A Modern Method For Guitar Vol 1 pages 1 to 8

[gingerjazz]

Yes as ronjazz says its a G7 with the seventh in the bass, but without the fifth,it is very common to miss out the fifth in chord voicings.All should become clearer later on in the book.

[fingerstyler]

Hello All,

Here's my recording of Sea to Sea Duet with metronome - (The bane of my existence)

I've just recorded clean into my new Zoom portable recorder. Don't have any effects. Can someone recommend a good effects program - preferably free?

12_01_01_Leavitt_SeaToSeaDuet.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage


Cheers,
fs

[fep]

Hello All,

Here's my recording of Sea to Sea Duet with metronome - (The bane of my existence)

I've just recorded clean into my new Zoom portable recorder. Don't have any effects. Can someone recommend a good effects program - preferably free?

12_01_01_Leavitt_SeaToSeaDuet.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage


Cheers,
fs

Both voices ring out real pretty, good balance, good tone. It sounds real good. The only critique that I can think of is the rhythm, although good mostly, there were a couple places were the timing got just a wee bit off. (The timing is something I wouldn't mention to many, but you play well so it's fair game to nit pick, imo ).

Good job, thanks for posting.

I use Reaper for recording software which has plenty of effects, it costs $60. The free one that a lot of folks use is Audacity. I have a lot of fun playing around with recordings in Reaper and I record directly into Reaper.

To that recording, for me it would just be panning (which it seems you already have the two tracks panned), I always play around with eq to see if I can find anything I like and I cut everything below about 60hz and everything above about 20khz, and i add some stereo reverb to taste on each track. I might use a wee bit of compression to tame some of the highest peaks, just a little so it's transparent.

[HighSpeedSpoon]

Wow fingerstyler, I really enjoyed listening to your mp3. You obviously have some technical skills, and it sounds like music - not just an exercise. One thing I did notice was the slowing of tempo at the end of measure 8. I'm not sure if you were slowing intentionally but it did not sound intentional to me. To repeat however, that was musical and enjoyable for me. BTW, are you picking or using your fingers?

[fingerstyler]

Both voices ring out real pretty, good balance, good tone. It sounds real good. The only critique that I can think of is the rhythm, although good mostly, there were a couple places were the timing got just a wee bit off. (The timing is something I wouldn't mention to many, but you play well so it's fair game to nit pick, imo ).

Good job, thanks for posting.

I use Reaper for recording software which has plenty of effects, it costs $60. The free one that a lot of folks use is Audacity. I have a lot of fun playing around with recordings in Reaper and I record directly into Reaper.

To that recording, for me it would just be panning (which it seems you already have the two tracks panned), I always play around with eq to see if I can find anything I like and I cut everything below about 60hz and everything above about 20khz, and i add some stereo reverb to taste on each track. I might use a wee bit of compression to tame some of the highest peaks, just a little so it's transparent.

Thanks for the comments fep. Yes the timing is fair game and needs work. I need to figure a way to record the second track while listening to the first - that might make the timing a bit easier. Or get better with metronome I currently use Audacity and really don't like any of the digital effects included with it. I really just want to add a tiny bit of reverb - since the room I record in is very small and dead. Maybe I'll break down and buy Reaper.

Maybe I'll clean it up and post later this week.

Thanks again.
fs

[ten left thumbs]

wow fingerstyler that was great! was that with fingers, and did you play both parts together? either way, very impressive. one thing, which really is picky, but the last note of line two (2nd part), written note is G.

but really, you have such a steady beat, you should be able to play to metronome. what kind do you have, and what click does it give you? some folks need a mechanical one. i think the wee digital one set us up for failure, myself.

i use audacity, all i ever do is top, tail and normalise.

(i am going to try to play today)

[ten left thumbs]

ok i played today. here is pg 5 ex 2, 3:

and ex 4:

self- critique? well, my playing here is fairly rubbish, but i'm glad i got somwthing down and can contribute here a bit.

i think for our beginner-readers this page is really important before the duet.

[tonyknight]

Hi everyone - I should probably introduce myself to those of you who don't know me. I used to participate a lot in the Practical Standards threads, but this last 9-12 months I've not had the chance due to medical and ongoing educational commitments.

