The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Share your favorite guitar exercise! Videos/links help too. I've recently begun a daily practice routine to improve my playing and I'm looking for ideas for things to work on.
    Edit: Wow, you guys really came through. There's a lot to digest here, but I'm going to take my time and try to make it through everything, see what suggestions already parallel my routine, see what I can add, and hopefully get some ideas I would have never come up with before. This subreddit is the best. Thanks!

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    It is not a particular exercise, but helped me instantly to get more control over what comes out:

    (I use strict alternate picking) So take any scale or pattern exercise, and pick it inverse, I mean start with up pick. The goal that it must sound indistinguishably compared to the start with down pick version.

    Benefits:

    - It makes your picking hand more like an execution slave of your original intention, and what comes out (the sound I mean) is more independent on the picking hand's situation, and more dependent what you hear internally and what you want to execute dynamically.

    - It instantly doubles your picking hand exercises. All string switch are inverted what was down/up becomes up/down and vice versa.

    - It forces you to slow down, and do things "nicely". You really must listen to the executed sound, and that must sound good.

  4. #3

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    I use IRealPro as follows.

    Pick a tune. Set the app for 13 repeats with a key change by a 4th every chorus.

    Then, comp the tune (I use the mixer to make the piano pretty quiet). 12 keys. Then solo over it. 12 keys.

    Do it slowly enough that you can get through it. Or, just slow down the parts that give you trouble.

    You can decide to hang around specific positions which forces you to find the right notes in a position (fret) that you might normally avoid for that chord or key.

    Best practice tool I ever used.

  5. #4

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    Alternate picking 3nps in 16th notes is an absolute must.

  6. #5

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    The best thing for my playing which is still very much at a beginning/intermediate level is learning the solos in the Jimmy Raney volume published by Aebersold. Vol. 20. There is so much bebop vocabulary, conception, solo logic, and technique in those 10 solos, of which I learned 8 (not all at the full tempo). It is slowly os-mosing into my other playing (I'm not as smart as most) but it is the most helpful and indeed, the most enjoyable and satisfying work I've done with the guitar.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by lawson-stone
    The best thing for my playing which is still very much at a beginning/intermediate level is learning the solos in the Jimmy Raney volume published by Aebersold. Vol. 20. There is so much bebop vocabulary, conception, solo logic, and technique in those 10 solos, of which I learned 8 (not all at the full tempo). It is slowly os-mosing into my other playing (I'm not as smart as most) but it is the most helpful and indeed, the most enjoyable and satisfying work I've done with the guitar.
    Having only just barely completed one of these with you a while back , I've got to say that I really admire this accomplishment. A lot of work in that , and a lot of great music covered I'm sure.

  8. #7

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    Taking Dave Stykers ii v i lines from his artistworks course and playing them endlessly over Autumn Leaves, a blues and Tune Up and then interpreting them my own way.

    now I can really hear and feel the “cycle” as Foreman says. Feel I can weave or float and land my resolutions.

    the journey continues

  9. #8

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    Turning off the cell phone and the computer

    time on the instrument

  10. #9
    Smaller subdivision playing over given material/tunes.

    I started doing this a few years ago with chord melody, and it kind of seeped into everything. If a tune's main "currency" was eight notes, I would shed the whole thing with eight note triplets, simply playing something in between everything. If it's a 12/8 blues and the currency was mostly eighths, I shed 16ths etc.

    For me, this had the cognitive effect of slowing everything down for me. The more I thought smaller/faster subdivisions, the easier everything seemed to be. It also sped up my right and left hands and helped a great deal with overall feel. My left and right hand "hearing" sharpened in focus a great deal in a relatively short time.

    All of this began by accident, shedding chord melody fingerstyle, but now it's mostly pick playing for me. For CM, it really helped with left hand planting and moving between voicings. You basically figure out that your ears don't think in terms of speed (milliseconds) as much as they do subdivision.

    People always ask how to make chord changes "faster", especially in CM, and I've come to think that the easiest way to shed this is to practice moving fingers on triplet or sixteenth rhythms by simply arpeggiating, even at very very slow tempos. Once your fingers are able to "hear" smaller subdivisions very slowly, you basically get the same as higher tempos "for free".

    Anyway, it began with fingers and eventually became a pick thing as well. It can't be described in words very well at ALL, and I have largely been misunderstood in the past as to my meaning of "practising subdivision." It's not some cerebral clapping exercise with different rhythms, disconnected from actual music. For me, it started with shedding actual TUNES in a slower, more deliberate way.

    If anything it's a hack for slow practice. Beyond that, it taps into the kinesthetic/rhythmic understanding that pianists and drummers achieve by playing against the opposite hand. All rhythm becomes a tessellation. The greatest personal/musical benefits for me have been in my playing OUTSIDE of jazz, but I learned it in the living room trying to shed standards. There are tremendous implications for developing feels and new head arrangements on the fly.

    Anyway, again, it's not something to be understood in text form. Sorry to be long, butt this it's towards the top of my list of things I wish I had developed a very long time ago.

  11. #10

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    Uncle Ben (your real biological step dad) and his favorite exercise.


