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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)

June 18, 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...

Podcast
The Real Secret to Making Money in Music: Lessons from Brett Papa's Blue-Collar Hustle

The Real Secret to Making Money in Music: Lessons from Brett Papa's Blue-Collar Hustle

October 9, 2026

Brett Papa went from building amps and sleeping four hours a night to running one of the most respected guitar education brands online. Here is the business philosophy that got him there, plus his CAGED and pentatonic approach to playing like Hendrix.

Podcast
John Osborne on the CAGED System, B-Benders, and Singing Through the Guitar

John Osborne on the CAGED System, B-Benders, and Singing Through the Guitar

September 30, 2026

Grammy-winning Brothers Osborne guitarist John Osborne breaks down the simple system that opened up the entire fretboard for him, how a B-bender really works, and why the best solos are sung before they are played.

Podcast
What They Don't Tell You About the Blues: Lessons From Southern Avenue

What They Don't Tell You About the Blues: Lessons From Southern Avenue

September 16, 2026

Grammy-nominated Memphis band Southern Avenue on gospel roots, learning blues in Tel Aviv, writing for the film Sinners, and why playing like yourself beats chasing cool.

Podcast
Loose as a Dish Rag: Ronnie McCoury on Legacy, Tone and Why The Travelin' McCourys Exist

Loose as a Dish Rag: Ronnie McCoury on Legacy, Tone and Why The Travelin' McCourys Exist

September 6, 2026

Ronnie McCoury sits down at DelFest to talk about learning mandolin from his father Del, the right hand advice that shaped his tone, and the real reason The Travelin' McCourys was formed. There are lessons here for any guitar player working on feel, phrasing and finding their own voice.

Podcast
What Bill Monroe Warned Me About: Peter Rowan on Focus, Voice, and the Long Game

What Bill Monroe Warned Me About: Peter Rowan on Focus, Voice, and the Long Game

August 31, 2026

Bluegrass legend Peter Rowan sits down at DelFest to unpack Bill Monroe's warning about going too far out on the limb, the honky tonk that taught him how to sing, and the story behind writing Panama Red while busking in Cambridge.

Podcast
Charlie Starr on Cornbread Jazz, Rain Dogs, and Why Perfection Is Boring

Charlie Starr on Cornbread Jazz, Rain Dogs, and Why Perfection Is Boring

August 24, 2026

Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr talks 25 years on the road, the Toy Factory Project's Marshall Tucker revival, and the guitar lessons hiding inside Toy Caldwell's major 7th chords. Plus, why Dave Cobb told him to stop trying to make it too good.

Podcast
5 Levels of Jazz Guitar: Cecil Alexander's Roadmap for Blues and Rock Players

5 Levels of Jazz Guitar: Cecil Alexander's Roadmap for Blues and Rock Players

August 22, 2026

Berklee faculty member and elite jazz guitarist Cecil Alexander breaks down a five level path from pentatonic boxes to altered scales, tritone substitutions and side slipping. Here is the full roadmap, plus his take on the George Benson picking technique.

Podcast
Gaelic Storm on 33 Years, the Streaming Math, and the Art of Making Any Song Your Own

Gaelic Storm on 33 Years, the Streaming Math, and the Art of Making Any Song Your Own

August 5, 2026

After a 75 minute set in torrential rain at DelFest, Gaelic Storm sat down with Playback Sessions to talk about the brutal economics of streaming, how they put their own spin on any tune, and the hustle it takes to land a gig in a working band.

Podcast
What The Infamous Stringdusters Learned From Losing a Band Member

What The Infamous Stringdusters Learned From Losing a Band Member

July 26, 2026

After 20 years and 20 albums, The Infamous Stringdusters share how losing their mandolin player accidentally freed up their sound, why they left a traditional label, and what AI really means for acoustic musicians.

Podcast
Adam Miller's 12-Week Blueprint for Fingerstyle Independence

Adam Miller's 12-Week Blueprint for Fingerstyle Independence

July 18, 2026

Australian fingerstyle innovator Adam Miller breaks down the exact practice progression he used to build thumb and finger independence, plus how he turned a six string into a bass, groove and melody machine.

Podcast
How Eddie Van Halen Brought a Bluegrass Kid Back to the Guitar: Heaven McCoury

How Eddie Van Halen Brought a Bluegrass Kid Back to the Guitar: Heaven McCoury

July 10, 2026

Heaven McCoury grew up inside one of bluegrass music's most famous families, quit guitar as a kid, then heard Eruption on his dad's iPod and never looked back. Here is what his path teaches us about tone, tradition, and finding your own voice.

Podcast
Why Del McCoury Never Uses a Set List

Why Del McCoury Never Uses a Set List

July 2, 2026

At 87, bluegrass legend Del McCoury still walks on stage without a set list and calls every tune in the moment. Here is what that habit teaches the rest of us about listening, adaptability, and building a musical life that lasts.