Up until a couple of years ago, I was a good blues and rock guitarist and I've taught hundreds of students. Neurological disorder came along and makes it really challenging for my fingers to do what my brain tell them too, plus the noise literally hurts my head. Anyway, these last couple of years I've lost probably 90% of my technique due to these combined issues. I've spent many months looking for a jazz archtop guitar so that once I relaunch myself I can dedicate my (re)learning to jazz and jazz-blues. I bought that guitar just before Christmas!

I'm looking forward to participating here and will start submitting things just as soon as I can figure out my recording issues :-) And as soon as the book arrives from Amazon!

It's great to see the amount of time and effort which you've collectively contributed. And of course, many thanks are due to Frank!

See you soon,
Tony

[oldskoolchop]

would someone tell me what the last exercise on page 11 is? I got the digital copy and it does not go by pages because it depends on the size of your font.

[oldskoolchop]

do you count intervals or make a connection between notes and position on guitar or will that eventually come? I find myself going in intervals on the staff and scale on the guitar, but if I loose my starting point on the staff (C) i loose my place in the scale, does this make since to anyone?
not that i loose the C more like I cant identify how many steps it is to stay in time

[ten left thumbs]

hi oldskool,

this weeks portion is to to sea to sea.

pg 11 takes us to 1,2,3,4 and rhythm accomp (next week)

if i understand your second question, you will need to learn notes on the fret board ie instant recognition that A is A (not just A is 2 frets up from G).

this website has exercises you can customise for learning notes and fretboard.

it can be helpful to also read intervalically, but that only takes you so far.

[ten left thumbs]

Now to get those fingers walking... or working at least.

Oh, there are some great role models out there of people who had to do the whole learning thing more than once. Django comes to mind. What a player, with and without fingers!

It must be frustrating to have to re-learn from scratch. We forget sometimes that our brains are still plastic as adults, and we can rewire a bit, just by regular practice. I think doing so is good for the soul.

But just because you've done it once, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be easy. Just like, if you've learned two languages, then learning another is still a task. You may have the confidence to say 'yes I can do this' - but each irregular verb needs to be learned...

[jsepguitar]

After being away from home for the holiday, I'm finally back home with my guitars. I've been waiting to get started on this. I've had the book for about a year, but never really worked through it. Being able to discuss it with others will help keep me focused and motivated.


I'd consider myself a beginner/early intermediate rock guitarist, but I also have a growing interest in jazz. I have some basic experience reading music for guitar, especially in the open position.


I played through the first 11 pages today just to see what I was in for and had a few questions. I was wondering how other people were approaching it.


1. I’m curious if most people are working on all of the exercises and songs, or if they are taking them one at a time until they have “mastered” it. If so, what criteria are you using to determine that you are ready to move on? Are you setting a BPM goal?


2. Are you giving parts you are having difficulty with more attention and working them out bar by bar, or are you doing it from start to finish every time?


3. Is anyone concerned about “memorizing” the exercise, so that it becomes less of a reading exercise?


4. I’m curious what technique people are using to play the triads. I seem to be relying on my right hand to play the right strings and using kind of a rest stroke technique to prevent myself from playing other strings. Is anyone primarily using left hand muting? I saw that ronjazz mentioned a little about it.


5. Just an observation - one thing I’m finding is that it seems awkward for me to hold down the whole chord in advance. I guess I primarily just move my hand for whatever I have to do to play the current notes and don’t usually look ahead. I’m hoping this observation will help me play better in the future by looking ahead in the music.


6. I have a question for fep. You say you use Reaper. I was wondering if you are using a guitar interface, of if you are just plugging your guitar into the mic input, or using a microphone near your amp?

Thanks to all who are contributing to this thread.

[Aant]

Hi jsepguitar, my 2 cents for what they're worth:

1. I’m curious if most people are working on all of the exercises and songs, or if they are taking them one at a time until they have “mastered” it. If so, what criteria are you using to determine that you are ready to move on? Are you setting a BPM goal?

