Technical Mastery is Foreign Language Mastery Understanding music, being creative, improvising, reading a chart, knowing your fret board. It’s all akin to a language. When you study a language, there is a path to mastery. With music, it is similar. Let’s look at some examples, and apply to foreign language. A student wants to be able to use the…
Why You Need a Practice Routine! Yes you do! Whether you are just starting out, have been playing for awhile, or are looking to get out of a rut, you need a practice routine. The routine will guide you, the routine will save you time, and the routine will let you know where you are.…
Dominant 7th Voicings We’ve checked out Major 7th, Minor 7th, now it’s time for some Dominants. These are all based on G dominant 7th. The spelling for the chord is G-B-D-F. Remember, no matter how the letters are organized, it can still be referred to as a G7 chord. Often times on a lead sheet…
Breaking out of the Cage! When we first learn our scales and scale positions, they’re often presented in a one position, “boxed in” pattern. Then, once we master this pattern, we learn another pattern, and so on and so on. These box patterns are also referred to as the Caged system. As a beginner student,…
Practice Better! An approach to learning Jazz Standards Pt. 3 We’ve got two ways to play it? Now, after this is mastered, shoot for FOUR ways. Attached again are two more ways to play the same chords. Because of the nature of the guitar, and how the notes are arranged, we have to be more…
Practice Better! An approach to learning Jazz Standards Pt. 2 In part one we looked at the first step towards mastery of a standard: the chords. As and example, I’m going to post what are most likely the chords the average guitarist will use, especially if they’re just getting started with Jazz. Now over…
Practice Better! An approach to learning Jazz Standards Pt. 1 For these examples, I’ll be using “Fly me to the moon”, written by Bart Howard. If you’ve ever sat and watched a great Jazz guitarist, such as Jimmy Bruno, Pat Metheny, or Pat Martino, you’ll see these guys flying all over the fretboard. Their chord…
Chords for Beginners When the student is ready to dive into chords, G, C, A, and E minor should be the ones you tackle first and foremost. These chords are in so many songs, at this point it can’t even be calculated. There are exercises we do that focus on some of the problems students…
Chromatic Exercises for Beginners Here is one example of a chromatic exercise I use for students just starting out. There are many variations on this, but this example is very straight forward. Using only the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd finger, play the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fret on each string, then continue and play the…
Major 7th Chords pt. 2 More major 7th voicings! This time on string groups 2-3-4-5, but as with the first article, presented in C major 7th for all (C-E-G-B). The first example is the chord shape most guitarists use for a major 7th. It’s a very useful shape, and easy to locate, since the…