From the Woodshed

Gearing Up for DjangoFest 2012

Joe — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:23:31 +0000

Last September, I attended my first DjangoFest. I took a couple workshops with Michael Horowitz (owner of DjangoBooks.com, and one of my wedding musicians) and Stochelo Rosenberg (wow). I've since dabbled here and there in the concepts I picked up, but I've been more focused over the past year on my teaching and other styles. [...]

I Got a Mandolin for Christmas

Joe — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:16:43 +0000

My wife got me a mandolin for Christmas! I did not see that coming. She is awesome. It's a Savannah SF-100. I had been thinking for a while about buying myself a ukulele or mandolin. I've played both quite a bit (see I'm Learning the Mandolin from two years ago) but never owned one. I [...]

My Approach to Composition

Joe — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:02:58 +0000

The only rule of composing is that there are no rules. It's like Calvinball. As for my approach, I try to take a new perspective with each new composition. This might mean beginning with a title instead of a song structure or chord progression or melody and letting the rest follow. It might mean composing [...]

Learning Sweep Arpeggios

Joe — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:01:42 +0000

I've never been into sweep arpeggios. That's not to say I avoided them on purpose, I just never felt motivated to practice them. I dig a lot of rock/metal players that use sweep arpeggios extensively, so it was only a matter of time before they became the target of my ever-shifting obsessions. The catalyst was [...]

Rob's Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook

Joe — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:06:40 +0000

I've been working rather incessantly on my new business, Deft Digits Guitar Lessons, and I bought a wonderful book on teaching guitar the other day. That's the actual title above, Rob's Totally Awesome Guitar Teaching Handbook. As other reviewers have indicated, the title is appropriate. I first discovered the author, Rob Hampton, through his blog [...]

How I Use Pentatonic Scales in Everything I Play

Joe — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:13:31 +0000

Every rock-influenced guitarist learns the major pentatonic and minor pentatonic scales early on. The mileage you can get from those two scales alone is endless. Furthermore, it's not uncommon to substitute different pentatonic scales over the same harmony. One might throw in some A minor pentatonic licks over Dm, emphasizing E, the 9. I've heard [...]

10 Types of Jazz Chords

Joe — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:23:47 +0000

When approaching improvisation over an established harmony in any genre, it helps to sort out the types of chords you're dealing with. My approach is rooted in jazz theory, a heavy component of which is improvisation: knowing how to approach a given harmonic progression. Players like Joe Pass and Jimmy Bruno like to reduce the [...]

Seattle Guitar Lessons: Deft Digits

Joe — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:52:41 +0000

Today I launch my new guitar website, Deft Digits. Whereas I've written From the Woodshed as a personal guitar journal about my own thoughts and ambitions, I'll write the blog at Deft Digits with the student in mind. While I've had a wealth of ideas about teaching and learning guitar, I've withheld them from the [...]

Reflections on a Master of Music

Joe — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 21:27:06 +0000

Jason Priest of Little Rock Jams is running a new blog series called My Life and Music. He asked me and a handful of other guitar bloggers to tell their personal musical life stories. His blog caters to his local guitar students in the Little Rock area, and this series is meant to inspire and [...]

How to Choose a Jazz Fake Book

Joe — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:03:10 +0000

My first jazz teacher, Bob Keller, just published The Joy of Fakebooks, a little guide on navigating the various features of all the different jazz fake books available today.

Pop Chord Progressions

Joe — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:33:49 +0000

I started a massive spreadsheet to categorize all the 3- and 4-chord progressions I hear in pop music.

So Long, San Diego

Joe — Tue, 24 May 2011 05:22:38 +0000

I lived in San Diego for the last three years, and a few weeks ago, I moved to Seattle. I'm excited, but I'm leaving behind a lot of great people and musical experiences.

SDSU Oral Exam: Jazz Repertoire Selections

Joe — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:35:12 +0000

For my graduate oral exam at SDSU, I had to explain repertoire and text selections for various levels of high school and college jazz performance groups and classes.

SDSU Oral Exam: Analyzing My Own Composition

Joe — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:24:28 +0000

In preparation for my oral exam, the last step in completing my Master of Music in the SDSU jazz studies department, I analyze the harmony, melody, theory, and compositional process of my original tune, "Defending Their Turf".

SDSU Oral Exam: Analyzing My Own Solo

Joe — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:10:25 +0000

Transcription and analysis of my own improvised solo on my original tune, "The Kármán Line". Includes measure-by-measure breakdown of concepts, motifs, successes, and mistakes.

Albums in My Blood

Joe — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:11:04 +0000

There's a certain set of albums that I know extraordinarily well. They're the ones I wore out when I started listening to music on my own. It doesn't matter what else I obsess over or whether I ever hear them again, their influence will always be with me in a way nothing else will.

Songs for Interval Recognition

Joe — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:14:39 +0000

A giant personal spreadsheet of songs used for interval recognition. Includes 135 songs with scale degrees forming each interval. Copy it and customize for your own use.

Playing for Free (Re: A Request for Action and Change)

Joe — Mon, 02 May 2011 17:12:21 +0000

A response to New York saxophonist and drummer Adam Niewood's thoughts on professional musicians working for free.

I'm Learning Italian

Joe — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 11:15:24 +0000

With my recital complete and my future hometown determined, my wife and I have flown away for a delayed honeymoon during the only foreseeable gap in our two wild and crazy lives. We decided to focus on Italy, and why take one week when we can take four? We've been staying in Florence since April [...]

I'm Moving to Seattle!

Joe — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:10:39 +0000

I grew up near Seattle. In 2001, I moved to Southern California to attend college, and I've been down here ever since. In less than two months, I will move back home.

My Recital: A Review

Joe — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 05:01:03 +0000

It's been nearly two weeks since my recital. I'm happy to report that it went down awesomely. I was thrilled to have so many of my friends and family in attendance, and it was a great experience to play my music (and that of a few jazz greats) for them. The setlist went as follows. [...]

Recital Time!

Joe — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:03:23 +0000

Recital time is here! Three days from this moment, I will be calm and collected during my recital sound check at SDSU, because there will be no last-minute disaster panics. All the work has started paying off already.

The Kármán Line

Joe — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:16:13 +0000

I wrote a tune about another Joe Walker. It sits at the edge of space with extended Lydian and Dorian harmonies.

Recruitment Bonanza

Joe — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:25:51 +0000

Composing process, concert score, individual parts, and a recording of an original composition with a three-horn arrangement.

Wacky Misadventure

Joe — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:06:26 +0000

I wrote a crazy tune with disaster potential. Cues allow the soloist to remove the rhythm section from the form, one by one.

Brass Shout Chorus

Joe — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:48:12 +0000

In addition to the sax soli I wrote for my arranging class last semester, I also wrote a brass shout chorus. This assignment required parts for four trumpets and four trombones over a 12-bar blues progression. The style was to be loud, punchy, and syncopated. As mentioned in the sax soli post, I plan to [...]

SDSU Recital Audition

Joe — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:19:21 +0000

My recital audition was Wednesday. I was very pleased with how it went, and the professors seemed to dig it too, so I'm officially approved to recite on Sunday, March 6, 2011. It's free and open to the public, so you're welcome to drop by if you're around San Diego: 2pm at Smith Recital Hall [...]

Add the Room to Your Band

Joe — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:10:15 +0000

Advice from Jody Fisher on embracing and interacting with the sound of the room during a performance.

Sax Soli

Joe — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:47:51 +0000

I wrote a sax soli for my arranging class last semester. The assignment was to write a lead bebop-style melody line over 16 bars of standard chord changes, then harmonize every note in four parts, then provide parts for five saxophones and rhythm section for the big band to record. I chose the second half [...]

First Lessons as a Bandleader

Joe — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:45:10 +0000

I just held my fifth rehearsal as a bandleader. I've learned a few lessons.

The Gratuitous Stairway Solo

Joe — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:30:21 +0000

Last month I posted a video of The "Black Dog" Solo. The same day, I recorded the "Stairway to Heaven" solo. I thought I'd upload it. Not much to say about it. I missed a note. If I'm diligent, I'll record more of these. In the meantime, check out my Zeppelin tribute band, Dazed and [...]

Build Your Own Clone: Optical Compressor

Joe — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:41:29 +0000

I assembled my own guitar pedal, the Optical Compressor kit from Build Your Own Clone. Pictures and review.

Star-Spangled Banner Arrangement

Joe — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:01:46 +0000

Before I graduated from college in 2005, I wrote a couple arrangements of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The first was a bunch of overdubbed guitars, nothing written down, just a lot of ideas I had for embellishing and reharmonizing the melody. I recorded it at the request of my swim team, which was hosting a big [...]

My Favorite Posts of 2010

Joe — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:42:03 +0000

Holidays are curiously adept at inhibiting original content. And New Year's Eve seems as good a time as any to drop a payload of internal links. I hereby present you with my favorite blog posts of 2010, in chronological order. Jan 25: Benedetto Clinic Feb 1: Bob Magnusson's Monster Arpeggio Workout Feb 8: How Many [...]

An Analysis of "Dolphin Dance"

Joe — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 02:43:06 +0000

It occurs to me that I never published any of my papers from the 20th Century Music Theory grad seminar I took during the past spring semester. I dug up a good one, submitted 15 Mar 2010, on Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance." I was afforded a chance to apply the analysis tools we were learning [...]

The "Black Dog" Solo

Joe — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:34:40 +0000

I've been playing with San Diego's Led Zeppelin tribute band, Dazed and Confused, for over a year. I don't believe I've posted any videos of that material yet. We have over 40 songs in our repertoire, although we never play them all at the same show. I learned a lot of Jimmy Page's solos note [...]

Cupping Hands at Concerts

Joe — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:28:16 +0000

I attended a couple intimate jazz concerts last weekend. One at Dizzy's featuring Mundell Lowe, Jaime Valle, Bob Boss, Bob Magnusson, and Duncan Moore, and one at the San Diego Center for the Arts featuring Steuart Liebig, Nathan Hubbard, Jeanette Kangas, and Nate Jarrell. Both were in small venues. The latter concert was literally in [...]

