MISTY

• Found out that Robert Conti is right. You learn the guitar by playing the guitar. I learn more by applying his chords in play than by solely focusing on the order of the shapes.

• Learned the above by starting working on "Misty." Sounds good.

• Reviewed "Over the Rainbow."

• Cleaned up the "Six Appeal" lead that I am working on.

Over the Rainbow

Ok so I recorded a version of it tonight. I think it's getting there:

https://app.box.com/s/iile9df6kvuu30fecsy7

Worked a bit on five Assembly Line Patterns.

Tried a little experimentation on "The Formula!"

Practice practice practice

A good day of practice with some ups and downs. I thought I was finished with "Over the Rainbow" today.....until I recorded it and played it back. Needs some more work. Particularly with speed. 

Worked on four out of the five big chord groups today in the Assembly Line book, and added another measure to the "Six Appeal" lead. This is the last part of the lead that stays in one chord; next I'll move to another chord form.

Gypsy Jazz Performance

A good performance today. I mostly played rhythm. The lineup:

1) Me 

2) A lead guitar player

3) A standup bass player

4) Violin player 

5) Viola player

6) Drummer

7) Accordian Player

Also practiced today from the Charlie Christian book, Assembly Line materials, and also practiced "Over the Rainbow." Robert Conti told me to get about two dozen Assembly Line songs under my belt before moving on to the Formula, and that's what I'm doing, along with trying to memorize the chord names.

Would love to be able to play chord melody as well as melodic leads in the Charlie Christian style.

Been enjoying listening to the Jimmy Reed type of blues music.

Guitar

Last night I practiced with the Gypsy band for our gig which will be tomorrow. Did an interesting jam version of "Memphis" with a violin and viola!

Today I continued my practice with my Charlie Christian book and Conti stuff.

Played some guitar duets with a friend who just started to play.  

A good practice day, but I think I'm kind of plateauing; learning went way up, but now of kind of treading water. That's ok, though; it's to be expected.

Thursday Night Practice

Ran through memorization of first two Assembly Line sets and started the third. Worked on Over the Rainbow, and more of the Six Appeal solo.

Snow Wednesday

Good guitar day. Spent time memorizing the names of the chords in the two major chord forms. Worked more on "Over the Rainbow," and worked a bit on the "Six Appeal" solo. Looked more at Conti's "The Formula," and I'm thinking that chord melody stuff would really be a great long term goal for me as presented in "The Formula." Must do more work with the "Assembly Line" stuff, though, getting songs in my hands, and getting used to the chord names

Working on getting the rock and roll band together. 

Snow on its way

Emailed some friends about the possibility of forming a band focusing on early rock and roll and soul.

Winter storm warning here, calling for snow.

Robert Conti

I had a chance to actually talk to Robert Conti today, and, well, what a great guy!!!

He helped me to better understand some stuff I was struggling with, and I was honored to have that opportunity today to speak with him.  Not only is his guitar playing astounding, but he is also just a great guy to talk to.

I think I'll be using two main learning materials at this point: Conti's "Assembly Line" as well as the Charlie Christian book.

Was tempted to get back to piano, and even tempted to do more rock and roll stuff like last night. My challenge to myself is this:

1) STICK WITH THESE TWO MATERIALS AND LETS JUST SEE IN A YEAR WHERE I AM. If I get past this before a year is up, next step is using the Conti "The Formula" and Conti's first volume of the "Ticket to Improv" series. 

2) INSTEAD OF WASTING TIME, DEVOTE MORE TIME TO ACTUALLY PRACTICING WITH THE GUITAR IN HAND.

Saturday Rock and Roll

Just finished a really fun rock and roll gig! Looks like I actually carried the band tonight. I sang lead on: Under the Boardwalk / Spooky / Little Sister / Peggy Sue / Twist and Shout / I Saw Her Standing There / Sharp Dressed Man / Keep Your Hands To Yourself / Move it on Over / Mustang Sally / Pride and Joy / Pink Cadillac / Some Kind of Wonderful / Johnny B Goode / Slow Down. The pedal board was a pain; I ended up just disconnecting it. A fun evening! 

Friday night arrives without a suitcase

Practiced with the gypsy band tonight. A new guitarist joined us, and his improvisations were just awesome. I think I have to practice more. It can be easy for me to be discouraged listening to him, he was that good. But what I can take from it is that I may need to dial up my practice time a few notches. Off to play a rock and roll gig tomorrow. 