Well, if I followed correctly, reviewing the material is part of the plan and mastering them at 200 bpm is not really required. I basically play the parts until I'm able to actually play them, then move on, then get back to those parts to improve. Skipping parts looks ok if you make sure you review the material at one point, it does not make much sense to avoid difficulties forever.

Concerning the bpm, as far as I'm concerned I don't have any goal specifically, but to practice slowly at first.

2. Are you giving parts you are having difficulty with more attention and working them out bar by bar, or are you doing it from start to finish every time?

Usually from start to finish, with eventually extra work on the tricky parts, but this might change later when the material gets more complicated. It's personnaly challenging to begin sight reading music.

3. Is anyone concerned about “memorizing” the exercise, so that it becomes less of a reading exercise?

It might become an issue at one point, but then I suppose it allows to concentrate on the technic rather than on the reading itself.

6. I have a question for fep. You say you use Reaper. I was wondering if you are using a guitar interface, of if you are just plugging your guitar into the mic input, or using a microphone near your amp?

I know this one is addressed to fep, but my opinion is that you get a better sound with an interface or microphone near the amp than with the computer's mic input.

[HighSpeedSpoon]

After being away from home for the holiday, I'm finally back home with my guitars. I've been waiting to get started on this. I've had the book for about a year, but never really worked through it. Being able to discuss it with others will help keep me focused and motivated.

I'll add my two cents also:

Q1. I’m curious if most people are working on all of the exercises and songs, or if they are taking them one at a time until they have “mastered” it. If so, what criteria are you using to determine that you are ready to move on? Are you setting a BPM goal?

A1. I'm working on them all each day. BPM is what I can play reasonably cleanly. Rightly or wrongly, I am not working for max speed now, but for cleanliness.


Q2. Are you giving parts you are having difficulty with more attention and working them out bar by bar, or are you doing it from start to finish every time?

A2. Working from start to finish is an end-stage goal. It comes after working on fragments. I spend way more time on the hard parts and break them down into sometimes very small fragments - even grabbing a particular chord, or transitioning from one string to a different string. After the pieces are coming along, I work on putting them together, but not necessarily playing the whole piece.

Stop. Fix mistakes. Work on performance (an uninterrupted, in-tempo presentation) last - if at all!


Q3. Is anyone concerned about “memorizing” the exercise …?

A3. Not me; YMMV


Q4. I’m curious what technique people are using to play the triads. …

A4. The earlier post by ronjazz was helpful to me. The technique that he mentioned where the pick sweeps an arc and comes to rest on the next unplayed string has been immediately helpful to me.

[fep]

Hi jsepguitar,

HSS covered your questions well, I'll just add a little bit... Oh, and welcome aboard.

3. Is anyone concerned about “memorizing” the exercise, so that it becomes less of a reading exercise?

Good question. I think if the material is technically difficult hand dexterity wise, then don't worry about memorizing.

Otherwise, (from the book's introduction) Leavitt said, "Do not attempt to "completely perfect" any one lesson before going on. Playing technique is an accumulative process and you will find that each time you review material already studied it will seem easier to play."

5. Just an observation - one thing I’m finding is that it seems awkward for me to hold down the whole chord in advance. I guess I primarily just move my hand for whatever I have to do to play the current notes and don’t usually look ahead. I’m hoping this observation will help me play better in the future by looking ahead in the music.

Yes I agree, looking ahead is something you should eventually try to develop.

6. I have a question for fep. You say you use Reaper. I was wondering if you are using a guitar interface, of if you are just plugging your guitar into the mic input, or using a microphone near your amp?

My path is either:

1) Acoustic guitar to condenser mic to mixer to PC soundcard input to Reaper.

2) Electric guitar to amp modeler to mixer to PC soundcard input to Reaper.

So as you can see, when playing electric I'm not using an amp or a mic.

All this is always left hooked up and ready to go.

[whatswisdom]

if i understand your second question, you will need to learn notes on the fret board ie instant recognition that A is A (not just A is 2 frets up from G). this website has exercises you can customise for learning notes and fretboard. it can be helpful to also read intervalically, but that only takes you so far.

