New Year's Eve / 2013

GOALS FOR 2014

 

1) Practice at least 35 minutes per day.

A) Ten minutes devoted to the Charlie Christian book written by Joe Dochtermann.

B) Ten minutes devoted to the chord melody material (Conti material).

C) Work on reading notes for the guitar about five minutes

D) Ten minutes devoted to the "Improvise for Real" book. 

2) Will take things slowly and will try to 

not expect too much too quickly. Focus on grasping the material instead of focusing on rushing through things.

Today I worked out of the Charlie Christian book and I must say that I think it is the very thing that I was looking for.

I wish all who are reading this a very happy and safe 2014.

Here's a beautiful Uke version of "Over the Rainbow" done by the late Israel Kamakawiwo'ole:

http://youtu.be/uuQGWxfTh7w

     

Happy 2014 !!

The Charlie Christian Book

Up to page 7 in the book. I like it, and I think it's going to help me a lot in my goal of improvising. I think it's right where I should be in my ability level: not too easy, and challenging without being gobbledygook. Looking foreward to it! As the New Year approaches, I'll be thinking of musical goals for this year.

Eagles beat Dallas to get into playoffs!

PreNew Year

Will be working out of the book: "The Charlie Christian Method for Jazz Guitar" by Joe Dochtermann.  That's the only thing for sure at this point. Ordered a couple of books, too, one called "Improvising for Real" and one on learning how to read music for guitar. Also on the list of things to get into more is chord melody by Robert Conti.

Beautiful Song

My son got me into this....."Endless Ladder" by the Antlers:

http://youtu.be/9h0wByrIl84

Wish List

I officially put in my wish list to Santa. I would like two books:

1) The Guitar Shapes of Charlie Christian

2) The Herb Ellis Guitar Method: All the Shapes You Are 

I'm not getting good info that learning scales and modes would be that great an idea. Also, memorizing leads is ok, but I want to at least try this "shape" stuff to see if it might help me learn improvisation.

Improvisation

Still wonder the best method(s) to use to learn improvisation. Scales? Learning by methods that emphasize imitation? Learning patterns? Using a novel approach? I am such a sucker for buying different methods and books. I do have the Mickey Baker book and I'm thinking of just using that instead of looking for yet another method.

Who are the improvisers I most admire? Louis Armstrong. Charlie Christian. Benny Goodman. The guys who are melodic in their solos. I don't enjoy improvisations that are not melodic.  I can't imagine that the guys who I mentioned sat down and learned scales and modes. They had to have the Desire, Dedication, and Enthusiasm to spend time with their instruments and learn on their own using their ear and their time to find out how they can translate their inner selves to musical ideas as expressed on their instruments.

The Make a Wish Foundation gig

A nice gig today with the band playing Christmas tunes for the Make a Wish foundation. I liked my guitar sound with the new pedal board. Sang lead on two songs: "Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Springsteen version)," and "Run Run Rudolph."  Here's a pic of the new pedal arrangement. From left to right is Delay, Phaser, and Blues Driver pedals.

Interesting

Bought a pedal board and attached my three pedals. Played around with some scale stuff on guitar; interesting.

Snow Tomorrow

Getting ready for some snow tomorrow. Anyway, a while ago a got a little ebook, and today I started to go seriously go through it. Am going to try using it to help improvise, along with an interesting YouTube video I saw. Anyway, you can't beat the price of the ebook (I think its $.99), and it's called:

"Building the Better Guitar Scale" by Michael Pillitiere.  

Stay posted. Due to snow tomorrow I might devote tomorrow to getting into it with guitar in hand.

Christmas Tune

Spent time today relearning Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel in order to play it at Mass tonight. Learned it. Messed up playing it when it mattered. There's a big difference between playing at home and playing in a demand situation. Also what might have contributed to the failure is the fact that I practiced it today with the guitar unplugged whereas at Mass it was of course plugged into my amp, and I also used my digital delay pedal. 

It did feel good though today to get back playing the Assembly Line method. Practice is key, though!

Rudolph

Practiced for Mass tonight with the band. I was indulged in that we went through "Run Run Rudolph." What a great Christmas song and what a great Chuck Berry song! (Recently got Robert Conti's "The Formula" also).

On "Run Run Rudolph" is me on guitar and lead vocal, one other electric guitar player, and acoustic guitar player, a mandolin player, a ukelele player (!), and a drummer. Some background vocal stuff was going on too.

Give a listen:

https://app.box.com/s/kh0bq3797w0gq3jxe5vf

Requirement

Must.

Get.

Back.

To practicing!!!!!

Improvise for Real

Intrigued by the book "Improvise for Real" by David Reed. Just might have to get it.

Interesting

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/11/30/dnt-homeless-mozart-has-musical-gift.katu.html