  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    I use IRealPro as follows.

    Pick a tune. Set the app for 13 repeats with a key change by a 4th every chorus.

    Then, comp the tune (I use the mixer to make the piano pretty quiet). 12 keys. Then solo over it. 12 keys.

    Do it slowly enough that you can get through it. Or, just slow down the parts that give you trouble.

    You can decide to hang around specific positions which forces you to find the right notes in a position (fret) that you might normally avoid for that chord or key.

    Best practice tool I ever used.
    This sounds pretty cool.......how does one set the key change? I thought I knew iReal pretty well, but was not aware of this feature.

  13. #12

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    As usual, i'm confused. Is iRealpro free? Was just at their web page briefly and i didn't see anywhere where any pricing was indicated. So what gives? Thanks, from a technologically challenged old guy.

  14. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob P.
    As usual, i'm confused. Is iRealpro free? Was just at their web page briefly and i didn't see anywhere where any pricing was indicated. So what gives? Thanks, from a technologically challenged old guy.

    Boy... talk about an app that doesn't want you to know how much you paid for it.

    I finally dug through my old PayPal receipts and I have a $12.99 paid to Google around the correct time frame. That's probably me buying IReal Pro.

    If you go to place you get phone apps, you can probably find the price listed.

    .

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob P.
    As usual, i'm confused. Is iRealpro free? Was just at their web page briefly and i didn't see anywhere where any pricing was indicated. So what gives? Thanks, from a technologically challenged old guy.
    If you go to the store (App Store in case of IOS or Google Play in case of Android) you will see the exact price.
    You can see the price clicking the irealpro website links even in Windows browser (though it can not run in windows): currently $13.99 in App Store

    iReal Pro on the App Store
    or
    iReal Pro - Music Book & Backing Tracks - Apps on Google Play

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by FatPick
    Uncle Ben (your real biological step dad) and his favorite exercise.]
    Hhm, I'm going to give that one a go. Thanks for posting the video.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gabor
    If you go to the store (App Store in case of IOS or Google Play in case of Android) you will see the exact price.
    You can see the price clicking the irealpro website links even in Windows browser (though it can not run in windows): currently $13.99 in App Store

    iReal Pro on the App Store
    or
    iReal Pro - Music Book & Backing Tracks - Apps on Google Play
    So does that mean i can't use it on my Dell computer? Again, challenged old guy.....lol

  18. #17

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    I have used this when forming "new to me" chords. or a new tune.

    Form the chord,
    Play it
    Remove left hand from fingerboard and place your hand flat on some surface
    Form the next chord
    Repeat

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob P.
    So does that mean i can't use it on my Dell computer? Again, challenged old guy.....lol

    They don't offer a Widows-based version, unfortunately. You're stuck with Mac, iPhone, iPad or Android.

    .

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by FwLineberry
    They don't offer a Widows-based version, unfortunately. You're stuck with Mac, iPhone, iPad or Android.

    .
    Ok. Got it. Thanks !

  21. #20

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    The best thing for my playing is that which takes care of everything. The goal is to play music so at a certain stage taking a tune and playing the melody note for note in tempo with metronome. Then added a few chords and making simply arrangment that stays on the melody but keeps rhythmn going. Finally playing the tune and comping sections followed by melody/chordmelody, then simply increase speed or manange to be very much a good time keeper.

    Doing this handles everything at once. I makes your technique fit the situation and you have to adapt depending on the requirements of the tune. You learn and tune and build on foundation. The final product would be if you want to burn a nice solo and outline the changes.

  22. #21

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    Trying to improvise on a tune using the same melodic rhythm as the melody, but different notes.

  23. #22

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    I use IRealPro on an Android phone. I think I paid $10 through the google store.

    To use the key change feature you click on the mortarboard (the Professor hat with the tassle) and use the slider labeled Transposition.
    Use an interval of a fourth or fifth to get all 12 keys. You can also do it by half steps, but that allows you to slide up a fret, which is too easy.

    You can also change the tempo every chorus, but I don't find that very helpful. You can click on the Style and change it. You can also click on the mixer icon to change what you hear.

    You can download some "songs" which are just specific chord progressions and practice over those in every key, but I prefer real songs.

  24. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    I use IRealPro on an Android phone. I think I paid $10 through the google store.

    To use the key change feature you click on the mortarboard (the Professor hat with the tassle) and use the slider labeled Transposition.
    Use an interval of a fourth or fifth to get all 12 keys. You can also do it by half steps, but that allows you to slide up a fret, which is too easy.

    You can also change the tempo every chorus, but I don't find that very helpful. You can click on the Style and change it. You can also click on the mixer icon to change what you hear.

    You can download some "songs" which are just specific chord progressions and practice over those in every key, but I prefer real songs.
    Thanks! Not sure I ever noticed the professor hat.......or maybe I was subliminally trying to ignore it ???? Should be challenging, but fun, and it's skill I really need to work on.

  25. #24

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    Playing a standard like that: keeping the bass note ringing while soloing on the upper strings with the leftover fingers.

  26. #25

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    Playing/transposing tunes in different keys, without charts.