August 22, 2025

Last Saturday we had a fun time with our James Taylor TG Live focused on intros to songs from Sweet Baby James. The videos has been added to the TG Library as well as the Essential James Taylor Pack.
This week I had quite a few students working on their listening skills – figuring out chord progressions by ear. I spent most of this Update on tips for improving this, and hearing different types of chords. I opened up with a short instrumental buried on the fourth Doobie Brothers album that uses unusual combinations of maj7 and m7 chords. I was slightly surprised to find out that it was a Tiran Porter composition, which opened the door for a story about a Santa Cruz Guitar Company guitar he bought from us in 1982.

I also suggested some artists whose songs might be easy to figure out- CCR, Jimmy Buffet, even Bob Dylan.

Neil