I used to know a guy who would obsess about ‘breaking in’ a pick and it would sometimes take months. Luckily, for me, I like them straight out of the box. Jim Dunlop. Gator Grip. 2.0. I use the blunt corners (not the sharp end). I think this comes from my younger days when I couldn’t afford picks so I used to use 1p pieces. I got a big sound, but they were always metal shavings on my guitar and I used to break a lot of strings!😂

In the i vi ii v progression , you talk of diminished arp ( B, D , Ab or F) being played over the 6th (dom) chord - but what if it's a Emin7 rather than E7 -- can you still play a diminished arp for tension but coming from E, G, A#, C# ?

You don't HAVE to have a system, or any structure to your practice sessions. But if you like to feel that there's a definite start and finish point, then this could be exactly what you're looking for. I guarantee you that if you have the mental discipline to commit to these 60 practice sessions using the 'position playing' and voice leading method detailed in the courses, then you will be a more capable jazz guitar player than you were. What's that? Two months? I'm not going to lie to you and say that it's easy, because it isn't. You will often be flummoxed, bamboozled and pulling your hair out, but you will also be pushing yourself further than you may have thought possible. It's a system that worked for me. A system that helped me bid farewell to the dark days of not knowing the instrument well enough. A system that took me to a whole new level, and into the live jazz arena, in which I picked up the British Jazz Award for 'Best Guitarist' and the Parliamentary Jazz Award for 'Best Small Group'. I'd love to help you because, well, a World with better musicians is ultimately a better World, isn't it? **Warning - This is not for beginners. You will need to know your scales and theory fairly well before you come here**

This stuff is useless unless you can address some harmonic and melodic problems with it. I guess it’s a chicken and egg situation. Is our melody formed by a technique or is our technique formed by our melody? Who knows? I explore these issues in the ‘Picking’ section in the Classroom.