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Post by jack1982 on Jan 13, 2019 6:08:58 GMT -6
I actually practiced pretty much every day last week. Just working on that "improvising in the style of Little Wing" challenge at the other site. I guess I can share my progress so far - this is all improv in a style I've only been working on for a week so it's pretty messy Griff says I should now concentrate on adding in more double stops (that hammering into a double stop thing that's used throughout Little Wing), using alternate chord voicings, adding bends, and that I should probably slow the tempo down as the quicker tempo limits what you can do between each chord. I should also clean the dust off that Strat and put new strings on it So that's what I'll be working on this week.
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Post by joachim on Jan 13, 2019 7:51:52 GMT -6
That was pretty sweet, Jack! It sounded like you were perhaps strumming the chords too hard, but it's perfectly understandable when you're improvising and focused at hitting the anchor-chords cleanly and timely.
I am still working on MBYCU, which is a long term project for me. In parallel I've done a lot of chord and arpeggio work, and trying to smoothen out John's White Christmas arrangement. My new-years resolution was to focus more on improvisation and I've tried to follow up on that. I normally approach it by noodling over a backing track, but John made a really helpful suggestion a while back, namely to *not* use backing tracks for practicing improvisation. Without the backing track you don't have to worry about keeping time or having your licks planned for the upcoming bars, and it seems to help me, so it's a recommendation I'll parse along...
He also suggested to pick out a handful of short licks I like and then keep playing them again and again over a blues progression, perhaps with small modifications to fit different chords. Pretty much what we had in mind with our "challenge". Perhaps having it layed out as home-work will make me follow through and do it.
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 13, 2019 8:01:29 GMT -6
Sounds good Jack! You seemed to be all over the neck on that one. I would have gotten dizzy and fallen off from all that motion, haha. Tossing around all those legato double stops ala Little Wing is one of my favorite styles to listen to. But for me exceedingly difficult to play. Let us know how that one evolves.
I played every day for at least an hour, probably 10-12 Hrs total. Still working on the same three things: Electric Gypsy intro, first chorus of P&J, and prepping for the final take of BYCU #1. Really focusing on trying to cultivate some musicality out of my right hand. I forget where I saw this, maybe here, but was a statement to the effect that wrt guitar, a player's musicianship manifests in the LH and the players musicality manifests in the RH (probably assuming a right-handed player playing right-handed). Not sure I 100% grasp the distinction, but I've recognized for some time my RH is usually the weak link in whatever I am trying to do w/guitar. Part of the whole reps routine is that it has a meditative aspect which draws me into a different head space where I can more readily pay attention to my RH. By allowing myself to experiment I hope to wade through a bunch of awfulness and hone in on what both feels natural and sounds decent. Revisiting my amateurish arrangement of BYCU #1 is good for that purpose.
Even though progress feels slow I still have a distinct sense of improvement as the days go by so I am content with the routine.
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Post by bluesbruce on Jan 13, 2019 9:16:32 GMT -6
Fell off "hands on the guitar" time seriously this week. Busy at work, anniversary yesterday - just usual life stuff in the way. Jack, that's sounding seriously cool. Thanks for posting it. Joachim, I think MBYCU is a long term project for anyone - stick to it!
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Post by Phil on Jan 13, 2019 9:44:24 GMT -6
The highlight of my week was seeing one of my favorite guitarists, Frank Vignola, in a small venue Friday night. It was a trio, 2 guitars and a stand up bass. It was great. They were very entertaining - corny jokes, some silly antics, great music, and fabulous virtuosity. All the stuff that makes someone an "entertainer" and not just a great musician. One thing I noticed is that neither guitarist ever touched a volume control and I don't think the sound guy did either. Yet their dynamics varied from very soft to pretty loud. They controlled the dynamics completely with their picking hands (both are pick players). The overall sound was great - perfect balance, tone, and just the right volume. I think anybody here would enjoy seeing these guys. They play Jazz standards and throw in a few familiar pop songs but are not hard-core Jazz. No endless, meandering, boring solos. They always stick to and around the melody. A great show on every level. I only got in 5.5 hrs. I continued with 2 things I started last Saturday - the Phil Keaggy stretch and the 7 diatonic arpeggios in 1 position. The arpeggios are played from the lowest to the highest playable note in that position. That throws me off because, except for the first chord, you are not starting on the root. The stretching exercise is slowly becoming doable and I can already see some benefit when playing certain chords that gave me trouble. Oh, I almost forgot. I bought another course. This is the last one I'm buying for a long long time. Honest. It's Robert Conti's "The Formula" an advanced chord melody course. This came out of a discussion with Bruce so I blame him. Anyway, like most of you I have way too many courses. However, there are a handful that I keep going back to (like John G's books and the Mickey Baker book). Well, this is one of those. My head exploded on lesson one. I won't bore you with the details. I'll write a review on my blog and bore you there. It's nice to see Rich and Jack uploading something. It gets awfully dead around here. Now, if we can just get Rich to do a video.... Or if you can get me to do one.
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 13, 2019 10:45:12 GMT -6
Oh, I almost forgot. I bought another course. This is the last one I'm buying for a long long time. Honest. That's good to hear Phil, I'm very proud of you for showing such self-control...in the future Now about those videos we'll be seeing each month, or was it each week? Pretty sure you said every week Oh and that sounds like an awesome show you saw, glad you had a great time!
