Gig Night

I• Rode the exercise bike for an hour. I don't know how many calories I burned because the batteries in the bike are getting weak and wouldn't cooperate with giving me a reading.

• Starting to think I should focus a bit more on playing (composing!) and not just learning. 

• Gig was a memorable one; audience participation felt good! I did my Springsteen act during "Pink Cadillac" and acted the Rock & Roller during other songs like "Be Bop A Lula," and "I Saw Her Standing There." We had an outstanding woman singer who blew away everyone with songs such as "At Last," "Can't Help Falling in Love With You," and "Summertime." Pic below is of our stage (my guitar is seen in the middle):

Gig Eve

• Burned 365 calories on the exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Got off diet a bit today, but lost 33.8 pounds since Jan 5.

• An old friend sent me an audio of a guitar lesson teaching use of scales that was interesting!

• Rehearsed with the band tonight for tomorrow night's gig. A singer we have is quite talented and really sound great; she did a great version of the old standard "At Last."

• A bit mixed up with where to focus my learning regarding improvising. Again, I feel the draw of the Aebersold book, (as well as a book of scales that I have).

• Did some improvisations using different things I have learned to "The Way You Look Tonight." I made a backing track and improvised using different ideas/methods. The improv that sounded the best was when I just let go of a strict utilization of rules....

Whiplash

• Burned 367 calories on the exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Determined after feedback from others that to do a solo, it should be the Silver's book delineates: indeed change patterns dictated by the key of the CHORD AND DO NOT JUST PLAY THE PATTERNS IN THE KEY OF THE SONG. I got lucky, it seems, playing the patterns in the key of the song and not the key(s) of the chord(s) in "Over the Rainbow" because apparently the chords in that particular song are mostly in one key!

• Worked on improvising to "The Way You Look Tonight."

• Saw the movie "Whiplash" (ironically with my son) and . . . WOW......

I found it to be intense, inspiring, and thought provoking about the world of making music.

Over That Rainbow

• Burned 371 calories on exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Lost 31.2 pounds since January 5.

• Experimented using Silver's patterns to "Over the Rainbow." Instead of focusing on the key to each particular chord, though, I focused on the key to the song. Although it had its mistakes, the results sounded closer to the melody. I think it was ok.

Fairly Intense Guitar Day

• Burned 358 calories on exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Doing fairly ok with diet.

                      ---GUITAR STUFF---

I will just ramble here....tried many times to improvise over the verse to the song "What a Wonderful World." I recorded the chords being played slowly then attempted to improvise using the patterns....was unsuccessful....didn't sound good....thought I had the patterns in my head but when it came to actually playing them in a song, WOW; a world of difference as I found myself being confused. Was going to go to a different method....sent a recording to some friends for feedback which is pending...when I played it back after some time away, although it was by no stretch of the imagination a gold medal solo, there might be a seed of some good stuff there if I hang in there...just listened again....I'm liking it more....I went from being discouraged to liking it....perhaps I need to be more careful

In choosing patterns and be more patient in playing them.

Monday

• Burned 359 calories on exercise bike in 1/2 hour. Gained 1.2 pounds this week.

• Didn't practice guitar too much today but I do feel like I accomplished something important: taking it slow,I really worked on Pattern 2 in the Sulver book.

• Again, I want to sing the praises of that Silver book. Just ingraining those patterns is key. Work on ingraining the patterns rather than work on looking for another method! 

I'll Follow the Sun

• Burned 754 calories on exercise bike for an hour.

• I think a key for me using the Silver material is to really know the patterns inside and out. 

• I made a recording of me playing the Beatles' "I'll Follow the Sun" in order to practice improvisation. I like it! Here's a link to it:

https://soundcloud.com/guitarjazz/followsun-copy

• Watched part of the movie "The Buddy Holly Story." I'm thinking that part of what makes musicians successful is hard work, dedication, and a solid belief in what one is doing musically.

