Relaxin' at Camarillo

Must Try Harder...

Got my notes back from JB regarding the "Satin Doll" exercise. Not bad, he says, but with a tendency to play too low down in the register, and could make more effective use of half-step chromaticism. Perceptive insight, the former, as I'm inclined to start lines on the bottom two strings because that's where I know where all the roots of arpeggios are. It's a habit I'll have to work to break as it not only makes for gloomy, repetitive playing, but one shouldn't always start from the root anyway. So, guess I'll have to practice starting from different notes in the arpeggio, especially the 3rd, as well as playing them backwards, and starting my lines on either the d or g strings.

For Little Jim - a Misty Chord Melody

My poor friend Little Jim has been laid up with a recurring ailment that for years has baffled scientists and charlatans alike. If I remember correctly, the best explanation is that he has somehow inherited a genetic mutation from shipwrecked survivors of the Spanish Armada -- what you might call the Duke of Medina's revenge. Unfortunately, he has to ride it out, so here's a brisk and breezy rendition of "Misty" to help cheer him up. (There's for too much reverb on it, in fact, but I'm banking on Jim being so dosed up he can't tell the sun from the moon.) Get well soon, little feller.

Jimmy Bruno Guitar Institute

Hello again! Still busier than a Glasgwegian chip shop, but at least my hand is better. I think I know what it was -- pillows. I can't stand thick pillows. Indeed, I like pillows that are little more than a pillow case with four or five socks chucked in, and as a result, I think I've been lying on my wrist and cutting off the circulation with the weight of my mighty head. I woke up the other night and my whole hand had gone completely numb and I had to slap it against the wall for ten minutes to get the feeling back. In the midst of morphic slumbers, I remember thinking that this is what it must be like to play ping pong with a fist full of whitebait. Obviously, I'm going to have to start wearing some sort of foam helmet to bed. Just after I've finally managed to give up the boxing gloves as well.

Moving on, I went and joined the Jimmy Bruno Guitar Institute about two and half months ago, though what with my hand and all, I haven't had a good opportunity to really dig into it until recently. Basically, you all know that I really like Jimmy Bruno's educational materials for his refreshing committment to music and clarity, and the site is a continuation and improvement on them except with lots more content.

Taught through a ton of short videos, ear training is the heart of the course, the foundations of which come from a thorough knowledge of Jimmy's five shapes - a modification of his "Six Essential Fingerings" idea from earlier. The absolute fundamental is to learn these shapes (or "pitch collections" as he prefers to call them) in all keys and all positions in order to internalize the sounds to the extent that you're hitting notes instinctively without having to figure out where you are all the time. Only then - and I guess that's going take quite some time - does he encourage you to start thinking about experimenting with outside notes. It makes sense. Why dick around with altered tones when you can't yet hear the diatonic ones?

There's also an interactive aspect. Send in a video of yourself playing one of the assignments or standards from the tune section, and a few days later, he posts a a response. Those of you who like your guitar teaching to stamp on your fingers and spit in your face will be disappointed, as Bruno's teaching style is genial and encouraging rather than punitive. I expect it's easier to keep his customers than sending an electric shock through the keyboard everytime you play a wrong note, but it would be good to have just one video somewhere where he says "call that playing? You're a worthless piece of shit" for those times when you need a good talking too. That said, Bruno hears all and can see right through you, so there's no flannel, and the advice is all good.

Here's a video I just made as my homework. I had already done a solo over "Satin Doll," and Jimmy said (quite rightly) that he suspected me of having holes in my knowledge of the fretboard. My next assignment was to improvise over five choruses of the tune, staying in one position for each chorus. As the tune moves from C to D to G to Gb, then F and G in the bridge and back to C for the last A section, I play through the changes without shifts save for the necessary single fret shifts from G to Gb. I get all sloppy in the last position because my concentration was going, and it also has shitty sound from the (free) webcam's on-board microphone, but you get the idea at least. It was a very instructive exercise, and it's very motivating to have Jimmy Bruno tell you you've got good time. I'd join if I were you. After all, a three month subscription to JGBI is less than you paid for all those Berklee method books, and you've never even looked at them, have you?