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Post by Phil on Jan 13, 2019 11:24:09 GMT -6
Oh, I almost forgot. I bought another course. This is the last one I'm buying for a long long time. Honest. That's good to hear Phil, I'm very proud of you for showing such self-control...in the future Now about those videos we'll be seeing each month, or was it each week? Pretty sure you said every week Oh and that sounds like an awesome show you saw, glad you had a great time! I must point out that I never bought any course form Truefire or Robert Conti unless it was on sale for a substantial discount. Doesn't fiscal responsibility count for anything around here?
Keep bugging me about the videos. I need someone to nag me. I don't get enough of that at home.
One more thing about that concert. It was at an exclusive gated community/resort kind of place. The tickets were free. Residents got 1st dibs for 3 days. Any tickets remaining after 3 days were available to the general public. I lucked out. The age of the crowd shocked me. If my son wasn't with me I would have been the youngest person there and I'm 66.
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Post by cunningr on Jan 13, 2019 12:07:55 GMT -6
Damn Phil you have me laughing with the age crack...... lol
Well as noted from my technical questions about intervals I have been working on intervals. Thanks for all the post all very helpful, I watched the video twice.
So hours over an hour per day, close to 2 hour average. Still working on Born Under a Bad sign actually have it in memory to about halfway. Needs lots of work but my main goal is just to be able to play through the whole song even at a meciocre level. Started on I am tore down clapton version also. Plus these fit in with my instructors class work guitar bass lines that go along with the bass line.
Also, bought a trio plus looper not sure I like it. Still learning how to get the band to play my chord progression, still cant get the looper armed today. Interesting piece if gear but thinking rc3 more what i wantedso i could load mp3 backing track.
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Post by cunningr on Jan 13, 2019 12:08:53 GMT -6
Oh Jack try a set of Blues Sliders on that Strat if you restring, tone on those are excellent.
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Post by bluesbruce on Jan 13, 2019 12:48:07 GMT -6
The highlight of my week was seeing one of my favorite guitarists, Frank Vignola, in a small venue Friday night. It was a trio, 2 guitars and a stand up bass. It was great. They were very entertaining - corny jokes, some silly antics, great music, and fabulous virtuosity. All the stuff that makes someone an "entertainer" and not just a great musician. One thing I noticed is that neither guitarist ever touched a volume control and I don't think the sound guy did either. Yet their dynamics varied from very soft to pretty loud. They controlled the dynamics completely with their picking hands (both are pick players). The overall sound was great - perfect balance, tone, and just the right volume. I think anybody here would enjoy seeing these guys. They play Jazz standards and throw in a few familiar pop songs but are not hard-core Jazz. No endless, meandering, boring solos. They always stick to and around the melody. A great show on every level. I only got in 5.5 hrs. I continued with 2 things I started last Saturday - the Phil Keaggy stretch and the 7 diatonic arpeggios in 1 position. The arpeggios are played from the lowest to the highest playable note in that position. That throws me off because, except for the first chord, you are not starting on the root. The stretching exercise is slowly becoming doable and I can already see some benefit when playing certain chords that gave me trouble. Oh, I almost forgot. I bought another course. This is the last one I'm buying for a long long time. Honest. It's Robert Conti's "The Formula" an advanced chord melody course. This came out of a discussion with Bruce so I blame him. Anyway, like most of you I have way too many courses. However, there are a handful that I keep going back to (like John G's books and the Mickey Baker book). Well, this is one of those. My head exploded on lesson one. I won't bore you with the details. I'll write a review on my blog and bore you there. It's nice to see Rich and Jack uploading something. It gets awfully dead around here. Now, if we can just get Rich to do a video.... Or if you can get me to do one. The Frank Vignola show sounds like a great show, Phil. I hate to bear the blame for forcing you to buy more courses (very similar to the guilt I carry for encouraging Jack to buy more cat pictures). Even though Conti's courses sound really solid, I've decided to NOT buy more guitar educational materials. We'll see how long this resolve holds out...
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Post by Phil on Jan 13, 2019 12:58:58 GMT -6
The Frank Vignola show sounds like a great show, Phil. I hate to bear the blame for forcing you to buy more courses (very similar to the guilt I carry for encouraging Jack to buy more cat pictures). Even though Conti's courses sound really solid, I've decided to NOT buy more guitar educational materials. We'll see how long this resolve holds out... Yeah, but did you watch the intro video to "Assembly Line" his basic chord melody course? Go on. Watch it again. A tiny bit won't hurt. Just take a little taste.
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 15, 2019 9:05:22 GMT -6
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Post by cunningr on Jan 15, 2019 11:31:46 GMT -6
🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤢🤮😂 funny, surely that is a typo.
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 16, 2019 7:54:39 GMT -6
Jack, $11.4K down?! Wow. Wonder what the total would be. I could swing a string on one of those suckers. You can get a heck of a custom built guitar for that down payment. It's not like JP is going to come by the house and play it for you or anything.
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 16, 2019 11:57:00 GMT -6
Yeah I think we'll have to stick with the production model lol. I'm really not expecting them to be much more than other signature production Tele's. And if they are, well I'm not exactly going to die if I don't get one
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Post by jack1982 on Jan 25, 2019 7:20:15 GMT -6
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 29, 2019 17:00:02 GMT -6
Jack, you'll need one of these to go with the guitar:
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