Tuesday

Last day of May... Worked on improvising over "Misty" today,and this is how its sounded: https://soundcloud.com/user-860420366/misty-cover-1

Memorial Day, 2016

Did not really practice playing the guitar today, but spent a lot of time catching up in the Marc Silver book. I think a key may be to not only know the patterns inside and out, but also to find melodic phrases inside each pattern.

Here's a picture of the sky tonight:

Sunday Practice

Played with our keyboard player today, and I sure was not happy with how I sounded. Almost went to a different improv method. 

Took a long break and then I tried to improv over "Satin Doll" with the five patterns in front of me. And it sounded so much better.

The key to improv at this point for me, again, is this:

LEARN THE FIVE PATTERNS INSIDE OUT, BACKWARDS, FORWARDS, AND SIDEWAYS!!!!!

My improvs sound bad when I hit notes that do not belong in the patterns I am supposed to be playing.

Practice needed to get those patterns really a part of me.

Addendum: Kind of frustrated: Sent my improv to a friend. He said it was "very good," but from what he said as a whole didn't make me think it was as good as I thought it was. Tempted (a little) to just give up this improv stuff. Maybe just learn fingerpicking more, concentrate on acoustic stuff, or just do more of what I do best (rhythm, early rock and roll). 

On second thought who am I kidding? Of course I'll keep trying this improv stuff...

I do have fun with it, regardless of my limited skills at this time. 

But the thought of making an acoustic album of some sort using alternative tunings (like Nuck Drake's "Pink Moon" album) is still looming. 

Im not sure if I have the patience to learn fingerpicking the way it is supposed to be played, and I'm not really a fan of acoustic blues solo guitar. If I do indeed do more fingerpicking, it will not be expert sounding.

Listening to all of this self-criticism is making me just want to shut up and keep doing what I'm doing which is learn improv and explore musically want I want to explore musically and when I want to do it!!!!!

Happy Saturday

Worked on a couple songs this morning including "Moonglow," and "Misty." Learning the lead patterns of both and they are sounding good. Continue to work on some reading music stuff, too: I'm playing in the 5th position, but playing notes an octave higher than written.

Just got done adding "Over the Rainbow" to the list.

Commencement

Yep, my son is officially a high school graduate. Went to his commencement tonight. He'll start college in the fall. 

Thursday Baccalaureate

Got back in the saddle today with my improvising. Did significantly better today than yesterday. Worked on "How High the Moon." Also trying to read the melody in the seventh position (an octave higher than written). 

Listened to some interesting music today of a classical guitarist playing Beatles songs (sometimes with other instruments). The beauty of the Beatles' music is just too much. Sometimes these other arrangements of their songs is a reminder of the beauty of their music. 

My son is graduating high school tomorrow, and I attended his Baccalaureate Mass this evening.

Wednesday

Tried improvising to a number of songs tonight and it sounded aweful. Aweful. Difficult to not be frustrated. Thought of doing a different improvisation method again. Briefly thought of doing the piano. Thought of tweeting Peter Frampton for help. A clarinet on Craigslist was tempting. I just sounded bad. 

Tuesday

Getting those five patterns in my fingers.

Happy 75th birthday to Bob Dylan!

Sunday Gig

Had a fun benefit gig today. We did a great version of "At Last," with some great vocals with a singer who sometimes joins us. My guitar was singing today. I managed to play well enough to solo and play chords during "Summertime," and I had fun doing my version of "Pink Cadillac." Enjoyed my Casino today.

Birthday Celebration

Birthday was Tuesday, but celebrated tonight.

Me and the family:

Me and a band member (who shares the same birthday as me):

Brian Wilson / Satin Doll 2 / For No One

Had a cool dream early this morning....I was in Brian Wilson's home....we talked about "Wind Chimes," "Good Vibration," Eugene Landy, and other stuff....I asked if I can have my picture taken with him and if I can also have a picture taken of him, me, and my wife and he agreed and cried at my asking him that....we were to play in s band together at his home....he had a house by the beach and at one point or maybe two points, I saw giant waves coming that got our musical instruments somewhat. A beautiful dream.....