"Hocus Pocus" Composed Solo

Joe — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:10:10 +0000

I performed my final jury in my pursuit of a Master of Music in Jazz Studies on Friday. To help me get a handle on the bebop ideas required for Lee Morgan's "Hocus Pocus," I decided to compose a single-chorus solo based on my own improvised lines at half speed, then learn it at full speed.

I Have a New YouTube Account

Joe — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 02:59:36 +0000

Check the Videos section of From the Woodshed, and you'll find a collection of videos of my guitar playing that I uploaded a couple years ago. I'm moving them all to a different account, joewalkerguitar, where I'll try to get back into the habit of posting clips. I just uploaded a short clip of me [...]

Defending Their Turf

Joe — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 07:58:43 +0000

I got to record another of my compositions at school a few weeks ago. One of the early assignments in my jazz seminar was to compose a piece in the chromatic modal style (similar to "Out Doin' Good Again" from last semester). We submitted first drafts a few months ago, and have been making edits [...]

Playing Out with Conviction

Joe — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:39:54 +0000

I thought of the perfect analogy for playing out. We've been discussing outside playing regularly in my jazz grad seminar this semester, as the required supplementary reading was Dave Liebman's A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody. The challenge is always to find ways of weaving your lines in and out of the changes [...]

How to Practice Music: Six Essential Activities

Joe — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:12:50 +0000

The most important aspects of practicing music, broken down: Transcribe, Sightread, Compose, Repertoire, Books, Concepts.

SDSU Jazz Combo 2 Challenges

Joe — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:16:17 +0000

I just played my final combo concert at school this week. It's hard to believe I'm almost done with music school. I have a few weeks left to finish the rest of my classes, then a recital in the spring, and that's it. It still feels like I just started, until I look at the [...]

Upper Structure Triads

Joe — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:26:48 +0000

One of my private instructors, Richard Thompson, has had me working on what he calls "upper structure triads" on dominant chords. I've explored this concept before, but not in as much detail as he summarized to me in half a minute. The idea is to use triadic shapes on various altered extensions of dominant chords [...]

Horace Silver: "Peace" and "Silver's Serenade"

Joe — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 01:15:18 +0000

The latest project for my graduate seminar in jazz studies at SDSU was a repertoire analysis of a jazz composer of my choice. I wanted to push myself out of my element and pick someone I dug but hadn't studied. I chose Horace Silver, as he's always had a prominent spot in my jazz interests, [...]

Weird Metronome

Joe — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:59:50 +0000

I discovered Weird Metronome the other day. Its creators claim that it's "the smallest, most versatile metronome software available." After using it for a few days, I almost agree. It's certainly the smallest metronome software I've ever used, and it has some cool little features I couldn't get out of other tools.

Shelle Blue

Joe — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:53:40 +0000

I've officially played my first blues gigs. Took me long enough. Blues was my main bag since about a year after I picked up the guitar. I was heavy into SRV, Buddy Guy, BB King, Albert King, etc. in high school. I've played plenty of rock and a handful of jazz gigs, but my first [...]

The Original Deluxe Aggravation

Joe — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:43:33 +0000

I wrote a tune in July called "The Original Deluxe Aggravation." I was on my annual family trip to my favorite place, a lake in the mountains of Washington, and I wanted to write something while I was there. I use a number of different techniques and ideas for composing. I vary my approach as [...]

The Six Pillars of Musical Development

Joe — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:53:44 +0000

I was thinking the other day about the most important activities for a developing jazz musician. I came up with a ranked list with jazz in mind, but it probably applies to any genre of music. My rankings are based on the imagined impact on my musicianship of removing each activity from my life. Let [...]

My Working Recital Set List

Joe — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 06:23:04 +0000

I just reserved a date for my recital at SDSU: 6 March 2011. Nothing's final yet, as I need to finish making charts, put a group together, rehearse, and audition my recital program in early February. If I don't pass that audition, then no recital. I've been brainstorming ideas for tunes to include and types [...]

Out Doin' Good Again

Joe — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:22:23 +0000

Last semester (Spring 2010) I audited Rick Helzer's Elements of Jazz IV course at SDSU, the fourth in a series of undergrad jazz theory courses. Much of the course's content involved the "chromatic modal" idiom. We studied compositions by Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Wheeler, Bill Evans, and some of Professor Helzer's own works. Composing [...]

Visualizing Chord-Scales on the Cycle of Fourths

Joe — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:46:29 +0000

I've been playing a bunch of crazy tunes in my jazz combo at SDSU this semester. Old familiar chord sequences like ii-Vs or dominant to tonic cadences are starting to seem foreign; we never see each other lately. Much of this new material is in the "chromatic modal" idiom, in which chords progress by non-tonal [...]

SDSU Jazz Studies Jury Scales

Joe — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:24:28 +0000

At the end of every semester at SDSU, music students are required to perform juries. In the jazz department, this consists of performing and improvising on a couple tunes, some sight reading, and performance of an array of scales in random keys. The scales have always been the easiest part for me; as a guitarist, [...]

Sanyo Pedal Juice

Joe — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:03:10 +0000

I was recently sent a sample of the new Sanyo Pedal Juice, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for powering effects pedals. I've had a few chances to use it on gigs, and I'm ready to tell you about it. The setup I used on these gigs was pretty basic: my Strat through a Boss TU-2 tuner [...]

SDSU Jazz Seminar Periodic Journal 3

Joe — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:35:53 +0000

My third and final journal entry for my jazz theory seminar is due tonight. (See Periodic Journal 1 and Periodic Journal 2.) I wrote about the final reading assignment for Dave Liebman's A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody and tied in some group playing concepts with a Lee Konitz masterclass I attended in [...]

John McLaughlin's Solo on "Very Early"

Joe — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:05:22 +0000

An assignment for my jazz theory seminar at SDSU required that I transcribe and analyze a solo in the chromatic modal idiom. I chose John McLaughlin's solo on Bill Evans's "Very Early." Here's the transcription. And here's the analysis: John McLaughlin recorded Bill Evans's "Very Early" twice: the first time on Belo Horizonte in 1981, [...]

SDSU Jazz Seminar Periodic Journal 2

Joe — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:27:43 +0000

I submitted my second journal for my jazz seminar last week. (See the first one here.) I wrote about the next several chapters of Dave Liebman's A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody, and I reflected on a long class discussion on individual approaches to composing. Liebman Reading I prefer not to think of [...]

SDSU Jazz Seminar Periodic Journal 1

Joe — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:28:38 +0000

My third semester in the SDSU graduate program in jazz studies is underway. I'm in a grad seminar on jazz theory, in which about ten students and a professor sit around talking about jazz for two and a half hours every Wednesday night. Our current reading material is Dave Liebman's A Chromatic Approach to Jazz [...]

Gypsy Jazz at My Wedding

Joe — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:58:29 +0000

I got married last month. Earlier in my relationship with my now-wife, I used to mention Django Reinhardt regularly amongst my favorite guitarists. She had no idea who he was. One day I was listening to Django at my computer while she walked by. I didn't realize I'd never played him for her before. She [...]

National Guitar Workshop 2010, Day 6: Shred-Off, Final Thoughts

Joe — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:33:09 +0000

My final day working as an RA at the 2010 National Guitar Workshop in Los Angeles was Friday, July 16. I posted summaries of the other five days here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5. Not much happened on the last day, so I'll include some closing thoughts about the week. [...]

National Guitar Workshop 2010, Day 5: Jody Fisher's Class, Paul Gilbert Clinic

Joe — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:31:45 +0000

Day 5 at the National Guitar Workshop was Thursday, July 15. (See Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.) Jody Fisher's Class First thing in the morning, I sat in on Jody Fisher's class again. As I've done for the previous four NGW summaries, I'll spew my notes below. When I walked in, he [...]

National Guitar Workshop 2010, Day 4: Pat Martino Clinic

Joe — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:40:35 +0000

Day 4 at NGW was Wednesday, July 14. (See Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.) This was the day of Pat Martino's afternoon clinic, one of the biggest attractions of the week along with Paul Gilbert's. I mentioned in Day 3 that I got to drive Mr. Martino from the airport to his hotel. Well [...]

National Guitar Workshop 2010, Day 3: Tom Dempsey's Class, Driving Pat Martino

Joe — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:18:23 +0000

It's been more than a week since I finished my job as RA at the 2010 National Guitar Workshop in Los Angeles. I was able to sit in on a few classes and clinics, and I took copious notes the whole time. See Day 1 and Day 2. Day 3 was Tuesday, July 13. Tom [...]

National Guitar Workshop 2010, Day 2: Jody Fisher's Class, Second Faculty Concert

Joe — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:13:21 +0000

Monday was my second day working as RA at the National Guitar Workshop in Los Angeles. I've been taking notes on my experiences so I can post it all here. Jody Fisher's Class I was on errand duty for the first half of the day, so I got to make copies and run the office [...]

National Guitar Workshop 2010, Day 1: Orientation, First Faculty Concert

Joe — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:02:53 +0000

For a more detailed account of the week, follow JoeWalkerGuitar on Twitter. I'm at the National Guitar Workshop in Los Angeles this week. It's held at the Loyola Marymount campus from this Sunday through Friday. I always wanted to attend the Seattle camp when I was a kid, but it conflicted with my favorite annual [...]

Miss Information

Joe — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:09:02 +0000

I wrote a jazz blues tune last year called "Miss Information." I dug it up this summer to potentially use for my upcoming graduate recital at SDSU. Here's the lead sheet. I wrote most of it in the San Diego Airport waiting for a flight to Seattle. It came together in a peculiar order: title [...]

Real Book III Rankings Index

Joe — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:58:58 +0000

My special rankings index for The Real Book, Volume III is complete. If you haven't seen the indexes I created for Volume I and Volume II, check those out first. The idea is to replace the standard six-page table of contents at the beginning of a fake book with a single-page, color-coded distillation of the [...]

Every Key Is Sacred

Joe — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:12:51 +0000

I've been reading Ross Russell's biography of Charlie Parker, Bird Lives!: The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker. One point about Bird's early years on the saxophone struck me. He didn't have much formal instruction, so it was not until after he'd gained some facility on the instrument that he discovered that [...]

