my journey to englightenment (sight reading)

mlb1399 · Unread post by **mlb1399** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:31 am

I have to say this book is very good. I have been practicing some of the stuff that I didn't know. I think I might get some of their other books. Great recommendation.

brian_ok · Unread post by **brian_ok** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:15 pm

so yeah, thanks to absolute fretboard trainer and Dheibs, I've pretty much memorized the fretboard. I want it to be instantaneous, so I'll keep on practicing.

sight reading is going very well thanks to A Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt. I also bought a real book, and I'm working on sight transposing an octave up. That's a great exercise.

I'm amazed at how fast both of these processes were. Once I just cut to the chase and practiced hard, I caught on very quickly.

GSR · Unread post by **GSR** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:33 pm

good stuff, i've been working on the same sort of deal.

did i miss the link to DL absolute fretboard trainer?

brian_ok · Unread post by **brian_ok** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:30 pm

there was no link. check your PM.

MattJ · Unread post by **MattJ** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:13 am

Two other books to check out:

"Jazz Guitar Technique" by Andrew Green.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097005 ... s&v=glance

"The Advancing Guitarist"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/088188 ... e&n=283155

Second one requires a good deal of motivation. Not because its badly written or anything, but its designed so you get out what you put in. For me, the Single string soloing and intervals training were worth the price by themselves.

No tablature in either of them, so they'll both help your reading too.

brian_ok · Unread post by **brian_ok** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:35 am

thanks Matt...I actually already have Jazz Guitar Technique..it is very good!

I'll have to check out the Advancing Guitarist eventually, but at the moment I have an abundance of books.

Cor · Unread post by **Cor** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:11 am

Brian,
how is this whole quest going at this point? Do you need any more info or anything? I may be able to help out, and would still love to, if possible.

brian_ok · Unread post by **brian_ok** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:07 pm

It's going very well. I've accomplished almost all of what I hoped to. I'm still learning more and solidifying what I've already learned, and I'm definetly open to more help/advice!

Cor · Unread post by **Cor** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:49 am

Awesome.
I saw you had a book about "Jazz Guitar Technique", so you may already know this, but, do you know how to spot major and minor ii-V-I's in songs and what scales you can use over them?

brian_ok · Unread post by **brian_ok** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:09 pm

eh, I am familiar with the ii-V-I progression (it's common in many of the jazz songs I've learned), but I didn't know it could be major or minor. As far as scales, I know that, say if the ii-V-I progression in the key of C major, (d-G-C), I could use the C major scale, or each chord's respective mode over that chord (D dorian, G myxolidian, C Ionian/C major scale)

I am not a very good lead guitarist. After I get more solid in what I've been learning (sight reading, notes on the fretboard, jazz standard memorization, and working through a few books), I'll devote more time to that. PLEASE give me any advice/help that you have, though. I've found that the best way to learn more about guitar/music is to listen to those who know more than I.

brian_ok · Unread post by **brian_ok** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:46 pm

Well, I've been working my way through The Real Book, a collection of jazz standards, and it's helped my sight reading tremendously. My memorization of the fretboard is pretty much done. I do one or two 10 minute cycles in AFT per week though, just to keep it in tip top shape.

I've been doing 4 main things in The Real Book:
1. sight reading the melodies as written (aka, in first positition)
2. sight-transposing the melodies up an octave
3. forming the chords in different positions (this has really helped cement the theory that I've studied for the last few years)
4. played the melody and the chord progression at the same time. this is challenging, but fun to find the best position in which to play it.

I'm trying to decide what my next 'step' will be, as I'm pretty much done with learning how to sight read/memorize the neck. I'm still working through A Modern Method for Guitar, and will be for a while, probably another 6-8 months at least.

I might start working on improvisation. This, being able to truly improvise, seems like the new 'ultimate goal' to me as far as music is concerned. I read an interview with BB King, in which he said that improvisation/solos were only truly improvised after 20-30 years practice. I might as well start. Any suggestions?

iha · Unread post by **iha** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:29 pm

BB King just said that because he's so old :roll:

mangold · Unread post by **mangold** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:39 pm

fost... i cannot even tell you how much you remind me of me... its uncanny.

i always work on learning as many variations of the exact same chord as i can, i find that works really well for throwing little riffs into jams and for making your written music more interesting and unique.

my only suggestions for learning how to truly improvise is make sure everything on your guitar is second nature to you. once you know all of the scales and modes and notes, you should be able to listen to a song, hear its key and hear the kind of improv track you want to put over top of it. once you can listen to a song and say that should be a blues scale in A with a mixolydian mode (btw im not there either, not even close, but i work methodically like you) once you can do that youre there. but then again everytime i get "there" another "there" appears...

good luck man. keep me posted or hit me up on aim

DMBTabs.com

my journey to englightenment (sight reading)

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