April 1st, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 14, Tom Bukovac, "Viewer Homework Contest"

Chapters
00:00 - Beautiful, slow playing
02:40 - Intro / Coffee
03:12 - Practicing? / Contest
04:50 - Sessions and Covid


Notes
Well it's been two weeks....you've had plenty of time to work on this shit...let's see whatcha got. I'll pick one winner in a week or so....PLEASE DO NOT GET PISSED AT ME IF I DON'T PICK YOU....i already have enough people that hate me.

March 31st, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 13, Tom Bukovac, “Session Man”

Chapters
00:00 - Nasty blues playing
03:03 - Interruption / Intro
03:37 - PRS "Cleveland" story
04:55 - Sessions and playing
05:35 - Freedom in playing / "Red Light Fever"
07:32 - Aggressive vs safe playing
07:45 - Steely Dan story / Rehearse / Explore
10:52 - Session musicians and experiences
13:18 - Skillset needed to be session musician


Notes
A trip through the triumphs and the horrors of the worlds second oldest occupation.

March 30th, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 12, Tom Bukovac, "The Two Sides Of Practicing"

Chapters
00:00 - 2 chord riffing
01:57 - Hello / Reader questions
02:24 - Videos referred to as Tom Time
02:50 - Fellow session player: How to approach practicing?
05:00 - Listening to how the instruments work together
05:55 - Practicing by really studying good, old songs
09:03 - Muscular part of learning / Dexterity
10:05 - View the fretboard horizontally
11:15 - Know the notes blindfolded / Know real stuff


Notes
Yet another tangent...this one inspired by a question I received about how to practice...this one goes out to you dude.

March 30th, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 11, Tom Bukovac, “Burnin’ For You”

Chapters
00:00 - Shredding
00:46 - Speed
01:23 - Clean picking / Loose arm
02:49 - Exercises


Notes
The most polarizing guitar subject of all...alternate speed picking. Although my musical tastes and interests have taken quite a long journey since my brief flirtation with the shred culture back in the mid to late 80s, I have no regrets about the picking technique i developed during those years. I just sort of stumbled on to this technique on my own when I was a kid. Here’s a couple tips/exercises to show you how I do it. Please note that I always use the shoulder of the pick when i do this.

March 29th, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 10, Tom Bukovac PHRASING!!!

Chapters
00:00 - Hello, everybody!
00:27 - One reader comment to respond to
00:55 - The most important thing in music / Phrasing
02:35 - 100 guitar players play this... / Voice
03:47 - Automatic vibrato vs. conscious
04:34 - Different types of vibrato
06:12 - Amazing Nashville guitarists?


Notes
The key to all music is one thing people....phrasing. I apologize but for some unknown technical reason this video doesn't quite start at the beginning when you first turn it on.

March 28th, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 9, Tom Bukovac, "Ripples"

Chapters
00:00 - Genesis - Ripples


Notes
Prog rock day on Corona Lessons...and my first special guest on the show, Sarah Buxton. Doing our version of an old number called "Ripples" off the 1976 Genesis album "Trick of the Tail". An homage to those magical days of yore when all music wasn't written in 4 bar loops of the same four chords over and over. Sarah has an amazing band called Skyline Motel with her songwriting partners Kate York, Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian. Their EP "After Dark" was just released a couple days ago on all the streaming bullshit...REALLY cool songs...and your buddy helped out on the record playing some guitar. This one goes out to my old buddy Tommy Mcdonald...the only guy I know who loves old Genesis as much as I do.

March 27th, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 8, Tom Bukovac. Summer Blues

Chapters
00:00 - Hello everybody
00:30 - Using your thumb to play bass notes
03:30 - Demonstration of using thumb
05:03 - Not bending
05:40 - Using pick and fingers


Notes
A couple slightly unusual techniques here for you all to possibly explore....plus a shameless declaration about my utter distaste for what most normal people consider "nice weather". I come by it honestly folks....there was no person on this planet that absolutely LOATHED being hot more than my dear departed mum Norma Irene Bukovac. She would gladly sit inside in the air conditioning during any outdoor summer family event of my childhood. This one goes out to her....in all those ugly transformative years between" total bar band hack" and "professional session man" she never said one discouraging word. She was truly somethin' special.

March 25th, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 7, Tom Bukovac, "All The Steves"

Chapters
00:00 - Hello everyone / Comment section and thanks
00:58 - Pick related questions
02:26 - Melodic patterns?  No
02:39 - Battery powered microcube?  No
02:55 - No bullshitting
03:40 - Don't let your fingers just fall
04:55 - more views?
05:07 - Best vocalist? Sarah Buxton
05:29 - Stick to drinking, not videos
05:57 - Ton of Steves
06:20 - Steve Howe (Yes)
07:22 - Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs)
08:21 - Steve Hackett (Genesis)
10:00 - Steve Hunter (Various)


Notes
I figured it was time to answer a few questions from viewers...and also go off on a rant about all the great Steves.
This one goes out to my favorite Steve that DOESN'T play guitar...little Stevie Marcantonio....you may not know him, but trust me, he made a lotta big records in New York.

March 24th, 2020

Corona Lessons volume 6, Tom Bukovac, "Pick & Fingers....Nature's Tone Control"

Chapters
00:00 - Some incredible playing
02:03 - Lesson: Switch pick edges


Notes
Rainy day blues....don't it feel like we are all grounded teenagers? Well...thank the Good Lord we still have our guitars. Here's one for all the folks who have asked me about my weirdo pick/fingers combo platter....which was developed subconsciously over 42 years of struggling to get shit to sound the way it sounds in my head....

March 23rd, 2020

Corona Lessons Volume 5, Tom Bukovac. the new normal sus chord

Chapters
00:00 - Hot damn playing
02:33 - Hello!
03:08 - Why can't we have sus chord and major chord?
03:30 - Lesson: Half-step rub / Demonstration
05:15 - Summation and playing


Notes
Extra bored today, so I'll put up a second vid, no extra charge...plunkin' on an old 63 bird...this one goes out to my guru...Greggor "Bubba" Sarlija....if it wasn't for him I would probably be a hopeless drunk living in a rented duplex in Mayfield dating a Hooters waitress.