A Modern Method for Guitar Vol 1 - Lesson 12 - Pages 100 to 111

[fep]

A Major in 2nd position, another chord etude, quarter note triplets, and more.

I'm going to see if I can also review through at least half the book while we go through this lesson.

Cheers.

[ten left thumbs]

OK, we're nearing endgame now. This lesson has the last chord etude in the book. There are no more picking etudes after the one in D.

But we do get a lot more chord forms (I am finding this terribly confusing!). Lessons 13 and 14 are basically taking the scale shapes we already know and putting them into 3rd and 4th positions, to play in more key signatures. There's not a lot of Leavitt compositions after this. Frank, if you're already familiar with the whole of the neck in 12 keys, you may find there's not much to master beyond this lesson.

Back to chord forms. I did a review of all the chord forms in the book so far, as they are so easy to forget. Basically, if I can relate a chord to CAGED, I'm fine. This leaves me the diminisheds, the half-diminisheds and the augmenteds that I get most confused about.

[fep]

Hi Lauren,

You mentioned chord forms and relating them to CAGED. I do the same thing.

A while back I did a video on this (what!? me do a video! What a surprise.) And I do morph a CAGED form to the half diminished and the diminished chord on the video.

[Cristhyano]

Hijacking here. How are you guys going through the book? I'll start today and i'm wondering how much time i spend on a lesson. One week?
I also got the dvd, it's superb.

[ten left thumbs]

Welcome Cristhyano. You will find the thread index here:
https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/getti...ead-index.html
It is a superb book. How you progress through it depends on how much time you put in, and your skill level when you start. We found that progressing two pages in a week was quite a challenging pace.

[ten left thumbs]

Hi Frank, you really impress me with the vids you do (you have a good presence for them), unfortunately I can't take anything in that way. Honest, its straight over my head. Besides, those shapes look different from the ones we've learned, and I have a hard enough time as it is remembering the ones in the book.

OK, I'm going to make an attempt here at some order, starting out with the diminished chords. The first dim chord we see is on page 30. I call this the Scooby Doo chord because that's what my son's teacher called it.

After that, the next dim chord is on p 97. I'm calling that one the Pancake chord because it's fairly flat (just lying on the two frets there).

No, I lie, there was a dim chord on page 83, played on the middle 4 strings, and that one I call a 'Diminished House' (if you look at it a funny way, it looks like a house with a chimney).

Now, are any of these derived from CAGED shapes? If so, I would love to know because it will help me place them.

Next question isn't a question really, but I'll ask it anyway. It's more of a plea. Given any note is the root and they repeat every 3 frets, is it enough to learn just these 3? I mean, how far can I possibly get from my local E diminished?

[fep]

Hi Frank, you really impress me with the vids you do (you have a good presence for them), unfortunately I can't take anything in that way. Honest, its straight over my head. Besides, those shapes look different from the ones we've learned, and I have a hard enough time as it is remembering the ones in the book.

OK, I'm going to make an attempt here at some order, starting out with the diminished chords. The first dim chord we see is on page 30. I call this the Scooby Doo chord because that's what my son's teacher called it.

After that, the next dim chord is on p 97. I'm calling that one the Pancake chord because it's fairly flat (just lying on the two frets there).

No, I lie, there was a dim chord on page 83, played on the middle 4 strings, and that one I call a 'Diminished House' (if you look at it a funny way, it looks like a house with a chimney).

Now, are any of these derived from CAGED shapes? If so, I would love to know because it will help me place them.

Next question isn't a question really, but I'll ask it anyway. It's more of a plea. Given any note is the root and they repeat every 3 frets, is it enough to learn just these 3? I mean, how far can I possibly get from my local E diminished?

To the best of my knowledge you only need to know those three diminished chords that you listed. You can pretty much cover the whole neck and any key in any position with those.

As far as relating them to CAGED, another way to look it at is take a dominant 7 chord and lower ever tone but the root and you'll get a diminished chord. So, take the the Dominant 7 form on the second row of chord forms on page 68 and don't play the fingerings in parenthesis (1st and 6th string). Note that that chord is an 'A' form from CAGED. Now lower every note a semi-tone (one fret) except for the root and you'll get the Diminished 7 form listed on page 83.

That's why I consider the diminished 7 chord on page 83 to be the 'A' form of CAGED.

[ten left thumbs]

To the best of my knowledge you only need to know those three diminished chords that you listed. You can pretty much cover the whole neck and any key in any position with those.

As far as relating them to CAGED, another way to look it at is take a dominant 7 chord and lower ever tone but the root and you'll get a diminished chord. So, take the the Dominant 7 form on the second row of chord forms on page 68 and don't play the fingerings in parenthesis (1st and 6th string). Note that that chord is an 'A' form from CAGED. Now lower every note a semi-tone (one fret) except for the root and you'll get the Diminished 7 form listed on page 83.

That's why I consider the diminished 7 chord on page 83 to be the 'A' form of CAGED.

... or take the root up a fret, now why do I need to be so thick about these things? I mean, he even spells it out for me on p 83. OK, the house diminished is an A shape.

Glad to hear you think that's enough shapes. It just felt like it was endless learning new shapes. But then, I counted, and it's only 3, so that's not so bad.

OK, next, I'll try and work out the half-diminisheds.

Thanks, Frank, you're a star!

Edit: Minor 7 flat 5 shapes.

