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Sonora Insights

Insights from the
Sonora community

Sonora isn't just a place to practice and grow. It's a community of musicians sharing ideas, stories, and inspiration. Dive into our behind-the-scenes content, practice tips, and real lessons from the road.

How Billy Strings Actually Practices (and Keeps Getting Better)

How Billy Strings Actually Practices (and Keeps Getting Better)

December 1, 2025

When Billy Strings sat down with his longtime Sonora mentor Robb Cappelletto at Carter Vintage Guitars, one theme came up immediately: at the highest level, improvement isn’t automatic. Even after years of touring, recording, and playing in front of thousands, Billy hit a plateau — repeating licks, rely...

Reinventing Your Musical Identity: Lessons from John Oates on Life After Success

Reinventing Your Musical Identity: Lessons from John Oates on Life After Success

February 25, 2026

Hall & Oates legend John Oates shares his journey of rediscovering his musical roots in Nashville, the power of reinvention after decades of success, and what it really means to stay inspired as an artist.

How Trey Hensley Rebuilt His Right Hand After Injury and Found His Musical Identity

How Trey Hensley Rebuilt His Right Hand After Injury and Found His Musical Identity

February 25, 2026

Bluegrass virtuoso Trey Hensley opens up about overcoming a career-threatening right-hand injury, battling impostor syndrome, and how studying Tony Rice and jazz transformed his approach to guitar.

The Art of Exploratory Guitar Practice: Why Your Practice Isn't Sticking

The Art of Exploratory Guitar Practice: Why Your Practice Isn't Sticking

February 12, 2026

Discover how to transform your guitar practice from mindless repetition to meaningful exploration through etudes, interval experiments, and the mindset that makes musical concepts truly stick.

Paul Gilbert's Melody-First Approach: Why Your Inner Kazoo Player Matters More Than Exotic Scales

Paul Gilbert's Melody-First Approach: Why Your Inner Kazoo Player Matters More Than Exotic Scales

February 6, 2026

Guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert reveals why chasing your "inner kazoo player" and prioritizing melody over speed creates more meaningful music than exotic scales and technical exercises.

Bryan Sutton: What Separates Real Players from the Rest

Bryan Sutton: What Separates Real Players from the Rest

February 6, 2026

Grammy-winning guitarist Bryan Sutton reveals the crucial differences between players who merely copy licks and those who develop genuine musical voice through listening, restraint, and intentional groove.

What Most Musicians Miss According to Victor Wooten: Playing Music vs. Playing an Instrument

What Most Musicians Miss According to Victor Wooten: Playing Music vs. Playing an Instrument

February 6, 2026

Bass legend Victor Wooten reveals why traditional music education gets it backwards and how to rediscover your natural musicality by playing first and understanding theory later.

The Guitar Practice Revolution: How Tomo Fujita Transforms Students at Berklee

The Guitar Practice Revolution: How Tomo Fujita Transforms Students at Berklee

February 6, 2026

Legendary Berklee educator Tomo Fujita reveals why most guitarists practice wrong and how mastering fundamentals deeply creates better musicians than chasing shortcuts.

Sarah Jarosz on Creativity, Vulnerability, and Trusting Your Musical Instincts

Sarah Jarosz on Creativity, Vulnerability, and Trusting Your Musical Instincts

February 6, 2026

Four-time Grammy winner Sarah Jarosz reveals how embracing vulnerability and letting yourself sound "stupid" often becomes the doorway to authentic musical expression.

The Risk That Changed Everything: Jared James Nichols Story

The Risk That Changed Everything: Jared James Nichols Story

February 6, 2026

Discover how Jared James Nichols took a leap of faith on his life and his career, leading to a Gibson signature model and a career playing with legends.

Korby Lenker On The Painful Joy of Finishing Something Great

Korby Lenker On The Painful Joy of Finishing Something Great

December 1, 2025

Korby Lenker has made ten albums, written a book, created a TV pilot, and chased more creative tangents than most artists ever attempt. And yet—he’s the first to admit that the hardest part of all of it is simply finishing. Not dreaming. Not starting. Finishing.

Mark Lettieri on Groove, Restraint, and the Art of Playing With Others

Mark Lettieri on Groove, Restraint, and the Art of Playing With Others

December 1, 2025

Mark Lettieri didn’t take the traditional route into the guitar world. No music school. No formal path. His education came from gospel gigs in Fort Worth, where songs were learned by ear, harmony moved fast, and groove mattered more than anything.

