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Like I said previously, you are looking at the wrong page in the workbook. The exercises on the video correspond to the exercises in the summary on p.31.
Hi Steve,
All the Calisthenics correspond to the “Summaries” after the notated/tabbed versions. The page in the workbook is given right at the beginning of the video. For Calisthenics 1 that would be p.31. You’ll also notice that in the workbook summaries there are always less exercises. Here’s a response I gave to another member recently regarding this confusion with the Calisthenics summaries:
“In the video I played all the exercises first descending for the 3 current patterns being used, and later on ascending. In the workbook summary it says to play each exercise both descending and ascending. It amounts to the same thing.
“After experimenting with doing all of them first descending and then ascending, I found it more productive, quicker and easier to do each exercise descending and immediately ascending. So if I had separate instructions for descending and ascending, I was able to consolidate all of them into one set of instructions. This means that if I had 20 exercises in the video, I now only have 10 in the summary. This was an afterthought after the video was done. I was only able to adopt this approach for calisthenics featured in later modules.
When you practice the calisthenics, the video is supposed to be used only initially to orient you and give you details as to proper fingering use and other issues which you may encounter when trying to do a specific exercise. Once you have watched the video, please practice from the corresponding summary in the workbook.”
As a result, I will add a note at the beginning of the Calisthenics videos to not try to view the summaries together with the videos but instead to consider them a stand alone set of instructions.
Thanks Matt! Yeah, that’s a nice sounding axe. I’ve also got P-90s (Lollar) on my Heritage 575 which I playing on a lot of the videos here…
Good! Now you’re ready to move on and try the ones with syncopation. That will add a whole new rhythmic dimension…
I’m curious, what guitar are you playing?
I’m not sure which of the 3 patterns (1,4,or 5…or all 3) you’re referring to when you say, “shift index to 9 as needed”. Please give me the pattern & exercise number in which you feel it would be advantageous, and I will give you my opinion…
Sorry, I can’t give you a general answer. For the most part, try to use each fingering as taught. There are alternatives which can be good sometimes and require that we break out of the conventional fingering to facilitate the execution of a phrase. This is ultimately determined by the way a given phrase fits into the chosen pattern’s intervallic layout.
Good job Matt! You’re using all the approaches correctly. Now, if you can try to write one out freely without the restrictions imposed by the “options”. Thanks for posting!!
Yes, that is the assignment. If you can play the calisthenics by just looking at the summary in less than two weeks at a moderate tempo (that is, not reading the tab or regular notation), you can feel free to move on earlier. However, initially people take a long time getting comfortable with the fingerings and location of all the intervals, so I recommend a minimum of 2 weeks. Remember: just because a new module opens up every 30 days, this doesn’t mean you have to necessarily be ready to start on it then. Each player has to adapt the exercises in each module to their skill level and the amount of time they can devote to it.
All I can do in terms of recommended time to spend on each section, is estimate what it takes the intermediate player with a minimum of an hour, 5 to 6 times a week to complete the assignments. This is based on my 30+ years of working with students. That said, in the case of a beginning jazz guitarist (even if he has been playing for many years), it may take twice as long, or even longer…
Think of each scale from its root or you won’t be thinking in terms of the real chord tones and extensions! This question comes up a lot. I answer it in more detail in the FAQ section. Please read the answer to the 1st question under “Heptatonic Fingerings”.
PS. You can freely combine the mixolydian with all the approaches you’ve learned and switch to the blues scale for more of a pure conventional blues sound anytime…especially over the I7.
The blues scale is what is known as a synthetic scale…in other words it is not a mode of an established scale. I am really focused on teaching the heptatonic scales since they gave birth to all the existing synthetic scales (eg., blues scale, bebop scale ,etc). Most synthetic scales just omit “avoid notes” to make the scale easier to play.However, when playing bebop we are not focusing so much on the scale, rather on the 7th chord arpeggio and targeting them with various approaches. In doing so we use the same notes that are in said synthetic scales, only that from a different perspective. The true original bebop players did not know what a bebop scale was and were not thinking in those terms.
When properly analyzing the so called blues scale against a dominant chord, the b3 is really acting as the #9 and the b5 as the #11 (if we resolve to them), something which we cover when learning the super locrian or altered dominant scale…
I gather that most players enrolled in this course already know how to use a pentatonic or even blues scale which simply adds the “blue” notes. If you want to explore this further, take the dorian and omit the 2 and 6 and you end up with the minor pentatonic. Do this for all the 7 dorian fingerings and you end up with 7 minor pentatonic fingerings. Next add the b5, to each one…
You can go ahead and start the dorian with the double chromatic approaches. You can always go back and do the previous calisthenics if you wish. However, the dorian just has the b3 instead of the maj 3 in comparison to the mixolydian, so you shouldn’t have that much trouble applying the previous approaches to it.
Eventually (with a few exceptions such as the super locrian), what you practice in terms of approaches over one scale will carry over to a new scale, especially when said scale only differs in 1 note. In the etudes, rhythm templates and candy bars, you will have the opportunity to use the new scale (in your case, the dorian) with all the previous approaches also.
