difficult performance environments, rhythmic subdivisions with legato and right hand picking technique. Part 1 of our New York series. We have some seriously cool stuff coming over the next few episodes!

This week is another 'experimental' episode as the guys attempt to record an episode of the show at 37'000 feet on the way to California for the namm show. Inevitably the audio is poorer than usual (although Izotope RX worked it's magic to make it listenable) and invariably this is a gear related (and alcohol fuelled) episode where the guys discuss the airport drama getting their axes onboard, flying as a musician in general, the upcoming namm show gear and answer questions.

Smith and Beebs have nothing planned so they call in the big guns: Jake Willson. They talk about the hit musical he’s deppin on ‘Hamilton’ before embarking on what is the longest intro detour the podcast has ever had. Things get back on track & discussion turns to NAMM show travels & prep for the Fibenare clinic at Rudy’s Music in NY.

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.

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 and goals for the coming year, both personal and podcast related. Enjoy!

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 will resume next week!

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 elitism in there for good mix. Enjoy!

Smith & Beebs sit down with UK jazz monster Ant Law, for one of the most banterful episodes yet. They discuss Ant’s career, album ‘Life I Know’, & his experience studying at Berklee. They trade Beat It horror stories & of course, unorthodox 4ths tuning (yes different to TQ!) results in Beebs dragging up THE question. Despite no alcohol being involved, things all get a bit Stellas By Starlight. Ant takes over the Questions with a game of Snog Marry Avoid, tune in to find out who Beebs locks headstocks

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!

Hardcore Harmony. Dan has a fancy purple helmet. Beebs busts his string & stomps. Tom buys a house and also a graphics card. Together they combine to reflect on the difficulties of politely & robustly discussing ideas in public. Tom takes us even deeper down the theory hole for another massive episode discussing the organisation of jazz harmony both in the mind and on the fretboard. Have they stumbled across a compact answer to the "HOW DUZ I JASS?" equation?  Strap in!

This week Beebs, Smith and Quayle welcome back Jens Larsen to discuss their approaches to harmonic analysis. 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 chart for the standard There Will Never Be Another You (if you want to follow along with some of the back and forth) and smash that play button!

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 discussing how to find your voice in modern jazz versus walking the traditional path to obtaining jazz language.

This week Beebs and Smith catch up with Mark Lettieri. Funk, jazz, rock, (baritone!) you name it Mark pulls from a diverse range of influences, bringing his unique voice to grammy award winning group Snarky Puppy, a whole host of session credits and his fantastic solo albums. Mark's a lovely chap and the guys had a great time chewing the fat for an hour or so. They get into the weeds on writing, working out parts, visualisation, instagram, identity and living in the cracks between rock n jazz. Enjoy Guys!