Guitar
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Saturday, March 29th, 2008
It’s been awhile. Because of a big move, some traveling, and intermittent internet access, I haven’t had much time to update this blog. But I’ve had quite a few ideas floating around, so things should get up to speed rather quickly.
As most of you know, one of the keys to having good technique is [...]
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
With all my fascination for counterpoint on the guitar, I feel bad for not having mentioned Jimmy Wyble yet. The truth is I’ve yet to check out his book The Art of Two-Line Improvisation, which doesn’t seem to be available in Amazon or Sheetmusicplus at the moment. Mel Bay doesn’t say it’s out of print, [...]
Friday, December 28th, 2007
In an effort to add contrapuntal textures to my playing, I’ve been messing around with species counterpoint and trying to apply it to jazz tunes.
Here is my first attempt, a cantus firmus for the blues in Bb:
So first, I started playing it and improvising a line on top of it in first species. This proved [...]
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
I recently came upon a sort of epiphany. In a way, I’ve always known this, but somehow I get distracted very easily. Now that I’ve made it a rule for myself, it’s made my music-making and practicing much more productive.
Here is the rule: Everything I play and practice should be music.
I can hear all of [...]
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
Here’s a simple excercise to start applying some counterpoint to standards. I got the idea from Neil Olmstead’s book Solo Jazz Piano: The Linear Approach.
It consists of playing the melody of the tune along with a simple bass line: the root and 5th of each chord in half-notes. Simple! But it can [...]
Monday, October 29th, 2007
Lately I’ve been obsessed with counterpoint. Not just counterpoint, but the idea of improvising counterpoint. As if that weren’t enough, I want to do it on the guitar!
Now, for those who may not know, having two or more lines going at the same time can be pretty tough on this beloved instrument of [...]
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