TLT & Leavitt study group: Buy a box of index cards; customize them to your needs. Stave; Guitar Grids; chord construction; triads; key sigs; Cycle of 5ths; et al. For myself, I recently made up loads of copies of an large 8x11 map of the fretboard because right now I'm working on connecting arps; great to take out a pencil if you have some down time. There's so many ways you can progress without having the instrument as there's so much visualization involved in all of this. Use your time wisely. Hang in guys. Happy 2012!

[strumcat]

Hi Strumcat - thanks for the encouragement! Lovely version there - sounds sort of Christmassy I think.

Likewise, thanks so much for the encouragement, man. I was able to use my regular setup for that one (strat-clone to emu0202 to cakewalk music creator) before it crapped out on me. Used Voxengo Marvel Graphic EQ, Voxengo Boogex amp simulator, and just a hint of TAL Reverb III (all free vst plugins) to improve the sound a little. The other stuff I just used a little Roland Mobile Cube into a laptop mic input and Audacity.

Oh, there are some great role models out there of people who had to do the whole learning thing more than once. Django comes to mind. What a player, with and without fingers!

You're not kidding. I was just watching a video of Django on YouTube the other day, and that guy just blows me away! I guess once it's in your blood, you just find a way, whatever it takes. And whoever would have thought a guy who sounds like he has a mouthful of gravel like Satchmo would sing something as great as "What A Wonderful World"?

Now to get those fingers walking... or working at least.

Yeh! You're gonna do great! Just put in the time and it will happen. Adversity just makes it sweeter.

I spent the bulk of my time on Exercise 1, over and over until I began to recognize the notes on the staff. My neighbors must have thought there was a 3rd grader in here learning guitar. Hey, I'm not proud...

[ronjazz]

I think it's important to re-emphasize Leavitt's comments on guitar playing being an "accumulative" process. Everything one practices well and conscientiously helps everything else. Scales help arpeggios, duets help chords, etc. This is partially because the guitar is such a physical instrument, and partially because the end result is music. While everything at the beginning stages is a bit overwhelming and sticky, just imagine the day (not too far off, by the way) where you'll be able to read any melody in the Real Book with little real trouble, or say, in 6 months, when you look at the first few pages of Vol. 1 of the book and tear those exercises off like a virtuoso.

Another rather important aspect of this study, for those intent on being musicians, is that this method teaches excellent basic principles to be applied in your own teaching practice. While MMG is not really the best choice for young beginners, it can make teaching out of Mel Bay or Alfred a lot more fun and more productive.

I would like to add an exercise for those who are ambitious. Starting at the 10th fret, play 1, 2, 3, 4 on frets 10, 11, 12, 13 (D, Eb, E, F). Keep each finger on the string, but release the pressure as you drop the next finger. When you're done, proceed to the 5th string, 10th fret and repeat, then the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, then the first string, all in 10th position. Play evenly, not too slowly, trying to get a good, consistent pick stroke and a fat sound from each note. Once you've reached the 1st string, move down to 9th position, over to the 2nd string and do the same (1,2,3,4), back to the 6th string, always keeping fingers on the current string, but not pressing hard except with the finger actually playing. Then 8th position, 5th string, across to the first, then 7th position, 2nd string, across to the 6th, all the way down to position 1.

I think it's best to start up high where the frets are closer and the string pressure less. If you can keep all fingers on the string you're playing until done with that string, you will develop a nice stretch in the left hand, as well as strength. This is not a speed study, more of a coordination between the two hands exercise. It won't take more than a few minutes, but done daily will really improve muscle tone.

[ten left thumbs]

I spent the bulk of my time on Exercise 1, over and over until I began to recognize the notes on the staff. My neighbors must have thought there was a 3rd grader in here learning guitar. Hey, I'm not proud...

Getting comfortable with these notes is a huge achievement. I know this is going to sound trite, but, the steepest part of the learning curve in learning to read music is right at the beginning. The system is designed to convey a large amount of quite detailed info with as little ink as possible so that the initiated can take in the info quickly, while playing. This means that the devil is in the detail of the symbols (lines, spaces, etc).

