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Tony,
Glad to hear you have a clear understanding of the heptatonic system! As far as your question regarding repertoire, whatever you do on your own outside of jazz is your prerogative, however I believe trying to get into jazz without gradually learning its repertoire is like trying to learn a new language without attempting to speak it. And jazz is a language!For now, in terms of repertoire, you can focus on mastering all the jazz blues progressions gradually introduced in the first volume. However, if you want to improvise, be sure to do all the exercises! After all, jazz improvisation is what this course is all about.
If you are in the Platinum program, make sure you take advantage of the “one on one” lessons no later after covering the first couple of modules. As a matter of fact, I recommend that anyone who is not already an intermediate jazz player try to take at least one lesson with me at this point. I yet have to meet a jazz beginner that has not misunderstood several portions of the initial theory and exercises in the course. And most of these are great classical and rock guitarists I’m talking about. This is to be expected. I myself wasted years trying to “reinvent the wheel” on my own when transitioning from being a rock-blues player. That is, until I found a great mentor. We need all the help we can get.And regardless of what some You Tubers might say, jazz is not easy to learn! Just some food for thought… 🙂
By the way, if you want to be seen, it is best to post under one of the other topics. I noticed you posted under “How to use the Forum” which usually is passed over by most. 🙂
Welcome Tony! I wish the forum was more active, but I’m sad to say that it has been very inactive for quite sometime…Nonetheless, if you ever have any specific questions, be sure to reach out and at least you’ll get a response from me!
Regards,
RichieHi Gerard,
The bottom line is, like I state in the book, that “it is a matter of preference and ultimately perspective”. Regarding the use of mode b, I devoted an entire module and book chapter in my BGIS VOL 2. Don’t know if you covered it? Anyhow I showed the advantages of it employing “Rhythm Changes” as the vehicle.
In a nutshell, what I taught there and am teaching here is to view diminished chords as dominant 7b9 chords and map the chord tones and extensions accordingly for reharmonization purposes, mainly when it functions as a secondary dominant. Viewing the whole/half mode, forces you to have to remap a b3 to a #9 for instance. In other words none of its note functions align with those of a dominant, while with the half/whole, everything is already aligned! Furthermore, it is easier and more practical when applying the diminished in a dominant function, to view it like I show in the diagram. That is, the first half being super locrian and the 2nd half being lydian b7. This way we are relating it to two dominant scales we supposedly know and already use instead of having to learn and adopt a new perspective.That said, if I am teaching functional harmony and we are using mode b or the half-whole symmetrical with a determined root, I can refer to the 13, #11, b9,#9 as such and everybody knows where it is. This is not so evident if we are using the whole-half.
On the other hand, it also has ear training implications. For example, if applying the diminished chord with a secondary dominant function which is the most common application, I can hear the corresponding extensions as I normally hear them in other dominants. If I use the diminished chord as an auxiliary, for example Cdim7 resolving to Cmaj7, since this is not a dominant function, I hear its tones in accordance with the whole-half. So I hear the maj7 in the diminished as being a common tone in the maj7 chord, and for instance, the b3 in the dim resolving a half step up to the maj 3rd in the Cmaj7. These perspectives have to do with the function of the chord within the tonality.
Hopefully you’ll understand this better as you get into the actual reharmonization studies. But again, “it is a matter of preference and ultimately perspective”. 🙂
Richie
Hi Mikel,
Can you give me some specific pages and examples in the book? I’d like to know in what context you are looking at them.
There are exercises where they are sequential mainly at the beginning. But no, that is not the case when applied to music. You will see that they are not always sequential when applied to the standards repertoire in the second half of the book.
Richie
Hi Mikel,
This is not a mistake! When the book was laid out it was determined that only 10 exercises can fit on each of the summary pages. In reality, there are many more exercises but I believe these are the most important for now. You are definitely encouraged to include any exercises not included in the summary.Throughout the years, I have thought of maybe releasing another workbook of additional exercises which I now incorporate in my one on one lessons as needed. Who knows maybe I will…
Richie
Hi Mikel,
There is no such thing as 1 position that is the best for all sight-reading. The position is determined by the overall range of the given written music. You can usually find a position that will cover the entire range, or otherwise you will have to shift positions in different places. That in turn is determined by the positions that offer more comfortable fingerings to execute the music. So, the bottom line is that you have to be able to read anywhere on the fretboard.A good book which I recommend to master this in a methodical fashion is “Melodic Rhythms for Guitar” by William Leavitt. This is a Berklee book. I used it and in addition practiced sight reading “The Charlie Parker Omnibook” in C, Bb and Eb. These 3 books forced me to read his solos in different positions covering different ranges on the guitar. I remember doing this for a year almost every day. Not only did it improve my sightreading but it also helped me learn a ton of bebop vocabulary! Hope this is helpful!
Thanks for letting me know. It’s been fixed. Please try again and let me know if you still encounter the problem.
In essence because the majority of chord progressions in standards progress through the cycle of descending 5ths making it a a consistent and predictable pattern which is evident in II-V-I cadences. Please be sure to watch the 2 cycle of 5ths videos for more insight: https://bebopguitar.richiezellon.com/chord-studies
The downloads for module 1 can be reached through the “download’ links at the top of the Module 1 page. If you wish to download the entire books before the initial 30 days are over you can do so on the dashboard by requesting to have all the modules open at once. For this you must send an email to bebopguitar@richiezellon.com in which you agree in writing to forfeit the initial 30 day money back guarantee. Let me know if you have further questions.
Hi Steve,
Please read p.35 in the workbook and let me know if that answers your question. It has to do with the context.
Hi Tamara,
Aside from the initial theory review, have you had a chance to check out the ear training lessons in the different modules yet?
