Finally....

Finally, some practice time. Worked on Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel, and added some new memorization of lines in "All of Me." Django is the man.

Executive Decision

Decided to use the "How I Learned" book along with regular chord melody stuff. I think this is the most practical plan.

Difficult to Decide

The Getting into Gypsy Jazz book, or the How I Learned book? Or the Ticket to Improv material? 

Getting Into Gypsy Jazz has a ton of material, whereas the other two has less, apparently. If I had more time the Getting Into book might be the way to go, but time constraints might lead to one of the other two...

Decision Monday

Not sure what book to use. "Getting into Gypsy Jazz Guitar," or "How I Learned."

Sunday

A fair practice day. Finding myself getting again into Gypsy Jazz. Worked more on the "All of Me" solo. It's slow going. 

That being said, I can't see ever going away from chord melody. Very far from perfect, I worked on "Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel" today; it should sound a lot better by Christmas. But here how it's sounding today:

https://app.box.com/s/00jhpxvdyhl37p0xqpdv

Saturday

Good day of practice. Started working on the Advent song using the Assembly Line; also added another 1/2 measure to the Gypsy Jazz "All of Me" improv. I like how the improv book uses the technique of memorizing licks rather than scales; also it talks about when each lick is appropriate (over a major chord, dominant chord, etc.).

Looks like my alma mater Florida State University is making a run for the National Title in football. Fear the spear!

Friday

Played two songs with the band tonight as part of a benefit featuring a number of musical presentations. We did well. A couple of highlights for me was some music that featured some beautiful violins. Was really cool that our singer whose father recently died joined us for one of the two songs.

Got a little plan in mind. Will continue learning Assembly Line stuff. But I think I'm going to put Ticket to Improv away at least for now. I like learning leads from the "How I Learned" book: the explanations seem pretty cool, I can always use these leads in jazzy tunes, and it gives me a chance to keep my feet wet in Gypsy Jazz. 

Got a chance today to work a bit from that book today. Will also start working on an Assembly Line chord melody arrangement of "Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel" to play in what may turn out to be a duet with my friend who will play harp for an Advent and/or Christmas Mass(es).

Thursday

No practice today.

Played at friend's funeral. We were in charge of playing the last song, and I think we did a great job playing a bluegrass version of "Amazing Grace."

God bless you my friend, and may you be with Jesus as I type this. 

Tuesday Practice

Rehearsed with others for the funeral service. 

Also rehearsed for Friday's Church gig.

In between time I actually memorized the first measure to "All of Me" in the Gypsy Jazz book.

Monday Post

Not a lot of practice. But was able to get through what I learned of the Satin Doll improv.

A lot going in this week. Tomorrow night will be practicing for two events. One of which is quite sad. I was asked to play "Amazing Grace" for a funeral as part of a group for one of our singers whose dad recently died. He was a really nice guy who will be missed. Also will be playing two songs with a group at Church on Friday.

Can't help but be intrigued by the book "How I Learned (Gypsy Jazz Instructional Book)" Volume I by Gonzalo Bergara. Just might have to try to use it! He seems to use an approach similar to Conti in that memorization of solos is one aspect emphasized.

Back to the Practice

Ok, took a couple days off. But back to practicing today. Got 1/4 of Satin Doll improv finished, worked on the five big Assembly Line chord forms , and worked a bit on the two songs: Misty and What a Wonderful World. Recently got my son to load some blues and gypsy jazz songs for me.

Bruce / Gig / Practice

I am a Bruce Springsteen fan. The guy is just great. He has such a great connection with his fans. Saw him many times in concert starting in 1980. Anyway, this is a great emotional video which captures his relationship with his fans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06fCMfcMnqk

Had a good gig tonight. Played for a business group after their meeting. I like it better when we play for folks who actually appear to be listening to us (we were background for their after-meeting socialization), but it went well. Our PA is now going to be replaced with one that weighs less, thankfully.

Had a good practice session tonight, too. Added another measure or so of Satin Doll. Reviewed the Dm7 Assembly Line chord group, worked on Misty. Didn't have it in me to work on What a Wonderful World, but nonetheless feel good that the time I put in was worthwhile.

Practice: Day 3

Again, did not have a lot of time to practice tonight, but again, it feels good to have gotten some in.

Reviewed C, F, G7, and Am Assembly Line Chord forms. Added another measure to the "Satin Doll" improvisation from the TTI book. Continued to work on "What a Wonderful World," and "Misty."

