It’s been a long while (more than a week) since I posted anything here. I must apologize to my regular readers and subscribers. On the bright side: It is NOT some kind of discouragement or lack of interest in practicing. I’m spending more time than ever with my instrument these days, here’s why…
I had to give myself a break: some kind of “reset” where I would not feel obliged to (more…)
I posted two videos on YouTube in which I explain 2 ways of working with the metronome in 4/4 time. Here’s a summary of both videos
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- Video #1 -
Using the Metronome and
Working at Different Tempos
In this first one (on YouTube here) I explain how to use the metronome as being “2 & 4″ of each bar of 4/4. Remember that a metronome at 50 means an actual tempo of 100 (since it clicks only half of the time…)
Here’s how I do the countoff in the video : (click on the picture)
Notice that when you first say “one”, it falls in between two metronome clicks. That is the secret right there…
This “2 & 4″ way of perceiving the click is great for swing tempo 4/4. It also applies to latin grooves to some extent. How about ways to use the click in 3/4, 5/4 and 7/4 ? What would you do? (send me an email if you find ways you’d like to share!)
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Still in the first video, I also mention the “16 tempos” technique : a way for you to practice at each “metronomic notch” in the spawn of a week or less. If you play at 4 tempos a day (whatever music it may be) you’ll go through them all in 4 days… (4 x 4 = 16).
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Here’s the list of tempos (found on good old metronomes) :
40 – 42 – 44 – 46
48 – 50 – 52 – 54
56 – 58 – 60 – 63
66 – 69 – 72 – 76
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I like to work at one column a day: you’ll notice, the tempos in the same column are at four “metronomic notches” each. Neat uh?
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Be aware that doubles (and halves) are the same. 50 = 100 = 200 = etc. So you can really start anywhere in the course of a practice session and go up and/or down to cover your four tempos on that given day. Any tempo you play will still fall in one of those 16 basic ones…
Again, it doesn’t matter WHAT is practiced… scales, arpeggios, tunes, exercises, transcriptions, etc. It only matters that you play out of your comfort zone. Some tempos will be harder than others and you want to give yourself a chance to work at them also. This “16 tempos” approach will ensure that you play with “the whole deck of cards” so to speak.
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- Video #2 -
Using the Metronome
for Fast Tempos
This is a recent discovery for me. I talked about it in previous blog entries (part of my daily practice blogging).
This approach has the metronome clicking on “beat 3″ of each bar of 4/4. It’s very interesting and useful in real life…
Here’s how I would count it off : (click on the picture)
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It allows me to practice at fast tempos (above 200) and not have the metronome bugging me with too many clicks. Less clicks means a more relaxed approach… it’s essentially the same as “2&4″, but zoomed out.
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In the YouTube video, I essentially filmed myself practicing at four different very fast tempos (I was improvising on Ab blues form and implying the melody to “Sonny Moon for Two” near the end.) Demonstration speaks better than words in this case… you can hear me go “in and out” of the fast fast and half-time tempo.
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From there you can make 2 observations :
What happens is when you’re in the “240 fast as hell zone”, you can fall back on the half-time whenever you’d like. (In fact, you should always be aware of the halves and doubles when you improvise!)
This is the prime reason why I practice like this. If a tempo is too fast and your lines are getting hectic/blurry and you’re tripping all over yourself, RELAX and play in the half time for a while.
Frank Lozano (Montreal sax great) had me do this in a session. He said “…you’re falling appart!” and also “…you’re tripping over your shoelaces. They’re one the floor everywhere, they’re your 8ths notes!” Nice comments. Of course, we were trying to play Stablemates (that’s right, I said trying), which is not an easy tune …
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Playing fast with a metronome set slow like this is a key to success. YOU have to make all the subdivisions! Have fun!
Practice is not “long sessions of focused musical training” these days…and, believe or not, I think it’s ok. I’ve always been hard on myself and I’m now reconsidering the multiple factors of my professional musical life. I also have a little cold, which greatly reduce my will and desire to play music in general…
These last two days, I practiced/played scales, triad pair, on a few tunes, part of transcriptions and compositions etc. It’s not very organized (yet focused and highly rewarding) and I really go with the flow of “what I feel” I should be playing/practicing.
Also, I think I’m in a phase where I “ask more questions” : What should I do? How should this-that sound? What should I practice? How’s my future looking ? etc. I’m reading different books and pondering my musical identity.
And that’s all happening in the gigs/rehearsals/sessions/teaching lifestyle I’ve been living for a while now. I guess it might be the spring time (birds singing!) that make me re-adjust my aim. And, to add to that, I know for a fact that I’ll stop playing 2 of my regular gigs for the summer (back in september…)
That makes a little jazz guy THINK ya know…
Anyways…
On the bright side : I’ve been composing new fresh tunes and playing sessions here and there. It’s great.
