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Hi James,
I understand your situation. Unfortunately I can’t please everybody. The more advanced players also complain to me that it is too slow for them and that they already know most of the stuff in the 1st few modules. As a result they request that I open up all of the modules for them so they can go through them at their faster pace.
This is a college level course equivalent to 2 semesters, something I explain in the introductory videos. It actually combines several separate courses offered at some music schools into 1 program. Yes, it does require time which is something lots of people don’t have these days…and it’s not a “one size fits all” program, as everybody is at a different level.
I do appreciate your feedback though! The only solution would be to break down the course into smaller chunks and make it a longer duration. That is no longer an option for me, as everything is already structured and programmed. However what I might be able to do, is add a few more months to the overall duration of the course so that players like yourself will have more time to catch up. I will have to look into this.
I will take all of this into consideration with the other courses I am preparing such as the VOL 2 of the BGIS and a chord/harmony course.
For now all I can say is the same thing I have stated in several occasions throughout the beginning modules:
1) Do the best you can…everybody’s time constraints and proficiency levels are different.
2) Watch all the videos and try to understand all the concepts at least in theory. Be sure to download all the materials and have it organized in order. This way, if you find you are several modules behind when the course ends, you will at least know what to do and be able to keep working on your own to complete it, no matter how long this may take…
I tell my personal students that they should have a minimum of 1 hour, at least 5 times a week to practice. Some of them complete the work I give them for the month with no problem while others at a lower level, even though they claim to put in the same amount of time, take 2 months…some almost 3! Now there are those who can only practice a half hour or 45 minutes 2 times a week. Truthfully, their progress is minimal and they end up getting bored when not seeing any significant change in their playing (at least from a jazz perspective) and they just end up quitting. I bring this up because the study of jazz on any instrument is not easy and requires time and consistency. Twice a week won’t cut it. This is something we have to be aware of before we decide that we want to play jazz. Many part time players just don’t have the time because they are way too busy with time consuming jobs and other activities. This is a reality and I of all people understand it! Unfortunately I also have to be honest and say to them…if you can only squeeze in a couple of half hour or even 45 minute practice sessions every week, you should reevaluate whether this is a good time in your life to take up the study of jazz guitar. That said, I will see what I can do about extending the duration of the course after all the 9 modules have opened up, for a period of more than the current 3 months. I also welcome any feedback any other other members might have regarding this!
That’s a whole lot better, although I’m still wondering…Are these to be played all in the same position? If that were the case they would be in different keys…
If they are to be played in the same key horizontally throughout the entire fretboard, you are simply recreating what is already in the course and scales book, only that you are including unresolved “non chord tones” (2,4,6) at the beginning and end of some scales on the 6th and 1st strings. Also, the 4th fingering here (pattern 5?) won’t work too well when trying to play the arpeggio with the root on the 2nd string…
Hi Andrew,
I’m not sure I understand what you’re trying to convey. Are all the fingerings starting on the root on 6th string like Pattern 1? When you say “diatonic”, are they different modes of 1 scale (eg. ionian,dorian,phrygian,etc) or the 7 fingerings for the same scale? If you could label them in terms of what’s going by displaying the intervals (eg. 1,3,5,7), it would be easier to understand the concept and how they relate to each other. Otherwise there is lots of room for misinterpretation.
Thanks!Richie
Hi Andrew,
This is not a typo! It is supposed to be played that way. If you play the 3rd on the 6th string you would have to play 4 notes on it when playing the scale: 1, b2, #2, and 3. This is pretty unconventional and not very practical for most players, unless of course you are Allan Holdsworth who does this. However, for bebop which relies on more of a vertical approach to improv, you’ll find that this is not practical. On the other hand, if you want to play the 3rd on the 6th string when playing the arpeggio only, that is fine! I do that myself occasionally but for the sake of consistency I didn’t want to teach 2 different fingerings in the book. Again, I suggest this in some videos when playing a Pattern 1 altered arpeggio.
Most fingerings derived from the melodic minor scale, such as the Super Locrian, sometimes require a different fretboard placement (occasionally moving out of position to avoid playing more than 3 scale notes per string) than those derived from the Ionian or major scale (mixolydian, dorian etc.). Let me know if this is clear or if you have any more questions regarding these fingerings.
Hi Miguel,
It’s #7 on page 74 in the workbook. What’s going on is that here it’s just ascending whereas in the summary I’ve consolidated every exercise to be descending and ascending.
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.
Hi Michael,
The downloads page has been moved and now is included in the downloads pages for each module. I’m about to put a notice on the initial dashboard “news” section.
Sorry about the inconvenience!Ken,
You are absolutely right! Thanks for pointing that out, I will correct it and re-upload it…
Richie
Navdeep,
They probably are impossible to play. The clusters are not guitar voicings. I was just making a theoretical point about when to play or not to play upper extensions in the lowest voice…
Matt,
Clusters work great if they are played in a higher register, usually above middle C. There is an implied bass because of the overtone series in the voicing you mentioned. Drop voicings which are the most used chords by guitarists due to the limitations imposed by our tuning system, don’t work…try changing the root for a 9 or a 5th for a 13 on the lowest note of a drop voicing and you’ll see what I mean.When extensions are nested within the same 8ve between chord tones as in clusters, they work great! For example in the following dom7 from bottom to top: 9, 3 , 5, b7 or 13, b7, 9, 3
In a drop voicing they don’t. For example in the following dom 7 from bottom to top: 13, 1, 3, b7 (originally 5, 1, 3, b7 ) or 9, 5, b7, 3 (originally 1, 5, b7, 3)
However, thanks for asking this question as I now realize I need to clarify this in the proper section! Did I mention this on one of the “Chord Studies” videos?
I just never intended this course to be about chord construction, rather about linear improv, so I haven’t gone into the detail it deserves. And there are so many details!!!
The last module covers Maj7 chords. Also, the summaries in the workbook are designed to be used beyond the contents of this course…
PS. Ken, please kindly write the actual question on the title of your post instead of “question” for easier reference, both for me and other readers. Also, if a question is directed especially at me you can put “Richie, bla bla” when starting your text and not on the title. Thx!
Navdeep, I agree with you regarding the term “chord melody”,yet if I don’t use that term to describe what I am doing, the “denizens of the jazz guitar” world whom my course would be exclusively directed to, might not know what it is about and “sales would plummet”. I don’t want to get all bent out of shape about nomenclature, but the term “chord melody” has become widely used to the extent that guitar instructors at major universities including Berklee, use it among their students and even in the description of the courses they teach.
I used to hate tab…I’m still not fond of it, but if i hadn’t adapted to using it in the last decade I would have lost half of my students. It makes guitarists appear as 2nd rate citizens among musicians because they can’t read regular notation. I come from an older generation where there was no tab and no one used the term “chord melody”. It used to irritate the sh-t out of me for years when it first started to crop up. However I had to adapt in order to communicate with new generations of guitarists.