Real Book II Rankings Index

Joe — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 20:33:47 +0000

Seven months ago, I created and published my Real Book Rankings Index, a single-page, color-coded guide to the most popular tunes in the Sixth Edition Real Book. I've had it taped to the inside front cover of my Real Book, and I use it every time I'm looking for a tune to call at a [...]

Counting Tunes at Jam Sessions

Joe — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:43:55 +0000

Almost a year ago, I started attending weekly jazz jams hosted by Jay Jay Lim at South Park Bar and Grill here in San Diego. I've been to maybe twenty-five of them as well as a few others. Most times when I'm called up to play a few songs, someone else calls the tune, usually [...]

Ultimate Music Challenge Results

Joe — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:45:20 +0000

I played with Dazed and Confused in the Ultimate Music Challenge finals last night. We were really happy with our performance, but disappointed to walk away with fourth place, just out of the money. Each of the four finalists had 30 minutes to make their musical case for a $25,000 grand prize, $10,000 second prize, [...]

Ultimate Music Challenge

Joe — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:40:50 +0000

I'm in a Led Zeppelin tribute band called Dazed and Confused. A couple months ago, we entered the Ultimate Music Challenge, a giant 11-week battle of the bands with 40 competing acts held at Viejas casino outside San Diego. The top prize is $25,000. I didn't want to do it at first, because I despise [...]

Jemsite's Recommended Reading

Joe — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:54:58 +0000

I found out last week that my blog has achieved "Recommended Reading" status on Jemsite, a site dedicated to Steve Vai's signature Ibanez Jem. Click below to vote for me and see the other great resources on the list. Jemsiteand it'sforum memberstitled this site asRecommended Reading Vote for me!

Webstrings

Joe — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:29:44 +0000

I've been getting all my guitar strings from Webstrings.com for about five years. I've tried several different brands, mostly D'Addario and Ernie Ball, but I'm not a connoisseur or a snob about it. I've never had any brand preference because I've never noticed a difference. I can't remember how I learned about Webstrings, but they've [...]

Summer Goals 2010

Joe — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:35:31 +0000

I finished my spring semester classes at SDSU last month. Since then, I've been refining and pursuing a list of goals for the summer. 1. Prepare for recital. The jazz MM program is meant to last four semesters, but I should be done with all my classes by the end of this fall semester, my [...]

Junior Rounding Third

Joe — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:02:41 +0000

I'm planning to perform my graduate recital at SDSU during this coming fall semester. The faculty recommends that I postpone it until the following semester, because I still have to take a bunch of classes as well. So instead of postponing, I'll be preparing for it all summer. I'll have a recital audition (running through [...]

Jason Parker Touring Seminar

Joe — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:03:20 +0000

I just finished watching Jason Parker give a free live touring seminar on Ustream. Jason plays trumpet and leads his own jazz band in Seattle. I've been following his blog, One Working Musician, for a while. He took his band on their first tour last month: two weeks, down the west coast and back. I [...]

Jazz Education Research Prospectus

Joe — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:29:24 +0000

I'm finishing up my second semester in SDSU's jazz studies graduate program. One of my current classes is a seminar on research procedures in music. It's been a fascinating experience, learning how to locate research materials, organize my thoughts, and write more effectively, all in the context of music research. The culminating project of the [...]

Piano Scale Fingerings

Joe — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:58:25 +0000

Earlier this month, I was faced with the first test of my piano skills. I had none. I'm auditing the final undergraduate jazz theory course at SDSU this semester in preparation for the jazz theory graduate seminar, offered next semester. Required of all students in the current course is a "performance project," which includes memorized [...]

My Greatest April Fool

Joe — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 01:20:52 +0000

I've tried and failed twice to come up with something that tops my April Fool's post from 2008, so I will simply point you to that one: I Quit. The comments are priceless. Happy Day.

Teach Wombat

Joe — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:32:23 +0000

I've been teaching private guitar lessons for the last year, and while I make a point of tailoring lesson plans to each individual student, I'm always looking for great resources with broad applications. For beginners, the Hal Leonard Guitar Method is an effective starter series. For intermediates, 101 Guitar Tips is rich with invaluable advice. [...]

How Many Scales Are There?

Joe — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:15:22 +0000

Last week's lecture in my jazz theory course was on a number of esoteric, derived, 7- and 8-note scales. The professor demonstrated each at the piano and took us through various harmonic applications. Several of these came from Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. Written in the lecture notes was a claim that [...]

Bob Magnusson's Monster Arpeggio Workout

Joe — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:52:07 +0000

I started lessons with bassist Bob Magnusson last week. He's played with Sarah Vaughan and Joe Pass and just about everyone else. I'm still working on repertoire and guitar-specific concepts with Bob Boss, so Magnusson is taking me back to fundamentals. On the first lesson, he gave me a monster arpeggio workout that he's been [...]

The Fake Book Index

Joe — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:18:13 +0000

I rearranged my desk at home last week. I set up all my fake books for instant access as I continue expanding my repertoire. So far, I have the Hal Leonard Real Books, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, and Chuck Sher's New Real Book series, Volumes 1, 2, and 3. I have these all lined [...]

Second Semester Underway

Joe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:58:38 +0000

I am one week into my second semester in SDSU's Master's program in jazz studies. I'm still loving it, and I'm on track to finish a semester early. If all goes as planned, I could be done by Christmas. I'm most excited for a class I'm auditing this semester, Rick Helzer's final undergrad jazz theory [...]

Benedetto Clinic

Joe — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:29:06 +0000

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to spend an afternoon at SDSU for a jazz guitar clinic given by Howard Paul, president and CEO of Benedetto Guitars. Howard gave an excellent presentation on the evolution of jazz guitar building practices, complete with demos of seven Benedetto models. We first looked at the construction of flat [...]

SDSU Graduate Music History Remedial Assignment

Joe — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:12:54 +0000

I took some placement exams for the SDSU Master of Music program in February: music history, music theory, and aural skills. I did okay on the aural skills, but the first two were massive failures. I know plenty about jazz history and theory, but these covered everything before that. Dead Europeans, mostly. So before I [...]

History of Jazz Guitar

Joe — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:41:43 +0000

The final assignment for my History of Jazz graduate seminar with Prof. Richard Thompson at SDSU was a paper and presentation on the history of the student's own instrument in jazz. The only requirement of the project was to feature five players who have been important to the student's personal development. In case someone's interested, [...]

Kneebody Clinic

Joe — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:57:31 +0000

I endured a 2.5-hour drive up to Pasadena on Tuesday night to see one of my favorite bands, Kneebody, give a clinic at LA Music Academy. I arrived early and grabbed a seat front and center. It blew my mind. The first thing I noticed was all the guitar pedals. Everyone but the drummer had [...]

Winter Goals

Joe — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:48:06 +0000

I made a statement to my favorite person the other day: "Statement. By mid-January, I will be a sight reading champion." My sight reading at Friday's jury was pretty poor. I made great progress on it earlier this year, lost track of it for the first half of this semester, and got back to daily [...]

Perfect Pitch: How Insensitive

Joe — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:58:39 +0000

My first semester of music school is nearly finished. The combo I was assigned to had its concert last week. We played Invitation, Triste, Blue in Green, All Blues, and Mr. PC. It went quite well. (I wore a suit and tied my first Full Windsor. It was huge.) I'm told there's a recording of [...]

Real Book Rankings Index

Joe — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:40:17 +0000

I've raved about JazzStandards.com before. They did an extensive study of prominent recordings of jazz standards and ranked the top 1000. Discarding the obvious doubts of such a study (What makes a standard? Who's prominent?), their ranked list is useful for filling repertoire gaps or recalling forgotten tunes. I made a list of tunes from [...]

Mobile Ear Training

Joe — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:08:00 +0000

I had a cool idea. I spend a small chunk of every day commuting in my car or walking to the trolley station, when I enjoy listening to music but can't read a book or get any work done. What if I could use that time for ear training? Most of the focused ear training [...]

Kneebody: The Future of Jazz

Joe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:27:30 +0000

I was assigned to speak about the future of jazz in my jazz history seminar. Each student gets 10 minutes to highlight a band or artist who's been active in the last 10 years. Here's what I have to say. The future of an art form is difficult to predict. The trends and patterns that [...]

I'm Learning the Mandolin

Joe — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:24:13 +0000

I've been recruited by my bandmates to learn the mandolin parts on Going to California. We know our John Paul Jones is supposed to play them, but our Plant already has the guitar parts down, and we thought I might pick up the mando parts quicker. Our Jones recently bought one and loaned it to [...]

My First Fugal Exposition

Joe — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:16:11 +0000

I wrote a three-part fugal exposition for my theory class a few weeks ago. Here it is. And here's the audio, again in cheesy MIDI. (See My First Motet for my previous assignment.) The assignment was to demonstrate an understanding of 18th century counterpoint (as opposed to 16th century, which culminated in the motet). This [...]

Theme and Variation

Joe — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:59:00 +0000

I had a breakthrough on soloing this month. I'm starting to get past thinking about chord changes on a lot of the tunes I've been playing. I've learned them well enough that I can concentrate on melodic development and solo structure instead of playing the right notes or knowing where I am in the form. [...]

Tecolote Guitar Works

Joe — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:59:37 +0000

I took my Sheraton II in for a setup a few weeks ago. Just around the corner from my apartment is Tecolote Guitar Works, a repair shop combined with an art gallery on Morena Blvd in San Diego. Founded by luthier Bill Meyer and artist Kat Kirby, the intimate shop features a selection of guitar [...]

I'm a Full-Time Musician Again

Joe — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:58:53 +0000

Today was my last day at my web programming job. I had been working part-time since school started, but I decided to jump all the way into music again. It feels similar to the move I made in 2007, right before I started this blog, to quit my day job and do nothing but practice [...]

My First Motet

Joe — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:36:02 +0000

I wrote a two-part motet for my theory class a few weeks ago. Here it is. And here's the audio in cheesy MIDI. I got a decent grade on it. The only mistake indicated by the professor was a point where I let the two parts reach unison that wasn't the final cadence. There was [...]

