Jam Track, Jens Larsen, Jam Pedals TubeDreamer

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"Creativity isn’t about wild talent as much as it’s about productivity. To find a few ideas that work, you need to try a lot that don’t." - Scott Belsky

Guitar Practice

Jam Track

Today, we have a funky blues jam track in the key of E.

First work on learning the rhythm, and then practice soloing over it.

Red Hot Funky Blues

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To solo over this, you could use an E Minor Pentatonic or E Minor Blues scale, but the E Mixolydian Mode opens up some additional colors and options.

Below is the E Mixolydian Mode between the 1st and 7th frets.

Guitarist/Educator Spotlight

Jens Larsen

Jens Larsen is a jazz guitarist, composer, arranger, and educator based in the Netherlands - and he's had an impact on many guitar players around the world.

In addition to playing in the groups Træben, Yvonne Smeets Group, Jazz4kids and Wijnen, Winter & Larsen, Jens teaches guitar at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He also produces great jazz guitar lessons on YouTube and writes articles for jazz publications.

Since 2014, Jens has been posting free jazz guitar lessons on YouTube, building a large following of guitarists that tune in to his informative and engaging lessons.

Jens' videos are typically concise, which helps make sure you won't get overwhelmed trying to grasp what can sometimes be pretty complex guitar concepts.

While a lot of guitar resources give you charts (such as scales and arpeggios), Jens focuses on using that information in a way that is natural and musical, rather than running through boxed-in positions on the guitar.

Jens's lessons range from concepts for people just getting started in jazz, all the way to expert level, so you can jump right in regardless of where you're at with your playing.

In addition to his popular YouTube lessons, Jens has many lessons (both free and premium) and guitar study guides on his own website.

Check out Jens Larsen: Website | YouTube | Instagram

Gear Showcase

Jam Pedals TubeDreamer | Lucydreamer | Doubledreamer

The TubeDreamer and Lucydreamer are Jam Pedals' inspiring takes on the popular Tubescreamer/808-style pedal.

The TubeDreamer and Lucydreamer have some key differences, and the DoubleDreamer combines both of them into a single dual-overdrive pedal.

TubeDreamer

The TubeDreamer takes the classic Tubescreamer design, and adds additional midrange frequency, to deliver warm and rich overdriven sound through any amp.

From a technical standpoint, a main difference between the Tubedreamer and other Tubescreamers, is that it uses 3 diodes for asymmetrical clipping instead of symmetrical. This makes the pedal very responsive to your fretting and picking.

The Tubedreamer also features a toggle switch to access a high gain stage, for a wider range of tones.

The TubeDreamer is used by guitar greats including Bill Frisell, Dweezil Zappa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Nels Cline, Kirk Fletcher, Gilad Hekselman, and others.

Lucydreamer

Tubescreamer pedals largely get their sound by boosting the mid frequency, and adding some compression. The Lucydreamer alters that, and delivers less mids, less compression, and more low end in comparison, making it a uniquely voiced overdrive. It still has the mid hump that is characteristic of a tubescreamer, but it is much less pronounced.

It also features dry/wet mix control, a high-gain-stage footswitch (which doesn’t affect the dry signal’s level), and an internal trimmer to set the high-gain stage’s output level.

Being able to use the dry/wet control to mix in the warm mid-rangey drive with your clean tone, and other effects like fuzz, phaser, or chorus makes this pedal very versatile.

Double Dreamer

The Double Dreamer is both pedals together, with the TubeDreamer on the left side, and the Lucydreamer on the right. The High-gain-stage footswitch (in the middle) can work with either the Tubedreamer, the Lucydreamer, or both.

View them on the Jam Pedals' website: TubeDreamer | Lucydreamer | Double Dreamer

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Currently spinning in the Office

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