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Like the previous exercise, this one is also correct as it is within range. Being “out of range” for the pattern, would be the case only if you had to move your hand out of position to reach the note in question. Maybe you are getting confused because when practicing the scale you are ending on the 5 and not the 6 which is within reach. I purposely end and start all scales on chord tones when teaching them for your ears to get accustomed to hearing a “resolution” on either the last note on the 1st or 6th string. Hope this is clear 🙂
If you’re referring to the initial 6 on the 1st string, it is correct and within the range of Pattern 5.
I consider Guitar Pro to be more of a tab editor. I’ve messed around with it in the past but found it very limited for regular notation and a pain to use. I believe that if you’re looking for a regular music notation program, that is to enter notes and rhythms, the sensible way to go is with any of the 2 industry standards: Finale and Sibelius.
Personally I’ve been using Finale for 15 years now, so I can’t really comment on Sibelius although I know it is also good. With Finale you can input your regular notation and select and drag it down to a tab staff, and it will instantly create a tab version. You just need to tell it what position on the fretboard you want to assign the notes to. Of course, you will always have to tweak a few notes here and there to accommodate it to the exact fingering you have in mind.
I have to be honest though, there is a learning curve with any of these programs. You have to memorize the keyboard commands for each rhythmic value and a few other shortcuts if you truly want to write music at a pace that is not going to take you all day. There is an option to drag rhythmic values (eg. quarter notes, rests, etc) to the intended location on the staff, but again this takes forever. I use my left hand for the keyboard commands while using the mouse with my right hand to assign the location on the staff I want each note to appear in. It’s fairly fast for me at this point. Almost like typing words. The beauty of it is that you can hear the actual sound of the note as you insert it.
There are several flavors of Finale. If you aren’t doing elaborate scores, the full fledged version might be overkill. Just make sure it has the capacity to create tabs for guitar, unless you you don’t want that. I know there is a free trial version you can download: Finale Website
Let me know if you have further questions…
Thanks Mark for pointing this out. I’m sure more will crop up here and there. However, I’m perplexed with this one because the tab was correct on both, and the tab is generated from the notation. Either way, I have corrected it and re-uploaded a fresh new copy of the Module 1b Workbook.
Good Jack! Yes, try to alternate the order each day. Also, be sure to do the same with the fingering pattern order…that is Pa1, 4 & 5 one day…Pat 5, 4 & 1, on alternate days. This way, you make sure you master them evenly. Too many students make the mistake of always starting with Pattern 1 and by the time they get to Pat. 5 their brains are fried.
Oh…did I mention to be sure to play them using swing 8th notes? 🙂
Jack,
Don’t worry about that. The video is independent from the workbook which was updated to a more visual format over a year after the video was done. When doing so, I had to leave a few exercises out due to lack of space. Either way, whether you practice following the instructions on the videos, or use the Calisthenics summaries, I believe you will derive the same benefit.
I recommend watching the video with guitar in hand the first and maybe 2nd time, and then just using the summaries in the workbook which combine ascending and descending into individual exercises.
I really like it, Matt! I hear all the approaches with a nice easy swing. Keep up the good work…would love to hear more!
Richie
Hi Matt,
Just took a look at the PDF and most of it looks good. However, I’m not sure what you are thinking because your use of Neighboring Tones (NT) is incorrect. What you are labeling as NT seem to be Unprepared Approaches (UA). A Neighboring Tone is always preceded by a chord tone a step away and must resolve back to that same chord tone. For example: 5-6-5 or 3-2-3, etc.
Would love to hear you play it!
Hi Matt,
Yes that is correct. As of module 5 (chapter 5 in the Lesson book) I no longer provide 2 Rhythm Templates with options…just one. The idea is that by now the student should understand how the concept works and should fill out the 2nd variation entirely on his/her own. Really what it all boils down is to never assign an approach note to a rhythmic value larger than an 8th note. Follow this rule and you should be safe for the most part.