First Show with Dazed and Confused

Joe — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:44:00 +0000

I played my first show with Led Zeppelin tribute band Dazed and Confused last Saturday night. It went really well, considering I had learned about 100 minutes of material in just over a month. It doesn't sound like much when I put it that way, but the learning slows down when it requires a Jimmy [...]

Learning Standards Again

Joe — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:54:39 +0000

I wrote almost two years ago that my new study priority was learning standards. It stuck for a little while, but faded as I started working at getting into music school. Whoops. I've become familiar with enough tunes over the years to quickly recall the melody, chords, and improvising strategies if the music's in front [...]

First Weeks of Music School

Joe — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:04:13 +0000

I finished my third week of music school. Most of my classmates are on their fifth year. I have some catching up to do. Like George Bluth, I'm having the time of my life in here. I'm in a jazz history seminar, a remedial crash course on theory and aural skills, a performance group, and [...]

I'm Going to Music School

Joe — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:13:07 +0000

More exciting news! I've been accepted to SDSU's Master of Music program in jazz studies. I've been thinking about music school for almost eight years. It was two years ago when I started seriously looking into applying to LA Music Academy, not long after I started my year in the woodshed. I was accepted, but [...]

I'm in a Led Zeppelin Tribute Band

Joe — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:05:26 +0000

Last week, I auditioned for Dazed and Confused, a San Diego Led Zeppelin tribute band. That was the catalyst for buying my new Les Paul. I responded to their Craigslist ad about a month ago and set up an audition. They said everyone would play at least Heartbreaker, Since I've Been Loving You, and Black [...]

Careers in Jazz

Joe — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:33:09 +0000

I read a hilarious, although painful article at All About Jazz the other day: Careers in Jazz by Bill Anschell. Have some snippets: People who want to play jazz actually outnumber those who enjoy or even tolerate it, let alone pay to hear it. It's hard for me to listen to any type of music [...]

Les Paul

Joe — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:13:40 +0000

I bought my first Les Paul a couple weeks ago. It was the day before the man himself died. That was weird. Here are some pictures. It's a 2003 Gibson Les Paul Standard. I dig the top. Slightly flamed, but not overstated. Everything is stock, said the seller. Burstbucker Pro pickups. Vintage-looking tuners, Kluson I [...]

Last.fm

Joe — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:58:02 +0000

I cracked 3,000 artists in my Last.fm account the other day. (Friend me if you're already a member.) I signed up two years ago and have since listened to over 41,000 tracks by over 3,000 artists. That's a little crazy. It's probably pointless, but I find it fascinating to look over all my past listening [...]

Suck It Up

Joe — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:52:40 +0000

Sight reading this morning was about as frustrating as it's ever been. I almost punched something. Sometimes I feel like I'm making progress. This morning I felt no better than I was a year ago. That's a long time. But I know what I have to do. It's like the end of a long workout, [...]

Rhythmic Recognition

Joe — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:13:18 +0000

I want to thank Connor for prodding me toward William Leavitt's Melodic Rhythms for Guitar. Holy crap. It is a gold mine, and the best sight reading resource I've used so far. I've read of the book many times before. I remember flipping through the preview in Amazon once or twice to see if it [...]

Crunch Time

Joe — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:40:19 +0000

I have two auditions coming up this month. In addition to the SDSU audition I've been mentioning all year, I signed up for another one with a Led Zeppelin tribute band. That would be freaking blast if I got it. I've been tasked with learning Since I've Been Loving You, Heartbreaker, and Black Dog. I [...]

The Real Frank Zappa Book

Joe — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:25:51 +0000

I just finished reading Frank Zappa's autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book. He writes in hilarious detail about his life, the music industry, and politics. I love the music, but I love the man just as much because he was the closest thing I've seen to Howard Roark in a musician. Put briefly, he thought [...]

BopLand

Joe — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:49:36 +0000

I found another amazing jazz resource. BopLand is a database of jazz licks, mostly transcribed from the greats. It allows users to submit original or transcribed licks, via LilyPond code, for approval by a panel of experts. (I think that last bit is suspect. They claim to analyze each submission for harmonic correctness and melodic [...]

Sight Reading on a Lake

Joe — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:07:55 +0000

I'm on a lake right now. Part of its charm is that no one knows about it. So I'm not saying where it is, only that I spend 51 weeks a year wishing I were here. My family stays in floating cabins, and we hike, swim, fish, eat, and drink all week. There's no internet [...]

Bob Keller's Jazz Page

Joe — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:11:57 +0000

If you're into jazz learning resources, Bob Keller's Jazz Page is the motherload. Bob teaches computer science at my alma mater. He also plays trumpet and teaches a jazz improv class every semester. I took it six times. Over the years of playing, learning, and teaching, he has compiled an enormous list of jazz resources [...]

I'm on Twitter

Joe — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:37:07 +0000

I have adopted the new technology. Twitter users may now follow me at twitter.com/joewalkerguitar. I'll use it whenever I have little guitar thoughts that don't require a full blog post. Of course, it'll have links whenever I post to From the Woodshed as well. And if I ever get that new guitar blog up and [...]

South Park Jazz Jam

Joe — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:36:05 +0000

Not that South Park. I participated in my first open jazz jam last night at South Park Bar and Grill. I didn't fall on my face. I was thrilled. They have a great format going there. Every Thursday evening, a house band plays a couple tunes and posts a sign up list for anyone who [...]

Dominant Scale Choices

Joe — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:50:13 +0000

When confronted with a dominant chord, a soloist has a host of scale options to choose from. Sometimes enough extensions and alterations are specified to narrow the choices down to a single scale, but there are frequently several options remaining. As I understand it, a chord is dominant if and only if it has at [...]

Vanilla Book

Joe — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:54:50 +0000

I found another great resource for learning jazz tunes. Ralph Patt's Vanilla Book shows simplified changes for hundreds of standards. There are no melodies, just a text file of basic 7th chords for each tune. Only essential extensions (the occasional 7b9 chord) are included. The book's name comes from "just playing the vanilla changes." The [...]

Minor ii-V-i Navigation

Joe — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:36:40 +0000

I've been doing a lot of work with Melodic Minor modes, specifically Lydian Dominant, Locrian #2, Altered Dominant (Super Locrian), and Melodic Minor itself. I abbreviate them as LD, L2, AD, and MM. LD isn't a big deal, as I only use it to color a standard dominant sound, and I'm pretty comfortable with that. [...]

Manly Occupation

Joe — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:59:49 +0000

Apparently, being a guitarist is a "desirable man job." The Art of Manliness just published this interview with Dan Skidmore, a weekend warrior, part-time professional guitarist in upstate New York. He's a college research director and single father of two by day. An excerpt: According to Music Trades magazine, about three-million guitars are sold in [...]

Harmonic Minor Modes and 7th Chords

Joe — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:17:11 +0000

I discovered something fascinating. When you construct 7th chords with major and minor thirds, you get seven possibilities: dim7, m7b5, m7, m/maj7, 7, maj7, aug7. See here for all the combinations: m3 m3 m3 - 1 b3 b5 bb7 - dim7 m3 m3 M3 - 1 b3 b5 b7 - m7b5 m3 M3 m3 - [...]

Warming Up at Work

Joe — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:41:08 +0000

I've mentioned before that it takes me at least an hour of solid playing to properly warm up. This is inconvenient when I only have an hour or two to practice on a given day. I must spend an unreasonable portion of my allotted time either warming up or playing under my potential. It's usually [...]

Online Jazz Arranging Course

Joe — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:25:21 +0000

Via Casa Valdez, I found a full online course in jazz arranging from noted composer, arranger, bassist, and educator Chuck Israels. I didn't recognize the name, so I looked him up. Wikipedia says he's the Director of Jazz Studies at my siblings' alma mater, WWU. This course looks pretty awesome. And since my perpetually expanding [...]

Giant ii-V-I Comping Exercise

Joe — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:44:47 +0000

I've been working on comping with 3 5 7 9 chords over ii-V-I progressions. I'm trying to master all possible inversions on the top four and middle four strings before I tackle less common voicings. It's usually desirable to use smooth voice-leading, occasionally jumping around to break continuity. There are groups of voicings that facilitate [...]

Diminished Resolutions

Joe — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:04:31 +0000

Diminished chords have puzzled me in the past, but I'm starting to get the hang of them. In most cases, a dim7 is a substitution for a 7b9 chord, which resolves up a fourth. A 7b9 chord contains 1 3 5 b7 b9. Remove the root, and you're left with a dim7 chord built on [...]

Condensed Practice Routine

Joe — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:30:19 +0000

My life has been busy of late. Between my day job, teaching lessons, taking lessons, three bands (now down to two), and plans to move in a week, I'm left with only a few hours of practice time each day. I now focus on two goals: a successful audition for SDSU's Master's program in jazz [...]

JamLegend

Joe — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:57:15 +0000

The emerging online guitar-gaming sensation, JamLegend, features my old band, Blue Judy. You can play all my guitar parts here, Guitar Hero style. The fun part is you use your keyboard as a guitar. Pick it up and rock out.

Plucking Behind the Pick

Joe — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:55:38 +0000

I discovered something awesome. With the new picking technique I adopted a few months ago, I can pluck strings with my index finger without altering my grip on the pick. The tip of my right index finger is exposed from behind the pick, protruding on the side closer to the bridge. All I have to [...]

Don't Try This on Stage

Joe — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:20:19 +0000

I hit myself in the face with my guitar. When I finished practicing the other day, I stood up to put my guitar back in its case. I was distracted as I stood, and lost my grip. Fortunately, I hang out with cats, so I have quick reflexes. I snatched up my guitar by the [...]

Learning Giant Steps

Joe — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:34:55 +0000

I found this thread on learning Giant Steps on guitar the other day. I got inspired to study it. I considered choosing it from the graduate repertoire for my SDSU audition in February. The progression isn't difficult at all; there are only three keys. The only trick is that they often change in the middle [...]

SDSU Application Update

Joe — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:26:42 +0000

I wrote earlier about preparing for an audition for San Diego State University's Master of Music program in Jazz Studies. I just received word that I was denied entrance to the program for this fall, due to an unsuccessful audition. I plan to audition again in six months for spring 2010 enrollment. I'll try to [...]

