JasonShadrick

Via MusicianWages.com

MusicianWages.com, Music Careers at About.com and KnowtheMusicBiz.com are organizing a group blogging event for all music and musician bloggers. MW recently received a comment from a reader concerned about her teenage son’s file-sharing. We believe that this is a topic with as many answers as there are musicians and invite you to join us in a synchronized response.

If interested, please write a response to the following question and post it to your blog on April 16th, 2009.  Send an email to webmaster@musicianwages.com with the URL of your response and we will post a list with links to all of the participating blogs.

Suggested title: To a Mother Concerned About File-Sharing

I have a teenage son who tells me his pirating music is no big deal. Since he is a musician himself, I point out to him that someday that’s going to be his money people are stealing. But he remains unphased.

He tells me the record sales make money for the record label, not the artist. He says that the artists make all their money from touring and live concerts. He thinks the pirated music promotes the concerts and therefore helps the artist make more money. I still don’t allow pirating in my house.

But tell me what you think – as artists out there having your work “shared,” are you just glad to have it being enjoyed, or does it bother you? Admittedly, he is stealing music that is recorded by major record labels, so maybe its different than the independent musician working for his living. But I’d still like to hear what you think.

Thanks,
Valerie

I will be posting a response on the 16th.  Please pass this along to anyone you might think would like to take part.

Here is Grant’s Transcribed Solo

Grant Green is one of my biggest influences.  I first heard about him from my guitar teacher in college, who didn’t care for him too much.  I then was a casual listener until I became friends with Corey Christiansen.  Corey is the closest to a GG scholar that I have ever met.  He has literally written the book on Grant’s playing style.

This solo on “Cool Blues” was one I transcribed in college for a blues improvisation class.  It is a great example of Grant’s style in a medium blues setting.  I am a firm believer that nobody could touch Grant when it came to playing over a blues.

I also isolated some of Grant’s key phrases and wrote those out below

Grant Green Licks

Finally, one of my favorite (and only) videos of Grant.  Here is his playing with Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessell.  I love both Kenny and Barney’s playing, but on this tune neither one can touch Grant.

Grant Green Video

While I was in graduate school, I had to develop a method of learning all the tunes that were thrown at me at a daily basis.  In an earlier post, I outlined a method I learned from Jody Fisher on learning the chords to a tune.  In this post, I am focusing my attention now to the melodic side of working through the raw harmonic material found in many jazz tunes.

Remember, this is only one way to do this.  If anyone has other ideas, please share them in the comments.

1. Roots – It is essential that you learn the root movement of the tune you are working on.  This will aid in memory retention of the chords and ear training.  If you can internalize the sound of the roots of all the chords, the melody will make more sense.
2. Guide Tones – Guide tones are the essence of any chord progression.  There are usually two main versions of a guide tone line.  The first one begins on the 3rd of the chord and the second one begins on the 7th.  Learn to connect these notes in a variety of ways both melodically and rhythmically.  Voice Leading is an important aspect in the improvisations of the jazz masters.
3. Arpeggios from the Root – In this step we are branching out to cover all the notes in a given chord.  Essentially if you stick to these you won’t hit any wrong notes, but I find it more challenging to make interesting phrases from these.  Experiment with different rhythms and inversions with these arpeggios.
4. Guide Tone Arpeggios – Once you internalize a few different guide tone lines in addition to the arpeggios from the roots, you can begin to connect these in a melodic way.  This is the first step in gaining some facility over a particular progression.  I practiced this A LOT.
5. Construct a Bassline – This step is the first that requires some improvisation.  In college I would write out several of these over a tune and then mix and match them to find one I liked.  The whole idea here is to create a melody using only quarter notes that works with the harmony.
6. Continous Motion – I first heard about this exercise from a David Baker book.  The general idea is to play as slow as necessary in order to play continuous eighth notes over a progression. This exercise develops fluidity and helps you develop the sense of keeping your place in a progression.
7. Little Scale Exercise – David Berkman’s Book “The Jazz Musicians Guide to Creative Practicing” was a great help with this step.  Start on any note within the scale or arpeggio of the first chord and go up and down the span of a 5th by only chaning the qualities of the notes as needed.
8. 3579 Digital Exercise – This concept I worked on from a book by the saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi.  This is partial to the guide tone arpeggios we looked at earlier, but now involving extensions.  It works great over altered dominant chords.
9. Alternate Triads – For each chord, I chose another basic triad that would work harmonically and composed a line using only those notes.  It is a great way to breath new life into a progression that you feel stuck with.  You can also include upper structure triads as well.
10. Diatonic 4th Arpeggios – These will add a distinctly modern sound to your lines.  For guitarists and pianists, I would develop quartal voicings based on these lines.

