A Nice Night

Played some Christmas music for older folks tonight. Was ok, but what was particularly touching was the performance by a specific singer.

On Sunday our band will be playing for a holiday celebration for the Make a Wish Foundation. Well tonight, a 12 year old girl with a brain tumor sang the most beautiful version of "Blue Christmas" ever. 

Jamey Aebersold

Just might return to book 1 (adapted for guitar).

Great News

Rock and roll band back together. Bassist asked to rejoin. Watched a bit of Jamey Aebersold's "Anyone Can Improvise" DVD and found it interesting.

No More Rock and Roll Band

Yesterday got the news that our bass player no longer wants to be in the rock and roll band. Shocked. I'll hopefully still do some jazz with him. 

Back & Forth

Went over repertoire. Continue to work on the Baker book. Wonder if I should continue with the Baker book, use the Aebersold book, or give the one book book that I've been looking at a chance.

I want to learn to improvise over chord changes. The first half of the Baker book seems to focus on learning jazz chords which I can already kind of play already. Actually I "fake"them now. But I'm just wondering if it's just worth it spending so much time on learning chords that I can already mostly play when the time might be better spent on practicing what I really want to do, which is improvising.

Weird

A weird music day. Got into some Mickey Baker stuff, and played my repertoire. But looking at another possible book that teaches improv...............

Using this website

Here's a great website that I'll be using to help with the Mickey Baker book:

http://www.advancedguitarstudygroup.com

Mickey Baker. Decision Made.

Decision made. Will utilize the Mickey Baker book. And that's it. It is jam packed with stuff and it seems to be a great course that is broken into 52 chapters (one per week). I think he'll be discussing practicing two hours a day, and I really don't see that happening; however this is it. No more pondering if methods. I mean it this time! Started chapter 1 today.

Mickey Baker

Thinking of not using the Aebersold book but getting down to serious business with the Mickey Baker book....it's called "Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar" (the blue one). 

Breakfast With Santa

Played some Christmas songs with some bandmates for the Breakfast With Santa event at our church. Friday playing for some senior citizens, Saturday practice for Christmas Eve Mass, Sunday playing for a Make a Wish event. 

Making yet another change in my guitar learning plan. Will not add any more chord melody songs for now. After trying so many methods of learning improvisation, I think the best for me is back to Jamie Aebersold. So I'll be returning again to his Volume One, adapted by Corey Christiansen.

A Lot of Guitar Gigging

Today is the 45th anniversary of the disastrous Rolling Stones Altamont concert. Well today my gigs were a lot different. Played a gig with two bandmates benefiting the "Make a Wish" Foundation. Also played electric guitar at Mass. Tomorrow will be playing at a "Breakfast with Santa" event at our Church. 

Went over repertoire. I need to sound smoother with a better sense of easy flow in my repertoire songs.

Continued to try to learn some chords and some of their associated scale numbers in the Charlie Christian book.

Friday Guitar

Went over repertoire and learning the proper thirds and/or sevens in the chords in the Charlie Christian book. Playing a benefit tomorrow for the Make a Wish folks. Looking forward to that.

Here's my version of "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" as it sounded tonight:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jv8av3lud2n756a/Chrestut.m4a?dl=0

Children Go Where I Send Thee

Practice for Christmas stuff tonight. Went well. New song "Children Go Where I Send Thee" (Johnny Cash version) went well. Worked on other stuff including Lennon's Christmas song.

Interesting day....kind of.

Went over repertoire. Trying to learn all the intervals in a scale or chord is very daunting. So almost gave up again on the Charlie Christian book. Bit I think I want to stay with it and try just to memorize where the appropriate third or seventh is in relation to the root. Must learn some new chords too. Today learned the chords associated with the low E strong as the roots.

Monday Change

Decided to move in another direction. Will be using Joe Dochtermann's "The Charlie Christian Method for Jazz Guitar" to work on improvising. Tried it before, but I want to give it another chance. Must go slow and be patient.