These are not in the first half of the book. The first one he teaches us is on p91. As far as I can work out, this is like the 'pancake diminished ' from p 97, except the pancake has a bump in it (the 7th), so I'm going to call it a strawberry pancake. Root on 2nd string.

The page 107, we get two m7b5 forms, one on the 5th string (we already met this one on p97) and on with root on 6th string. These ones I know. On closer inspection they turn out to be an A shape and an E shape, surprisingly enough.

Also, not so bad.

[fep]

Some notes were clunkers, the timing could be better. But I think this is good enough to post and move on.

[ten left thumbs]

Good going. I should also post soon. My arps are nowhere near up to speed, but there does come a point, I just need to move on.

[fep]

Good going. I should also post soon. My arps are nowhere near up to speed, but there does come a point, I just need to move on.

thanks for listening. Those exercises were pretty easy.

[fep]

thanks Lauren

For sight reading this one went pretty well.

[fep]

I missed a note but made up for it by playing a chord that wasn't there.

[fep]

I better stop or I'll burn myself out. Here's the last one for today, I think. Time for lunch.

[fep]

A little slow on some of the changes. I think it may sound better if I strum softer next time.

[fep]

It's fairly clean, I think there was a mistake in there somewhere, other than playing the last note late which was artistic license, yeah that's what it was. I didn't use a metronome when recording this.

Even still, I think it's good enough to move on.

[ten left thumbs]

Hi Frank, I've not had time to record, but I listened to your vids and it all sounds good. (translation: it sounds like when I play it, only faster and smoother - good indication we're both playing the right notes).

I'm enjoying the 2-page review going through all the keys. I find the bit at the bottom of F major a total nightmare, and it's anyone's guess which frets I actually reach. Also, I'm not even going to attempt all the chords. On the DVD, Larry says not to worry too much about all the chords on this one, just do the other chord exercises. He then proceeds to play the chords, only he makes a few counting mistakes: some bars have 4 beats, some at the turnaround have 3... Silly man!

Speaking of silliness, what was Leavitt thinking when he wrote, 'Quarter-note triplets are very difficult to count.'? Yes, they are difficult to count when you do it like that! I feel for any poor sod learning this rhythm fresh from this page.

[ten left thumbs]

OK, some recordings:

A major scales, etc. No major mistakes here, but a few hesitations:
https://www.box.com/s/1f06b8778761d06bf82e

I recorded Tres sharp part 1, alone and without metronome, allowing myself to take time over the tricky bits. (The time pressure was getting to me):
https://www.box.com/s/26e4e7f12a6d23303c8c

Tres sharp part 2, with Larry on the CD:
https://www.box.com/s/88ae412f66da08534162

Page 105. These chords get tricky. Some are not clean at all:
https://www.box.com/s/22dde10893cd0f9b6564

page 107. The chords only get worse, and I didn't even attempt the Latin rhythm here. Getting the chords themselves is an achievement:
https://www.box.com/s/c822e44724704836418c

Second position review, melody only. The trick here is so switch keys as written in the book, not to some other key which my fingers feel would be more convenient. I left the mistake in for your amusement.
https://www.box.com/s/4808a0bf397d97f0ff71

I should probably do the chords for the review too. Groan. There's nothing there that's unplayable.

Chord etude:

[ten left thumbs]

Still here Frank?

Two more recordings, pages 110:
https://www.box.com/s/d4ba65d14e2810712377
and 111:
https://www.box.com/s/8a2b84926afde6ec4449

The chord forms are a bit hesitant.

Also, I decided I really should work on the chords for the review (pp 109-110). So that's been a lot of time, working out what I can put where. There's nothing unplayable there, but it's not up to speed so I'll not bother recording.

[fep]

Hi Lauren,

I'm still here. I have relatives visiting, two jam sessions one of which I hosted, preparing for a 1st rehearsal with a band, and then there is the Olympics.

I'm off for a round of golf in a couple of minutes. I hope to find some time for this thread tomorrow.

Cheers,

Frank

[ten left thumbs]

Hi Frank, sounds like you've been busy. What kind of band you in? Have fun with your visitors.

[fep]

Hi Frank, sounds like you've been busy. What kind of band you in? Have fun with your visitors.

Hi Lauren, It's a Latin jazz band (that also plays jazz swing standards but 90% Latin, and the band is let's see... 80% Latin members, I'm the token gringo). Congas, Drums, Acoustic Bass, Vibraphonist who doubles on the flute, and guitar. This is a group I played with before my health problems.

[ten left thumbs]

Sounds like a cool mix. Have fun with them, gringo.

Not wanting to rush you, but it seems we've probably both pretty much done this lesson. (I'm still working on the chords for the review, but that could take a while). Whaddaya say one more thread for the end of the book?

[fep]

I listened through your recordings,

A major Scale, you took that at a pretty good clip, you are getting faster.

Tres Sharp- 1 you are getting all the notes and the time is good for most of the parts, like you said, the chords, it takes a while to get use to the grips.

Tres Sharp - 2 sounds good

Chord recordings, sounds good, that will all smooth out with time.

Second Position Review - that's a long piece, a mouth full. And that low F part is a bear.

[fep]

Finishing off this lesson. That pick click and that last group of quarter note triplets, those are a tiny bit annoying. (And this infection that is causing inflammation in my mouth and show up as a swollen cheek in the video, now that's annoying.)