That Synching Feeling

Zoetropic Images! A technological first! Press the button below to watch me perform my own (very basic) arrangement of "Cry Me a River." Apologies for the poor picture quality, but most of the budget went on hair and make-up. Not my hair and make-up, obviously.

Agreed, it's next to useless as you can't see my left hand (although it's a fine shot of my manly jaw). I'll put up a transcription as soon as I get over the thrill of it all.

Chord Melody Arrangements

Slowly inching my way back in with some old chord-melodies. Here they are again in PDF. All very simple.

Autumn Leaves Chords & Bass Solo

Body and Soul

I Can't Get Started

Nuages

Summertime

What a Wonderful World

Nights in Tunisia

I've been spending forever trying to find something decent to play over "A Night in Tunisia." I want it to sound urgent and antsy... like a midnight attack of agoraphobia in a crowded Libyan market on the hottest night in August while trying to escape from angry Serbian skinheads who want to slice you up after you said something intrinsically camp to them after you'd gobbled some lysergic desert shrub that's coming on really friggin' strong now you've started running and to compound it all, you desperately need a piss but there's no where to go as the walls are breathing and people are rubbing themselves up against them in a manner that's both crippled but pleasantly suggestive, while darting their hands out at your armpits like a zillion shaved pecky emu faces and you've just noticed that underneath their headscarves all the women are in fact giant sea-horses who are horribly sick because they need water or they're going to die. Water, sir, please find us water. Oh no, and now the shrub's repeating on you and you really need a poo but you can't remember the way back to the cathedral. Good job you've still got your tuba... You get the picture. Not sure I really pulled it off: Tunisia bit

On a more mundane note, I lowered my neck pickup to try and take round out the highs and get a fatter tone. Whaddaya think: Fly Me to the Moon morsel

Again with the "For Josie"

On reflection, last night's flubbed and hurried attempt at "My Funny Valentine" probably wasn't the most romantic tribute I could offer my darling selfless wife, the one who said I could have a D'angelico and is also the mother of my children. So tonight I fancied it up a bit by adding a comp track and soloing over it with the effect that just screams mad, mad love -- spring reverb! I'm afraid I struggled to find anything to play that wasn't horribly platitudinous. Fortunately, our relationship is built on much stronger foundations than my guitar playing. At least I hope so: MFV2

It's my birthday tomorrow. Thirty-friggin-eight and I find myself perfectly poised between being incredibly grateful for everything I have and all I've achieved, and wondering where the fuck the time went and how I'm not rich or much more exciting, manly and mysterious... like this bloke,

For Josie

A comping sheet: My Funny Valentine (three note voicings with a couple of familiar four-note chords thrown in), and a comp-less go at a solo played uniformly in Eb save for one or two passing tones.

Miss Jones is Easy

Or at least, easier. You know the difficult bridge to "Have You Met Miss Jones?" and what a royal pain it is to find decent grips without flying up and down the neck like you're having a seizure? Well, to my great satisfaction, I've discovered that the difficult section lays itself out on string sets 1-2-3 and 2-3-4 very nicely when played using three note chords.

Here's an example of one full chorus: MissJones Comp Snippet

Here's the comp sheet: Miss Jones 3 Note Comping.pdf

And check this out - FAME!

The Incontinence Tapes, pt. 2

Here's two more goes at soloing over "Just Friends". The first is basically the same noodle as yesterday, though this time I'm trying especially hard to hit those arpeggios, especially that A7 to Am7 change (JF Again). The second is only a snippet, but nevertheless a snippet wherein I may have unintentionally put to practice the maxim "less is more" (JF Again Snippet).

By the way, SheetMusic Plus is having a 20% off sale on all its Mel Bay books. Get me a couple while you're there, will you?

UPDATE: I must've been completely out of my mind when I wrote this. Both clips sound exactly the same.