Mouth Exercises

Joe — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:47:02 +0000

I like to sing. Problem is, I can't stand most lyrics written by anyone but Frank Zappa. I'm more into the sound of the voice than the meaning of the words. I've ruined more than a few otherwise excellent songs for myself simply by listening to what the singer is saying. I'm not into willful [...]

I'm Teaching Lessons

Joe — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:16:23 +0000

I'm teaching guitar lessons again. I taught for a few summers in high school and college, but haven't had the time since then. I recently made some craigslist posts and found a few students to teach from my home in La Mesa, CA. And it's awesome. I can't believe I waited so long after my [...]

Finger Yoga

Joe — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:27:48 +0000

I discovered fingeryoga.com the other day. Great stuff on that site, and I was surprised to find that I already do about half of the exercises listed. My favorite is still my old faithful, a move they call the splits. I came up with it on my own in 2004 when I had my first [...]

SDSU Jazz Audition Training

Joe — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:49:18 +0000

I had an audition two weeks ago for the San Diego State Master of Music program in Jazz Studies. I didn't find time to blog about my strategy while I was preparing, so I'll do it now. Per the audition policies, I had to choose two tunes from the graduate repertoire list and brush up [...]

New Picking Technique

Joe — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:35:45 +0000

I made a major change to my picking technique the other night, and it instantly transformed my playing. Needless to say, I'm excited. Here's how I used to hold it, using the pad of my first finger and the pad of my thumb. Fingers two, three, and four were relaxed and hung loosely, ready to [...]

Circle of Fourths Watch

Joe — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:58:01 +0000

In my endeavor to pound the cycle of fourths into my head, I went looking for a decent image of it to display on my desktop. And I need fourths, not fifths; jazz chords ascend by fourths, so I need those reading left to right. I couldn't find an image to my liking, but I [...]

Memorizing Keys

Joe — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:38:33 +0000

I've taken to memorizing key signatures, relative major and minor keys, and the cycle of fourths over the past two months. I do a mental exercise with eight steps. 1. Start at the top of the cycle of fourths for major keys. That's C. From memory, recite the tonic and key signature for each key, [...]

Mother of All Major Scale Exercises - Part II

Joe — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:07:09 +0000

In Part I, I outlined a major scale exercise that uses the entire fretboard. The first method isolates a single key and repeats in all 12 keys. The second, trickier method continually changes keys with every position change. Part II of this exercise is simple to understand, but a serious mental workout to execute. I [...]

Mother of All Major Scale Exercises - Part I

Joe — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:00:45 +0000

I made up an exercise that I've been using to warm up for the last few months. I went back to basics because I was still having trouble seamlessly shifting keys on jazz tunes. I choose to view the fretboard as five connected CAGED positions for any given key. In C, that means I've got [...]

Finding the Semitones

Joe — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:20:39 +0000

I like to work semitone double-stops into my improvising. They're best on the 2nd and 3rd strings, as I don't have to stretch as far. Sometimes I hold my fingers three frets apart in semitone formation and slide around while strumming like a spaz. That's my Nels Cline impression. When I'm not shooting for crazy, [...]

Wack Rhythms

Joe — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:46:26 +0000

I finally got comfortable tapping out a few advanced polyrhythms: 5 hits over 3 beats, 5 over 4, 7 over 3. My previous method for learning a polyrhythm like 7 hits over 3 beats was to subdivide each beat into 7 parts and hit on every 3rd of those. It only took me a few [...]

Rubber Pick

Joe — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:16:51 +0000

Found some rubbers at the guitar shop today. I went in looking for alternatives to my old faithful 3mm Big Stubby. I love the way my picks feel, and I love how they sound until I use a tone that brings out the attack. They're big and strong enough to generate their own little notes [...]

Angel City Jazz Festival

Joe — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:51:15 +0000

I drove up to LA for the Angel City Jazz Festival on Labor Day. Got to see music by Ian Rapien, Option 3, Motoko Honda, Both Sides Now, Nick Rosen Group, Leni Stern, Alan Pasqua Quartet, Satoko Fujii Ma-Do Quartet, Robby Marshall Group, and Nels Cline Quintet. I was there for 10 hours and enjoyed [...]

Day Job

Joe — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:05:05 +0000

I landed a web programming job, started today. It's pretty fun. Like I said last month, I'm not practicing full-time anymore. I've been cut down to 2-4 hours a day. That's not bad, but it's no 8-10. It'll be nice to work for money for a while, even if it's not in music yet. Especially [...]

Scales and 'Lympics

Joe — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:47:49 +0000

The Olympics on NBC are great programming for practicing scales. Between all the stories and ads, there's plenty of content to ignore. I've had my eye on the websites for SDSU and CSUN jazz programs since deferring enrollment at LAMA. They have lists of required repertoire and scales. I found my skills moderately deficient in [...]

Pentatonics over Jazz Chords

Joe — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:06:46 +0000

I've been working on the changes to "All the Things You Are." The key of the tune modulates through Ab, C, Eb, G, E. I practice by cycling through the major scale for each key, and this helps with accessing arbitrary scales all over the fretboard. Within each key is a diatonic collection of chords [...]

What's Next for the Woodshed?

Joe — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:29:20 +0000

I've relocated my woodshed to San Diego. My immediate plan is to find work for a while and consider cheaper options for music school (starting with CSUN and SDSU). Unfortunately, this means less practice time, but I'm also going to start playing out again. It will be nice to apply and refine my playing style [...]

Sleep, Dreams, Creativity

Joe — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:20:35 +0000

Lucid dreaming has been a goal of mine since I found a website on it five years ago. I've made half-hearted attempts at exercises to induce lucid dreams with, surprisingly, no results. The strongest advice on every website I've found is to keep a dream journal. I never tried it until earlier this year, then [...]

Defer

Joe — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:09:01 +0000

I've decided to defer enrollment at LAMA. Missing out on that scholarship put me through a frenzy of thinking over the last week. If I go, I'll have some assurance that I'll reach a professional level in two years, and I'll have access to a network of classmates and instructors before I even start looking [...]

No Scholarship

Joe — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:42:27 +0000

I opened a letter from LA Music Academy's scholarship committee yesterday. As this post's clever title suggests, I got nothin'. Junk. I recorded a demo video and wrote an essay for the application. I uploaded the video here a month ago. I was hoping to post the essay in a more triumphant manner. Oh well. [...]

Practice While Hiking

Joe — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:17:00 +0000

Just returned from a 4-day backpacking trip in Kings Canyon, CA. It was an amazing experience, tainted only by a lack of guitars. But I didn't let that stop me from practicing. I estimate we put in over 20 hours on the trail. One can dedicate only so much time to taking in scenery, snapping [...]

Triad Trainer

Joe — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:33:42 +0000

I finally published a second item to the Tools page: the Triad Trainer. Like its predecessor, the Interval Trainer, it's just like computerized flash cards. You'll see three note names displayed, and the object is to identify the triad comprising the notes. Features are limited for now. Only major and minor triads are displayed from [...]

Pentatonic Slides

Joe — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:08:53 +0000

I just created an awesome exercise. It's a combination of three adjacent positions of a pentatonic scale, connected by slides. The simple explanation is to play up and down the scale, sliding to a different position every fourth note. More explicitly, sticking to three adjacent positions, starting with the lowest possible note, ascend the scale [...]

Ring Finger Mute

Joe — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:44:43 +0000

Sometimes I want a clean cutoff at the end of a note. The common method is to release the pressure applied by the fretting finger. You don't want to take it completely off the string, as the open note will sound, like a pull-off. Just enough to unfret the note with the left hand still [...]

Scholarship Video

Joe — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:32:59 +0000

My final video for the LAMA scholarship is up. This is the culmination of a few months of practicing these tunes, all documented in the videos section.

Warmup Ideas

Joe — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:36:31 +0000

I got a special request to write about my warmup techniques. I don't have a strict routine for warming up; I just combine my knowledge of what's good for me with whatever seems exciting on a given day. I go through phases of different warmup ideas. I might warm up on 7th arpeggios every day [...]

Melodic Sequences

Joe — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:08:53 +0000

A few years ago, when I was learning jazz improvisation, I started using melodic sequences when practicing scales and arpeggios. One of the toughest improvisational ruts to overcome is the habit of running up and down scales when you don't know what else to do. I had a lot of scales to practice back then, [...]

Does Deep Breathing Ease Back Pain?

Joe — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:16:05 +0000

I may have solved my back problems today. Before I screwed my knee and lost 2 weeks of practice, I was getting frequent back pain from sitting in the same position for so many hours. I assumed it was my posture, but I couldn't find the source; I sit up straight in a relaxed, balanced [...]

Heart Monitor Metronome

Joe — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:53:38 +0000

I had a funny idea today to use my heart as a metronome. It's obviously not a rock-solid tempo, but it would be an interesting exercise in bodily awareness while playing. The concept seems simple enough. I just need a heart monitor that beeps like those hospital machines, but it seems everything available just displays [...]

Knee Surgery

Joe — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:00:50 +0000

I had my knee surgerized yesterday. Arthroscopic meniscectomy. I twisted my knee and popped something out of place 2 weeks ago and was on crutches and drugs until yesterday's surgery. I'm no longer on crutches. That, combined with Gramps's passing, is behind my recent lack of blog activity. I practiced for 4 or 5 hours [...]

Gramps 1918-2008

Joe — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:21:51 +0000

My grandfather passed away on Tuesday. We called him "Gramps." He was a marine, the greatest man I'll ever know, and my best friend. He died peacefully, surrounded by family. We celebrated his 90th birthday just three days prior. My birthday present to him was an arrangement and performance of the Marines' Hymn on acoustic [...]

Billie's Bounce - Take 3

Joe — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:50:26 +0000

Take 3 of "Billie's Bounce": See take 1 and take 2. Same speed as last time, but better sound running it through the computer. I've gained more confidence playing on this tune since take 2, although I botched a few parts above. I'm not 100% consistent with everything, but I just need 1 good take [...]

Overture 1928 - Take 3

Joe — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:17:27 +0000

Cranked out another one this morning. A little faster than last time, but not quite full speed yet, here's take 3 of "Overture 1928": See take 1 and take 2. Before recording this, I grouped all the hard parts and cycled through them at different tempos for an hour or two. There are 7 moments [...]

