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The difference is that an 8th note triplet has a “3” under or above the 3 eighth note grouping.For example, see the 2nd measure of Opus 7 on p.52 of the lesson book.
What I can do is move you to the Full Access level so you can manage how long you want to stay in each module. If you would like this, please send me an email with this request to bebopguitar@richiezellon.com
Always be careful with the chromatics from above. Yes, they should be practiced to be used at higher tempos where they resolve quickly or at slower tempos when played in 16th notes. Otherwise you will get the “ambiguity” effect which can be a tad dissonant to the ear.
I don’t advise it but there are always exceptions. The course is developed in a linear fashion, meaning that each module builds on the information presented in the previous one. If you do both volumes at once it would be like taking 7th grade and 12th grade classes at the same time. Unless you have the lessons from 7th grade down, you’re most likely going to have trouble and there will be lots of confusion with 12th grade. Now, like I said initially, there are always exceptions to every rule! If you consider yourself a fairly advanced player and understand and can play most of the stuff in vol 1, but just want to have it handy as a reference…then it might work.
Hi Khai,
The smooth voice leading rule consists of moving to a guide tone at the point of chord change which should not exceed an interval of a 3rd. Sometimes an interval of a 2nd might be available also, which is actually a shorter distance as in the example you are pointing out. In the case of this exercise I didn’t violate the voice leading rule, however I opted for the 3rd because I had used the previous option earlier and I wanted some variety. In addition, I also wanted the line to ascend.
I guess to avoid any future confusion the sentence should read…”program your mind to spot a guide tone which does not exceed an interval of a 3rd at the point of chord change.”
Jack,
There are no restrictions as far as chromatic approaches, however chromatics from above if not played at a fast tempo will always sound dissonant or “ambiguous”, modally speaking. In that respect I advise to avoid them only because I know most students here are not going to be improvising at fast tempos for a while.
As far as going beyond an octave, it is acceptable. If the leap is too wide, it might not be easily executed though. You have to experiment and see if it works in the midst of a line. Also, use your ear as it might sound disjointed depending on the tempo and context. I would say that frequent unprepared approaches that go beyond the octave are more of a post-bop device…which is perfectly fine if you want that effect and can pull it off.
Glad to hear you’ve been doing the ear training exercises as this is the most neglected aspect of this course. You can see that it has the lowest number of posts in the forum. Yet, believe it or not, developing your ear is probably the most important thing a musician can do in order to be able to freely improvise melodies over chord changes. Sorry, but I want to take advantage of your question to stress this point to others who may read this. Many players rely on getting their chops together and learning some theory to know their way around the fretboard. However, when improvising they can’t pre-hear what their note choices are going to sound like until after they’ve played them! So it’s kind of a hit and miss deal. That’s why so many rely on memorized licks. They’re like canned processed food…not organic at all..ha,ha.. Want to be in control of the music you play? Train your ear to hear the changes. Only then will you be the musician and your guitar will become the instrument (in the true sense of the word).
Now to answer your question (finally)..what I suggest is that as new chords are added with each coming module, that you adapt the principles that you’ve learned in the 1st 4 ear training lessons to them. For example, when the IVm7 and IIm7 are added, practice singing the chord tones of the dorian scale (only the b3 will be new, after doing the mixolydian). Then sing the intervals in the context of the entire progression using smooth voice leading at the point of transition to a new chord. Concentrate on hearing cadences (eg. I-IV-I/ II-7-V7-I etc.)
I sent out a survey over a year ago asking if members wanted me to continue with the ear training and from hundreds I literally received only 2 interested responses. I got a few more that said they didn’t have the time or patience for it. So, I discontinued it. Maybe I’ll send out another survey in the near future and see if their is more interest.
Don’t know if you are on a PC or Mac. On a PC when clicking on the file you should be given the option to “open” or “save” the file. If you click open and the file extension is not associated in your computer with the program (in this case BIAB), the computer defaults to opening the file’s code in text form. That’s what occurred initially. Don’t understand why Firefox will open it and IE won’t! Can’t replicate the problem on my PC.