And I know this all comes under the title 'reading' which sounds like it's for kids, but in order to 'read' you need to take on board theory too (whether you like it or not), so it's actually a lot.

Thanks for that exercise ronjazz, I will add it do my daily warm up.

Fep, just printed out the duet and can try it out tomorrow. Looks good!

[fep]

Here's my Ho Ho Ho Duet, the music notation pdf is at post #89 of this thread.

Self critique, seems a little sloppy. Oops, I used a lot of alternate picking, we are suppose to use all down strokes at this point.

[ronjazz]

I have a little stash of cool exercises I've learned over the years from Kessell, Ellis, Pass, Coryel and a few others I've had lessons with. For years, I would ask any guitarist coming through Boston for a private lesson, both jazz and classical players, and almost all the time they were happy to have me come to their hotel room in the afternoon and spend an hour and a few bucks. Classical touring artists as well, i got to trade jazz lessons for classical with John Williams. I will drop one of these in every once in a while, it's good to have some studies that don't involve reading as a balancing point. I'm glad some are finding this first one useful; we'll build on it as we go. And fep, down-stokes are more important for the less advanced players, but keeping to them will actually help you later on.

[leonard_c]

Ok, my initial impression of MM1 in one word: FRUSTRATION! It feels like learning to walk or talk from scratch. The closest thing I can compare it to is learning a foreign language or computer programming. However, the satisfaction of playing music notation is great, even if they are only simple exercises and it's cool to see how simple stuff can still sound good, plus it has opened up a new dimension in music for me. Keep up the good work everybody!

[matt.guitarteacher]

3. Is anyone concerned about “memorizing” the exercise, so that it becomes less of a reading exercise?

I think there's a distinction to be made between reading and sightreading. You've got to learn to read before you can practice sightreading (in time, the first time through).

Beginning students in school band and choral programs work through progressive reading studies. They add new rhythms and pitches and practice them over and over. They stop and count out problem spots and go over it several times. They take the stuff home and practice it until it's memorized. They go back and review constantly. At the end of the year, they can read "at sight" material comparable to the tunes at the beginning of the book.

If you only work on material that's easy enough to play at sight, are you really learning enough? I think it would be of greater value to work on basic "reading" at a level that is much higher than your ability to play "at sight".

At the same time, practice sightreading (a completely separate skill) at a level that's low enough for you to have some degree of success in reading the first time through. You should have plenty of this material so that you're not playing it often enough to memorize.

If you're working on something new and difficult, don't worry about memorizing it. Acquire the basic skills needed to read and play the music. When I was in primary school, I read the same story 20 times and each time I felt better about my reading. Even though it was basically memorized, each time through solidified my knowledge, reading skill, and built my confidence.

Of course, now I can read those stories without "practice". It's not because I practice "sightreading" books at a primary school level. It's because I read things that are many times harder than that all of the time.

[tonyknight]

Ron's exercise is an excellent way to build muscle memory. Once you feel comfortable with it, there are two things that I used to add to keep my students motivated to continue doing it. I'll offer the exercises here, but as with everything else and to Ron's point about feeling ambitious, they should only be started when you're ready.

First extension: simply play the notes slowly IN TIME and say or better, sing, the note names. This will help with mastering the names of each note on each string. I'd start this initially only in one position (for example the tenth suggested by Ron).

Second extension: This is challenging. Use different finger permutations, for example, starting at the tenth fret, play finger one (10), then finger three (12), then finger two (11), and finally finger four (13). Believe me - this is an exercise which I do daily now to try to make the right fingers walk!

Composing tunes is a great idea. I'll commit to doing one but it'll take a few days as I generally have to type out every note using a graphics programme so it's not very efficient :-)

To Frank and Ron - it is a real challenge to NOT use alternate picking! Also, as I used to continuously lose my pick when playing on stage, I sort of gave up and work almost exclusively with the fingers. I never mastered hybrid picking, and when I first go to see Mark Knopfler, I decided that it was way out of my league. So here, I'll be trying (again) to learn to use the pick properly, and if not, I guess I'll use thumb and or fingers. Ron, what were you referring to when you mentioned that down picking would be useful later on?