Texas Flood - Take 3

Joe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:36:53 +0000

I've been slacking on my videos lately. Here's take 3 of "Texas Flood": See take 1 and take 2. I decided to improvise around the original solo over a backing track instead of playing the entire song. That allows me to take a few liberties with my own ideas and with the exact timing on [...]

How to Memorize Intervals

Joe — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:40 +0000

I mentioned that I discovered a magic method of memorizing intervals in my 24-hour workout post last week. I was doing exercises on my interval trainer, which tests recognition of the interval between two named notes or of the note a specified interval above or below another note. I was testing myself with all intervals [...]

24-Hour Guitar Workout Marathon

Joe — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:10:48 +0000

I've been thinking. I normally practice 8-10 hours per day. But couldn't I do more? If I only need 7 hours to sleep and a couple more to eat and bathe, I could easily reach 15 hours of plunking. I was ready to try it out and write this post about it when I had [...]

Avoiding Distractions

Joe — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:55:58 +0000

I have a fairly active brain. Stuff's always popping in there. If my mind isn't immersed in what I'm practicing (i.e. running through something I already know, sight reading, warming up), I get all sorts of half-baked ideas that must be pursued immediately. Some examples: I ought to memorize all the 2-letter words in the [...]

Road Blocks

Joe — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:03:33 +0000

Thanks to everyone who made yesterday's post a success. I appreciate the positive comments, and I've taken them all to heart. . . . But I still laughed my ass off. Still laughing as I write this. Good grief, I hope someone else is enjoying this as much as I am. Now's a good time [...]

I Quit

Joe — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:01:00 +0000

I never thought I'd say this, but I've lost my desire to play guitar. This feeling has been building up for a few months, but I've only just identified it. I don't know what I expected to get out of this. It feels like I had a hood over my head all these years. I've [...]

Nels Cline

Joe — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:19:07 +0000

My reverence for Nels Cline has been growing almost daily. His sound just clicks with me better than any other jazz guitarist. I've known about him since his Guitar Player cover when he joined Wilco 3 years ago, but it's only been a year or so since I've been really into his music. I remember [...]

Fretting Efficiency

Joe — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:54:10 +0000

I've always been concerned about the efficiency of my left hand's movements. Visually, it's easy to notice when fingers move too much while they're not playing notes. It's more difficult to feel when this is going on, and it's impossible to hear it. So I often watch my left hand for stray fingers during practice. [...]

Frustration

Joe — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:11:26 +0000

I estimate that I spent around 30 hours this week on a single lick. It's from Dream Theater's "Overture 1928", one of my upcoming audition pieces, and it's currently the biggest holdup to playing the whole song at full speed. I realized today that I don't think I'm any faster than I was a week [...]

Billie's Bounce - Take 2

Joe — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:29:06 +0000

Take 2 of "Billie's Bounce": Compare to take 1. I got significantly faster at that monster lick in the middle over the last couple weeks. I'd like to write about some ideas that have been working for building speed in another post. In short, I'm suddenly dangerously close to achieving that expensive meal I mentioned [...]

Speed Milestone: 112bpm!

Joe — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:11:13 +0000

I've done it. I've mentioned here, here, and here that I'm working every day on getting a particular Dream Theater lick up to full speed at 112bpm. I finally made it the other day. Celebrate. The pictured slip of paper has been floating around my desk for nearly 2 months. Every time I hit a [...]

Overture 1928 - Take 2

Joe — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:41:18 +0000

Here's take 2 of "Overture 1928": Compare to take 1. I sped up the playback a bit for this one. Still 20% slower than the original. Seems much better than the first one. You can see me trying to unlock my pinky around :36, kinda funny, missed a chord because of it. It's mostly those [...]

John Scofield

Joe — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:49:14 +0000

I watched a Frank Gambale instructional video the other day: Monster Licks and Speed Picking. Aside from a strange captivation by his attire, I found it mostly worthless. He moves around all his scale and arpeggio shapes so that every string change is picked by sweeping, never alternate. It's a clever idea, but I'm not [...]

Happy Pi Day

Joe — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:59:20 +0000

Texas Flood - Take 2

Joe — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:36:08 +0000

Here's take 2 of "Texas Flood": Compare to take 1. First chance to see some improvement in these videos. I think I'm a little better. I lowered the strings back to Stevie tuning for this one. That helped a lot with the hand fatigue. My Blues Driver trick seemed to help with the tone as [...]

Billie's Bounce - Take 1

Joe — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:44:47 +0000

New video up. This is the 3rd and final song I'm working on for my LAMA scholarship demo. (The first 2 were Texas Flood and Overture 1928.) In the coming weeks, I'll post more versions of these songs, perhaps showing improvements. This is "Billie's Bounce" by Charlie Parker. I played the head in my LAMA [...]

Another New Hotness

Joe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:14:16 +0000

Just acquired my first acoustic guitar ever. Took me long enough. It's a used Ventura Bruno V-1583, a classical guitar from the 1970s. Missing a string upon arrival, but sounds great so far. Dings and scratches all over, I can tell this one's been around the block. The bridge is slightly separated from the body. [...]

Tone at Low Volume

Joe — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:04:47 +0000

I've been using an Ampeg Reverberocket, a simple combo amp, for practicing and recording videos. Problem is, it goes from barely audible to way too loud for my apartment with a single nudge of the volume knob. Even when I find the middle ground, there's so little utilization of the tubes that my tone sucks [...]

It's All Just Noise in the End

Joe — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:08:45 +0000

Music is noise. All of it. "Noise" can mean any kind of sound or just unwanted sound like hiss or hum. I'm referring to the former. Music is nothing more than an organization of sound waves. I've no clue why people love it so much; it seems so inconsequential when you look at what it [...]

Overture 1928 - Take 1

Joe — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:03:58 +0000

Just added the 2nd video in my "YouTube Progress" series. This is Dream Theater's "Overture 1928." My digital camera microphone can't handle the Metal Zone. It'll suffice for these test runs though. And pardon the poor lighting. I slowed it down by 30%. I can play most of the song at full speed, but I'm [...]

Tuning Nightmares

Joe — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:56:30 +0000

I've always known that the guitar's a bitch to tune, especially for recording. Impossible, really. All sorts of little problems come up with specific guitars, guitars in general, and our 12-tone scale in general. I have a few workarounds of my own, but I've always wondered what the pros have to say. I found this [...]

Impressive Time Management

Joe — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:56:29 +0000

I get a lot of positive comments about what I'm doing here, focusing on practicing guitar to eventually become a professional musician. But I'm surprised at how often people are impressed with the amount of time I devote to it. Most of these people work 40-hour weeks but think that 8 hours of plunkin in [...]

My Progress on YouTube

Joe — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:50:33 +0000

Add me to the list of YouTube hacks trying to play SRV. I had an idea. What if I upload videos of my progress on the songs I'm preparing for my LAMA scholarship demo? They won't be up to speed at first, and they'll have plenty of mistakes, but it might be interesting to see [...]

Dealing with Sight Reading Mistakes

Joe — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:01:04 +0000

I've noticed a few things about handling sight reading mistakes since I started working on it last year. The same advice always comes up when I read about it: Don't let any mistakes go to your head or otherwise affect the rest of your playing. Take note of them so you can revisit the trouble [...]

Major Speed Breakthrough

Joe — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:23:20 +0000

Made some serious progress today in my quest to get that Dream Theater lick up to speed. I started last month at 75bpm, increasing daily by 1 up to 112. I was slated to hit 94 today. Ever since about 85, I've noticed that the top few slots of my progress have been getting sloppy, [...]

Current Schedule

Joe — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:00:31 +0000

In an effort to heed my sign more effectively, I made a new schedule for myself. 6:30am - wake up, wash up, eat, read news 8am - plunk 12pm - exercise, shower, eat 2pm - plunk 7:30pm - eat, relax, miscellaneous 9pm - blog 10pm - drop everything, wash up, read (currently Atlas Shrugged), sleep [...]

Strange Uses for Pentatonic Scales

Joe — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:05:07 +0000

When I started studying jazz a few years ago, I learned that I can use pentatonic scales over different root notes to capture tonalities of chords without using the entire 7-note scale associated with each chord. Playing a major pentatonic starting on the b3 of a minor chord, resulting in the minor pentatonic, is the [...]

The New Hotness

Joe — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:22:10 +0000

Finally got a keyboard, a used Yamaha PSR 6 for $20. I meant to buy one last summer. Now I can get going on more classical theory and better ear training. I've a feeling it's gonna take me places. For that price, it better.

The Other Pentatonic Scale

Joe — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:42:20 +0000

I saw a Robben Ford instructional video a few years ago, and he suggested occasionally lowering the b7 in a minor pentatonic scale to the 6 to achieve tastiness. I thought it was a good idea, so I learned to employ the idea in the appropriate bluesy settings. I never thought to learn it as [...]

Old Goals

Joe — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:12:55 +0000

I'm starting a new blog category called "Goals." I've been thinking about how my music/guitar goals have changed since I started playing, especially in the last year. I intend to use this category to document such changes, so I'll start by looking at what I was thinking last July when I put my life on [...]

Practice Posture

Joe — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:15:04 +0000

I practice with 2 Strats. Most electric guitars weren't designed for playing in a sitting position, but I always felt that Strats were more comfortable than average. Les Pauls in particular always slide right off my leg when I play them in shops. But since I started practicing these long hours, I've been less satisfied [...]

Strength Training

Joe — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:25:45 +0000

Been working on my hand strength quite a bit this past week. I'm playing more SRV than usual, and I've probably mentioned that I want to incorporate his power, more than anything else, into my own playing. And it's not just about finger calluses. Stevie had huge hands and Popeye forearms, easily twice the meat [...]

Dueling Metronomes

Joe — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:35:13 +0000

Came up with another metronome trick, building off the tempo regression I mentioned the other day. I find that depending on the exercise I'm running, sometimes I want to gradually increase the tempo, and sometimes I want to decrease it. YMetronome lets me do either one, hands-free. But what if I want to do both? [...]