Learned tonight that from now on I should use a pick when practicing the improv material since I'll be using a pick when actually playing it.

Practice: Day 2

Didn't think I'd have time to practice today but actually fit some in. Worked on the first three measures to "Satin Doll," reviewed the C, F, G7 chord forms, and continued working on "What a Wonderful World," and "Misty."

Learned:

Cool that even a little practice can be profitable and enriching.

Practice: Day 1

Spent some time on the practice plan:

1) First spent some time on the Ticket to Improv (TTI) book. Added another measure, I believe.

2) Continued to work in What A Wonderful World. Worked on getting it faster/smoother.

3) Worked on reviewing the C and F forms in the Assembly Line book.

4) Worked on learning Misty.

Some things learned :

1) In the future, try to practice sitting up and with a music stand.

2) In the future, leave this iPhone away! Too tempting to go on Facebook while practicing. Time lengths of segments in a different way!

3) DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE MY ABILITY TO LEARN

4) Try to practice even when you don't feel like it. Wasn't into it tonight, but felt good about it while doing it!

The Practice Session

Reading some of Jerry Coker's "How to Practice Jazz," and I'm thinking he makes some great points about practice.

1) Organization 

2) It's rigorous

3) Consider what you want to accomplish in the long term and how much do you want it? 

4) Progress isn't always linear

5) Relax when practicing

6) Consider logging what was practiced and for how long and what was learned.

Didn't read the whole book; will probably go back to it, but his approach regarding the whats of should be practiced seem different from the Conti approach. Conti emphasizes playing the instrument over getting too technical.

For now, I think points 1, 3, and 6 seem most important to me now. I want to keep utilizing Conti's approaches, and integrating those approaches with some of Coker's general ideas seems to be a good idea for me.  Number 6 can be easily integrated into this blog.

But I think I've been a little too easy on myself in terms of what to practice. Going to try to get more organized and disciplined with the Conti material.

Just some preliminary ideas:

GOALS: 

1) Play solo style guitar in the form of chord melodies. 

2) Improvise

DIVIDE PRACTICE TIME INTO:

1) Go over all chord melody forms in the "Assembly Line" book

2) Playing chord melody songs that I'be already figured out. Pick a different song from my repertoire every three days. Go for clarity and speed.

3) Working on a new chord melody song.

4) Going over new measures to tunes in the "Ticket to Improv" book.

I'm thinking maybe 15 minutes in each of the sections above would be a good start.

I can conclude of logging in this blog what I practiced, how long did I do it, and what I learned.

Game Plan

Thought of a practice plan for now. Each day, spend time on:

1) The "Assembly Line" chord melody forms.

2) The "Ticket to Improv." book.

3) A Chord Melody Song

Today I watched the intro to the "Ticket to Improv." DVD and started it. It's cool to get back to it. Worked on the first measure to "Satin Doll." Also went over five chord melody forms. Amazing how easy they are forgotten; especially the minor 7ths, for me. 

Simplicity is best for me: not getting hung up on changing guitars, tone, different learning methods, what should I buy next , etc. 

Sticking to what I got for now.

Change Time?

I think it may be time to vary my guitar practice and pick it up a notch or two. As much as I don't have a lot of time to practice, I'm going to have to spend some time learning to improvise.

Maybe I'll just stop adding on new chord melody songs and work on cleaning them up while learning improv.

What a Wonderful World

I like the sounds of this. I raised my left leg by putting the foot on a briefcase and put my guitar on my left leg (as taught in my old guitar lessons). I also messed around with tone controls. This was a relatively easy song to learn; started learning it last night and recorded it this morning. This song is a keeper for the repertoire.

Take a listen:

https://app.box.com/s/8n4zxlfpi3dhdkqznn0t

What a Wonderful World

A lot a lot a lot of rain today. 

Had a good Gypsy Jazz Band practice today, getting ready for our upcoming gig. I'm playing mostly rhythm guitar but taking lead on one tune: "Dark Eyes." Looks like we will be continuing to get together past this gig, and that's a good thing.

Started to work tonight on my next chord melody song; decided to work on "What a Wonderful World." This song is one of my favorites of all time, and performed by one of my favorite musicians ever, Louis Armstrong. He also happens to be one of  my favorite people of all time. One of my favorite books is his biography, "Louis Armstrong: An Extavagant Life," by Laurence Bergreen.

Thoughts of Suds

My piano buddy composed this piece some time ago. It's called "Thoughts of Suds (Remembering David Sudnow)."

