JasonShadrick

It always takes me a bit of time to get back into the swing of things when the annual (now my 6th summer) NGW tour begins.  As it has the last few summers we started in McLean, VA at one of my favorite campuses, The Madeira School.

A few of our teachers have already wrote about their experience at McLean.  You can check them out here and here.

The week began with a trip to Blues Alley in DC to see Pat Martino with an amazing group that included Tony Monaco on B3 Organ, Eric Alexander on Tenor Sax and Jeff “Tain” Watts on Drums. Of course the music was amazing and the whole run of shows at Blues Alley was recorded for Pat’s upcoming live CD.  The whole band was very nice and it was really exciting to see them work out some new material.

Once the faculty and students arrived and the workshop began it really flowed pretty smoothly.  The Madeira School always does a great job as our hosts and the view from behind the auditorium is really incredible.

After the shows at Blues Alley ended, Pat came to campus to give an afternoon workshop and then he was going to spend the next day giving private lessons to some of our students.  I have seen Pat give 5 clinics in the past, but this one was by far the best.  He presented the material in such a clear and easy to understand manner (relatively speaking) that pretty much everyone got something out of it.

The handout for the clinic was an article by Jude Gold from Guitar Player, a leadsheet to his composition “Welcome To A Prayer” and an outline of the chord substitutions he would use on that tune.  The clinic was packed full of not only jazz students, but students from nearly every other class as well.  After the clinic, Tom Dempsey and I took Pat and his wife Aya out for dinner and we had a great time.  Both Pat and Aya are incredible to talk to and spend time with and this was likely the highlight of the week for me.

The other guest we had on campus was Alex Skolnick.  You might know Alex from his work in Testament, Trans-Siberian Orchestra or even his jazz trio.  Alex has been a longtime friend of NGW and it was great to bring him back this year.  I picked him up at the airport and we grabbed some lunch and then headed to the campus.  His clinic was a great mix of both his approach to playing metal and his newer jazz offerings.  After his clinic I introduced Alex to Pat and we all shared a ride over to Pat’s hotel.  Alex was in DC less than 12 hours as he was flying out to Amsterdam to begin a five week tour with Testament.

Overall the week was a great success.  I reconnected with some old friends on faculty and was introduced to some of the best guitarists and instructors in DC.  After the week ended, I headed back to CT for a few days and then yesterday I flew to Chicago to begin another workshop.

It seems like I was just here.

This is an article written by David Smolover, who is not only the founder of The National Guitar Workshop, but also Workshop Arts Publications, DayJams and WorkshopLive.  As you can tell, he is a busy guy and knows a lot about guitar education.

How to Find the Perfect Teacher

Finding the right teacher is the best way to insure success in any endeavor, not just learning to play an instrument. Unfortunately, we have been conditioned by our school systems to accept the teachers they put in front of us. So often when we actually do have a choice like selecting a private teacher, we fall back into the habit of accepting whoever is available.

The first thing to do is truly examine what you want to accomplish. Do you want to play Beatle tunes? Do you want to work on your improvisation skills? Do you want to learn how to read music? WHAT DO YOU WANT? (If you don’t know, well then we have another set of problems that we’ll discuss later.)

Let’s assume for the moment that you do know what you want to accomplish. Then it’s time to locate and interview the teacher. Remember you are the customer. It’s your money and it’s your right to select whomever you want. Steps to take:

1. Referrals are a good place to start. Ask a friend who’s playing you respect and find out where they studied.

2. No friends. Sorry. Go to small live music venues and if you find a player you like ask them: 1) if they teach, or 2) can the recommend a teacher.

3. Too young to go to clubs or too old to stay up that late. OK. Visit the local music store and ask questions about their teachers. If you find a likely candidate, ask to set up an interview. The storeowner may look at you funny, but you’ll survive.

4. No likely candidates at the store. Onward. Call the local college music department. As them who are their most popular faculty members. Then ask if they teach privately. Almost all of them will. Ask for contact info and then set-up the interview.

5. Last resort. Hang out at the local coffee shop and stop everyone caring a guitar. Remember anyone making their living as a guitar teacher gets up at 10:00 and goes for coffee around 11:30. They have very few friends and no social outlets, so they’ll be happy to talk with you.

The Interview

Remember. Be honest about what you want to learn. Don’t try to please the teacher. It’s their job to please you. Ask them to specifically tell you how their approach will help you accomplish your goal. Ask them about their educational background. How long have they been teaching? Here’s the most important question. Ask them what kind of student do they most enjoy teaching? Does that sound like you? If so, sign-up. If not, keep looking.

If you don’t know what you want to accomplish or if you’ve been playing a long time and you’re not improving, then this is what you have to discuss with the perspective teacher. Honestly describe your playing. Ask to play with the teacher if words fail you. Then say, “OK, how can you help me?” If the answer sounds like good and it’s not a canned response (i.e. All my students ……) then give it a shot.

The most important thing to remember is that it’s your money, but it’s also your responsibility to find the right teacher.

I came across this earlier today.  One of the most ingenious ways to use the internet to make practice time more effective.

Gary Willis, who is a renowned bassist has a great flash website that will test the limits of your reading ability.

Check it out here.

Simply amazing.  It will give you a random line of pitches and suggested rhythms.  You can choose the frequency of sharps or flats and even use a predetermined range.

Make sure to pass this on to any of your students and friends!

Many times in a musician’s development (for me this happened a lot in college) they are required to learn a standard very quickly. In certain cases this is a requirement of a class and other times it is actually during the gig. Below I have outlined the approach that works best for me to learn new material.

As a guitarist, the difficult part to internalizing a tune has always been the voicings more so than the melody. Considering the seemingly infinite number of variations on extensions and inversions for each chord, it is easy to fall into a rut and rely on several stock voicings.  A good friend of mine, Jody Fisher recommends the following method for working on the changes to a tune.

• Divide the guitar into 7 regions as follows
  • Top 4 strings
  • Middle 4 strings
  • Bottom 4 strings
  • Frets 1 through 4
  • Frets 5 through 8
  • Frets 9 through 12

This allows you to break the fretboard up into more manageable pieces and gain a better understanding of how the mechanics of the guitar work.

For each region, you would find as many voicings of a particular chord as you can taking into consideration both alterations and extensions.

Take the following progression for example:

Gm7 / C7 / Fmaj7/ Bbm7/ Eb7/Abmaj7/ Fm7/Bb7//

If this was the first time I am working with this method, I would take the Gm7 chord and work through as many inversions, extensions and alterations as I could in each region.  Once I felt comfortable with being able to grab a Gm7 voicing anywhere I happen to be on the fretboard, I would repeat the process with the C7 chord.

As you can see, this isn’t something that you can accomplish quickly.  Once I have the first two chords worked out, I would practice going from Gm7 to C7 in each region.  Slowly but surely the process is repeated with each chord of the progression.

By the time you get through the first A section of a tune, the harmony is so internalized that hearing the melody in your head becomes easier.

To work this method over an entire tune could take several months, but as with many things the more you do it, the easier it becomes and the less time it takes for each tune.

Check out Jody’s book The Total Jazz Guitarist to see this method written out with detailed examples.

What are the most effective ways you have found to learn changes?