The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I started keeping a music log book in which I would write down what I practiced, comments, things that I learned, etc.. Well, stupid me who has a habit of always forgetting something in a hotel room lost two of my log books last month. I also had notes in the back on using my loop pedal, Boss Multi-effects unit, lyrics from original songs, and God knows what else.

    I am fighting the feeling of being frustrated or saddened since we all must pay when we are careless. I have done this before as these are work trips and something always happens to cut into my clothes packing time. In this case, the magnetic key reader on my door lost power, locking me out for around 30 unexpected minutes.

    So, 1) Do you keep a log book of notes to chart your progress and maximize your practice results? 2) have you ever lost an important log book like I did? 2) Is the log book helpful to you - maybe essential?

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  3. #2

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    Yes. I have untold files of musical ideas, chords, progressions, intros, scales, endings, and various technical exercises that date back to the 60's. They are an invaluable history of my progress as a musician. I even have most of the horn charts I wrote for the 10-piece Jazz/Rock band I toured with in the 70's. . . . Mem'ries light the corners of my mind
    Misty water-colored mem'ries of the way we were."

    Play live . . . Marinero

  4. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marinero
    Yes. I have untold files of musical ideas, chords, progressions, intros, scales, endings, and various technical exercises that date back to the 60's. They are an invaluable history of my progress as a musician. I even have most of the horn charts I wrote for the 10-piece Jazz/Rock band I toured with in the 70's. . . . Mem'ries light the corners of my mind
    Misty water-colored mem'ries of the way we were."

    Play live . . . Marinero
    I have read where many of the great guitarists do this. Some have filing cabinets full of documents, literature, etc.. Good to hear there are members here who do the same thing.

    I am not dependent on my log books, and I have other papers elsewhere in folders, but this loss does kind of set me back.

  5. #4

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    Sorry to hear about your loss. Have you tried contacting the hotel to see if your property was turned in to Lost & Found? Surely this book would be of little use to the staff,* and maybe they turned it in. I think it would be worth a shot.

    * Unless, of course, the finder was an aspirational jazzer,** in which case....

    **Aren't we all!

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by citizenk74
    Sorry to hear about your loss. Have you tried contacting the hotel to see if your property was turned in to Lost & Found? Surely this book would be of little use to the staff,* and maybe they turned it in. I think it would be worth a shot.

    * Unless, of course, the finder was an aspirational jazzer,** in which case....

    **Aren't we all!
    I have been hesitant, because I kind of did not want to get disappointed. The hotel was a shell of itself, ravaged by the lockdown. Hardly anyone there, and their various manager's events were all cancelled.

    But you know something, I have always abided by the "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" adage. I will call them right now. Thanks for the motivation.

  7. #6

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    sorry o hear about your log.

    I just started a couple of months ago keeping a log similar to what you described. I use my iPad, an Apple Pencil and an app called Notability to keep my log notes. Not 100% infallible but it might be harder to forget an IPad.

  8. #7

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    That's a shame, losing a logbook (or any sort of personal notebook.)
    I hope it turns up----it's worth a call to check.
    Let us know if it does!

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
    That's a shame, losing a logbook (or any sort of personal notebook.)
    I hope it turns up----it's worth a call to check.
    Let us know if it does!
    They did have a "lost and found" phone line. I left a detailed message. Maybe I can learn from this lesson. I thought I was being careful, putting everything in the front room of the Embassy Suites room, and stacking it up neatly. I had my Fender jazzmaster ultralight (head only), probably a dozen guitar books, over-the-ear headphones, my laptop with a couple of TrueFire DVDs, and my Les Paul guitar.

    It seems like I brought everything except those two log books, covering around 2 1/2 years of guitar studies. I wonder if someone stole it? ( I always wonder that and it always turns out that I misplaced a given item, lol)

  10. #9

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    You should keep a daily log of where all your logbooks are.

  11. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    You should keep a daily log of where all your logbooks are.
    I am going to really miss it when I start recording again. I took notes from Max405, Dutchbopper, and Fep and several others who shared their recording secrets and to this day, get great results.

    I guess I will have to dig it all up again.

  12. #11

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    Don't give up yet.

  13. #12

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    Yes, I have kept lots of notes over the years. Particularly precious are those I took during private lessons with certain teachers. By and large, I do not travel with them.

    A thought: Maybe you could scan the pages you expect to work on, or just snap a photo with your phone, and leave the originals at home.

    Long ago, I developed the habit of always making a last sweep through the hotel room before turning in the key, because I always forget something, too! Usually it's something like my electric toothbrush or toiletries (I hate hotel shampoo!) but there have been worse lapses: a leather jacket (got it back), a camera (gone forever), a down pillow (got it back. One of my favorite tricks for getting a good night's sleep in ANY hotel room is to pack my own pillow.)

  14. #13

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    AlsoRan,

    Wish you the best of luck with this.

    Worked in a hotel for a while, in a different era.

    This sort of thing is a daily routine and most outfits are pretty scrupulous about it.

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by rabbit
    AlsoRan,

    Wish you the best of luck with this.

    Worked in a hotel for a while, in a different era.

    This sort of thing is a daily routine and most outfits are pretty scrupulous about it.
    Thanks for the reality check. The staff seemed pretty demoralized, if I read their body language correctly, so I will be very pleasantly surprised if they had it in them to put save my books.