I met my buddy on the Sudnow Piano Method forum, and she helped my music enormously with her support and encouragement.

After listening, I realize that I could benefit from making the bass notes more pronounced.

So here it is:

https://app.box.com/s/ub1nuh96pel4ftkyxjfe

Success

Finished with my friend's original song. Feels good to have completed it. Surprised it was actually recorded tonight. Sent it off to my friend, and I'm looking forward to hearing her reaction!

It's a funny thing, these musical doubts. Thought of maybe stopping with this song....won't get it right....etc. But it came through. It's a matter of just hanging in there, shutting down the negativity by just playing the guitar, and things ain't that bad.

From now until Christmas I just might focus mostly on learning Christmas songs. A favorite is "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas."

Starting to get that itch again to learn to improvise!!!

Upcoming Events:

Gypsy Jazz gig coming up soon; practice for it will be tomorrow night. Playing at Church Saturday night. Will be playing in December for the "Make a Wish" Foundation.

Just a Little Detour

A friend recently discovered that he can make audio recordings on his phone, and today he sent me a song of him singing and playing guitar. I thought it was great! Through the years I have bombarded him with my recordings, and I didn't think he had it in him! So what I spent my musical time doing tonight was recording his song onto a first track on GarageBand and I added reverb to it.  I then added I think a violin on track two, a cello on track three I think, and a stand up bass on track four. On track five was just a snippet of his vocal. Sounds good, and I'm looking forward to what he thinks of it!

Trying

Trying to get some practice in, worked on some of my friend's original song.  Sacrificed some practice time to have a good time laughing with daughter #2 playing Scrabble. 

May be difficult to get a lot of practice time in the next few months because this is the time of year that I add more hours to my work day.

Hard to believe that tomorrow would have been John Lennon's 73rd birthday.

Just a bit of an addendum:

Ended up working a bit more on the song, and I'm getting there. 

If only there was more time to practice.

So glad to have played Scrabble though!!

Time with kids is much more important than practicing music!! It was fun to laugh with daughter #2 and be silly!!

For some reason tonight I feel more disillusioned with the USA; just not trusting this country and authority here.

Cool Gig

Gig went so well today that I just might stay in the band; it's just the weekly practices that were a drag. I had a chance to sing "Pink Cadillac" and it was cool. Our two female singers do a great job doing Andrew Sisters harmonies on "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." A good gig!

Guitar

Fairly good practice day. Getting ready for tomorrow's gig with the band. This band consists of me on vocals and guitar, another guitarist/vocalist, a drummer, two female singers ( who sound great on "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy!"), and a keyboardist/vocalist.

Continued practicing my friend's original song today, but didn't put as much time in it today as I did yesterday.  

Just some thoughts:

Tomorrow is my last gig in the band unless something comes up and they ask me to join and it's something I wouldn't mind doing. They are staying together, but the pop sound they are doing just isn't my thing at this time in my life. I asked them to get together for the gig tomorrow, it'll include a reunion concert for me but not a reunion tour!

It gets on my nerves when actors try to become musicians and vice versa. Why don't they just keep doing what they do best? Well, I think I know why. What comes most naturally to me is playing my acoustic and singing along. Just playing the acoustic comes somewhat natural. But I want to do other things!

Maybe an electric blues band?

Not sure if the Gypsy Jazz band I am in will stay together past our gig later this month. 

Will DEFINITELY stay with the Robert Conti learning stuff. Love the chord melody stuff; after I learn a number of songs and have more familiarity with the "Assembly Line" methodology, it'll be on to "The Formula," which apparently teaches how to make more sophisticated chord melody arrangements of songs. 

Still want to improvise better; still may get into the Conti "Ticket to Improv" material I have; there's also a book on Amazon that looks tempting.

Jesus

So difficult to accept that Jesus loves me.

Hard Workin' Day!

Played a bit on the acoustic today; my wife prefers the acoustic over the electric sound.

Worked hard tonight on a song written by my piano buddy; she wrote it some years ago, but I'm working hard on a chord melody version. I'm not sure my brain can take any more work on it tonight! Worked on it using my cool Epiphone Sheridan ii. 

New Guitar Day

Cool day. Practiced a bit of "Misty." Traded in my Ibanez for a great solid top Fender acoustic. Made a quick recording with my new guitar that you can hear by opening the link below:

https://app.box.com/s/2m1n4hfk5wyv5ox36ipv

Cool

Was way kind of Robert Conti to like my activity on Soundcloud today! Just played some forms today .