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Hi Shay,
Glad you are enjoying the site! As far as your question goes, we have no time to think in notes. Therefore it is crucial to think in intervals or numbers that are transposable to any key instantly. That’s why we call the fingerings “patterns”. Each pattern will conserve its unique configuration of numbers or intervals anywhere throughout the fretboard.
Hi Mark,
The idea with the 9 modules is to do only what is required in each lesson. For now you are only required to learn the 3 Mixolydian fingerings (pat. 1, 4 & 5). I will be teaching you several concepts using these fingerings and gradually introduce others. Once you learn the general concepts, you can work them out in the remaining fingerings. If you try to work on the calisthenics for all the fingerings,for all the modes, it is guaranteed that you will fall behind!
Working out all the materials (eg. calisthenics, etudes, etc) in all 7 fingerings for all the modes, is really meant to be a long term study that you can continue with after you have finished with this course. Also, many of the additional modes and fingerings not yet covered, will only be used in volume 2 of this series when we start concentrating on linking them together horizontally throughout the fretboard.
It took me a good 2 years to get semi comfortable with all these modes and fingerings so don’t get stressed over it! Take your time, and preferably do only what is required for each lesson module…
Yes, by all means! Try to visualize the fretboard in your mind while looking at an etude or calisthenic and play “air guitar”. I do this all the time and have it down to a point where I can internally hear the notes after several years of ear training too. I remember reading a great book on the subject many years ago called “The Inner Game of Music”. It might be out of print, although you might find a used copy on Amazon.
Some keys are going to be harder than others to sing the intervals, depending on your vocal range. The idea is to be able to sing the intervals and match them as close as possible to the correct pitch. In certain keys, this will require that we sometimes sing in “falsetto”. If you’re slightly flat that’s ok, as long as it’s not an entire half step off.
Guys,
The more you do the better. However, each person knows how much they can handle according to their level of proficiency. I present the exercises in a slow, as needed fashion so you won’t get too overwhelmed. It takes a while to get comfortable with all the fingerings and understand where everything is in terms of the intervals. For the record, it took me at least a good 2 years back when I first started to work on them, before I could feel semi comfortable with them.I recommend taking a marker and crossing out the tab after you’ve examined it to make sure you are using the proper fingering, that is only if needed. This way when you learn it you will force yourself to think in the given intervals. The next step is to play it in different keys. I recommend learning and playing all the etudes in C (Pattern 1 in 8th position).
It is okay to memorize the etude. This is unavoidable if you have to repeat it several times.This is actually good as it will program new vocabulary in your subconscious. However, this is only practical if you understand what is going on in terms of the location of all the intervals and awareness of where and what approaches are taking place. This will enable you down the road to apply the concepts in different contexts when improvising. Remember, this will not happen overnight, but only after properly programming different variations of each concept through the calisthenics and etudes. How to achieve this is the final goal of this course.
Initially, I had the PDFs under the individual videos. I am in the process of eliminating that and just having the PDFs in each Module’s download section. Once I do that, their shouldn’t be any overlapping. I will leave up some pdfs under videos that are not included in the books.
Each Module and its videos are representative of each chapter in the books (eg. Module 1 corresponds to Lesson 1 in the Lesson Book).
If you wish to have all the PDFs from the books at once, send me an email with your request and I will send you a link. I just ask that students please focus and do the work for 1 module at a time in the order given, to avoid unnecessary confusion and overwhelm.
Thanks for the feedback!
Actually, they are not the same. The 1st one contains just the mixolydian mode. The 2nd one contains the same mixolydian mode and is followed by all the other relevant modes that we will use in the future with this same set of calisthenics. Either way I am going to eliminate those links to avoid confusion, as you should be viewing these same exercises in the workbook portion for module 2.
I recommend keeping the foot down for “1 and” / up for “a”. I will have an addendum at the end of the Rhythm Lab1 video uploaded no later than Monday, where you can watch me play swing 8ths and see how my pick mimics my foot on the downbeats and upbeats.
I will try to add an addendum of me playing them to the Rhythm Lab 1 video, in the near future. I honestly don’t know how much this will help, because you need to hear it to get the feel of it. All 8th notes in medium mainstream jazz have this feel, so if you listen to a lot of players you shouldn’t have a problem assimilating it. I will still make the video mainly to show my right hand and how to count it out as you pick.
