Today marks 23 years since Shawn Lane passed away. Shawn left us far too soon, but the depth of his musicianship, imagination, technical ability, harmonic understanding, humor, and unique way of seeing the guitar still affects players all over the world. For those of us who knew him, worked with him, learned from him, or have spent years studying what he left behind, Shawn was never just a fast guitar player. He was a complete musician with an extraordinary ear, an endless curiosity, and a way of hearing connections that many of us are still working to understand. This community exists in part because that work deserves to be preserved, studied seriously, and carried forward musically—not reduced to a few clips, licks, or myths. The best way we can honor Shawn is to keep learning. Keep listening. Keep asking better musical questions. Keep putting the work into our own playing. Thank you to everyone here who cares about the music deeply enough to be part of that. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– In that spirit, I released a new lesson today on one of the most important ideas in improvisation: THINK CHORD, NOT KEY. Most players see an A minor blues and immediately stay in A minor pentatonic for the entire progression. That can sound good—but if you want your lines to truly follow the music, you have to see and hear the chord movement underneath the scale. In the lesson, I break down several ways to approach the changes: • Target the 1, b3, and 5 of every minor chord • Move minor pentatonic ideas from A minor to D minor to E minor • Connect minor triads and minor 7 arpeggios • Use Dorian, harmonic minor, and other colors intentionally • Create tension over E7#9 and resolve it back to A minor • Stop getting trapped in isolated scale shapes Watch the new lesson here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOt7sNDKXsk This is exactly the kind of fretboard visualization, interval awareness, harmonic understanding, and practical guitar application we are building inside The Shawn Lane Guitar Method.