Guitar Music Theory - Podcast Rankings and reviews

My playing has progressed more in the months following subscribing to this podcast than it has in years of practicing guitar and bass guitar using other methods. Desi’s way of explaining topics, Specifically by giving you small easy to understand bits thoroughly, without assuming you already know small concepts, has cleared up practically everything for me. Thank you Desi! Thank you guitar theory & fretboard theory.

I’ve played bass and guitar for years and had the major/minor scales and arpeggios memorized up and down the fretboard. But this podcast is what made the pieces suddenly fit. The scales and chords made sense. Things clicked. And options became available that I didn’t know I had. This approach is so helpful. I can’t recommend this podcast enough. Even if you’ve already memorized a bunch of scales and such. Understanding how and why they work is an absolute game changer. Whatever direction you want to go with music on a fretboard, you need this content in your head.

Don’t be scared off by the “music theory” in this podcasts title. Desi covers a wide range of topics that are relevant to all levels of ability. As a beginning guitarist starting later in life I have been filled with self doubt: Am I practicing enough? Too much? What should I be working on? Am I too old to learn? Am I making good progress? Desi has been very helpful in dispelling these self doubts and getting me on a path to achieve my goals. I highly recommend this podcast to anyone who is serious about learning to play the guitar. Check it out!

I purchased Desi’s audio/video class on music theory and just in case you don’t want to read the review … it’s worth the money. I’m a bluegrass musician and I was afraid that the class would not be applicable to me because bluegrass rarely ventures above the 12th fret (as Norman Blake said: “there’s not much money above the 5th fret”) and this music is primarily a bunch of cowboy chords using as many open stings as possible . However, I’ve learned a ton of techniques (like harmonized scales) that I’ve heard people like Tony Rice and Dan Crary and Clarence White use. Once I analyzed their passages I have been able to understand what they are doing and why their licks work and how to put those passages into my own music. I’ve emailed Desi a few questions I’ve had as I’ve studied the material and he always replies in timely manner. Highly recommended! It doesn’t hurt to mention that I love John Fogerty and Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton and all those guitar heroes fro the 60’s and 70’s and I’ve learned to play some of their music. Throwing a Green River lick into an earl scruggs banjo tune raises some bluegrass eyebrows but what the heck! Again, this class absolutely worth the money