Rebuilding the Perfect 80s Clean Tone with RJ Ronquillo

Rebuilding the Perfect 80s Clean Tone with RJ Ronquillo

December 1, 2025

There’s a reason the 80s clean guitar tone still feels unmistakable: it’s wide without being messy, glossy without being harsh, and somehow both simple and larger than life. In this session at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville, our host teams up with guitarist RJ Ronquillo to piece the sound to...

Sierra Hull on Craft, Curiosity, and Growing Beyond Prodigy

Sierra Hull on Craft, Curiosity, and Growing Beyond Prodigy

December 1, 2025

Sierra Hull’s musical journey began long before she held a mandolin. She remembers sitting in her mother’s lap singing gospel tunes, surrounded by voices in church and family gatherings. Music wasn’t something she “picked up” — it was the backdrop of her childhood in rural Tennessee.

Sol Philcox-Littlefield: How a Kid From a Small British Town Became Nashville’s Go-To Guitar Player

Sol Philcox-Littlefield: How a Kid From a Small British Town Became Nashville’s Go-To Guitar Player

December 1, 2025

Sol Philcox-Littlefield didn’t come from a musical family.He never took formal lessons.He didn’t have industry connections, mentors at home, or a clear blueprint for how to build a life in music.

Stan Cunningham on Quitting Music, Returning Stronger, and Writing a Grammy-Winning Song

Stan Cunningham on Quitting Music, Returning Stronger, and Writing a Grammy-Winning Song

December 1, 2025

In this Playback session, Stan Cunningham unpacks one of the rarest stories in modern songwriting — a track written in a USC dorm room at nineteen, shelved for years, then revived at the last possible moment and placed on a major album the night before release.

The Five Levels of Bluegrass Guitar, Through the Eyes of Shaun Richardson

The Five Levels of Bluegrass Guitar, Through the Eyes of Shaun Richardson

December 1, 2025

Shaun Richardson’s story begins far from Nashville, in Michigan, where music wasn’t something he studied — it was something he absorbed. He grew up listening obsessively to tapes of his uncle’s pedal steel playing, mimicking those sounds long before he had words for them. Bluegrass entered his wo...

The Mindset Shift That Finally Unlocks Speed: Lessons from Andy Wood

The Mindset Shift That Finally Unlocks Speed: Lessons from Andy Wood

December 1, 2025

Andy Wood opens the conversation with a philosophy that guides all his playing:Practice begins with inspiration.If a melody from a movie, a bassline, or a tiny hook grabs him, he steals a piece of it. Not the whole thing — just the part that makes him curious.

The Real Story Behind “Man of Constant Sorrow” with Dan Tyminski

The Real Story Behind “Man of Constant Sorrow” with Dan Tyminski

December 1, 2025

There’s a quiet intensity around Dan Tyminski. Before he even speaks, he feels like someone who has lived multiple musical lifetimes — banjo kid, bandmate, sideman, reluctant frontman, unexpected EDM voice. Beneath all those chapters is a storyteller who somehow makes every twist feel both unlike...

The Wagon Wheel Story You Never Knew By Ketch Secor

The Wagon Wheel Story You Never Knew By Ketch Secor

December 1, 2025

When Ketch Secor sits down with an instrument, it feels less like he’s performing and more like he’s opening a door. Stories spill out, not as nostalgia, but as living history. In this conversation, he traces his journey from teenage punk energy to old-time string band lore, weaving together Doc ...

Tommy Emmanuel on Inspiration, Honesty, and Playing Without Fear

Tommy Emmanuel on Inspiration, Honesty, and Playing Without Fear

December 1, 2025

When Tommy Emmanuel sits down with a guitar, there’s no performance persona, it’s the same spirit he’s carried since he first dreamt about this life at 10 years old. In this conversation at Carter Vintage Guitars, he talks about the thing that has guided him the whole way: playing because he love...

What a Train Wreck Taught Chris Eldridge About Mastery

What a Train Wreck Taught Chris Eldridge About Mastery

December 1, 2025

Chris “Critter” Eldridge didn’t enter music through lessons — he entered through family. Both of his parents were five-string banjo players, and his childhood was filled with classical records, bluegrass jams, and musicians constantly moving through the house. His father, Ben Eldridge of The Seld...