Metronome Regression

Joe — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:38:23 +0000

I'm really focusing on building my speed now that I want to learn this Dream Theater song. That means many hours of boring exercises with a metronome. I already have a kink in my back. All the advice I hear on building speed is the same: "Use a metronome. Start slow. Gradually increase the tempo." [...]

Choosing Audition Pieces

Joe — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:33:59 +0000

Boy do I feel like a responsible adult today. I filed my taxes and then voted for Ron Paul (because I hate taxes). In between, I had a PB & J sammich. Triple decker. It was delicious. Mailed my LA Music Academy app yesterday. In case they let me in, I've been thinking ahead to [...]

Beyond Conventional Extensions

Joe — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:28:42 +0000

I had a breakthrough while I was making a tuna sammich the other day. I had to drop everything and fill a page with arpeggios and scales and interval cycles. I think I found a sensible approach to outside playing, a context that justifies all the nasty, dissonant, wrong notes. I started with a maj7 [...]

Pentatonic Sweeps

Joe — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:55:10 +0000

I started working on an idea about pentatonic sweeps today. It came to me a while ago, but it will need a fair amount of practice before I can do anything with it. If you stick to 2 notes per string, there are 5 well-known pentatonic scale positions. Each string has a low note and [...]

Easy Comping

Joe — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:30:45 +0000

During my time in the college jazz band a few years ago, I came up with my own system of comping with 4-note chords. It served me well, but it was limiting when I couldn't think outside it to come up with different ideas. So I've been avoiding it in my chord studies until recently. [...]

The Sobering Results of Recording Myself

Joe — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:52:22 +0000

I'm putting together a demo video for my application to LA Music Academy. I really need to record myself more often, because I always discover tons of flaws in my playing. It's a lot like listening to your own voice: "I sound like that? Gads!" Even things like timing that get my complete attention while [...]

My Own Style

Joe — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:20:59 +0000

I don't think I have one yet. But I've spent more time thinking about it than I expected when I came to the woodshed. I wanted to focus on developing the skills to play professionally and then start searching for my own voice. But I'm finding that all my efforts to gain the same skills [...]

Learning Chord Changes in Chunks

Joe — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:02:51 +0000

When I learn a new jazz standard, I like to practice the changes in chunks. I try to isolate anything I recognize from other tunes or concepts and then put the pieces together. It's a lot like learning to read; you learn the letters first, then recognize words without thinking about the letters, then recognize [...]

Back in Action

Joe — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:47:37 +0000

Just finished a long vacation visiting family. Hope the season's treating you well. Watch for ice. I managed to crank out my arpeggios and some SRV practice every day, but not much else. I had my high-gauge, high-action strat with me, so my fingers are still strong. I'll be doing more of the same in [...]

Polypolyrhythms

Joe — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:49:04 +0000

I had a thought today about polyrhythms. First of all, I think of a polyrhythm as an embellishing rhythm over a steady pulse. When playing a 3/4 polyrythm (my terminology for playing 3 beats from one source and 4 beats from another in the same amount of time), I start with a steady beat, like [...]

Pinky Locking Up

Joe — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:55:01 +0000

Sometimes my pinky finger locks up while I'm playing. It's never painful, but always annoying. It happens when I stretch it out straight, applying a lot of pressure at the tip, like when I'm doing rolls on the 5th and 6th strings. Then it gets stuck. I can't bend it back to a normal playing [...]

Where Do Arpeggios Come From?

Joe — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:56:32 +0000

Given all the time I spend practicing arpeggios, I've often pondered their origins. I'm familiar with 3 methods of deriving them: stacked thirds, scales, and altering notes. I'll stick with 7th arpeggios. Stacked Thirds Limited to major or minor thirds, you get the following arpeggios: (M3 M3 M3 = 1 3 #5 8 = aug [...]

Heroes

Joe — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:35:23 +0000

Oops. A few days ago, I found Heroes on Netflix, available for online viewing. I had never seen it, so I thought I'd watch the first episode. Big mistake. I watched the next 33 episodes almost without stopping. Losing three days to a senseless addiction isn't a satisfying feeling. Luckily, I was plunking at all [...]

Single-Note Picking vs. Strumming

Joe — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:24:25 +0000

I've known for a while that I hold my pick differently when strumming chords as opposed to picking single notes. I decided to do something about it today. The difference is subtle enough that I don't have to pause to change my grip when switching between them. The transition is more or less seamless, so [...]

Why Don't I Love Jazz Guitar?

Joe — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:56:10 +0000

I love jazz. And I obviously love guitar. And I love learning and playing jazz on my guitar. But for some reason, I don't have the same enthusiasm for listening to most jazz guitarists. Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, George Benson, etc. are all mind-blowing, monster players, and I truly [...]

Dodging Tendinitis

Joe — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:23:30 +0000

Any time you spend an extended period on a task that stresses your hands, you risk developing tendinitis or other overuse injuries. I put my left hand through hours of said stress every day, so I take measures to keep it healthy. I see three different scenarios for action: daily preventative measures kicking it quickly [...]

Über Arpeggios

Joe — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:44:17 +0000

Just finished a bottle of wine while watching Rudolph, so pardon any typos. I write about arpeggios on a regular basis. I think they're important. I use them primarily as a framework for finding consonant tones over a chord. They're also good for rapidly moving over a large pitch range. If you want to transition [...]

New Priority: Learn Standards

Joe — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:17:36 +0000

Inspired by the clinic I attended with Jonathan Kreisberg at LA Music Academy, I've decided to make learning jazz standards a top priority. I was impressed by Jonathan's facility on the guitar, and he attributed much of it to learning all the standards he could when he was younger. Not only does it provide a [...]

7-9-11-13 Arpeggios

Joe — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 09:31:04 +0000

As a passenger in a long car ride today, I decided to write out every possible 7th arpeggio that could be applied to degrees 7, 9, 11, and 13. Combining all possible alterations (b7/7, b9/9/#9, 11/#11, b13/13) yields 24 different ways to play these tones. Most don't make sense in theory and don't correspond to [...]

Arpeggios over Chord Changes

Joe — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:57:33 +0000

I adopted a new method of practicing arpeggios today. It's nothing original, but it's new to me. In an attempt to apply the arpeggios I've already learned, I'm now practicing two at a time. Until this week, I had always worked on a single arpeggio in a single position at a time. I'd go up [...]

Visiting LA Music Academy

Joe — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:35:58 +0000

I took a trip to Pasadena yesterday to check out LA Music Academy. (I may apply for Fall 2008.) I was lucky enough to catch a clinic from jazz guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg. He alternated between playing tunes with instructor Jeff Richman and answering questions from students. He had a very tasteful, confident style, and the [...]

Syncing Hands

Joe — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:45:00 +0000

Since this summer, I've been working hard on my left and right hand synchronization. I spend some focused time on it every day, and I try to give it at least subconscious attention in all areas of my playing. I see this as the most important aspect of my technique. The nuances of the attack, [...]

String Bending Trickery

Joe — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:50:29 +0000

I spend most of my practice time on two Strats with different setups. One has 10-gauge strings with low action and a thin neck. The other has 12-gauge strings with high action and a thick neck. (Guess which one destroys my fingers.) Whenever I pick one up after leaving it out of the picture for [...]

Discovering Guitarists

Joe — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 07:52:29 +0000

Since I'm looking to start a career with this device, I thought I should do my homework on its history. When I was in high school, a good friend of mine gave me a book called Guitar, by Richard Chapman. It's a rather thorough reference book on the history of the instrument and its players. [...]

Linking Chords and Arpeggios

Joe — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:48:50 +0000

I worked on memorizing the relationship between chords and arpeggios for 4 straight hours today. Of course it seems easy enough, the arpeggio is just the chord tones played separately. But I'm more interested in their practical usage. Picking a chord out of a 2-octave arpeggio pattern that covers all 6 strings isn't trivial. I'm [...]

Music for Dreaming

Joe — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:11:02 +0000

Most nights as I'm falling asleep, I hear music in my head. At first, my mind's on something I heard or practiced that day, but as I drift toward sleep, I start hearing totally original music. Sometimes it's related to something I've heard before. Sometimes it comes from nowhere with sounds I've never imagined. The [...]

Memorizing Thirds

Joe — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:49:42 +0000

A few months ago, I decided I needed to memorize my triads. I was sick of blanking on the name of a chord when given its individual notes. When I think of the notes A, C, and F, I need to instantly connect that with an F major triad: F-A-C = 1-3-5. My solution was [...]

Visualizing the Entire Fretboard

Joe — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:34:14 +0000

I spent a bunch of time working on fretboard visualization today. The goal is to instantly know where to find the notes I want anywhere on the neck in any key. Making that second nature will help me play without thinking about the notes. Just hearing (or reading) and playing, no thinking. Eliminate the middle [...]

Guitar Blogs

Joe — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:51:30 +0000

I subscribe to RSS feeds for a few dozen guitar blogs. I started reading them when I moved here to focus on the guitar, and today I came across the Guitar Blogs Discovery Project, started by Jason at Atomic Guitarist. He lists 29 blogs and encourages other guitar bloggers like myself to spread the word [...]

Jimmy Bruno: No Nonsense Jazz Guitar: Picking

Joe — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 20:24:23 +0000

Last week, I wrote about Jimmy Bruno's approach to 7th chords on his instructional video, "No Nonsense Jazz Guitar." The other valuable concept I picked up was his approach to picking. I have long been a heavy user of strict economy picking, a combination of alternate and sweep picking that requires careful planning of picking [...]

Attempting Steve Vai's 30-Hour Guitar Workout: Day Three

Joe — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:54:27 +0000

See Day One and Day Two first. I made it. Completed all thirty hours in three days, although poor time management last night kept me up until 2am in order to finish. Hour 1: Finger Exercises More legatos! Went through a bunch of positions on high strings doing hammer-ons and pull-offs. I worked on trills [...]

Attempting Steve Vai's 30-Hour Guitar Workout: Day Two

Joe — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:54:02 +0000

See Day One first. Yesterday was day two, the middle ten hours of Steve Vai's 30-hour workout. The overall structure was identical, but with a different subset of material within each hour. Have another breakdown. Hour 1: Finger Exercises Yesterday I got through angular exercises, which I thought were useless, legato trills, and sweep picking. [...]