Podcast
Noé Socha on 4-Finger Strumming, Nail Attack, and Playing Without a Pick

Noé Socha on 4-Finger Strumming, Nail Attack, and Playing Without a Pick

June 29, 2026

Blues guitarist Noé Socha explains why he abandoned the pick at 14, how he uses four fingers plus the back of his thumbnail to get pick-like attack, and what a lifetime of learning by ear taught him about commitment in improvisation.

Podcast
Why Vilray Plays a Cheap Old Gibson: Limitations, Subway Woodshedding, and Writing Songs From 1947

Why Vilray Plays a Cheap Old Gibson: Limitations, Subway Woodshedding, and Writing Songs From 1947

June 21, 2026

Vilray sat down with Playback Sessions to talk about the decade he quit music, the subway platform that rebuilt his chops, and why a budget Gibson archtop with almost no sustain is exactly the right guitar for the songs he writes.

Podcast
Grant Gordy on Time, Diminished Harmony, and Why Your Play-Along Might Be Holding You Back

Grant Gordy on Time, Diminished Harmony, and Why Your Play-Along Might Be Holding You Back

June 13, 2026

Grant Gordy spent six years filling Tony Rice's seat in the David Grisman Quintet, and he still says the biggest lesson came from a single lesson about chord inversions. Here is how he practices, why he prefers a metronome to play-alongs, and how diminished harmony opens up the fretboard.

Podcast
John Leventhal on Restraint, Instinct, and Why He Deleted His Best Guitar Take

John Leventhal on Restraint, Instinct, and Why He Deleted His Best Guitar Take

June 8, 2026

Six-time Grammy winner John Leventhal breaks down 40 years of instinct-driven production, why doing less is the hardest lesson in music, and how good time trumps everything.

Podcast
Oz Noy on Fretboard Mastery: Think in Numbers, Not Note Names

Oz Noy on Fretboard Mastery: Think in Numbers, Not Note Names

May 31, 2026

NYC veteran and Berklee professor Oz Noy breaks down the habits that shaped his voice, from selling his Gibson 175 to seeing the fretboard entirely in scale degrees. Here is what he teaches, what he still practices, and the one skill 95 percent of guitar students are missing.

Podcast
Jack Conte on AI, Artistry, and Why Musicians Cannot Sit This One Out

Jack Conte on AI, Artistry, and Why Musicians Cannot Sit This One Out

May 23, 2026

Patreon CEO Jack Conte joins Playback Sessions to talk about generative AI scraping his band's sound, the 50,000 musicians who lost their jobs in 1927, and what working guitarists should actually do about it.

Podcast
Al Di Meola on Why Fast Guitarists Fail (and What to Play Instead)

Al Di Meola on Why Fast Guitarists Fail (and What to Play Instead)

May 21, 2026

Al Di Meola went from Berklee student to sold-out Carnegie Hall with Chick Corea at 19, and he has strong opinions about what modern shredders are missing. Here is his take on composition, hybrid picking, rhythm, and why your phone is the enemy of progress.

Podcast
The 8% Rule: How Billy Strings' Mentor Teaches Practice

The 8% Rule: How Billy Strings' Mentor Teaches Practice

May 16, 2026

Robb Cappelletto, the Sonora mentor who has worked one-on-one with Billy Strings for three years, breaks down the practice philosophy behind one of the greatest players alive, including why slowing a lick to 8% speed is not a weakness but the whole job.

Podcast
Jack Conte on Batching, Instinct, and Making 100 Music Videos a Year

Jack Conte on Batching, Instinct, and Making 100 Music Videos a Year

May 2, 2026

Patreon CEO and Pomplamoose founder Jack Conte breaks down the systems, instincts, and hard-won lessons behind releasing a song a week for seven years while running a multi-billion-dollar platform.

Podcast
Jedd Hughes on Manifesting a Nashville Career, Writing With Guy Clark, and the Guitar Vince Gill Gave Him

Jedd Hughes on Manifesting a Nashville Career, Writing With Guy Clark, and the Guitar Vince Gill Gave Him

April 25, 2026

Jedd Hughes went from a town of 800 people in South Australia to playing guitar for Vince Gill, writing with Guy Clark, and being handed Danny Gatton's ES-350. Here is what he learned about preparation, songwriting, and staying human in an AI world.

Podcast
Marty Schwartz on the Land of A7, Five Blues Licks, and Why He Still Practices the Pentatonic After 30 Years

Marty Schwartz on the Land of A7, Five Blues Licks, and Why He Still Practices the Pentatonic After 30 Years

April 17, 2026

Marty Schwartz, arguably the most-watched guitar teacher alive, breaks down his "land of A7" concept, his five essential blues licks, and the 5-minute-a-day rule that keeps students from quitting.

