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Dear Richie,
thank you very much for your quick response.
At the moment, I am working through the lesson structure and, alongside the jazz blues form, I am also studying the jazz standard Autumn Leaves. I fully agree with you that working with a mentor is essential, and I am truly looking forward to the one-on-one lessons with you.
I feel that I have already collected many individual puzzle pieces, but I am not yet entirely sure how they all fit together. This is precisely why I am so excited about our first online meeting and the opportunity to gain a clearer sense of direction.
As I understand it, as a Platinum member I should reach out to you via the contact form. I was thinking that the beginning of the new year would be an ideal time to do so—once the trial period has ended and I have completed at least the first module. From there, I assume you would schedule the subsequent sessions accordingly.
If this sounds right to you, then we will speak in the new year. I am very much looking forward to it.
Until then, I wish you a wonderful turn of the year and send my best regards.
Kind regards,
TonyHi Richie!
I also watched your YouTube video with great interest, in which you compare CAGED, 3NPS, and heptatonic fingerings and outline their respective advantages and disadvantages. The arguments are presented very clearly, and I find your reasoning for your preferred approach very convincing. I’ve also read the forum post explaining that this concept essentially represents an extension of CAGED, and I can follow that explanation very well.
That said, since I’ve only recently succeeded in mapping the fretboard—intervals, scales, chords, arpeggios, and inversions—through working with the “pure” CAGED system, I still experience this primarily as a theoretical understanding of fretboard geometry rather than as fluent practical application. Because of that, I find it somewhat challenging to learn the new fingerings without directly relating them to their corresponding CAGED shapes.
For this reason, I really appreciate both the pacing of the modules and the strong focus on the blues. This approach helps me gradually expand my perspective on the fretboard through new fingering options, while also addressing additional aspects such as playing more consciously in positions. With CAGED, one often moves between positions, whereas these approaches seem to encourage briefly extending beyond a position rather than shifting it entirely.
I also play a lot “out of chords,” and I tend to relate each new heptatonic fingering I learn back to chord shapes. That is indeed the intended idea, isn’t it? The familiar fingerings are not meant to be replaced by the new ones, but rather expanded and complemented by them.
Finally, a question from a jazz beginner’s perspective: for now, I’m continuing to work on my repertoire in other styles. Since I’m still in the process of immersing myself in jazz, my plan is to approach the style gradually through listening and through the instruction here over the coming year, before deliberately building a jazz-specific repertoire. Would you consider this a sensible approach?
Thank you very much for the warm welcome. I’ll make sure to always post in the appropriate thread, and perhaps the forum will become more active again as we exchange ideas here. So far, I’m really enjoying my experience here, and it’s great that I’m allowed to ask further questions if something seems unclear.
