The Guitar Hour Podcast

This week the guys get deep, discussing some of the mental health issues that can affect musicians and their guitar identities. Beebs 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 TGH boys, falling back in love with guitar and how after resisting for 13 years, he finally caught the jazz bug. Dan buys a Boss Katana and answers listener questions from Instagram.

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 phrasing masterclass for JTC, and talks us through what it’s like taking on the role of cameraman/producer.

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 time!

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.

This week the boys sit down with Levi Clay to chat about his work as a professional transcriber & 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 Smith. Although Beebs can’t promise this is last time he will utter FV.....it does conclude next week with another super special guest! It’ll be like Return of the Jedi but less Ewoks and more music theory.

47: Time Management/Plate Spinning, Learning Tunes, CAGED System Ponderings, Ears, Teaching Ethic

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.

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 during this episode!

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 visualisation, 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 on!

This week the guys experiment recording on instagram live. What could go wrong?! Content wise, they finally make sense of the podcast numbering, Dan has a new axe on the way, Beebs is shaking virtual maracas as Batman. Also, they talk about playing with a piano player in a duo/trio situation, re-imagining tunes you've played a million times, old vs new vocab. Finally they take live questions and try to put music theory in order!

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.

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 insightful chat about the work ethic and world of a reading guitarist today so I hope you enjoy it.

40: Beebs NGD, Dan Does Dusty, Working For Free?, Passion To Pound Ratio, Stylistic Work Ethic - Extra Minutes e20

39: Michael Dolce Interview - The Voice, Work Ethic, Improvisation Psychology, Original Music + THE THUNDERBOOM! Extra Minutes E19

Dan, Beebs and TQ sit down to discuss the idea of a core minimal skill set that's been floated on previous episodes. What it is, why it might be important to be aware of, and then go on to talk about the various contexts of their own work and the skills required to pull it all of - musical or otherwise.