Podcast
Arpeggios Are the Pass Key: Corey Congilio on Unlocking More Interesting Blues Playing

Arpeggios Are the Pass Key: Corey Congilio on Unlocking More Interesting Blues Playing

April 10, 2026

Corey Congilio breaks down the single concept that transformed his blues playing: arpeggios, and how substituting one arpeggio over another opens up sounds most players never find inside the pentatonic box. Plus the story of how getting fired in Nashville led him to build a career entirely on his own terms.

Podcast
What Larkin Poe Learned From 15 Years of Getting It Wrong

What Larkin Poe Learned From 15 Years of Getting It Wrong

April 4, 2026

Megan and Rebecca Lovell of Larkin Poe on label deals, genre pivots, chasing imperfection, and why learning other people's songs taught them who they are. A rare look inside the craft and career of a Grammy winning sister duo.

Podcast
Margaret Glaspy on Accidental Records, 15 Minute Writing Sessions, and Learning to Write Songs Again

Margaret Glaspy on Accidental Records, 15 Minute Writing Sessions, and Learning to Write Songs Again

March 27, 2026

Margaret Glaspy sat down with Playback Sessions to talk about how her covers record came together by accident in four days, the daily 15 minute writing ritual that keeps her prolific, and why she thinks she is learning to write songs all over again.

Podcast
The Real Cost of Touring: Tim Stafford on Music, Family, and Finding Balance

The Real Cost of Touring: Tim Stafford on Music, Family, and Finding Balance

March 20, 2026

Tim Stafford opens up about the emotional toll of touring life, his songwriting craft, and the guitar wisdom he learned from legends like Tony Rice and Doc Watson.

Podcast
Serve the Song: How Becca Stevens Transformed Her Songwriting by Silencing Her Inner Critic

Serve the Song: How Becca Stevens Transformed Her Songwriting by Silencing Her Inner Critic

March 16, 2026

Grammy-nominated songwriter Becca Stevens reveals how she learned to work with her inner critic instead of against it, and why your job as an artist is to serve the song—not the audience.

Podcast
How Molly Tuttle Is Redefining Modern Bluegrass Guitar

How Molly Tuttle Is Redefining Modern Bluegrass Guitar

March 10, 2026

Grammy-winning guitarist Molly Tuttle shares insights on pushing bluegrass boundaries, developing technique, and finding her unique voice that blends traditional roots with contemporary influences.

Podcast
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 21, 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.

Podcast
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 13, 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.

Podcast
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 9, 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.

Podcast
The Risk That Changed Everything: Jared James Nichols Story

The Risk That Changed Everything: Jared James Nichols Story

January 29, 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.

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

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

January 23, 2026

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

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

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

January 15, 2026

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

Podcast
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

January 9, 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.

Podcast
Bryan Sutton: What Separates Real Players from the Rest

Bryan Sutton: What Separates Real Players from the Rest

January 2, 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.

Podcast
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

December 19, 2025

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.

Podcast
Tommy Emmanuel on Inspiration, Honesty, and Playing Without Fear

Tommy Emmanuel on Inspiration, Honesty, and Playing Without Fear

November 25, 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...

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

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

November 10, 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.

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

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

October 27, 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 ...

Podcast
The Wagon Wheel Story You Never Knew By Ketch Secor

The Wagon Wheel Story You Never Knew By Ketch Secor

October 21, 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 ...

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

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

October 8, 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.

Podcast
Decoding Hendrix: RJ Ronquillo on the Sound Behind the Legend

Decoding Hendrix: RJ Ronquillo on the Sound Behind the Legend

September 29, 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...

Podcast
Rebuilding the Perfect 80s Clean Tone with RJ Ronquillo

Rebuilding the Perfect 80s Clean Tone with RJ Ronquillo

September 18, 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...

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

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

September 16, 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.

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

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

September 10, 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.

Podcast
How Andy Wood Rewired His Playing for Real Speed

How Andy Wood Rewired His Playing for Real Speed

August 27, 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,...

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

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

August 16, 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...

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

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

August 9, 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...

Podcast
From Pentatonics to Poetry: How Jack Ruch Elevates Blues Guitar

From Pentatonics to Poetry: How Jack Ruch Elevates Blues Guitar

August 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.

Podcast
Sierra Hull on Craft, Curiosity, and Growing Beyond Prodigy

Sierra Hull on Craft, Curiosity, and Growing Beyond Prodigy

July 7, 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.

Podcast
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

June 30, 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.

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

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

May 23, 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.

Podcast
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)

May 17, 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.

Podcast
Korby Lenker On The Painful Joy of Finishing Something Great

Korby Lenker On The Painful Joy of Finishing Something Great

May 8, 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.

Podcast
What a Train Wreck Taught Chris Eldridge About Mastery

What a Train Wreck Taught Chris Eldridge About Mastery

May 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...

Podcast
JD Simo on Feel, Tone, and Finding a Voice

JD Simo on Feel, Tone, and Finding a Voice

April 24, 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,...

Podcast
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

April 15, 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.

Podcast
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

April 8, 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...

Podcast