The 2027 Central Coast Jazz Guitar Festival will be taking place on Saturday – Sunday, February 27 – 28 in Buellton CA (near Santa Maria.) You’ll be blown away by all of the great players, concerts, classes, jam sessions, and extras! Here’s a link to last year’s event, so you can get a sense of the scope. No details on the 2027 festival yet, but I do know that I can swing a discount for you. 🙂 I’ll post info on 2027 here when it’s available.
Here are the handouts from my previous seminars at the CCJGF. Keep in mind that these are the notes, and during the actual seminar we go into MUCH more detail and explanation, answer questions, demo the concepts in real time, etc. All that is to say that this is a very cool experience, and I hope you’ll consider joining us at the next Central Coast Jazz Guitar Festival.
CCJGF 2026 Presentation: Fun With +1
Ah, the lowly major triad… it gets no respect. 🙂 But, add one chromatic note, and wow! So many great sounds, intervallic melodies, possibilities! We’ll cover two of my favorite “plus ones” and see how to apply these ideas to standard jazz tunes. Fingerboard diagrams included, of course. If you feel that your solos need a little shot of newness, check this out.
Download the Fun With +1 materials here.
CCJGF 2026 Presentation: Diminished Expansion
I was going to call this seminar “Diminished Expectations:, but then I thought “ehh, maybe a bad idea.” 🙂 Diminished scales, when used well, add a level of complexity and freshness to your solos. It’s like the “level up” from altered, lydian dominant, etc. This seminar covers how to apply the diminished scales over diminished chords (no surprise there) but also the tonic diminished, But it;s the half0whole diminished (aka the dominant 9-tone) scale that really shines.
Download the Diminished Expansions materials here.
CCJGF 2025 Presentation: Altered States
Welcome to the world of pentatonic substitutions and alterations! This seminar covers new (and very hip) uses for the major and minor pentatonics that we know and love. But I think the coolest part are the five altered pentatonic scales introduced, and the amazing sounds that you can create with them.