The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Posts 26 to 50 of 69
  1. #26

    User Info Menu

    Matt, Great vibe on your videos, you've become very comfortable in front of the camera. Very conversational, like we're in the room together chatting.

    Myself, I try to do something like that and fumble with my words all over the place. I then just press delete.

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by morroben
    Thanks for the video and advice, Matt. I watched it last night on my phone but I can't type on that thing...I missed that skill set by one generation.

    I read ahead in the book a bit to see the instructions for the random connecting game that you mentioned. It does seem a bit strange. I'm not sure I've ever seen another instance of randomness being encouraged in music education. My teacher is adamant about making everything as musical as you can...even mind-numbing exercises.

    Maybe Elliot is just trying to show the beginner that any of those arpeggio notes will work so they can focus on the changes. For someone that's never tried to make the mental switch from chord to chord, I can see how it might be a helpful exercise for a day or two. Any chord tone works, so you're focused only on making that mental switch. That's a big hurdle for a lot of people.

    I don't think I would ever practice like that. Your suggestion of isolating each iteration sounds like solid advice. And your 3-7 and 7-3 comment is spot on. I'll work on that stuff while the Dodgers game is on, as per your suggestion.

    "It's good for what it's good for."
    I think/hope that particular thing is what I need at the moment.


    I think that version of the exercise is in the same spirit as an exercise taught by Scott Henderson designed to get you playing through chords rather than on top of each chord. For Henderson's exercise you play either ascending or descending over a set of changes. You start with one note per chord and graduate to two notes per chord and four notes per chord. You have to keep the line moving in the same direction over the changes. The objective is to not break a line off in the middle just because the chord changed and instead alter the line as as needed and continue forward.

    In Elliott's case, I think the idea is if you're ascending one chord's arpeggio you keep the line ascending into the next chords arpeggio rather than start over because it's a new chord. The worst case scenario would be thinking you have to stop what you're doing on the first chord and start the next chord on the root of the arpeggio.

    .

  4. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by fep
    Matt, Great vibe on your videos, you've become very comfortable in front of the camera. Very conversational, like we're in the room together chatting.

    Myself, I try to do something like that and fumble with my words all over the place. I then just press delete.
    Thanks, Frank. I've tried the polished presentation thing and can't make it work. I have to just talk and then edit where necessary. I appreciate the kind words.

  5. #29

    User Info Menu

    I think the one note per chord, then two, then three etc. is a good idea. The Elliot thing is much harder to do. It makes perfect sense - he really doesn‘t want us to stop to think of the next chord. It seems to me that intermediate steps to get there are helpful. I noticed today on my way to work that for chapters 1-3 Elliot’s Demo recording also has a break between individual arpeggios. Hence, a slightly less rigorous practice routine may still be worthwhile.

  6. #30

    User Info Menu

    Quick question -- am slowly making progress on the Major arpeggios and can play with relatively slow 60bpm metronome as he suggests starting, so will start to work that speed up with the metronome. If I keep the shapes in front of me on the stand, no problem, I can do this. If I close the book, my memory is not there yet and I fumble in a few places. Have you all internalized those arpeggio shapes enough to play through accurately without looking or are you keeping the page open?

  7. #31

    User Info Menu

    Hey Odel, I have internalized those major arps in position 1 to the point that I don't need to look at the book, but it took me a few days to get there. You'll get it. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

    I'm going to start learning the position 1 minor shapes today, while continuing to drill the major shapes.

  8. #32

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by odel
    Quick question -- am slowly making progress on the Major arpeggios and can play with relatively slow 60bpm metronome as he suggests starting, so will start to work that speed up with the metronome. If I keep the shapes in front of me on the stand, no problem, I can do this. If I close the book, my memory is not there yet and I fumble in a few places. Have you all internalized those arpeggio shapes enough to play through accurately without looking or are you keeping the page open?

    I learned 7th chord arpeggios in seven positions decades ago, so it's not new material for me. I've never kept all of them up to working level, though. Coming from a rock background, I never found much use for 7th chord arpeggios other than a few favorite licks in a few favorite fingerings. Like others, my min7b5 shapes are very rusty. I have to stop and think about it for a second before remembering the shape.

    .

  9. #33

    User Info Menu

    Hey everyone, just checking in. I'm still practicing away at position 1 major and minor arps.

    It's a good feeling when it gets into the muscle memory and I realize I'm thinking about something else but my fingers are still going.

    Where's everyone else at with this? Should we take some more time drilling these arpeggios or move on to chapters 4 and 5? I think chapter 5 is where it's going to start getting more fun.

