Mickey Baker is Kicking My Butt

[ejwhite09]

Update on my status:

I'm working well through the first few lesson. I still get a little caught on the D13b5b9 chord, but it is coming and my ear is getting used to it. I've come to realize just how much I didn't know about jazz guitar before I started.

~DB

Great! That's exactly what the book should be doing. Be humble enough to accept it, learn, and move on, that D13 will come...what I had to do was listen to it first as a D7 and then build the tensions over the course of a week...so Monday only D7, then D9 on Tuesday, then Thursday lower the 5th, Friday lower the 9th, then next Monday put the 13th in there. So build the tensions up, because there is just about EVERY POSSIBLE tension in that chord so just trying to comprehend it would be like me learning Japanese by waking up in Tokyo tomorrow and trying to find a job.

Here's a book that breaks it down, its essentially MB, but much more spoonfed, I've found it helpful at discerning just exactly what MB is trying to get you to do with those exercises.

Jazz Rhythm Guitar - A Sytematic Approach to Chord Progressions

[Dad3353]

Here's a book that breaks it down, its essentially MB, but much more spoonfed, I've found it helpful at discerning just exactly what MB is trying to get you to do with those exercises.

I don't suppose you'd like to post the pdf directly here, would you? It looks interesting enough (I've been with MB for over 40 years, but every new insight helps...). I'm just rather wary about signing up to 'Scrybe', or whatever it is. A bit 'old school', perhaps, but there it is.
If not, thanks anyway...
(goes into his 'Homer Simpson' voice..."Spoonfed.... Hummmm... Spoonfed..." and stumbles back into the cave...)

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Here's a thread just about that 13b5b9 chord: 13b5b9 chords - Telecaster Guitar Forum

To cut to the chase, think of the D13b5b9 chord as a Ab7#9 chord, tritone substitution and all that.

[ejwhite09]

I don't suppose you'd like to post the pdf directly here, would you? It looks interesting enough (I've been with MB for over 40 years, but every new insight helps...). I'm just rather wary about signing up to 'Scrybe', or whatever it is. A bit 'old school', perhaps, but there it is.
If not, thanks anyway...
(goes into his 'Homer Simpson' voice..."Spoonfed.... Hummmm... Spoonfed..." and stumbles back into the cave...)

If you're on facebook you're on Scribd. and if you're not on facebook you don't exist lol!

[ejwhite09]

For the me the biggest obstacle was hearing the chord in context, it really helps if you can put that D over the chord, either by playing with a friend or using an electronic device. The voicing is great, imo, because it really opens the door to rootless playing, which is the only way you're ever going to get on as a jazz guitar player. You really have to learn to hear the 'qualities' of the chord regardless of the root.

I think thinking in tritone subs might be a bit dangerous for learning the concept, I think that's a shorthand way to remember it once you understand the concept, but you shouldn't lose sight of the the chord being the most 'tense' that is the most suspenseful dramatic way to return to the tonic. its a chord that is going to have limited functional use but say if you're going through a progression and it builds up and hits a rest that would be a great chord to come to rest on and then turnaround back to the tonic. It would probably, if done right, make the set.

[Dad3353]

Good afternoon, ej...

I'm sure you're right; I don't exist. You are imagining this reply.:-)
I suppose I'll be considered 'asocial', I don't (yet..!) subscribe to any of these 'social networks'. My loss, of course (and to the rest of Planet Earth who miss my erudition sorely, surely...).
Result: ain't got the Pdf. Oh well, back to the woodshed...
Thanks anyway. (creeps back into the tangled undergrowth, limping slightly, to howl to the moon...)

[ejwhite09]

Good afternoon, ej...

I'm sure you're right; I don't exist. You are imagining this reply.:-)
I suppose I'll be considered 'asocial', I don't (yet..!) subscribe to any of these 'social networks'. My loss, of course (and to the rest of Planet Earth who miss my erudition sorely, surely...).
Result: ain't got the Pdf. Oh well, back to the woodshed...
Thanks anyway. (creeps back into the tangled undergrowth, limping slightly, to howl to the moon...)

take it easy grandpa, I was just joking. But truely they will! I might have the PDF on file I'll check when I get home this afternoon.

[Nick B]

Hi everyone

I've been lurking for a few weeks and now's the time to jump in! I'm a new guitarist (but have been playing bass in covers bands for a while) and have jumped in "the deep end" by starting off with Mickey Baker, some weekend classes and occasional lessons from YouTube. Rob Mackillop on YouTube is a big help with Mickey, if you haven't already found him.

Mickey is completely honest with me: "Do what I say and you'll get there; don't, and you won't." and I have to be honest with him, and myself, and stick with the low single digit lessons until I have them nailed and then move up and forward. The D13b5b9 had me baffled until I learned to finger it confidently - which took time - and hearing it in the context of Mickey's exercise at the bottom of page 2 (chords 2, 4, 6 & 9) helped me make sense of it.

I've set myself the objective of being able to credibly play a couple of jazz-arranged Beatles tunes at our local Hastings Beatles Day (an annual charity gig) in the spring. I'm really enjoying the journey, made easier by the many helpful posts you guys make.

Nick

[tommygun1964]

I think Charlton Johnston's book plus Mickey Baker are 2 of the best guitar books around and very complimentary.

[Vladan]

I've got a copy of the book and started reading it.
I was going like: "ok this one I know, this one I'll leave for later, this is stupid, mmm interesting, let's try it couple of times...", and so on.
After about an hour or so, I got to a sentence, kind of:
" ... congratulations. We're together for almost an year now... ".
What could I do except to abandon it all together, but will come back to it soon enough.