Saturday

• Diet did not go very well yesterday, but back on track today. Burned 766 calories on the exercise bike for an hour.

• Rehearsed with the band with which I will play a dinner/dance next week.

• Played with the Church band at Mass tonight. Went well.

• Recorded a background track for a song I'd like to try to improvise on: The Beatles' "I'll Follow the Sun."

• Tried to improvise on it using Silver's patterns, but I need to work on it. I'm used to starting and ending the patterns from the first note to the last note, but I need to know them inside and out in order to sound better.

Gig Night

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Played a long gig tonight with the old style jazz band. Was fun. The other guitarist really is fantastic. Our lineup is two guitars, a violin, a viola, drums, bass, accordion, and a sax. Five of us sing; tonight I sang "Moonglow," and "Honey Pie." I tried playing a little improv stuff but on only the more simpler songs.

Snow / Silver Book

• Did 1/2 hour on exercise bike. 

• Lots of snow today. Thanks be to God I didn't get in an accident.

• Learning three of five patterns on p.122 of Silver book. 

• Thinking of listening to the Silver CD.

• Thinking I need to change patterns as a function of key changes during songs.

• Thinking I need to learn the chords in the Silver book to get the maximum benefit of what the book offers.

• Just got done listening to some of the CD that comes with the Silver book. It solidified that I'm on the right path with his book/CD.

            ••• CONCLUSION •••

I think my practice (at this point) needs to include three elements in the Silver book:

1) Improvising over tunes

2) Learning the chords in the book

3) Continuing going through the book learning what it has to offer.

122; 379; 1/2

• Not that I've mastered the earlier material, but I'm up to page 122 of the Silver book, which gets into new patterns.

• Feeling good about improvising. I have no financial interest at all in saying this, but it's thanks to Marc Silver's book: "Contemporary Guitar Improvistion."

• Burned 379 calories on exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

• Getting ready for some significant snow that we are supposed to get tonight.

Improvisation

• Rode the exercise bike for 1/2 hour today. 

• Interesting day for improvisation work. Instead of trying to follow instructions "to the t" (which I tried today), it seemed to actually sound better when I used the 5 Silver patterns in key with the tune I was playing. Just staying in the main key of the song (even if the song changed keys) didn't sound too bad!! (Of course I did have to change somewhat during the middle part of the song ["Over the Rainbow"]). Just following the patterns, mostly in the key of Eb, and using my ear, went well. 

• I am not done the Silver book yet; it has  some more sections. After the book, I may go back to the Ellis book to try to get that bluesy sound.

• I can also intersperse Silver's five patterns with my prior knowledge of the pentatonic scale in my improvisations.

• Making progress by being flexible!

Improvisation & the Silver Book

• Rode the exercise bike for 1/2 hour this morning. Lost 30 pounds since January 5th! 

• Did not have a lot of time to practice today, but did do some experimenting with Silver's five patterns.

• Although I am confused a bit in some of the book, I am finding it to be a goldmine. I am gonding that in these early stages of improvisation that I will need to think and plan more of what I intend to play. That's ok! I am thinking that later on, things will come more naturally.

725 Silver

• Burned 725 calories on exercise bike for one hour. (I also was on exercise bike for an hour yesterday but the bike didn't allow for a calorie count then).

• Went over material in the Silver book. I'm not sounding very good with my improvisation on "Over the Rainbow," and although I don't think I have the method wrong, I think that perhaps improvisation (paradoxically ) takes more planning (at least at my current ability level). I also think that in my current planning of the inprovisation to this song, I made some mistakes in choosing patterns. 

• My improvisation doesn't seem to have the natural flow of music. The lines, even when I choose the correct notes, do not sound the way I want them to. Sounds choppy. 

ADDENDUM

• Just tried playing an improv over the song again with corrected postion(s). Sounded somewhat better. Have to ingrain better how to go from position 5 to position 1 and vice versa.