This video is amazing on so many levels, but John Scofield takes centre stage. Early on there's a lot of good mix of minor blues/mixo/major. I LOVE the way he starts out by bending major 6 a half step into the dominant 7. On a funk groove just such a great way to start.

Then at about 4:05 when he comes back in there's a great kind of altered scale lick. He starts by bending the root (once again, accenting a 'funk tone') up to the 9, then I think he slides into the #9, before coming down the neck all skronky with some altered notes and I think I hear a b6, b5, 9, R to end the lick...maybe? To me that one altered lick really makes the other stuff pop.

Then there's octaves, this syncopated raking thing and it's all pretty slow, nothing flashy, just tasty.

Plus Mononeon off to the side...just wild.

Probably 10 years ago I discovered Joe Pass and absolutely loved him. I tried jazz lessons for a bit but realized quickly I lacked the fundamentals to really 'get' what I was hoping to do there. One of the few things that really stuck in my mind was the notion that you can always lead into a chord from above or below. Tried to do that a bit here and a walking pedal up to the 5 for the turnaround. Also did that sliding 9 thing where you stack the 5 & 9 and slide that up to the major 3 and 13. Happens a lot in blues and I love that sound.

On the A I'm kind of just messing around trying to accent the diminished chords that make up a dominant chord by putting the b7 in the root of the I chord.

In D...had some fun with my filter pedal on, haha.

Did this over a ii/V/i in F. Made the 5 a Cb13.

Took me a while to get this one to this point--did a bunch of supplemental reading. What helped it click a bit more was to learn and play the scale by its arpeggios, I think in this one I used the b3min7(D#), the 3 (Emaj7#5) and the b6 dom 7(G#7). I also like I 7b5 but I actually don't think I played it here!

I also liked the sound of a pentatonic scale I discovered in the altered, C#, D#, F#, G#, A#, so the b2, b3, b5, b6, b7--all the altered tones. Sounds really cool.

It's not exactly where I want it but a good start and I can start to hear those 'jazzy sounds' that I have always heard on songs and had no clue how to get it!!

Tried out some Lydian Dominant! Did this over a B7 and an A7, so A Lydian Dominant. I tried to play with the dissonance by holding on the G during the B7 getting that #5 sound that then leads into the dominant 7 of the A.

Although I don't plan on playing Lydian Dominant very much, this really forced me to know where my 4s were in my scale. I found myself really thinking about the notes I was playing relative to the chord I was on/scale I was in. I think that will translate to everything else.

Also...tried searching but Lydian Dominant at times sounded like some of the more fusiony Steely Dan solos, but I could be wrong.

I was fooling around with dominant chords and I realized I was playing something that sounded a lot like "Ramble on Rose" so I figured why not?

In D it's a I, II7, iii, IV, I, IV, V7

I tried to do a couple of things...
I listened to a lot of 70s Jerry versions. Trying to emulate that descending or ascending chromaticism that sounds like your falling down but landing on your feet at the end of it.

I've noticed that I tend to either go all the way up a lick or all the way down and it makes my playing a bit predictable. I fell into the trap again at the end, but was happy with resolving high after going low at the start of the improv.

Really tried to sell that D in E7 and then noticed that even though the G should be a Major 7, that bluesy F natural sounds great too.

Tried to breath a little. That's something else I'm trying to cop from Jerry (and BB King) both let it breath so well. Kind of playing to the tempo of the vocal line even if the notes aren't the same.

Tried to work in my double stops as well...

Progression is: A minor/D9/G#Dim/A minor-A minor Maj 7

I found this easier to get my head around, I think that Harmonic minor maybe warmed me up a bit. I think this really helped me to focus on notes that I'm trying to resolve to.

I tried on that D9 to show the scale a bit by coming down from the F# (3rd of the chord), down to that E (the 9th). Also tried to highlight the C that is the minor 3 of the scale and dominant 7 of that D9.

On the G# Diminished, I tried to stay about from E notes and really highlight the G#, B, D so it's clear I'm playing a G# Dim and not an E7. Also, learning the triads for the Diminished chords in the last lessons was HUGELY helpful. I know know how to find something to play when trying to improv over Diminished chords! It's not great, but I can at least hunt and peck a couple of notes now.

Tried to avoid relying on major 7 except in that last bar where it hit the 'James Bond Chord' for a couple of beats.

Finally, there was only point where I did a double stop bend into the G, or the Dominant 7. We'll just pretend that intentionally me trying to walk the scale back in the regular minor because after all you can go up in Melodic and back down in regular, haha. It was accidental, but I still liked the way it sounded.

Took me a while to get this scale drilled in my head where I was comfortable enough to post it. It's B minor/E minor/F#7. That chord progression is very Tom Waits-ish which I really dig.

My progression goes: C-/F/Ab/G/Bdim7. Trying to outline the chord progressions and a repeating lick over the F to give it some harmony.

So, I figure that's C phrygian to start, that makes it a:
I
Maj IV
VI
Maj V
b7 Dim

Played the 'tops' of all the 7th chords in A Dorian, so:
Amin7=C
Bmin7=D
Cmaj7=E minor
D7=F#Dim
Emin7=G
F#min7b5=A minor
Gmaj7=B minor

Tried to stay in the same position for a few chords to test my knowledge of the triads and the whole 'chord is one step away' notion.

G Lydian. (Gmaj7-A7). Tried to end my phrases on the C#, the #4 wherever it made sense.

Focusing on those notes that make the mode distinctive has really opened things up for me, so the major 6 on Dorian, the #4 on Lydian. I was never really able to see the point of modal thinking before this, it all just felt like different positions of the major scale (which it is), but those stand out notes really help to drive home the distinctive sound.

Dorian jam using the Bmin to E7 I-IV progression.

I applied the three note per string scale idea of moving up and down the neck. It really did help me connect multiple positions and move up and down in a way that I wasn't able to before.

Did it over the verse for Bertha for a bit of fun.

Also highlighted a Bb in my playing where I could to draw out the dominant 7 of the C and then the bluesy flat third of the G.

C Vamp, trying to hit the 5 note (G)

I was first introduced to Guitar Gate when I came across the video where Michael broke down Garcia and Mayer's style of soloing over Deal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FYH0UXQAO8). The guitar solos to Deal are what inspired to start taking guitar more seriously a couple of years ago and Michael's break down really helped me to understand what was going on there.

I joined Guitar Gate and started going back through things I thought I knew and feel like I've made more progress in the last 10 months than probably the last 10 years.

Anyway, I think I bit of a bit more than I could chew as Deal is a fast moving tough solo for me, but that's the point. I'm putting this up so as I move through the course and hopefully get better I can use this as my benchmark for progress.

I tried to outline the important 'outlier' chords that don't fall in A mixo (the C#7, F# major, the D# Diminished) and hunt the thirds where I could.

Thoughts, critiques welcome!

On to the next level!!

Great backing track found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqkdkCsy8I8

Tried doing double stops on a G I-VI-II-V progression