Made a couple of recordings:

1) First was another attempt at "Satin Doll." This one is better than the one recorded yesterday because I had the patterns in front of me while improvising. Here it is:

https://soundcloud.com/user-860420366/satin-doll-cover

2) I found myself interested in fingerpicking acoustic guitar again. I was thinking of using a book I have to learn it. However, I just recorded a song in this style instead. Here's my version of the old Beatles song, "For No One" :

https://soundcloud.com/user-860420366/for-no-one-cover

Thursday

Still trying to improvise. Here's my version of "Satin Doll" recorded today:

https://soundcloud.com/user-860420366/satin-doll-cover

Feeling somewhat frustrated. Tried to play some piano, and lo and behold, no songs came out. Due to time constraints, there's no way I can focus on piano and improving guitar skills at the same time.

Just have to patient with the development of my guitar playing.

Satin Doll

Although I walked for a total of about 40 minutes today, I'm slipping in my diet. Must get back at it!

Picked my new song to work on. Started working on "Satin Doll."

Thinking it might be cool to figure out cool runs associated with each of the five positions.

Happy Birthday to Me !

Yet another year begins for me! 

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Losing weight, but had a chocolate ice cream cone for my birthday! Here is how "Misty" sounded on my birthday, 2016: 

https://soundcloud.com/user-860420366/misty-cover

Interesting how on listening back, I can hear how I can improve.

Marc Silver's book: "Contemporary Guitar Improvisation"

Walked two times today for a combined total of one hour. Diet going well.

Went over my chord melody arrangement of "Misty." 

Was possibly going to post my improv from yesterday but then I realized I was doing it all wrong. Instead of just learning this improvisation my way (the wrong way), I think I need to follow those before me who know better. 

Worked a bit on utilizing the principles in Marc Silver's "Contemporary Guitar Improvisation," and it works a lot more accurately than my attempts at trying to integrate different ideas from various sources.

What I need to do is:

1) Again, really get the patterns in my hands.

2) Check my work carefully when it comes to placing the patterns in the correct place on the guitar neck.

If I do 1 and 2 incorrectly, the result will be playing notes that just will not sound good. 

3) Better learn what patterns are related to particular chords.

Being very careful is thus very important. 

A shout out of thanks to Marc Silver for his book, "Contemporary Guitar Improvisation."

Sunday / Improv3

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. 

Well I had another pleasant surprise today. Recorded "Over the Rainbow" with a backing track and it didn't sound that bad! Sometimes notes are there that perhaps shouldn't be there, but that's ok! I like what is going on with this improv stuff. 

Improv2

Rode exercise bike for more than 1/2 hour.

Getting ready to play with the band for a gig next week. Here's my attempt at improvising over "Misty" today:

 https://soundcloud.com/user-860420366/misty-cover

Improv1

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Doing well with diet. Well I went for it tonight, and tried improvising by utilizing things I've learned. I wasn't very happy with it, util I played it back and to my surprise, I found that it wasn't entirely that bad! I play the melody first by ear, and then I improvised.

Thursday

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. I lost 6 pounds since May 3rd; 30 pounds to go.

I'm mostly using the Marc Silver book in my journey to learning how to improvise. I continue to focus on trying to burn Patterns 2, 5, and to a lesser extent Parttern 3 in my memory. I'm continuing to use the song "Misty" as the framework for improvising. 

I'm finding that it really does take a lot of time (for me, anyway) to really have the patterns known to the extent that I can play them, twist them, and shape then at will in their various ways in which the notes can be combined. Learning the patterns for me is helped by playing them in the context of a song ("Misty"), as opposed to learning the patterns in isolation. 

Looking into the future, I am supposing that it will sound even cooler after I ingrained these patterns so much that I can move them around the guitar neck at will. 

Wednesday

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Just put a little guitar practice in tonight, but I'd say it was worthwhile. Worked on trying to move from Pattern 2 to Pattern 5 inside and out, not just up and down the strings. Difficult but worth it!

Improvising Methodology

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Lost 4.2 pounds this week!

Now, with regards to guitar practice today....it went really well. Want to make some notes to myself with regards to improvising. Sorry if it doesn't make sense to you:

1) To improvise, you need to make sure you are playing the appropriate pattern that goes with the key of the chord.

2) To find the key of the chord, use the diatonic scale: I ii iii IV V7 vi vi dim7.

A great hint with regard to what key you are in is finding the key of the V7 in a progression.

3) When you find the right key for a chord, play a pattern that uses the root of the major scale as that key.

 

I'm using 5 patterns: each one has the major scale embedded in there. 

So practicing today was quite fruitful. Not only did I start applying this method to improvising over "Misty," but I also learned the value of:

LEARNING THE PATTERNS INSIDE AND OUT. 