As far as saving MP3s, if you’re on a PC, try right clicking on the link with your mouse and “save as”, otherwise it will open up the file in whatever program is set up in your system as default to play MP3s. This varies greatly from user to user, as does the whole issue of downloading for PC, Mac, Ipad, Android tablets, mobile phones. Add to this the variety of browsers for each platform…
Hope others will join in with their comments, however just in case they get lazy, I’m going to jump in and share my personal experience working with my live students.
At the point that we begin with the 1st rhythm template, we are also working with Rhythm Lab 2 in the workbook. These two go hand in hand, so I encourage students to explore all the exercises breaking the rhythms down into the 2 beat rhythm cells taught in Rhythm Lab 2. The goal here is to learn the sound of each 2 beat cell as if they were words, and train the eye to spot them and identify them immediately in the music. This simplifies matters tremendously when attempting to sightread.
I advise that you first familiarize yourself with the flow of the rhythms in the templates, and in doing so, you focus on breaking each measure down into its 2 beat cell components. Once you are comfortable with playing the entire template with the rhythms on 1 note, go ahead and try to play it with the intervals. I recommend doing this in 4 measure segments (or 2 initially if you feel 4 is too much to retain). This same procedure should be followed when first learning the upcoming etudes.
In the beginning, for many it is a combination of getting accustomed to identifying the 2 beat cells and tapping your foot while keeping track of the 8th note downbeats and upbeats. However, if you do this on a regular basis, after several months you will begin to pre-hear the sound of each 2 beat rhythm cell and the counting will happen at a sub-conscious level, thus allowing you to focus on the actual notes!
On a final note, just wanted to say that you “hit the nail on the head” when you stated that “at at a later stage you could take rhythms from great solos and work them around like this”. I actually touch upon this concept in the last 2 modules of Vol 1 in the “Dissecting the Masters” videos. The concept of writing solos over the rhythmic structure of a solo played by a master musician, has been something that personally took my improvisational skills to a new level. Rhythm is 50% of the game and acquiring rhythmic vocabulary is just as important as spending time developing the melodic 50%. In vol 2, at a certain point I explore writing a solo using the rhythmic structure of an entire Charlie Parker improvisation.
The William Leavitt book for Melodic Rhythms is a very good book to get started in reading for guitar. As a Berklee graduate, I used it initially and also with my students when teaching them sightreading at several music schools. However, counting and breaking down rhythms into 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, when you have to sight read fast doesn’t work. There’s no time to count and focus on the notes, etc. So, we have to glance ahead at a rhythm figure and already know how it sounds in the same manner as we glance at a written word and read it right away. That’s where learning the rhythm cells comes in handy. There are only so many 2 beat cells you have to learn…
Once you understand the rhythm cells as “words”, go back and read through the Leavitt book and it will be much easier.
As far as picking goes, there are many schools. They are all valid depending on what you’re trying to achieve. I sometimes use the 3 note per string picking technique when descending vertically, which consists of down stroke, upstroke and 1 downstroke for the 3rd note and 1st note of the next string. When ascending it’s the opposite. We need to be flexible, and adapt different techniques to our needs. Some call it economy picking because you pick 4 notes with 3 pick strokes…
Again, please do not try to match the online calisthenics to the Workbook summaries. They are definitely different and independent of each other. However, they are correct, unless you try to correlate them to the video, which you shouldn’t.
The video is just an introduction to initially teach you how to play the calisthenics in general.It teaches the “procedure” and includes many more exercises than those included in the workbook. Once you have watched it and even played along with it, you should be practicing with the summary in the workbook and not the video.
Jack, I think you are getting my instructions in the workbook for keeping track of downbeats and upbeats with the pick, mixed up with how I am picking in the etudes.
Let me clarify…In the workbook, I recommend using down-strokes for downbeats and up-strokes for upbeats as an alternative to tapping with your foot (or in conjunction with it). I recommend this for players who are still learning how to sub-divide in 8th notes when sightreading rhythms. Through my teaching experience I found that many guitarists have a harder time visualizing and keeping track of the downbeats and upbeats by just tapping their foot. This alternate system made it easier for many to visualize the beats and eventually learn to sight read syncopated rhythms. That said, once you have mastered this, you eventually stop focusing on the up and down of the pick and let your foot keep the beat. At that point you can use up-strokes or down-strokes as you desire. It depends on how you feel the music.
