{"id":147984,"date":"2025-06-02T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T23:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=147984"},"modified":"2025-06-02T10:11:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T17:11:53","slug":"teaching-artists-may-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/teaching-artists-may-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Artists May Recap: The Bass Rumble, Jazz-Blues, Map Your Fretboard with Intervals, Musical Travis Picking, and Summer Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In April 2025, we debuted the\u00a0Acoustic Guitar Teaching Artist<\/a><\/strong> series, a program designed to help you<\/em> grow as a guitarist. Our cohort of instructors\u2014Isa Burke, Lisa Liu,\u00a0Sean McGowan, Mamie Minch, and Thu Tran\u2014is committed to helping you discover new musical and creative territory throughout the year, offering one new video lesson each week, plus virtual concerts, roundtable discussions, and more.\u00a0You can unlock access for just $5 a month.<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May was a busy month for the TA community, here\u2019s a quick recap of all our activity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mapping the Fretboard with Isa Burke<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cThis was one of the things that really helped me understand how the fretboard is laid out and get more comfortable playing past the fifth fret,\u201d Isa says of this interval-based approach. Rather than memorizing where every single note and chord is on the guitar, Isa suggests identifying landmarks that help you get oriented in any position. \u201cHopefully this will help you get more comfy playing up the neck,\u201d Isa says, and remember, \u201cthe dots on the fretboard are here to help us!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH NOW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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12-Bar Jazz Blues with Sean McGowan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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While a typical 12-bar blues is built from just three chords\u2014the I, IV, and V\u2014jazz versions take things to new heights by adding colorful chord voicings and substitutions. In this lesson, Sean introduces three jazz blues progressions, moving from simpler to more advanced. Don\u2019t be intimidated by some of the more involved chord names\u2014if you can play a barre chord, you can play an Eb13sus4!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH NOW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mamie Minch Teaches the Bass \u201cRumble\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In this lesson, Mamie (and Pablo the dog) explore the bass rumble, a syncopated fingerstyle blues bass run. Using \u201c(Hot Tamales) They\u2019re Red Hot,\u201d an up-tempo blues by Robert Johnson, Mamie shows us how to add rhythmic interest to our fingerstyle blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH NOW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Exploring Diminished Arpeggios with Lisa Liu<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In this lesson, Lisa explores the dark, intriguing sounds you get by playing diminished seventh arpeggios over dominant seventh chords. \u201cWhat\u2019s really cool about the diminished arpeggio is that it\u2019s all separated by three half steps, so if you\u2019ve learned one [of these patterns] on the guitar, you\u2019ve learned them all!\u201d After showing you a few of these arpeggio patterns up the neck, Lisa puts them into context with some creative examples. As always when learning something new, start slow\u2014and really try to wrap your ear around things as you work through the notation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH NOW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Musical Travis Picking with Thu Tran<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In this Travis picking lesson, you\u2019ll focus on the groove, not the pattern. Thu shares three examples, and a novel approach to learning by singing. \u201cConnect your voice with your hand to get the groove,\u201d he explains. This lesson is great for guitarists who are new to fingerstyle or Travis picking, but more advanced players can apply the concept to their practice as well. \u201cI hope that this method provides another access point in your fingerstyle journey,\u201d Thu says. \u201cHave fun with it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH NOW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To me, this annual transformation is not unlike the perennial process of learning new music and improving on the guitar, which can take on many forms but always requires a considerable amount of work and faith in the process. You put in consistent effort, and then one day, seemingly overnight, you\u2019re able to play a song fluidly and perfectly. All of a sudden, you\u2019re able to connect new areas of the fretboard, easily discern the harmony behind one of your favorite songs, or flawlessly play a flatpicking solo that once seemed technically out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Springtime in Colorado requires patience, fortitude, and faith. But then something magical occurs: Seemingly overnight, a world of black and white becomes technicolor with blooming daffodils, tulips, and forsythia; barren skeletons of trees and bushes are suddenly painted with the pink, lavender, and royal blue shades of lilacs and apple blossoms. Like someone decided to flip a switch\u2014the world is instantly green, renewed, and full of promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KEEP READING<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Summer Goals | AGTA Virtual Roundtable Replay<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mamie Minch, Thu Tran, and Isa Burke (and viewers like you!) gathered for our freewheelin\u2019 late-May roundtable. The theme was Summer Goals, and in this hour-long discussion the TAs shared a ton of valuable insights and played a few tunes. We covered approaches to practicing, learning new skills, singing while playing, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WATCH NOW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here to see more AGTA lessons<\/a><\/strong>. Your $5\/month support unlocks access to the full archive of lessons, plus the Song of the Month<\/a><\/strong> (TAB and notation) and monthly live workshop<\/a><\/strong> archives, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May was a busy month for the TA community, here\u2019s a recap of all our activity!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"May was a busy month for the TA community, here\u2019s a recap of all our activity!","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1542],"class_list":["post-147984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lessons"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/may-recap-agta.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1542,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"joeystringletter-com","display_name":"Joey Lusterman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d62788a8fb3719a625c95a649fc05b0d673d8921c9f2491f0a36cc588ee3c452?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Lusterman","first_name":"Joey","job_title":"","description":"Opinionated creative slash beginning guitarist. Joey has worked in every department at Acoustic Guitar<\/em> in the past 10+ years: front desk, ad sales, editorial, sound guy, camera man, booth babe, email coder, podcast editor, photographer, book designer\u2026"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147984"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148016,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147984\/revisions\/148016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147984"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=147984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}