Author: Gianni C.

Enhance Your Guitar Picking Technique with a Dynamic Inside/Outside Drill

If you’re an aspiring guitarist or a seasoned player looking to refine your skills, here’s an insightful drill to add to your practice routine. Originally introduced as a warm-up exercise, this technique has proven to be an invaluable tool, especially for those aiming to elevate their picking proficiency.

Background and Purpose
Developed as a pre-gig warm-up and further expanded upon, this exercise not only serves as a warm-up routine but also as a method to address and overcome challenges resulting from injuries. The creator, having encountered a right-hand injury, adapted their approach to regain precision and agility.

The Drill
This drill focuses on inside/outside picking patterns and involves specific finger placements on strings. Here’s a breakdown:

Inside Picking:

Starting with the pick between strings, initiate with an upward stroke.
Follow a sequence: index-middle on the second string, then ring-little finger on the first string.
Reverse the sequence: inside starting down.
Outside Picking:

With the pick outside the strings, begin with an upward stroke.
Alternate between starting up and starting down.
Expanding the Exercise
The drill isn’t limited to a fixed position on the fretboard. It encourages movement up and down the fretboard, allowing for exploration and gradual progression in difficulty. One variation involves widening the interval by skipping strings, challenging fingers to adapt to varying distances between strings.

The Challenge and Benefits
These exercises serve the purpose of challenging conventional finger movements and patterns. By doing so, they enhance precision and accuracy, forcing the hand to adapt to less familiar sequences. This, in turn, contributes to improved overall dexterity and performance.

Conclusion
While these drills may seem daunting at first, they’re effective tools for honing your guitar skills. Incorporating them into your practice routine not only challenges your dexterity but also assists in breaking away from habitual patterns, fostering growth and agility in your playing style.

Is Minor Major Taking Over the Blues Scene?

Lately, there’s been a fascinating shift in the world of Blues music. Have you noticed how contemporary players like Robben Ford and session pros such as Mike Landau are steering away from the traditional blues scale? It’s all about this intriguing minor major tonality that’s making waves, and it’s a trend worth exploring.

Instead of the classic bend on the minor third that’s been a staple in blues, these modern musicians are separating and emphasizing the minor and major 3rd distinctively. It’s a departure from the familiar, and it’s giving the music a fresh, edgy feel.

What’s causing this change? Some suggest influences from the diminished scale or the fusion of major and minor tonalities found in legends like Miles Davis. These elements seem to have seeped into the Blues world, shaping a new sonic landscape.

The result? A revamped pentatonic structure: Root, minor third, major third, fourth, fifth, flat seventh, octave, and a myriad of variations. Imagine the possibilities—different fingerings, various applications, and a whole new palette to paint your musical landscape.

Curious to explore further? Dive into these musical nuances. Whether you’re a seasoned player or just starting, these shifts in tonality could be the spark you’ve been seeking to ignite your musical creativity.

And hey, if you found this insight intriguing, there’s more to delve into. If you’re up for it, check out my books on modern Blues—’Contemporary Blues Soloing’ and ‘Contemporary Blues Chords and Comping.’ They cover everything from the basics to the complexities of modern Blues. Available in both hard copy and digital formats, these resources might just be the inspiration you’re looking for.

Let’s keep the Blues evolving, pushing, and embracing these new sounds. Share your thoughts below! Have you noticed this change in the Blues scene? What’s your take on this shift to minor major tonalities?

Mastering Long Flowing Lines in Jazz Improvisation: Embracing Infinite Soloing Techniques Inspired by Jazz Icons

Have you ever wondered how jazz musicians like Pat Martino or George Benson create those mesmerizing, seemingly endless solos that effortlessly flow from one phrase to another? It’s a mastery of technique, an amalgamation of smaller jazz elements, and a practice in endurance and articulation. In this post, we’ll delve into a technique that builds upon the concept of ‘Jazz Bites’ to help you craft those long, seamless lines in your improvisation.

Understanding Jazz Bites: A Foundation

In an earlier video, the concept of ‘Jazz Bites‘ was introduced—small, digestible units of jazz vocabulary that form the building blocks of improvisation. These tiny units serve as the groundwork for what we’ll explore further—the creation of expansive, continuous phrases.

The Art of Concatenation: Crafting Endurance

The technique involves stringing together these ‘Jazz Bites’ into long lines, almost akin to a musical marathon. It’s not just about playing fast; it’s about the endurance to sustain a continuous flow of 8th or 16th note phrases without pause. This exercise serves dual purposes: enhancing endurance and developing the ability to articulate complex musical ideas seamlessly.

Emulating the Masters: George Benson & Pat Martino’s Influence

Imagine the signature sounds of George Benson or Pat Martino, effortlessly maneuvering through extended phrases, never losing momentum. This technique aims to emulate that style, capturing the essence of their playing by amalgamating various small phrases into one cohesive, elongated line.

Practical Application: Exercise vs. Performance

It’s essential to note that while this technique serves as a fantastic exercise for expanding your improvisational abilities, it might not necessarily reflect a typical performance approach. However, it equips you with the confidence and skill to navigate through extended phrases should the need arise during a gig or session.

Putting It into Practice

To start, focus on slowly concatenating phrases. It’s about building a mental repository of various phrases and smoothly connecting them. While repetition may occur, the aim is to cycle through numerous phrases without breaks.

Final Notes

Remember, this exercise isn’t about mimicking an exact performance but rather about honing the skill set necessary for extended improvisation. It’s an exploration, a journey to expand your musical language and enhance your improvisational capabilities.

Mastering Jazz Soloing: Sharpen Your Phrasing with Focused Exercises

In the realm of jazz, mastering the art of soloing isn’t just about skillful fingerwork or memorizing scales. It’s about controlling the narrative of your music, navigating through changes, and embracing rhythms in a way that captivates your audience. In a recent insightful tutorial, the focus was on refining the length and precision of musical phrases, a challenge often encountered by aspiring musicians.

Understanding the Essence of Phrasing

Phrasing isn’t just about playing notes; it’s about sculpting musical thoughts within a specific span of bars. It’s the difference between a free-flowing cascade of notes and a structured, deliberate sequence that synchronizes effortlessly with the underlying beat or harmonic rhythm.

The tutorial starts by highlighting two primary approaches: free-flow playing and playing in rhythm. While free-flowing allows for spontaneous expression over a structure, playing in rhythm involves following chords and maintaining synchronization with the beat.

The Exercise: Controlling Phrases with Precision

To aid in this skill development, the tutorial introduces the use of a metronome. Starting with shorter phrases, participants are guided to play one-bar phrases alternated with a bar of rest, gradually progressing to longer phrases like two-bar sequences. The aim is not just to play for the sake of it but to listen keenly, crafting musical sentences that have a clear beginning and end.

The tutorial encourages musicians to experiment further, suggesting three-bar and four-bar phrases to align with common music structures. Through these exercises, an inherent sense of rhythm and control over the duration of play is cultivated.

Beyond the Basics: Applying Techniques

Moving beyond the metronome, the tutorial introduces a looper, providing a more dynamic platform to practice these exercises. Demonstrating on a D Minor loop, the tutorial showcases how these exercises translate into real musical application.