Why Guthrie Trapp Says You’re Soloing Wrong (And How to Fix It)

Why Guthrie Trapp Says You’re Soloing Wrong (And How to Fix It)

December 1, 2025

Guthrie Trapp is one of Nashville’s most respected guitar voices, but his breakthrough didn’t come from learning more theory. It came from learning how to hear. For him, the guitar unlocked when he stopped memorizing patterns and started understanding the sound of the chords underneath.

The Essential Tones Every Session Guitarist Needs: Lessons from Rob McNelley

The Essential Tones Every Session Guitarist Needs: Lessons from Rob McNelley

December 1, 2025

Before Rob McNelley became one of Nashville’s most recorded guitarists, he was a teenager playing four-hour bar gigs around Columbus, Ohio.The work was steady, but the future felt limited — long nights, low pay, and the creeping sense that burnout was inevitable.

Ariel Posen on Finding His Voice and Building a Signature Slide Tone

Ariel Posen on Finding His Voice and Building a Signature Slide Tone

December 1, 2025

For more than a decade, Ariel Posen lived on the road as a sideman — playing for artists, supporting tours, and learning how music works from the back of the stage. But everything shifted when he moved to Ireland. A midnight jam session introduced him to a new community, and suddenly he was back ...

Billy Strings Breaks Down Tony Rice’s Evolution And the Tune That Captured It All

Billy Strings Breaks Down Tony Rice’s Evolution And the Tune That Captured It All

December 1, 2025

There are certain recordings where you can hear a musician changing in real time. For Tony Rice, Fishscale is one of those pieces. He captured it multiple times across his life with David Grisman, John Carlini, and on live tapes, and, each version carries a different tone, different touch, differ...

Dann Huff on Tone, Truth, and the Courage to Start Over

Dann Huff on Tone, Truth, and the Courage to Start Over

December 1, 2025

Few musicians carry a résumé like Dann Huff.From fronting Giant in the 80s to shaping the modern Nashville sound—Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, and countless others—his fingerprint is all over American music.

Decoding Hendrix: RJ Ronquillo on the Sound Behind the Legend

Decoding Hendrix: RJ Ronquillo on the Sound Behind the Legend

December 1, 2025

RJ starts where Hendrix really starts: the guitar.At Carter Vintage, he picks up a ’62-style Strat with a reverse-angled bridge pickup — the same effect Hendrix got from flipping a right-handed guitar upside down. It changes everything: tighter, sharper lows and rounder highs.He tunes down a half...

From Dorm Room to Stadiums: How Noah Levine Actually Got the Gig

From Dorm Room to Stadiums: How Noah Levine Actually Got the Gig

December 1, 2025

Noah Levine went from being a broke 19-year-old recording demos in his dorm room… to playing stadiums with Noah Kahan three years later.

From Pentatonics to Poetry: How Jack Ruch Elevates Blues Guitar

From Pentatonics to Poetry: How Jack Ruch Elevates Blues Guitar

December 1, 2025

Jack starts exactly where everyone starts — cowboy chords, the 12-bar form, and the pentatonic shapes.But he emphasizes something most players miss: this stage is about sound, not scale diagrams.Getting one phrase to truly feel good is the whole job.

JD Simo on Feel, Tone, and Finding a Voice

JD Simo on Feel, Tone, and Finding a Voice

December 1, 2025

JD Simo fell in love with the guitar at age four after seeing Elvis and the Blues Brothers on TV. Growing up in Chicago gave him rare access to documentaries, live tapes, and deep music libraries. Before he even knew what “influence” meant, he was absorbing Costello, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Motown,...

How Andy Wood Rewired His Playing for Real Speed

How Andy Wood Rewired His Playing for Real Speed

November 24, 2025

When Andy Wood talks about speed, he doesn’t start with drills, patterns, or metronomes. He starts with curiosity.If he hears something he loves — a movie theme, a groove from a soundtrack, or a slide line that hits him just right — he reverse-engineers it. Not the full solo, not the whole score,...

5 Levels of Bluegrass Guitar (Complete Masterclass w/ Shaun Richardson)

5 Levels of Bluegrass Guitar (Complete Masterclass w/ Shaun Richardson)

October 24, 2025

Join Shaun Richardson, an accomplished bluegrass guitarist who has shared the stage with legends like Ricky Skaggs and Bela Fleck, as he breaks down the five levels of bluegrass guitar playing in an in-depth interview hosted by Spencer from Sonora Guitar Intensive. From beginner tips to advanced ...