Lesson #4

Continuing my practice of summarizing my lessons with Dave Frackenpohl to get a handle on my new assignment and help others who may be on the same path.

I've been working on:

• Dorian and Mixolydian scale patterns.
• Using Maiden Voyage as a vehicle for practicing arpeggio patterns and "thinking" in Dorian mode.
• Learning the second half of Wes Montgomery's solo in Fly Me to the Moon from his Road Songs album.
• Learning Out of Nowhere.
• Working through three choruses from the F Blues exercise in Galbraith's Guitar Comping book.
• Learning Now's the Time.
• Solidifying my time with a metronome exercise. Click here to read about the exercise.

Today's lesson went well. I was pretty solid on everything, despite not having as much time to practice as usual.

Here's my assignment for the next lesson:

• Bebop scale. To expand my musical vocabulary, I'm learning the major bebop scale. (Just add a half step between the 5th and the 6th.)
• Comping rhythms. To give me some more comping ideas, Dave has given me a series of rhythms to use for comping. There's nothing drastic here. I'm just expanding what I already use.
• Blues project. My jazz blues playing isn't terribly strong. To shore up this weakness, we're starting a blues project. I'm working on Bag's Groove. I already know the tune. To improve my solo chops, I'll be transcribing some Miles Davis choruses. This is the beginning of a long term blues project.
• ii-V project. To add to my bag of tricks, Dave gave me a sheet of ii-V licks. My assignment is to learn two or three of these licks and insert them into my solos wherever I can. You can bet that I'll be overusing these licks on my next quartet gig! That's the way to learn them, though – just use them over and over. As usual, they'll sound forced at first, but they will eventually find their way into my brain and begin to flow naturally in my improvisations. This is a long term project.
• Galbraith F Blues comping exercise. I've worked through nearly half of the F Blues exercise. I'll add to more choruses for the next lesson, and then I'll nearly be finished with this one. This Galbraith Guitar Comping book is great! There's no way I could remember all the new chord forms in a live playing situation, but one or two new chord voicings always stick with me whenever I'm working on these exercises. It's nice to be able to add chord voicing options.
• Wes Montgomery solo. I've finished memorizing the Wes Montgomery Fly Me to the Moon Solo, which is played in octaves throughout. Now I'm learning it again without the octaves. I will continue to run through the solo playing in octaves, but when I learn it without the octaves, I'll be able to glean more licks to use in my single line improvisations.
• Nostalgia. This bebop tune uses the same chord changes as Out of Nowhere, which I learned for today's lesson. My assignment is to learn the tune, and then transcribe and learn Fats Navarro's trumpet solo. I learned a new word today – contrafaction. When someone takes the chord changes from a song and writes a new melody over the preexisting chord changes, it's called a contrafaction. Now you know.

As usual, I have a challenging new assignment. This is all great stuff!

Lesson #3

I'm continuing to blog about taking guitar lessons with Dave Frackenpohl at Georgia State. This helps me absorb the lesson, and I hope that it is helpful for others following the same path.

• Last time, Dave had me use strict up/down picking when playing the dorian and mixolydian scale forms that he assigned me instead of economy picking. For this lesson's assignment, he's having me apply strict up/down picking to scale patterns (1231, 2342, 3453, etc.).
• We worked on Maiden Voyage, which is a great tune for learning to think in dorian instead of its root major scale. Dave showed me some sweep picking licks to use. We'll continue working on Maiden Voyage, incorporating the sweep arpeggios that he showed me.
• I had transcribed a West Montgomery solo from a recording of Fly Me to the Moon. Wes played in octaves throughout the solo, which is quite a workout for me! I was able to learn the 1st half of the solo and could play it reasonably well, if slowly. Next, I'll figure out how to play the second half.
• I'll be learning Out of Nowhere for my next lesson. Dave wants me to learn the melody, but you can bet I'll be learning the chords, too. It's a nice song. I'll be adding it to my vocal repertoire for sure.
• Out of the Barry Galbraith Guitar Comping book, I'll be working on the first half of an F blues exercise.
• Dave also assigned me Now's the Time, a Charlie Parker tune that is an F blues.
• Dave noticed that I tend to push the tempo when I solo. To help solidify my sense of time, he gave me a metronome project. Using Fly Me to the Moon, he wants me to put the metronome on 60, think of each metronome beat as 2 and 4, and stay with the metronome when I play the melody or solo. Then, I'm supposed to do the same thing with the metronome on 30, think of each metronome click as "4" (with 1, 2, and 3 silent). Next to this assignment, he wrote the words "this is challenging." Thanks for the warning, Dave!

These lessons are great! They're just what I need. I'm especially happy that Dave assigned me a blues exercise and a blues tune. Playing blues is a big weakness in my game. Most jazz guitar players start with the blues. I skated right over the blues when I started getting into jazz. The first jazz song I learned was Misty. I can play beautiful ballads, but I'm just a poser when it comes to blues. This lesson assignment will help set me straight in that area.