    Also, side question, what do you guys use for video editing? I need to sync up video from my phone and audio recorded through my interface. I thought I did it in Reaper once a while ago, but I can't seem to make it work now.

  10. #34

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by morroben
    Hey everyone, just checking in. I'm still practicing away at position 1 major and minor arps.

    It's a good feeling when it gets into the muscle memory and I realize I'm thinking about something else but my fingers are still going.

    Where's everyone else at with this? Should we take some more time drilling these arpeggios or move on to chapters 4 and 5? I think chapter 5 is where it's going to start getting more fun.

    Also, side question, what do you guys use for video editing? I need to sync up video from my phone and audio recorded through my interface. I thought I did it in Reaper once a while ago, but I can't seem to make it work now.

    I've been using Shotcut on Windows 7:

    Shotcut - Home

    .

  11. #35

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by morroben
    Hey everyone, just checking in. I'm still practicing away at position 1 major and arps.

    It's a good feeling when it gets into the muscle memory and I realize I'm thinking about something else but my fingers are still going.

    Where's everyone else at with this? Should we take some more time drilling these arpeggios or move on to chapters 4 and 5? I think chapter 5 is where it's going to start getting more fun.

    Also, side question, what do you guys use for video editing? I need to sync up video from my phone and audio recorded through my interface. I thought I did it in Reaper once a while ago, but I can't seem to make it work now.
    I have been practicing more arpeggios, but mostly triads over a rock backing track. Wouldn‘t mind to do this a bit more.

    My my video workflow is:
    - Export Band in a box Audio into Garageband
    - Record guitar track. The easiest to go via a direct amp sim device such as the Tech21 FlyRig or a Kemper into GarageBand since then there is no bleeding or the backing track into the microphone. But I am also recording with microphones (Sennheiser e906) in front of amps. Ideally one then has the backing track playing in headphones but I am not a fan of that as the cables invariably are in the way.
    - I record the video in front of a greenscreen. This is fun and quick to set up.
    - I first start the video recording and then the audio and give it three audible bumps on the guitar in order to have alignment point for he audio later.
    - I import the video into GarageBand and align the audio traces of the video and the guitar recording.
    Then mute or delete the video audio and export everything to disk
    - Edit the video with Finalcut (but iMovie is just as well). Removing the greenscren and replacing it by some other background takes just a few clicks.

    This is way more than what is necessary of course. I just started to have fun editing and playing with video over the years and the tools that are readily available are easy to use an fun to play with. Text and graphics ar usually done with Keynote and then exported as JPG‘s into Finalcut.

  12. #36

    User Info Menu

    The good news is that once you have chapter 2 under your fingers, you've almost got chapter 3 as well. The forms are the same apart from a dom7 subbed in for the V.

    Here's a quick schwing of where I am with chapter 3. Every time you catch yourself looking at my crotch, you have to take a tequila shot.

  13. #37

    User Info Menu

    I clearly am not paying attention as I go through life sufficiently - I started on the minor shapes (Chap 3) and of course had a 'duh' moment when I realized these were not new patterns really but a series of identical (mostly) just reflecting the new chord position. Made me go back and write out the diatonic major minor chord progressions so I could see this clearly (and it's not as if I have never been told this, I just never internalized it). So, plus one for this method, it might be old hat to some of you but it's given me my first 'aha' moment.

    So as to the 'where are we' on this...still plugging through Chap 2 and 3 daily...not at the speed of some of you but am better than I was a week ago....feels like progress. I want to keep on doing this for another week but that's me...

  14. #38

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Frank67
    I have been practicing more arpeggios, but mostly triads over a rock backing track. Wouldn‘t mind to do this a bit more.
    Quote Originally Posted by odel
    I want to keep on doing this for another week but that's me...
    Then that's the plan. We'll do another week of these position 1 arpeggios and get ourselves better prepared for the connecting game in chapter 5.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jehu
    The good news is that once you have chapter 2 under your fingers, you've almost got chapter 3 as well. The forms are the same apart from a dom7 subbed in for the V.
    And just in case anyone doesn't realize it, this is true when we move to other positions as well. For example, the major 7 arpeggio that we're using for the IV chord in position 1 will become the arp for the I chord in position 4. It's rearranging, not relearning. So if five positions seems daunting, maybe that will make it slightly less so.

  15. #39

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Frank67
    I have been practicing more arpeggios, but mostly triads over a rock backing track. Wouldn‘t mind to do this a bit more.