As with any exercise, you want to mix up the approaches to keep the listener guessing.

I look forward to hearing your approaches.

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?

National Guitar Workshop Announces 2009 Season with Special Guests Buddy Guy, Paul Gilbert, Jimmy Herring, Jimmie Vaughan and Pat Metheny

The National Guitar Workshop is proud to announce our 2009 season. This year we will be presenting week long workshops across the country and featuring guest artists such as Paul Gilbert, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Herring, Pat Metheny, Jimmie Vaughan, and many more.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Litchfield, CT—Februrary 12, 2009 – The National Guitar Workshop is excited to announce the curriculum and guest artists for the 2009 season. This year’s program will feature Paul Gilbert, Buddy Guy, Pat Metheny, Jimmy Herring, Oteil Burbridge, Pat Martino, Robben Ford, David Wilcox, Robert Lee Castleman, Brent Mason, Stu Hamm, Peppino D”Agostino, Ed Gerhard, Andrew York and John 5. Courses will be offered in rock, blues, jazz, country, classical, music technology, songwriting, and guitar exploration.

Check out www.guitarworkshop.com for more information.

NGW features locations nation-wide with campuses in New York, Austin, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Each location offers a wide variety of courses, all taught by world renowned musicians.

In association with Performing Songwriter Magazine, NGW is proud to present the Songwriting Summit featuring David Wilcox and Robert Lee Castleman. In addition, the workshop is offering a seminar on Country Guitar featuring Brent Mason, and a special Modern Acoustic seminar with Ed Gerhard and Peppino D’Agostino.

Events are happening across the country for rock players. The New York campus will hold two Rock Summits featuring Paul Gilbert and very special guest to be announced, while the LA Rock Summit will include a clinic by world renowned shred virtuoso John-5. Also at our LA Rock Summit we are happy to announce that bassist Stu Hamm will be an Artist in Residence during the summit.

The Jam Summit, taking place at our New York campus will feature both Jimmy Herring (Widespread Panic) and Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band) giving a special clinic on improvisation and presenting their unique take on the Jam scene.

Taking place in Austin, Chicago, and Connecticut are three Blues Summits, which will include appearances by some of the most influential bluest guitarists in the world. NGW is pleased to have Buddy Guy making a rare clinic appearance in Chicago. Jimmie Vaughan will be giving a clinic on his unique style in Austin, and the New York campus will feature the legendary blues guitarist Robben Ford.

The National Guitar Workshop is very excited to present Pat Metheny at the Jazz Summit in New York. This will be a rare chance to be a part of an intimate workshop with one of the most respected jazz guitarists in history. A great addition to the McLean, VA campus will be the appearance of one of the fathers of modern jazz guitar, Pat Martino, who will be a featured guest in the Giants of Jazz guitar seminar.

Our curriculum has also expanded to also include classes on Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Desktop Music Production. These music technology classes are powered by Apple®.

For a complete list of dates, locations, guest artists and classes offered please check out our website

www.guitarworkshop.com

If you are interested in connecting with other musicians and learning more about National Guitar Workshop from a student’s perspective, you can join our free community site

http://guitarworkshopcommunity.com

About National Guitar Workshop:

The National Guitar Workshop is celebrating over25 years of providing high quality music education to students of all ages. The curriculum is wide ranging with courses in Rock, Blues, Jazz, Acoustic, Songwriting, Music Technology and Classical. NGW offers expert instruction for guitarists, bassists, drummers, keyboardists and vocalists.