Help!I'maRock!'s winter offseason woodshedding diary - mach II

so yeah, i don't think i'll be finishing this piece anytime this week. first band jam tomorrow. i'm on a business trip Sunday through Thursday. and i still have to play some bass, which i should be practicing more (finally found my damn truss rod wrench, so no more excuses) needless to say, it'll be a little difficult to progress. but i have a plan:

i'm throwing January to the wind w/r/t progressing in the Berklee Method. instead, i'll review from the beginning of the book and work my way back to page 23. it's one thing to learn something. it's another to be able to repeat it and show that you've truly learned it. that way, i won't be totally lost after not playing for an entire week, and i can ramp back up while focusing on anything i might have glossed over.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
so yeah, i don't think i'll be finishing this piece anytime this week. first band jam tomorrow. i'm on a business trip Sunday through Thursday. and i still have to play some bass, which i should be practicing more (finally found my damn truss rod wrench, so no more excuses) needless to say, it'll be a little difficult to progress. but i have a plan:

i'm throwing January to the wind w/r/t progressing in the Berklee Method. instead, i'll review from the beginning of the book and work my way back to page 23. it's one thing to learn something. it's another to be able to repeat it and show that you've truly learned it. that way, i won't be totally lost after not playing for an entire week, and i can ramp back up while focusing on anything i might have glossed over.
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Sounds good to me...
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
ok, this is the part that i hate. page 21, dotted notes. the dotted half notes are easy. its the dotted quarter notes. i always screw up the count, and the 8th note that comes after it.

the dvd and cd won't give me any shortcut either. on the video, he's counting out loud in this piece instead of using the metronome like he normally does. and there's simply no track for this page on the cd. so the only thing to do is what the book says. count out loud as you play. because if you don't, you'll never get it.

i'm gonna work my ass off on this, and show it to my students this week as a real life reason why you need to count out loud when you are learning. because eventually, they're going to throw something relatively easy, like what's on this page, and you're not going to be able to get it if you aren't counting the rhythm.
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One ridiculously simply trick that a sax player showed me to handle reading dots was to tap my foot on the beat, and make sure that the foot went up and down very evenly across the beats. That way, when you are tapping 4 counts to the beat, each tap hits on the first 8th note of the beat and the top of each foot raise hits on the second 8th note of each beat.

Once I got comfortable with that, hitting dotted quarters followed by 8ths became as simple as just hitting the note when my toe was up instead of down. :thu: You can also double up the taps to follow dotted 8ths - 16ths, up to a certain tempo.

I will count stuff like this out loud as well, ala 1 and 2 and..........., but for some reason the toe method comes easier to me, and you can also use it on a gig without counting under your breath and looking like a rookie.
 
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that's good advice, Feep.

i do my best to show my students how to tap their foot exactly like you've described. i also make them count out loud, especially in a piece like this one where you've really only got 2 measures with the dotted quarter note -> 8th note. and yeah, you look like a rookie for a while. but if you can get over that, then you'll get through it. much like what 2manband was talking about in his public speaking thread today.
 
Yeah, the counting aloud is a great habit for students who are learning. The toe tap method works well for folks like me who are very rusty on their reading when someone plops sheet music down in front of them at gig and says "You take the melody 2nd time around". :(
 
Yeah, the counting aloud is a great habit for students who are learning. I have counted many a tune aloud at home, or in a rehearsal. The toe tap method works well for someone who reads but is very rusty when someone plops sheet music down in front of them at gig and says "You take the melody 2nd time around". :(
 
so i've been reviewing. it's been sporadic, but reviewing nonetheless. i sold the individual version of Book 1, and had the complete 3 book version spiral bound. i'm back up to page 16.

it's not hard. but there's a lot of "ugh, not this shit again. when can we get to the cool solos?"

sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield.
 
this is going to sound strange, but i think i know why i was unfocused yesterday working on 8th notes. i really haven't been taking my vitamins. today i took everything and just decided that i was done working for the day. so i picked up my guitar and worked on the 8th note exercise on page 19. nailed it. and i feel like i can think today.

now back to Etude #1 on page 20. i'm almost back to where i was before my trip and subsequent illness last month.
 
made some progress on the bass front. i'm now on page 29 of the Mel Bay. this page introduces the triplet, diminished chords, and the circle of sixths.

i've never heard of the circle of sixths before (probably because i haven't gotten past the circle of 4ths/5ths) but it makes sense. progression is G Em C D7. pretty cool. i think i'm gonna use that for something.
 
THE RETURN OF THE SON OF FIRST SOLO, PAGE 23.

i'm surprised at how quickly i got back here. my goal is to complete this lesson before the first day of spring. i'm very happy with my progress in the Berklee Method. again, i should have done this years ago.


wrt my previous post about the Mel Bay bass book, that page is harder than it should be. each one of those concepts could be its own page, and they're trying to cram it in. there's no audio example and i can't find the dvd. this sucks. because i'm going to have to teach it on Saturday. :mad:
 
"i love it when a plan comes together" - john smith

so i haven't gotten through the First Solo yet. but i was able to play it all the way through at a significantly slower speed. i'm able to see the melody and it makes sense. and i can play everything on the page. it's a really well written piece, and is actually fun to play. now i just have to be able to do it at a speed that doesn't sound like Bill Frisell on valium.
 
i can't stand this piece anymore. i mean, i like it. but i'm not quite there yet. and i just can't keep playing the same damn thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

so i broke out the Mel Bay guitar book. back to page 49, Shenandoah. a little sloppy, but not bad.

now, for the Blue Balls of Scotland. sorry, bells, i mean Blue Bells. :tongue:
 
wow, that was easier than i thought it would be.

i always hated that Mel Bay would put the hard piece first and the easy piece second. it just doesn't make any sense. but i guess they figure if you can do the first, the the second is just positive reinforcement. i dunno. anyway, i did it.

let's see what's next!
 
ok, page 53, Mel Bay guitar is the daily scale study. i played it at 72 bpm. tomorrow, i'll play it at 80. and i'll go back to the Berklee Method.

stupid fucking elephants. :HB:
 
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