Hey Joe! I'm a huge fan of your music and the website is great. I write to u to ask if u can help me with something. If you are a spiritual person, which I think you are, I especially hear it in your music, please pray for all of the citizens of Louisiana. A horrible hurricane is heading our way and is expected to hit Lake Charles, LA, which is my hometown. I know that this has nothing to do with music but I thought, I hope you're cool with me asking. I can't even begin to express to you how much your music has inspired my guitar playing into realms which I thought I couldn't reach. You are a Zin-Master of the guitar...

ovation -- thanks man :) that really made me smile...

JSClone1 - I asked the question some time back if a person who was tone deaf could play an instrument. I had only one response and if my memory serves me correctly this was you. Now his guitar, amp, wires, books, pedal has taken over his half of the bedroom, I clean my half and he is left to clean his. ha ha.

Invigor - Have you only just realised how great girls are.

Ovation - Peanut Butter and thick crusty bread

I am become death, don't like this track, sorry Joe.

Phyg Dom - Nah, not dissing the teacher, he's quite funny actually, seems to have a knack on how to teach stuff. You'd have to watch the League of Gents tapes to appreciate the Kool, Kool bit. I have kids and dogs, they're all kids really, my husband is a big kid too.

Mr Nick - We live about a mile from Cannock, Hednesford Raceway is virtually round the corner for us.

chocoholic: peanut butter and thick crusty bread....even better!! :-)

What chance do I have to become your pupil?

I live in Finland I have studiet guitar playning about 6 years I have studiet classican guitar about 4 years I'm 15 (soon 16) years old

Good: orange juice + coke

Bad: orange juice + milk

r6rocker - yes, I straightened out a whole pile of things.... and I used my G-everywhere exercise largely [but not completely] to mend my technique. Here's the list of repairs I did:
posture... I worked out that my guitar was too low [when playing standing] and my hand possition would be better with the knuckles parallel with the neck [s often as possible] so my fingers are mostly parallel with the frets..
I found that this way I could get right up on the finger tips... like a ballet dancer on tip toes...
I practiced playing closer to the back of the targeted fret so less pressure was needed needed to make the note sound...
less pressure = less effort.. it's like realising that stamping when running is tiring, slow and painful... I discovered how to 'get up on my toes' and found myself playing quicker, with greater accuracy effortlessly....

to you this I watched myself play in great detail... made a change [guitar height]... then played G-everywhere again... made a change... etc etc... then I looked at my hand position and fretting accuracy... making little discoveries and improvements along the way...

at first I was playing slower whilst I was getting used to it... however what spurred me on was that it fealt more effortless and the accuracy and overall control seemed to improve... once it began to feal natural to me then the speed came.. I was always pretty quick but this was a speed that was new to me.... I just went from strength to strength

Some would say that I'm not the tidiest of players [which is pretty true] but this is because I spend most of my time writing and experimenting with ideas.... when I need to turn on the technique [gigs / sessions etc] then I alter my practice content to clean things up... like a sprinter prepping for a race...

Theory posse – seconds out... round 9.......7th chords…
previously we looked at how tell spell major, minor and diminished triads and also how to flip them around in terms of voicing and inversion. Now we can take a look at notes beyond the 5th which provide more richness…. So the basic rule is that the notes of a chord must ‘stack’ in 3rds…. There are obviously exceptions to the rule but we’ll look at more exotic chords another time. So to recap, the triad is composed of a root, 3rd and 5th. If the interval of the 3rd above the root is 2 tones then it is major, and if 1 ½ tones it is then minor. If the 5th interval is 3 ½ tones then it is perfect, 3 tones is diminished and 4 tones is augmented. Moving up from the 5th of the chord by a 3rd interval we arrive at the 7th. [5th –> 6th –> 7th which you can think of as moving up three places starting from and including the 5th]
7th chords are very important as you’ll come to see in the future.
For now, we will consider that there are only two types of 7th interval:
the minor 7th interval is 5 tones [10 frets] above the root [you may find it easier to think of as 1 tone [2 frets] down from the octave]
the major 7th interval is 5 ½ tones 11 frets] above the root [you may find it easier to think of as 1/2 tone [1 fret] down from the octave]

There are four basic types of ‘7th chord’ that are produced by a diatonic major scale. The names and spellings for ‘chords of the 7th’ are as follows [where the hypothetical note ‘X’ is the root]:
X major 7 – this is a major triad with a major 7th added so the spelling is – root, major 3rd, perfect 5th, major 7th. It is written: X^7 [the ^ should be a ‘triangle shape’ but I don’t have one on this keyboard so I’m having to improvise a bit] and is spoken “X major seven”.
X minor 7 – this is a minor triad with a minor 7th added so the spelling is – root, minor 3rd, perfect 5th, minor 7th. It is written: Xm7 and is spoken “X minor seven”.
X dominant 7 – this is a major triad with a minor 7th added so the spelling is – root, major 3rd, perfect 5th, minor 7th. It is written: X7 and is spoken “X seven”.
X half diminished 7 – this is a diminished triad with a minor 7th added so the spelling is – root, minor 3rd, diminished 5th, minor 7th. It is written: Xm7b5, also Xm7-5 and is spoken “X minor seven flat five” also “ X half diminished seven”. Personally I prefer Xm7b5 as I think that it is more descriptive.

So, let’s look at the scale of G major and go find all of these ‘7th’ chords.
the key of G contains the notes: Tonic = G, 2nd = A, 3rd = B, 4th = C, 5th = D, 6th = E, 7th = F#

chord ‘I’ as we know is tonic = G, 3rd = B, 5th = D, so the 7th is F#.
the triad is major and the 7th is 5 ½ [11 frets] tones above the tonic [one semi-tone [1 fret] down from the octave] and is therefore a ‘major 7th’.
So, the chord is G^7 [G major 7]

If you recall looking at chord II in G, we found that it was Am….. where root = A, 3rd = C and the 5th = E… the 7th is therefore the note after the next one in the G major scale… the note is G [E -> F# -> G]
From A, the note G is 5 tones [10 frets] tones above the tonic [one tone [2 frets] down from the octave] and is therefore a ‘minor 7th’. We can now see that we have a minor triad with a minor 7th added on top. So looking at the possibilities listed above, a minor triad with a minor 7th is a minor 7 chord.
So the chord is Am7.

So, chord III is Bm [B, D, F#]… so skip the next note [G] to find the 7th which is A. The note ‘A’ is 5 tones above the root of B and is a minor 7th……. So the chord is Bm7…

So far I’ve worked out the following chords in the key of G major:
chord I7 [G^7], chord II7 [Am7] and chord III7 [Bm7]….

britishrocker25 - I read somewhere that Joe doesn't want to do an instructional video because he personally never used instructional videos when he was growing up. He then said the Live In San Francisco DVD is the best instructional video that he has to offer.

chill out, whatcha yellin for, lay back, it's all been done before.

yahooooooooo! still waiting for my js to arrive, perhaps it has already and i just don't know...teehee, wouldn't that suck..

chocoholic - Yes definately, I remember now. Anyone who picks up an instrument and seriously sits down and practices music will notice drastic tonal distinctive improvements after time. Whether it is humming a tune or developing relative pitch, anyone can do it.