Mark Elf has some good lines on dom7ths on his teaching site. I drop by there from time to time because he is all about learning lines to get the language. It has worked wonders for me in combination with Jimmy Brunos teaching concepts. I am currently studying some of Marks lines on F7 and I find it is a great way to get direct musical ideas. He uses the passing tone naturally and I am able to take it straight into music instead of just running up and down scales all day. I can't even practice running up and down scales like that anymore. It takes me a practice session or two to get the visual of the scale down - and then I try to make music from it as soon as I've got the "picture" on the guitar. Everything you practice might come out when you improvise. I don't want to be playing scale runs when I improvise. Whenever I practice technique it has got to be something that I would actually play on a tune.
Thats how the cats learned to play back in the day, and no matter if people stick a "modern" label to their approach and try to make you run up and down 7 modes of three different scales all day, nothing can ever replace the efficiency of practicing what you ought to play in a real situation in my opinion.
I know some of the really good players like Rosenwinkel and Kreisberg come from the more academic side of knowing 300 scales and I have a great respect for people pushing through with all that. Those guys can really play. But for people like me who struggle with motivation at times, I think practicing lines will pay off more in the long run. If your mind is not into it, you won't learn a thing. That's the good thing about different approaches, because people are different in how they learn. I know cats who love to shed their scales and are excellent players. It works for them. Not for me.  | 
11-26-2011, 04:31 PM
Linear Mode