    My my video workflow is:
    - Export Band in a box Audio into Garageband
    - Record guitar track. The easiest to go via a direct amp sim device such as the Tech21 FlyRig or a Kemper into GarageBand since then there is no bleeding or the backing track into the microphone. But I am also recording with microphones (Sennheiser e906) in front of amps. Ideally one then has the backing track playing in headphones but I am not a fan of that as the cables invariably are in the way.
    - I record the video in front of a greenscreen. This is fun and quick to set up.
    - I first start the video recording and then the audio and give it three audible bumps on the guitar in order to have alignment point for he audio later.
    - I import the video into GarageBand and align the audio traces of the video and the guitar recording.
    Then mute or delete the video audio and export everything to disk
    - Edit the video with Finalcut (but iMovie is just as well). Removing the greenscren and replacing it by some other background takes just a few clicks.

    This is way more than what is necessary of course. I just started to have fun editing and playing with video over the years and the tools that are readily available are easy to use an fun to play with. Text and graphics ar usually done with Keynote and then exported as JPG‘s into Finalcut.
    Man, you guys are full of ideas! I want to experiment with that green screen you talked about. Could be lots of fun.

  16. #40

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by AlsoRan
    Man, you guys are full of ideas! I want to experiment with that green screen you talked about. Could be lots of fun.
    Hey AlsoRan,

    this is the one I am using:

    Green Screen | elgato.com

    Setup time is 20 or so seconds. It is so much fun! Before that I used more complicated setups with the result that I never did it. This one is so easy that the barrier is close to zero.

    happy practicing everybody!

    cheers
    Frank

  17. #41

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by Frank67
    - I record the video in front of a greenscreen. This is fun and quick to set up.
    Hmm, that does sound fun. So, I guess that screen is wide enough? And, I guess I could put myself onstage in front of a bunch of Marshall Stacks with that green screen? Maybe have David Lee Roth running around in the background? While I'm sitting near the pool at the Playboy Mansion?

  18. #42

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by fep
    Hmm, that does sound fun. So, I guess that screen is wide enough? And, I guess I could put myself onstage in front of a bunch of Marshall Stacks with that green screen? Maybe have David Lee Roth running around in the background? While I'm sitting near the pool at the Playboy Mansion?
    Absolutely - great game plan!

    Yes, that screen is just wide enough to cover a person plus guitar if you go close enough to the screen and don‘t move too wildly. The benefit is that it is so much more convenient to set up.

    Here is a little toy thing that I did with it for my kids a while ago



    But of course, you could also have a Terminator or Baywatch Clip playing in the background

    ... but I did not mean to derail the thread ... back to practicing arpeggios.

  19. #43

    User Info Menu

    I'm spending time on the arps, both major and minor which almost the same with the exception of the 3 chord of the major vs. the 5 chord in the relative minor. That is, D major you have the iii chord being F#m7 vs. the V chord of Bm being F#7.

    The arps for me are a lot about picking technique, especially if I do the strict alternating picking. Troy Grady has done a super extensive study of picking technique on youtube and his site, maybe you've seen it. He talks a lot about the challenge of string skipping when playing to speed and has micro analyzed how some really fast pickers accomplish that. Playing arps with alternating picking is choke full of string skipping.

    Take for example Dmaj7 in 3rd position (D note under your pinky, 5th fret, 5th string. D, F#, A, C#, the first 4 notes starting with a down stroke and alternating picking. You play the D, skip over the 4th string to then up pick the F# on the 4th string, skip over the 4th string to then down stroke on the A note on the third string, etc. How do you do this without creating a bunch of extra in and out of the strings motion? I think that extra motion is a speed killer.

    I'm focusing on getting relaxed both mentally and my right hand physically and keeping an eye on the economy of motion of my right hand. I think for me, this is the key. I also have years ago adopted a right hand posture similar to Reg's (a forum member/contributer). Similar to the "Benson technique".

  20. #44

    User Info Menu

    Yep those skips with alternate picking are my biggest problem here. Am also practicing the Conti Precision Exercises (though in truth I'm practicing only Exercise 1 for the second week so the plural is said with optimism more than accuracy as he demands you master each exercise before attempting the next one) and there's the same demand to strictly alternate over adjoining strings. As I do the Elliot major and minor arps, I notice that it's this alternate requirement that hangs me up the most. I feel I'm moving smoothly through the exercise but note that I've landed on the root with an up rather than downstroke and realize I've double-upped or double-downed on my picking at some point in a string change preceding it. So am forcing myself then to go back and repeat slowly until I get the alternate requirement met fully for each exercise. Man, this means undoing years of picking habits, no easy task, and trying to develop a form of picking that is intentional and controlled.

