Practice Topics


Stuff to practice

Playing over changes

ballad or mid tempo (60-120bpm) tunes 
Lady Bird
Spain
hit guide tones
voice leading (for comping)
1-2-3-5
constraints (3/7 etc.)

When improvising:

enclosures
sidestepping (for modal)
altered scalebebop ideas (joe f on Spain)
pentatonic ideas
upper chord tones
motifs

Mechanics

Chromatic lines
altering base chords (+b9 etc.) 
chords out of normal position
reading - notes + rhythm
following melody idea in same position, don't shift

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Root notes and jazz chord grips

  I've realized that I think in terms of the root note as the anchor note for my chord shape choices, and I strongly bias to E or A strings.  If it's an Am7 chord, I'm looking at the fifth fret of E, so I'd make a 5x5555 shape.  I have a limited vocabulary of grips that I go for and they mostly anchor on the E or A string, but sometimes use D to be fancy.  Here's what I have at my fingertips: Example A chords anchored on the 5th fret of E string: A7, Am7, Amaj7, A13, A6/9 Example D chords anchored on the 5th fret of A string: D7, D6, D9, Dm7, Dm7b5, Dmaj7, D7#9, Ddim, D6/9 Example G chords anchored on the 5th fret of D string: D7, D6, Dm7, Dm7b5, Dmaj7 A clear downside of this is that I'm grabbing the root at the bottom and playing it.   I then thought - well, with that anchor note, I could make a shape on either the nut side or the bridge side, and those are CAGED-type shapes.  So: - E string, bridge:  E shape - E string, nut: G shape - A strin...
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12/21

Today  We worked on Spain. Video with transcription here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMg161bfeHg Later I pulled that out to a PDF here: https://www.dropbox.com/home/James%20Willeford%20-%20Guitar%20Lessons?preview=Spain+Joe+Farrel+Solo.pdf Talked about Using transcription to find little phrases and try them out in different fingerings all around the neck and different keys. Found a little phrase at bar 13: #4 5 #4 4 #2 3 5 7 9 8 over a Dmaj7.  Tried a bunch of variations.   Chromatic practice - play every note ascending in one position.  going up, reach back with index to get extra note; going down, reach forward with pinky Fingerbuster chromatic exercise. whole up, half up, whole down, half up; then repeat. After the Lesson From email "we can discuss your analysis [of Joe Ferrell solo on Spain] next time we meet. Try to think about not just chord-scale relationships, but development of ideas/geatures. And steal any bits you like you like, such as that lick...
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12/15

  Since last time Rehearsal  went over Spain many times, building tempo we are where we are, and it's rough at times.  But we are getting better Have done 1235 exercise. Not fluid, but i can do it.   Some shapes are much easier than others.  staying in same position is very difficult. Cycle of fifths - naming notes out loud - hard, i'm unlearning things Two middle string 3/7 exercise.  I grab a random ballad from iReal Pro, then try to play only the 3 and 7 on only the D and G strings.   This limits the inversions to 2. i have to go slow! 50bpm or whatever not yet doing voice leading consistently this works because of roots on the E and A string.  When i move to using other pairs, e.g. 3/7 on GB, it gets harder will keep doing it  have practiced getting the altered scale under my fingers tried jamming pentatonic over Spain chords, as described. I have not yet started on composing a solo. Observations Multiple skill areas at work whe...
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