I have only seen Mick play live once. I was IAJE in New York in 2004 and I saw that he was going to play in the lobby of the hotel I was staying in with Greg Hopkins. It was amazing how many guitarists showed up to that gig. Clay Moore, Chris Buzzelli and several more were there to check out the original “Advancing Guitarist”.
Mick is widely respected as an educator to many of modern jazz’s biggest names. Here is a recent video of Goodrick playing “Everything I Love”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXdKuYfBg1w&hl=en&fs=1]
There are severl books written by Mick that have become standard reading for guitarists and musicians who want to increase their creativity.
The Advancing Guitarist – If you don’t have this, go NOW to buy it.
Almanac of Guitar Voice Leading – Several extensive volumes on how to go from one chord to another easily.
Factorial Rhythm for All Instruments – I haven’t seen this one yet, but it looks very interesting.
You can get all of his books and music from his website mrgoodchord.com
I took one of Mick’s ideas about voice leading and wrote out a worksheet for my students. This shows you how to progress through the diatonic chords in C major, C Harmonic Minor and C Melodic minor in a Cycle 4 pattern. Cycle 4 means that each chord is a fourth away from the chord that precedes it.
Let me know what you think.
cycle-4-chord-scales
I always had difficulty with ear training. From my sightsinging class as a freshman at Minnesota State-Mankato to my graduate courses at UNI, I never felt like I was making progress. Every teacher I asked about this had different methods, naturally.
In graduate school we used a program called MacGamut. This program played a scale, chord, interval or phrase and then asked you to name it or to notate it. I found this program good for some things like basic transcription practice and bad for others.
I recently found a great blog that features a java-based ear training application.
http://www.iwasdoingallright.com/
This website is written by a trumpet player named Rickfrom the Atlanta area who chronicles his daily practice routine and development.
Dave Douglas has always been a hero of mine. I think of him as a great modern improviser who can change direction and sound drastically between projects. Recently on Dave’s Blog he wrote a lengthy post on ear training and how it important it is to musicians.
Ear training takes a lot of time to master, and it seems like the more you work on it the more you see your own shortcomings. It’s slow going, as is the attempt to explain it. What’s more — this topic is almost entirely behind the scenes, off the radar. Maybe it has nothing at all to do with the reception of the music. And yet, to find satisfaction as musicians — to express ourselves — takes a constant inventing and encountering of new challenges, new ways of keeping the music exciting. The new challenges have a lot to do with how we hear sound and process it, how we deepen the experience, and how we can push ourselves to more profound levels of expression. That’s what keeps me playing.
Yeah, what he said.
Check out the full article here.
Lately I have been practicing different ways to play over a jazz blues. One of my favorite ways lately I got from Matt Warnock via Fred Hersch. Check out Matt’s web for more info.
What are your favorite ways to practice playing over a blues?
Here is a video of one of our National Guitar Workshop teachers, Jody Fisher.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=476vNb6thyM&hl=en&fs=1]
Check out Jody at www.jodyfisher.com