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And, now for the most exciting part :
I’m reading The Pat Metheny Interviews
“What do you want to do?”
(which stems from “What do you love?”)
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I’m figuring that if I find the part of music that really, really “knocks me down” as Metheny says, motivation and productivity won’t even matter anymore! If I can find that little “gem” inside me, I won’t have to obsess over my practice routines (and decisions) and time spent playing and gigs, etc. Just go with the heart…
Meanwhile, I discovered that being organized (with great practice regiments for example) and staying true to yourself are very different aspects that should’nt be confused for one another.
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So here are my answers …
1- Lead my band (compose/record/concerts and tours)
2- Maintain and Update JazzGuitarLessons.net
It could have been only the first answer, but I wanted to include my “teaching reality” into the frame; it really does matter to me, especially these days.
Some of you may think “woah, that’s just too obvious”. Yes, every musician would naturally want to start a band and make it happen, I know. But on the other hand, I had never quite realized that I want to have my own band and write tunes, and tour and whatever comes with it.
My musical endeavors were pretty much always “zoomed in” my practicing that I was almost avoiding this big picture. You know, the music is out there, not in how many ways and fingerings you can apply the diminished scale (or what about that Coltrane solo, etc.) I never thought of it this ways; my thinking was usually “Practice more, get better, we’ll see later”.
I think for me the first step is to acknowledge that this is REALLY where I want to be in X number of years. It feels good to know that THIS is the big picture for me. Starting from there, I realized that the part that is lacking (the most) for my first goal to be achieved is composing. I need a huge repertoire of original tunes.
Hence my intense will to write new music.
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I hope that keeping that big picture in mind will feed my desire to write and practice daily. (Because I really need a reason to compose… what a pain!)
Let’s forget about chords, scales, jazz and songs for a moment and reflect upon this :
Music is all about perception: A single-note or a simple rhythm can be perceived as many different things. So, a shift in your perception can change your playing drastically, right?
How can we do that then?
Technically speaking, you could rationalize everything you hear and attach numerous significations to the sounds (x chord, x note, x rhythm, etc.) That’s very useful in schools and various learning situations.
But on the “human being” level…
Becoming a “better person” will impact your perception of the world in general, that’s for sure. That includes music/aural perception. Thus, adopting newer, better ways of life *will* make you into a better jazzman.
Go on and create meaningful relationships, manage your moods and mindset, get rid of addictions, sleep and eat well, exercise (etc.) and your music will greatly improve.
Practice well,
Marc-A Seguin
[On a personal note : I've been changing my lifestyle(s) for a while now. My music/playing/composing is now greatly enhanced by my nutrition, scheduling, exercising and improved mindset.]
For those who wish to grow as a person, I suggest this website : StevePavlina.com I’ve been reading Steve for at least 5 years! He has great things to say (and suggest) about a lot of different matters.]
One more month before Spring and… It’s time for a Mini Report :
I had scattered and weird days of practicing recently. Piano took over for a few days… (of course!) and I barely touched the guitar. I feel somewhat bad about that. There’s really no reason for me to panic because I’m simply working on “other stuff”.
In very short, I wish to spend more time :
-and today… (I don’t know if the “fire” will last for long)
I’m feeling good working in Volume 3 of Modern Method for guitar. Resurgence of positions and all they imply.
We’ll see…
I’m spending less time “technical” and more time listening/exploring. I like that. It’s mostly on my classical guitar and I like that too! (a more natural feeling, overall, for sound production)
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Regarding positions and the berklee method : I put “positions” aside for a long while and I believe it was beneficial for me. Less time “in the fingers” and more listening!
I believe the resurgence now comes from the fact that I can really HEAR what I play (as compared to 5 years ago, for instance). By keeping the ears wide open and restricting my fingers to certain “patterns” (positions or other), I will expand my overall freedom on the instrument.
In short : Hearing one thing and having more than one option for making the sounds. It should lead to some “openings”, I hope!
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I don’t think I’ve ever written this anywhere on my website or blog, so now’s the time : In the fall of 2009, I had the pleasure of speaking (on the phone) with bassist Gary Peacock for 30 minutes. I got his contact through Clinton Ryder (my friend and favorite montreal-based bass player).
Clinton has been studying with Mr. Peacock for 2-3 years now and I felt like I wanted to do the same. By the way, Peacock is part of the Keith Jarret Trio and has played with Miles Davis and Bill Evans, just to name a few… so I called him!
