Week 2 - Arpeggio's Arpeggio's Arpeggio's

As the title suggests, this week was all about them Arpeggio's. I wont lie, this week did feel slower and I dont feel I assimilated as much knowledge as I did last week, BUT, this knowledge needs to be taken in slowly and carefully so that I dont disregard it quickly. It needs to become part of me. Another quote that Parker said was "You gotta learn all the theory, then forget it", so I need to make everything I learn part of me. I also had a bit more work to do this week for my studies, but none the less I made progress towards my Arpeggio's.

My Guitar teacher/mentor had always told me the importance of apreggio's, but I guess one never really appreciates the value of something untill you dont have it or need it. Most of the Greats (Parker, Davis, Gilliespie etc) use Arpeggio's left right and centre, they are so important as they allow you to know where in the song you are and also to tell your listeners where you are. So, what I have done was write down all the apreggio's I am going to need, and well now its just a process of getting them down. Fortunately because I have been playing guitar for a while, and my guitar mentor had drilled some apreggio's into my system so far, I know like 50% of all the 'new' arpeggio's I come across.

So, how I am deciding to tackle this new (but so fundamental) challenge, is to learn all the apreggios for all the different chord shapes, and secondly, to play them in fourths i.e. R 3 5 7, 3 5 7 R, 5 7 R 3 (Playing four notes and then moving up to the next degree of the arpeggio). Im doing this because I realised I only know the scales and Apreggio's from their roots. If I see a Dm7, I automatically play the root then the rest of the Arpeggio. I GOTTA BREAK THIS HABBIT. Im hoping through time, I will just see the arpeggio's all over my neck so I can smoothly connect the notes between the chords correctly. So yea, Arpeggio's are the future, scales come next.

I guess this next week to follow will have more arpeggio's, it will take me a while to get them down, but they are the building blocks to good soloing. I also learned 2 new standards. The first is called "Witchcraft". This is not such a popular standard, but I heard the guitarist Jimmy Bruno play it, and  wow I was impressed, he had some walking bass lines, some chromatism, some weird chords. I had to learn his version of the song, and so I did, the bonus is that this is part of my transcribing/aural development process. The second song is well known, its Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island". Alright, well, onto week 3!!!

Week 1

I officially got my first week of thorough Jazz playing behind me, and I must say it was better than I thought it would be. I imagined it to be pain and endurance, but really the 5 hour limit I set myself was a joke, its not enough, I want more jazz :-) I read that Charlie Parker used to practice 11 to 15 hours a day for 4 years. I know that Charlie Parker didn't practice cause he needed to, but because he wanted to. This week excited me because I wanted to practice more, and not because I felt I had to stick to a framework. On Thursday I practiced for 9 hours! And still crave more haha. My schedule pretty much consisted of waking up, going to class (like 2 hours a day) in-between class I play, then eat food, then play, then eat supper than play. I covered a lot of ground this week, to give it to you in a top 10 list, I:

1) Learnt the standard "All the things you are"
2) Got the melody and chords down for "Night in Tunisia"
3) Transcribed a Great piece from Dizzy (and understood it)
4) Learnt the Altered Scale (7th mode of Melodic minor)
5) Transcribed some Charlie Parker licks, wow that was a challenge.
6) Practiced my 'swing feel'
7)Went to a Jazz Jam (although did not play myself, that is the goal)
8) Practiced some sight/music reading
9) Learnt some epic new theory (it blows your mind)
10) Most importantly. I LISTENED.

This week empowered me as I know what my target for next week will be. I GOT to learn new scales but more importantly I must apply them to the music. Its one thing knowing a gazillion scales its another knowing when and how to use them. I am also gunning for my aural development, I cant stress the importance of that. Lastly, I am going to try know as many arpeggio's around the neck as possible. I read that I must be able to solo unaccompanied by a rhythm section and still be able to let the people know where in the song I am. It goes without saying that I will get 2 more standards added to my repertoire. Rather learn them properly so that I dont have to come back to them later on.

Thats enough for now. Will return with more good news