The Journal.
Interviews with the players I admire, gear deep-dives, song breakdowns, and lessons from the studio.
“I recommend every guitar player to learn just the basics of bossa nova.” This isn’t just casual advice—it’s a philosophy from Dominic Miller, the legendary guitarist and composer best known for his decades-long collaboration with Sting.
I’ve been playing “Little Wing” my whole life. And for most of that time, something felt off. No matter how carefully I learned the chords, the embellishments, the chord melody approach — it never quite had the same impact as the original. It never grooved the same way. It never breathed the same way.
There are musicians who master an instrument, and then there are musicians who reinvent it. Jacob Collier sits firmly in the second category.
I’ll be honest with you: I was given a secret mission. Intel had come in that three iconic guitarists might be in danger — in a garage of some sort — and I needed to get there fast, blend in like a fan, and shoot some footage.
There are no shortcuts to learning guitar—just thousands of hours of dedicated practice. But certain insights, learned early, can save you years of frustration and accelerate your progress dramatically.
Without the oud, the guitar as we know it wouldn’t exist. This ancient instrument, dating back thousands of years, carries immense cultural identity throughout the Middle East and North Africa.