Feel free to send me a copy of your etude!
Regards,
RichieHi Jack,
The truth is that this course is not designed to coordinate with each person’s different level of personal music involvement with others. That would be impossible due to the fact that everyone is at a different level.
My aim is to teach all the fundamentals and gradually build on them until you have the necessary resources to interact musically with others with a solid understanding of the jazz language. For the sake of those that aren’t that advanced, I have to lay a basic foundation first in all the different aspects involved. Otherwise people are left with too many gaps. Therefore, I don’t start working with II-Vs until we are a few modules into the course.
I recommend that those who are more advanced and have a good grasp of the initial material move on at their own pace by requesting to be in the Full Access level. This way the entire course is available at once and you can move on quicker, say to working with II-Vs or something else.
let me know if you have any further questions.
Richie
Hi Robert,
Glad you are enjoying the easy blues series! To answer your questions…In the segment of the video you mention, I am in fact moving throughout the fretboard freely linking the 7 fingerings. As far as whether or not you should try to emulate that, it depends on how comfortable you are with all the fingerings. If you can play Blues in the Closet in all 7 fingerings, I think it is a good start. If you can do that with most of these easy blues heads, it will force you to learn most of the basic interval combinations uniformly in all 7 fingerings. Assimilating the various rhythms in these blues riffs is also beneficial. However, if your not comfortable identifying the location of all the scale/arpeggio degrees within each fingering, I suggest you learn that first.
As far as your experience with improv, it is hard for me to help and give you personal guidance without actually hearing you and asking several questions in order to know what your thought process is while attempting to improvise. Many players who attempt to study jazz improv on their own, even with all the info provided in a course such as this one, don’t get very far. That is, unless they are already at a certain level and have the necessary ear training (formal or informal) to recognize and mentally store how different chord tone/ approach combinations sound like. The understanding of rhythms on the other hand, is also crucial! Only when this is firmly established can you spontaneously draw coherent ideas from the brain’s harmonic database during improvisation. This of course, is what we call “vocabulary”. In the same fashion as we think what we are going to say a split second before we do so using proper grammar…the same concept holds true when improvising. The only basic difference is that we are dealing with pre-hearing notes and rhythms. Again, for this to occur, several conditions need to be met and it is a slow process which often requires the guidance of an experienced mentor.
I teach many private lessons with students taking this course, and I often find that they are not getting results because they are jumping around all over the place with no consistency and trying to cut corners by shying away from exercises they do not understand. Frequently, I also find that the exercises they are working on, are being practiced wrong. That’s why I suggest to students that even if they don’t have much time, to consider taking a minimum of one lesson per month with me so I can guide them and make sure they are doing things correctly. That said, I have found that 2 out of 3 students have misconceptions of several concepts which in turn is delaying their progress. In addition, since everyone is at a different level and has different challenges, I have many exercises not included in this course, which I developed throughout my 30+ years of teaching jazz to deal with certain problems…
Let me know if you have any more questions or how I can be of further help.
Absolutely. The more expensive ones just have better audio quality and more real instrument samples. The important thing is the midi functionality which will play back the course files. You can always upgrade to a better version in the future.
Hi Gian,
I am familiar with Chuck Wayne’s technique as I had a student that studied with Chuck for a long period of time and introduced me to his picking technique, which by the way is great!
Yes, if you can do that and adapt it to the material in this course, it will be very beneficial at least in the long run.
I don’t feature any picking techniques in this course, because most players are already well accustomed to a certain school of picking and there is enough to learn as it is.I got into economy picking after years of playing straight “alternate” picking and it took me several years to be able to combine both without stumbling. As a matter of fact, I went through a period of 6 months where my right hand was confused with all the new moves and I could not play properly. I almost quit and went back to straight “alternate” picking. So, this is why I am hesitant to include these techniques here.
Let me know if you have further questions.