  21. #45

    User Info Menu

    For picking technique, the Troy Grady online “seminars” are fabulous. I hate the shred metal style of playing, and his mannerisms are a bit odd, but I ended up getting all three videos. It absolutely TRANSFORMED my picking technique.

    The existing seminars are all about traditional 3NPS and pentatonic scalar patterns, but I believe he is working on a cross-picking one. If he could do one as thorough and insightful on strumming and cross-picking as the first three, I would get it in a heartbeat.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

  22. #46

    User Info Menu

    In honor of the moratorium on 335s,... not a 335 but a 335 type of guitar.

    In my ongoing quest and schizophrenia of how to hold a pick (Mark knows what I'm talking about) I played the major using one grip and minor using a different grip. I'll name them after a couple of my favorites, a Benson grip, and then a Carlton grip.

    I used this angle to see how much I jump in and out of the strings. All I can say is, yuck.

    I like the tone I get with the Carlton grip better, it's also better for hybrid picking, pick harmonics, muting, and pinching notes. Benson grip seems more relaxed and I can play a little faster that way.


  23. #47

    User Info Menu

    I'm still plugging away at these arps. I've been practicing every day, but the last few days have been short sessions.

    We're doing a big front yard landscape job. I hired a crew to do the dirt work and pavers, but I'm doing all the woodwork (fences, gates, arbors) myself and it's taking most of my time.

    It's also destroying my hands! I used to be a contractor/carpenter but decided to go back to school a couple of years ago to get a degree. My overall level of fitness and toughness has declined rapidly.

    Redwood splinters and general soreness of the hands isn't helping my practice motivation, but I'm trying to stay disciplined.


    How does everyone feel about moving on? Are we ready?

    Also, I've been working on my list of 10 tunes...

    Woodyn' You
    I Want to Be Happy
    Days of Wine and Roses
    No Blues
    It Hurts to Be Alone
    Sunny Side of the Street
    Mr PC
    Cherokee
    Joy Spring
    Donna Lee (this may be beyond my ability?)

  24. #48

    User Info Menu

    Yeah, I hear you on carpentry, woodwork, deck and fence building, etc. being tough on the ol' digits. But I do actually find that as long as you don't overdo it, some easy and relaxed exercises (like, oh, arpeggios!) can actually be therapeutic, stretching and loosening up the hands.

    I'm happy to move on whenever others are. I've been chipping away at Ch 5 and making decent progress.

  25. #49

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by morroben
    I'm still plugging away at these arps. I've been practicing every day, but the last few days have been short sessions.

    We're doing a big front yard landscape job. I hired a crew to do the dirt work and pavers, but I'm doing all the woodwork (fences, gates, arbors) myself and it's taking most of my time.

    It's also destroying my hands! I used to be a contractor/carpenter but decided to go back to school a couple of years ago to get a degree. My overall level of fitness and toughness has declined rapidly.

    Redwood splinters and general soreness of the hands isn't helping my practice motivation, but I'm trying to stay disciplined.


    How does everyone feel about moving on? Are we ready?

    Also, I've been working on my list of 10 tunes...

    Woodyn' You
    I Want to Be Happy
    Days of Wine and Roses
    No Blues
    It Hurts to Be Alone
    Sunny Side of the Street
    Mr PC
    Cherokee
    Joy Spring
    Donna Lee (this may be beyond my ability?)
    I am shadowing this group with my own revisit of this course. I would like to bring up one, for lack of a better word "gripe." The gripe is more my problem and its that when I first started learning arpeggios long ago, and trying to improvise, I would do so without using extensions such as a b9 or a 13th.

    This really makes a difference on what I think sounds like Jazz and what does not. I need to make sure I work in those extensions when I improvise with these arpeggios.

  26. #50

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by AlsoRan
    I am shadowing this group with my own revisit of this course. I would like to bring up one, for lack of a better word "gripe." The gripe is more my problem and its that when I first started learning arpeggios long ago, and trying to improvise, I would do so without using extensions such as a b9 or a 13th.

    This really makes a difference on what I think sounds like Jazz and what does not. I need to make sure I work in those extensions when I improvise with these arpeggios.
    Yes, and the altered scale includes the #5, b5, b9, and #9 and is introduced in the first half of the book. Also, in lick writing you can take any liberties you want and add those notes.