Thursday Night Your Stockings Needed Mending

Reading a bit of a magazine which dedicated an issue to Paul McCartney. What a talent!

Good practice day:

•Reviewed the three Six Appeal forms and the scale notes associated with them

•Reviewed five Assembly Line forms

•Worked on Over the Rainbow being a bit flexible with a C type chord

• Worked on the Six Appeal solo

Ruby Tuesday

• Started working again on "Over the Rainbow."

• Went through five chord forms in the Assembly Line

• Added another measure to "Six Appeal."

Monday Monday

Practiced the five biggie Assembly Line forms. Would really be good to at least do that daily on days like today when there is not enough time to practice longer.

Sunday Practice

First went through some songs with the keyboard/sax player that we'll be doing in a soon to be gig. Will be singing and playing some guitar on stuff I never really sang before like "Pride and Joy," "Bad to the Bone," "Sharp Dressed Man," and "Keep Your Hands to Yourself." I really enjoy doing the old song "Spooky." It's really easy to play and cool sounding.

Guitar practice was really good today. Finished up five Assembly Line forms; just need to polish them up, then pick a song.

What really went interestingly well was the improv practice. Using the Charlie Christian book is opening some really good doors; learning forms and not only learning the solo for "Six Appeal" ( I'm only on the second measure [!]), but experimenting with the forms was fun.

Saturday

Played guitar and did very very little singing at Mass tonight. A good day of practice, too. Went over a new "Assembly Line" form. 

Interesting time practicing Charlie Christian stuff. Thought I would do better to abandon it and go back to a previous method. However, I stuck it though and actually learned something.

What I like about the Charlie Christian method is that it seems to combine a couple methods of learning how to improv: not only does it eliminate use of scales and seems to focus in learning great licks, it additionally teaches chord forms from where those licks/arpeggios come from. Worked on the first measure or so of "Six Appeal," and I like it.

Thursday Practice

Getting to work memorizing three Charlie Christian forms.....frustrating. Worked on three Assembly Line forms.....tempted to look into a different chord melody approach.....went over some chords in the Charlie Christian book.

Started reading the Keith Richards biography "Life." Seems excellent so far. Been listening to Bob Dylan (Self-Portrait as well as the recently released Another Self- Portrait). Curiously compelling.

Tuesday Practice

- Did some "cloud" stuff

- Went through three Assembly Line forms

- Trying to learn scale degrees in a Charlie Christian pattern

FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES WIN CHAMPIONSHIP !

Down 21 - 3 at one point, the Seminoles play an incredible and unforgettable championship game and end up winning 34 - 31. They played against Auburn who put up one heck of a great fight. But congratulations to my school, Florida State!!! I sure am proud to be a Seminole!! And congratulations to the player of the game and Heisman award winner Jameis Winston. 

An incredible game that I'll never forget.

I watched them win championship games against Nebraska and Virginia Tech, but this game was easily the most exciting of the three. 

FSU and practice

My Florida State Seminoles are losing in the third quarter 21-13. Not looking good for the Seminoles.

Was able to get some practice in. Reviewed my two Charlie Christian shapes, worked on adding the third Assembly Line form, read some of the Improvising for Real book and worked on the Cloud exercise.

Good Practice Day

Reviewed two Chord Assembly Forms / went over some Charlie Christian book chords and forms / went over some music reading stuff. Only thing I didn't do was the Improvising For Real book. Perhaps I put too much on my list of things to achieve every day in practice. We'll see how it goes.

Yesterday saw the movie "American Hustle" and just thought it was great. I won't reveal anything about the plot here, but I found it to be a great combination of seriousness, humor, some facts and fiction, resulting in entertainment that makes you think.

Rest in Peace: Phil Everly

Here's Phil Everly in a picture with Maria Elena (Buddy Holly's wife):

"Improvise For Real" by David Reed

This approach seems to be very interesting and quite different from the way music is traditionally taught. Looks like it will be an interesting addition to my practice day. 

After getting this book as well as the Oakes book today, I changed around my goals for this year (see the post titled "Goals for 2014."

Getting Back

Started slowly back into practice tonight. Spent time getting reacquainted with the first chord group in the Assembly Line book, and also spent a little time getting into the first Charlie Christian diagram. There is so much that can be learned...

Snowing today!

Fine Tuning

Attempted to get into Conti's "The Formula," but it is over my head at this point. Will continue to work out of Conti's "The Assembly Line" at this point as well as the Charlie Christian book. 

Addendum

Added number 3 to yesterday's post with regards to goals for the new year.