I’ve added all of my old “Ask Brendan” Columns to this blog for posterity and better organization. Over the next few days I’m going to re-read them and see how they hold up. Some of them are close to 4 years old. I’m curious to see how I thought of things back then. Click on [...]

I should have more to say about this than I do.  It’s just an amazing lick.  Charlie plays it so effortlessly on “Blues For Alice.”  Check it out.  I’ve been working on it for two days now, I’ve just about got it at half-speed.  whoo!

Bach's Prelude No.1 of the Well Tempered Clavier is a beautiful piece.  It illustrates his mastery of harmony, development and suspense.  It's like a well written thriller.  I was working on this with a student this morning, and was so inspired, that I had to put it in my book.  Rather than photocopying the piece [...]

  Today's lick is from my Joe Pass book.  It's a nice bebop(py) lick outlining a Dom 7 chord.  I included it in two octaves so it could be associated with the two basic types of the Dom 7 chord (5th & 6th string rooted). Now that I think of it, I think I've heard [...]

I had to learn a Grateful Dead tune for a wedding early this year. I found this lick while transcribing, and getting a feel for the tune. It's a very simple bluesy/jazzy, scale built of the Major Pentatonic. The b3rd is added (like a blue note), as well as the b7 & major7, to build [...]