In my case, I am not using the pick in the etudes or in general, to keep track of downbeats and upbeats. This now happens for me automatically at the subconscious level. Therefore, unless the direction of the pick stroke serves a specific technical reason (which sometimes it does), I may pick differently each time I play a given piece, depending on how I want to accent certain notes.
I hope this clarifies any doubts you may have had regarding the picking in the etudes.
Just checked the summary PDF that is on the site and everything is correct. You must be looking at an outdated copy. Also, not sure what you are referring to by video #11 as the video with that number is not the Calisthenics video. Did you mean video #6?
Also, please do not try to match the online calisthenics to the Workbook summaries. They are definitely different and independent of each other.
Hi Michel,
Item #4 in the summary should read Lower CH NT for 1 and 5. Therefore the ch before 1 is correct.
I had corrected this several weeks. Who knows, maybe I forgot to upload it!?As far as the video goes, I will check it out. However, I will be redoing the video in the near future to match the summary’s in the workbook. Thanks!
Sorry you are having problems with this. I will attempt to answer the best I can, each one of your concerns below:
The description of the exercises on pages 19-30 could be made clearer. Specifically, for each exercise, there is a repeat sentence to redo the exercise with a chromatic tone instead of a diatonic tone. It would be best to have a complete sentence as per the video (i manually copied the sentences from the video on my hardcopy of the workbook). It was not until i watched the video that i really understood what i needed to do.
First of all, this should have been posted in the Bebop Calisthenics section, as you are not reporting errors but instead your suggestions on how to make it clearer. I believe your initial misunderstanding of these exercises comes from that fact that you have not been following the included instructions in the Module 2 download section. You should view the videos in order first, before attempting to do any exercise. As per your recommendation to make things clearer, the initial version of the workbook had separate sentences for each exercise in the same order as the videos. It was found redundant and difficult to follow by many, and at their request I experimented with the current method, which has yielded great results and was recently included in the workbook. Note that when I say, it “yielded great results”, I am referring to the majority of students with whom I have contact (unfortunately, I can’t please everyone).
Moreover, the numbering of the exercises do not match the summary of calisthenics. Doing doing, would probably mean that the tab be included for the “repeat” exercices. That could be done by using classical guitar notation (which includes string numbers and left hand finger numbers without the need for the TAB and less space on the page).
Again, if you would have watched the videos first, you would notice that the first thing that Bebop Calisthenics video 1 states, is that the exercises are not in the same order as in the Workbook. It also states that when you do the Summary of Calisthenics in the Workbook, to do it independent from the video.
As far as the tab goes, 80% of guitar students need it because they don’t have a background in reading regular music notation. It is my intention to accommodate them while they hopefully make the slow transition to regular notation. The added classical fingering markings tend to add yet more confusion at this point when placed next to their heptatonic fingering equivalents as well as the intervallic script. Too many numbers…One last question. Page 31 refers to appendix 1 on page 113. I could not locate the pdf that contained the appendix. Did i miss something ? Or do we get the complete PDF only when we reach the end of the course ?
Once again, you didn’t watch the videos in order before attempting to do the exercises. If you go back, you’ll notice that Video #5 which is immediately before the first Bebop Calisthenics video, is entirely devoted to explaining appendix 1. Furthermore, when you begin Module 2, you have the option of downloading the most recent versions of the complete Lesson book and Workbook from your Dashboard, each time you login. You will find info on the latest updates at the top of your Dashboard. Please be sure to read this info, as the site is constantly growing and evolving along with the materials included.
To conclude, I want to say that in spite of the misunderstandings I appreciate your suggestions to make things better. I will consider adding some classical guitar markings to the notation for a future edition. I must confess that I’ve initially had my doubts regarding its usefulness, as this tends to defeat the purpose of the interval script and heptatonic fingering markings that this course is based on. In other words, you should eventually not be concerned with tab or notation, but instead understand that their is only 1 place on the fretboard to play, for example, a Eb Mixolydian Pattern 4 when is called for.
Also, I eventually will redo the Bebop Calisthenic videos according to the new order in the Workbook. For now my efforts are concentrated in developing the overall course further.