That is crucial!!! So today I really worked on the fifth pattern; even making up little riffs based on the pattern. Very pleasing.

Now for the bad news, though. Looks like in order to play the melody line of a song, I will possibly need to learn how to read music better. I can't rely on my ear, because it's really not that accurate. And I can't really rely on one major scale because the melody can be all over the place. I can continue to read the melody on the first position on the guitar; however, it would be great to learn how to read on different areas of the guitar neck. Not looking forward to that!

But a really good guitar day! Learning that patience, again, is key. 

May Monday

Walked for 45 minutes.

Learning that just knowing the five guitar shape positions is not the silver bullet method of improvising; but that's ok because in learning them I've made a huge leap in my improvisation skills. The key, to me, is cool sounding GUITAR LINES, not just hitting notes in the shapes. More work needed to really get those shapes in my memory. I think it will also be cool to learn leads from chord shapes, a method that Charlie Christian utilized.

Mother's Day, 2016

Here's a picture of my mom and her mom taken, I believe, in the 1940's:

Today, I rode the exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

A good practice day of all five guitar patterns. Time to start putting it into practice by improvising over songs.

Saturday

Rode exercise bike for 1 and 1/2 hours. 

Last night I found a cover version of John Lennon's Beatles song "Julia" that I recorded some time ago. Here it is:

https://soundcloud.com/user-860420366/jul-1

Went on a road trip today to see me dad. During the ride, I listened to some music, and here's what I listened to with what I thought of them:

"SMILE" - Brian Wilson

What a feast for the ears! Just beautiful stuff. A favorite part is near the end of "Windchimes." "Wonderful" is a favorite, too.

"MODERN TIMES" - Bob Dylan

I came away somewhat underwhelmed. I did like "Spirit on the Water" more than I did in the past. If I listened to this when I was more in a Dylan mood, than I probably would have enjoyed it more. "Beyond the Horizon" was enjoyable; I really like the harmonica solo. I really like this album, but I guess I wasn't really in a Dylan mood.

"ELECTRIC LADYLAND" - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Wow. This man and his imagination and a guitar! Really appreciate his creativity. The drawbacks for me though were sometimes the jamming went on too long, and though the experimental stuff was cool, I likewise felt it could have been shorter.

"PINK MOON" - Nick Drake

My favorite acoustic guitar album of all time. My favorite song is "From the Morning." I have wanted for a long time to make my own acoustic album. As far as albums that are sparred down and mostly acoustic, my other favorites are Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" and Bob Dylan's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Here are some pictures taken of the Catholic Church I was Baptised in, and attended when I was younger:

Now the following picture is very interesting. When I was a kid, Mass attendance was so much that it probably led to having Masses in the main Church as well as the lower Church. Now, I have probably not seen that "lower" Church since the 1970's. I believe they just stopped using it for Masses perhaps about then. So I guess now they use it for parties and perhaps meetings. 

I had a chance to actually see that lower section today, and here is how it currently looks. I think those lights are in my memory somewhere, as are the columns:

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Thursday Breakthrough

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Yesterday, while working on guitar patterns, I utilized a past book I had with regards to improvisation. Interesting.

Here's what I emailed a friend today:

I am pleased to announce that I have (seriously) cracked the code of:
1) Playing the melody to songs, then:
2) Improvising over the chords to a song

It has taken some time, but I have integrated a few simple things, and I think I can do it. It would be great if I saw the lead sheet beforehand to see the chords, to prepare a bit; but I nailed it.

The secret?
Learning the major scale in various places around the guitar neck. Learning the places in different places on the guitar neck allows for different organization of notes in each position. 
I have found that my ear is surprisingly good and most melodies are right on that major scale.....
And knowing the I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, min7b5 of each key gives hints as to when to change the key....

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Wednesday

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Some interesting guitar practice yesterday. My ability to improvise might actually improve if I stick to learning those five CAGED major scale patterns, but in a way that I learn them so they are ingrained so well in my brain and muscle memory that I can play them starting from any note.  Also, actually utilizing them to backing tracks of songs might be helpful.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Monday Improvisation

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Tried to improvise guitar over a song today using what I thought was some good stuff I've learned. Well it didn't sound good.

Reevaluating things. Like a return to piano. Like using a different guitar improvisation approach.

Guitar Sunday

Learned my second swing guitar lick, and worked on integrating some scale shapes.