It was a great conversation; basically, he gave me a lesson on the phone. They were two mains aspects 1-Hearing/listening/aural perspective on music 2-Acknowledge the HARD stuff.
On the hearing level, Gary is basically saying : “sing, always”. If you can’t sing it, you can’t hear it… then don’t try to play it! Seems obvious enough, but it gave the impression that I had to work on my ears for another 20 years(at the very least).
The second thing, assessing what is the hardest for you, is the reason why I’m writing these lines right now. Mr. Peacock told me to “write down the things you find really hard… that’s where the juice is!” And he also specified : “don’t try to get them better. Just write them down.”
I never wrote my “hard stuff” down…now’s the time!
What’s hard for me (as of December 22nd 2009)
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I’m sure the “hard stuff” keeps changing, like our life and goals. I feel relieved simply because I wrote them down. Thank you Mr. Peacock.
Tuesday,
Wrote a bunch of music (including two 32-bar songs as an composition exercise) and taught an hour of guitar at night. I also went skating (feels good!) and had a long meeting with the boys from the Planet Earth Projet. I’m responsible for building our webiste. We’re starting the project again, hoping to gig with new material in the spring.
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Wednesday,
Also more music today wrote music, based on guide-tones this time, as an exercise. I’m getting my “writing chops and reflexes” back! Yay! (It’s all in the ears…)
I decided to pickup the guitar today for “real” practice : it has been left alone for too long. I practiced the third Invention from the Bach book (both parts) )and jammed on some other stuff. I’m trying very hard to listen and sing everything I play now.
I taught 3 hours @ night.
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All in all, a “not bad” middle of week for me.
In the midst of re-discovering what jazz improvisation is really all about (by reading and working through Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony) I came across a very obvious answer…
It’s funny because I wasn’t even looking for the answer anymore! It jumped right in my face while I was doing something unrelated. Here we go :
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For a while, I was really working hard on arpeggios and scales that were applicable to soloing. Every now and then I stumbled on a nice line or lick that contained some displacement at the octave (down or up). Most of my favorite recorded solos contains quite a lot of octave displacement.
So…
I worked at it, sparsely, I finally decided that octave displacement is for horns and that it’s not really “guitaristic”.
Much too hard to incorporate in my improv. I tried many ways, didn’t work.
Cased closed. (Until today)
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And all of a sudden : “Wait a minute! Transposition is very easy on the guitar because it’s linear, it works in half-steps. BUT… transposing something up or down an octave is much harder!“
I realized that a serious “mind shift” was required for a guitar player to finish a line (or part of a line) up or down an octave. On piano, it’s easy : you hit the same keys! On guitar, you have to re-consider fingerings and it’s almost impossible to execute “linearly”, without jumps.
So I gave up : An octave displacement is just what it is (that’s in my head). It’s not simply “same notes an octave down” in my perception… and that solves the problem!
You can think I’m crazy. I forgive you. I probably am.
In fact, I’m a serious nutcase.
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For example, take a line like this :
And play that instead :
It works particularly well for ascending arpeggios (that a horn would normally “run out of high notes”) or descending scales (“run out of low notes”…). Another Example :
And one last one, for the road (now with 100% more scalar displacement!)
Practice Well.
Marc-A
Allright, now’s the time to review some of the stuff I’ve been working on in my practicing. I’ll see what I’ll keep and what I’ll just dismiss for now.
I believe they’re all “keepers”… but it seems like 1 or 2 of the topics always get tossed away somehow. For example, I didn’t actually practiced pentatonics in at least 2 weeks. I wonder what I should do… maybe I can do the “every second day” routine.
Yeah! I had that idea once and I never applied it to my daily routine. I have eight topics up there : I can try to cover four today and four tomorrow, and so on.
Sounds like a plan!
That’s my promise to myself : I will start my sessions with what I missed in yesterday’s practice. That way, I’m sure to go through more material instead of going “all out” on some things and forget about others.
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Here’s what I practiced today :
Short session… my excuse it that I really wanted to put more time on JazzGuitarLessons.net, and I did!
The rest of my day, I was working online and I taught a lesson at night (another student I’m grateful to be teaching to.)
It’s 1:23 AM… and I’m still working on this website!
Good night!
We’re back. We did “full circle”, the week is coming back at me! It’s unwrapping its days of hard work over my little existence. I believe, more and more, that my weekend really is Monday-Tuesday. Yep…
So, I’m teaching again today. In the next six days, I will teach three and play three gigs (plus a fun jam).
All I ask to do is work, and there it is. I can’t complain, I’m bringing food to the table (and paying my dues musically at the same time).
It’s 8:02AM and I’m diving right into practice now.