Attempting Steve Vai's 30-Hour Guitar Workout: Day One

Joe — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:10:11 +0000

Steve Vai had an article appear in a 2004 issue of Guitar World detailing his suggested practice regimen. The article was called "Freak Show Excess: Steve Vai's 30-Hour Path to Virtuoso Enlightenment or How to Destroy Your Pop Career in One Easy Lesson". Typical Steve Vai humor abounds. The 30-hour workout is meant to be [...]

Jimmy Bruno: No Nonsense Jazz Guitar: 7th Chords

Joe — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:57:50 +0000

Last week, I rented "Jimmy Bruno: No Nonsense Jazz Guitar" from Netflix. It's meant to give the beginning/intermediate jazz guitarist an easy way to get started and advance quickly, so most of it wasn't new to me. I didn't mind, because he's got that New York/Italian accent that makes it seem like I'm getting lessons [...]

Up All Night

Joe — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 10:45:37 +0000

I used to pull this move in college when I'd sleep in so late on Sunday morning (or afternoon) that I had no hope of a decent night's rest before Monday's classes. Instead of shooting for a few hours, sleeping through my alarm, and repeating the cycle, I would just stay awake until Monday night. [...]

Very Exciting Times

Joe — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:40:54 +0000

Got my repaired guitar back from the shop today. It finally plays like it should, no more flattened frets all over the 12th position. I got it set up with .010-gauge strings, lighter than I want in the long run. But I want to learn to play Holdsworth/Satriani legato licks, and those can't be done [...]

Interval Trainer Ready

Joe — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:43:48 +0000

Happy Halloween. The Interval Trainer is ready to rumble. Instructions are included, but here's the basic idea. I'm trying to memorize the interval names between every pair of notes. A to C is a minor 3rd, a major 6th above D is B, etc. So I wrote this JavaScript tool to display random intervals for [...]

Don't Look Down

Joe — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:11:52 +0000

I practiced arpeggios for another two-hour chunk today. For the last half hour, I didn't look at the guitar, not even if I took my hand away and needed to find my place. I did everything by ear and touch. I noticed quite a bit in half an hour. I found that I was listening [...]

Motivational Artwork

Joe — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:53:59 +0000

Until last week, the walls of my practice space were empty. I decided to hang the pictured piece of motivational artwork. It keeps me on task. I think I'll try Steve Vai's thirty-hour guitar workout this week. It's spread over three days, an update to his previously published ten-hour guitar workout. I've read both articles [...]

Single String Sight Reading

Joe — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:45:56 +0000

For my sight reading hour today, I isolated the range of each string for ten minutes a piece. It was more challenging than I expected and very helpful. Knowing the notes well on each string is the first step, and I have that down after the last couple months of daily sight reading. Quick position [...]

CAGED vs. Three Note Per String

Joe — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:18:35 +0000

Like most guitarists, the first way I learned to map out the fretboard was with the CAGED system. It uses five positions corresponding to each of the open major chords and is particularly well suited for playing pentatonic scales. A few years ago, I abandoned the CAGED system in favor of the three note per [...]

Use Different Picks

Joe — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:51:45 +0000

I use Dunlop 3mm Big Stubby picks. They're stupid huge, and I get weird looks when I request them at music shops, but they allow for great control, they feel right in my fingers, and I can get a wider dynamic range than with weaker picks. I buy these things online in bulk, and I [...]

Every Note Is Bent

Joe — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:09:34 +0000

In a move similar to the bend/slide technique I mentioned yesterday, I sometimes try to play blues licks with every note bent slightly out of tune. It sounds pretty weird, which is what I want. It would be nice if I could make it sound intentional. While running today, I realized that no note ever [...]

Slick Bend/Slide Move

Joe — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:43:46 +0000

I came up with this funny little embellishment when I started studying Charlie Parker's music a few weeks ago, and I'm finally getting good at it. I usually apply it to two notes a whole step apart. Simply pick the lower note, bend it up a half step, slide up one fret while holding the [...]

Interval Recognition Tool Coming Soon

Joe — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:09:21 +0000

I spent most of my time today developing, using, and improving my interval recognition tool. So far, it works just like I said it would, and I've memorized all the intervals in five major keys. I haven't checked if it works in anything but Firefox, and I'd rather play my guitar than fart around with [...]

Strat Spring Dampening

Joe — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:49:21 +0000

The Mexi-Strat I'm playing right now is a bit lighter than my main guitar, an American-made Lone Star Strat, which is still in the shop. I can't figure out why, because I think it's thicker too. As far as I know, there are no hollow sections in either guitar, and both bodies are made of [...]

Chords by Fourths

Joe — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:07:02 +0000

I spent some time writing down fourth chord guitar voicings on my flight back to the woodshed today. Fourth chords are especially fun on guitar because they're so easy to play. I've never practiced them enough to grab them on the fly while comping, but I want to get into that soon. Here's the idea [...]

Learning Intervals by Name

Joe — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:34:05 +0000

Joe Brewer commented on an earlier post about his relative pitch spelling test. I made one of my own a while ago, and I'll fix it up and post it here when it's user friendly. My idea is to have a box for the low note, the interval name, and the high note. Under each [...]

Moisturizing Calluses

Joe — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:07:56 +0000

When I dove into this grueling practice routine in August, I had just finished a month of traveling without much guitar, so my fingers were completely unprepared. On top of that, I set up my guitar with .012 gauge strings for the first time so I could build my strength and get one step closer [...]

TV Exercises

Joe — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:34:16 +0000

Everyone has their own TV exercises. These are mindless, repetitive chops-builders you can do while you watch TV or movies, usually without a metronome. Here are mine. Trills Trill between two notes at a medium pace for about a minute at a time. Move all over the neck and cycle through all finger combinations: 1&2, [...]

Train Whistles

Joe — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:03:37 +0000

This has nothing to do with guitar, but I always get a kick out of listening to train whistles. I live half a mile from railroad tracks, and I usually make a quick ear training exercise out of it by picking out the notes separately in my head. It always reminds me of an army [...]

Guitar Videos on Netflix

Joe — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:00:32 +0000

Today, I discovered the giant selection of music instruction and concert DVDs available at Netflix.com. I haven't seen any at home yet, but I just added about a dozen to my queue including titles from Jimmy Bruno, Warren Haynes, Dream Theater, Frank Zappa, and Johnny Hiland. I'm quite excited about getting tons of new practice [...]

Cleaning the Strings and Fretboard

Joe — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:10:16 +0000

Since I've been practicing full time, I've noticed that I need to wipe my guitar clean at least twice a day. It's not so bad now that the weather is cooler and I don't break a sweat sitting in one place anymore, but I still get crap all over my guitar even with clean hands. [...]

Fingertip Challenge

Joe — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 06:08:32 +0000

I mentioned the fingertip challenge in my last post. I'm seeing immediate results from the exercise, so I figure it deserves an explanation. I start with my 1st finger on the 1st fret, 1st string. I fret the note first with my thumb behind the neck, as hard as I can for about 15 seconds [...]

SRV's Dirty Pool Strumming

Joe — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 06:52:26 +0000

I started learning Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Dirty Pool" today. I always thought I was underestimating how difficult that strumming would be, but I didn't have a clue. This guy was absolutely insane. And on crack. Watch this and poop your pants. I spent an hour working only on that strumming today. I'm starting stupid slow [...]

Quintuplets over a Swing Feel

Joe — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:24:00 +0000

I spent one of today's hours playing Bmaj7 arpeggios all over the neck with a jazz swing vamp on my computer. I do this a few times every week, isolating one or two chords in a progression to lurn 'um real good. I usually practice over a bebop-style swing vamp, and I play mostly swing [...]

Tuning Down with Heavy Strings

Joe — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:33:00 +0000

I was playing my backup Strat all day today, and it has .012 gauge strings. I'm used to a hybrid medium/heavy set of .011s, so my fingers hurt. Halfway through the day, I decided to tune down a half step like SRV and tighten the truss rod to reduce neck relief. Wow, what a difference [...]

Classifying Picking Mistakes

Joe — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:04:00 +0000

I found a way to analyze my picking technique, and it's helping me clean up and stay clean. I made categories for all picking mistakes. This makes them easy to spot. The idea is that if any note is not picked perfectly, then it should fall into one of these categories. Note that this concerns [...]

Rocking Thirds 'Til I Drop

Joe — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:11:00 +0000

I just woke up with no clue where I was. I thought it was tomorrow, time for a new day. But I had headphones on, and my computer screen had ear training software open. Apparently I had attempted to identify over 200 thirds as major or minor. I wonder if any were in my sleep? [...]

I Busted My Nut

Joe — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:20:00 +0000

Junkass. I recently read Steve Vai's 30-hour guitar workout from a 2004 issue of Guitar World. In the section on bending, he had this to say: "Make sure to practice bending as much in the upper register and on the high strings as you do in the lower register and on the low strings. Can [...]

Melodic Dictation

Joe — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:48:00 +0000

I recently discovered the full potential of the melodic dictation in the ear training software I use, EarMaster. Until I changed the default settings, it printed the name of the key under the key signature, supplied the first note of the sequence I was supposed to transcribe, and played aloud the notes as I entered [...]

Constructing Jazz Scales from Chord Tones

Joe — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:16:00 +0000

I noticed something the other day about the relationship between jazz chords and scales. I first thought it was a shortcut for thinking about an appropriate scale over any chord on the fly, but I'm thinking it might be more fundamental than that. To start with, here are the basic chord families found in most [...]

Learning SRV and Bird

Joe — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 04:41:00 +0000

Got some serious time in with SRV and Bird today. I spent 2 straight hours in the morning playing SRV stuff, first practicing tunes I already know. I'm working through the entire Texas Flood album before moving on. So far, I can play "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "Pride and Joy", "Tell Me", "Testify", and [...]

First Daily Summary

Joe — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:43:00 +0000

Most of my practicing occurs in 1-hour chunks. Every day's first hour is warm up only. I have a specific left-hand exercise for the first 15-20 minutes of every day. It gently isolates the movements of each finger while keeping the others relaxed. I'll explain it in detail some other time. The remainder of my [...]