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    You should keep a daily log of where all your logbooks are.
    Very funny, G! This could be a good companion piece to Monty Python's "Chartered Accountantcy" skit.
    Play live . . . Marinero



  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marinero
    Very funny, G! This could be a good companion piece to Monty Python's "Chartered Accountantcy" skit.
    Play live . . . Marinero


    I might have to put a virus in grahambop's BIAB program to pay him back for his comment....!

  18. #17

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    Should be pretty routine for hotel to save this kind of item. Hope you get it back. What I wouldn't want to lose is anything related to composition or songwriting.

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by AlsoRan
    I might have to put a virus in grahambop's BIAB program to pay him back for his comment....!
    Not sure I’d notice, it does some weird stuff sometimes!

    I tend to rely on committing things to memory, this avoids unnecessary clutter and carrying notebooks around.

    The only downside is that I have forgotten most of it a week later.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by AlsoRan
    The staff seemed pretty demoralized
    Could this be because they had read your notebooks and realised just how difficult jazz guitar really is?

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    Not sure I’d notice, it does some weird stuff sometimes!

    I tend to rely on committing things to memory, this avoids unnecessary clutter and carrying notebooks around.

    The only downside is that I have forgotten most of it a week later.
    Ha, ha.

    I would not do that to you, GB (the other GB). Then I would be deprived of your great uploads that you occasionally share.

    I have not heard from the hotel, yet, by the way.

    Learning and forgetting has been the cycle of life for me on this music journey. Truly you use it (and keep using it) or you might lose it!

  22. #21

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    Joking aside, I do in fact store a lot of useful stuff on my computer, otherwise I know I’d never find it again. E.g. all kinds of ‘how to’ type things, to do with recording, video editing, fixing computer problems, etc. I type or paste them into documents and save them somewhere. Also music-related stuff.

    Having said that, my daughter gave me some of her unused notebooks recently and I just started writing random things in them, e.g. a list of solo tunes I have been working on, some Barry Harris scale outlines for various tunes which I had scribbled on scraps of paper, some chord progressions I had worked out for obscure tunes, etc. I have found this surprisingly useful, because if I can’t think what to practise, I just open the notebook and there is something there to have a go at, which I had probably forgotten about. So definitely a useful thing to do, even though it’s not organised in any methodical way.

  23. #22

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    I am sorry for your loss. I have to admit this is something I have never thought about. I've kept a few scratch notes for things I've studied on manuscript paper, compositions and the like, but I really don't know what else I would put in a logbook. What do you put in yours?

    I've also never heard of any "jazz greats" doing this. Any idea what records they were keeping? Compositions would be one obvious thing, of course.


    I might be missing out on something that would help promote my progress.

  24. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cunamara
    I am sorry for your loss. I have to admit this is something I have never thought about. I've kept a few scratch notes for things I've studied on manuscript paper, compositions and the like, but I really don't know what else I would put in a logbook. What do you put in yours?

    I've also never heard of any "jazz greats" doing this. Any idea what records they were keeping? Compositions would be one obvious thing, of course.


    I might be missing out on something that would help promote my progress.
    I could be off on this topic of log books but I thought I had read various biographies in which guys like Dizzy, using written exercises and Coltrane, working out his cycle of 3rds, made notes on paper and kept them for reference. Pat Martino also wrote out that fancy diagram of different relationships that notes and chords have.

    This is the kind of info that I put in my book, along with log of where I was at with different songs, notes on using my different pedals, chord progressions and licks that I might have heard or thought of. I have a little recorder that I used to carry around and now, I use my phone to record some of the info and then I put it in the logbook. Also, various chord shapes and fragments that I liked would go in there. I also put notes from advice you folks have shared as I did my daily JGO reading.

    I had the lyrics to original songs that I wrote and revised through the years. This is what I really hate that I lost. Its fun to play your own music, and its easier to sing and play at the same time since you wrote it.

    I needed that log because I had around 80 songs that were in different stages of perfection, from just starting to trying to play at speed. I had Jazz, Blues, Hard Rock, Rock, and other genres. I also had notes for using software like Guitar Pro and IrealB. I needed these notes because my practice is so infrequent and inconsistent. Most of the info is in my head, but alas, much is now lost.

  25. #24

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    Painful!!

    Wishing for the best.

  26. #25

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    Sorry to hear that...

    Those things never worked for me... I do all only through real practice.
    Sometimes I write down something but it is mostly for organizational effect of writing.. I do not come bacl to those notes and lose them quickly.

    I once lost more serious things - at least for me.. it was a book manuscript but eventually came to the point that it does not matter, I can write another one and it will be more interesting...

    Also I used to think that there are some unique things - but later I realized taht the essential things come from the very core of one's nature and I just cannot forget anything, it will come when it is needed.
    What I wrote in one form will enventually show up in another.

    A few times I edited my very old texts and I thought while I was reading: it would be interesting to add this and thas here and I began to make correction and then suddenly I see a few lines lower that i already did that in original text)

    you can't make mistake if do things you believe in... you cannot forget things if they are the part of your essence.

    Not sure if it works for musical practice log but still .. maybe