Nov
25
I like to work semitone double-stops into my improvising. They're best on the 2nd and 3rd strings, as I don't have to stretch as far. Sometimes I hold my fingers three frets apart in semitone formation and slide around while strumming like a spaz. That's my Nels Cline impression.
When I'm not shooting for crazy, using these semitones requires knowing where the good ones are. Here are a few I try to use:
maj7: #4/5, 7/1
m7: 2/b3, 6/b7
7: 1/b2, b3/3, #4/5, 5/b6, 6/b7, or random pair
m7b5: 2/b3, 4/b5
When working these into my playing, I might pause between melodic passages to hit one, or I might play the two notes sequentially and let the first note bleed into the second. They sound particularly nasty when I bend the lower note up just a tiny bit for extra dissonance. Those needles in your ear turn into muddy hammers as you explore lower registers.
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Nov
10
I finally got comfortable tapping out a few advanced polyrhythms: 5 hits over 3 beats, 5 over 4, 7 over 3. My previous method for learning a polyrhythm like 7 hits over 3 beats was to subdivide each beat into 7 parts and hit on every 3rd of those. It only took me a few years to realize that mentally subdividing beats by 7 is impractical, no matter how tempting.
My new strategy is to maintain 2 steady tempos and ensure the beats coincide where they should. I put both on autopilot, and my only conscious attention is on whether I need to adjust the tempo of the hits relative to the beats.
Consequently, I'm getting good at holding a tempo with my foot while tapping strange rhythms with my hands (or playing on guitar). So I can keep my sense of time with the song in my head while totally losing it in my playing. I can't claim that it sounds any good yet, but it has potential.
The same concept applies to outside harmonic playing. If I can improve at keeping track of the chords as they pass, I can improvise in a completely different direction and then return to more conventional harmony.
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Oct
13
Found some rubbers at the guitar shop today.
I went in looking for alternatives to my old faithful 3mm Big Stubby. I love the way my picks feel, and I love how they sound until I use a tone that brings out the attack. They're big and strong enough to generate their own little notes every time they hit a string. This is especially irritating with the bridge pickup. The pick acts as a new fret, an octave above the normal range, and goes "clink" every time I pick a note.
So I bought a stiff 5mm Wedgie at The Blue Guitar in San Diego, nice little place.
Playing with this pick is a strange experience. The strings cut into it a bit, so it sticks longer than I'm used to. The tone is unique but definitely not what I'm going for, although I bet it would sound great on a bass.
I remember using Gator Grips when I was a kid. I'll give those a try again. Seems like a softer material that might reduce clink.
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Sep
13
I drove up to LA for the Angel City Jazz Festival on Labor Day. Got to see music by Ian Rapien, Option 3, Motoko Honda, Both Sides Now, Nick Rosen Group, Leni Stern, Alan Pasqua Quartet, Satoko Fujii Ma-Do Quartet, Robby Marshall Group, and Nels Cline Quintet. I was there for 10 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. I got to sit front and center for Nels Cline, literally close enough to prop my feet up on the stage.
I'm no good at describing music with words, so I defer to this review at MetalJazz.com. An excerpt on Cline's performance:
Never pigeonhole Cline; he understands all music and can drop into any mode with absolute perfection. Here he pays tribute to cool-jazz clarinetist-arranger Jimmy Giuffre, who died in April, and you should hear Nels nail a straight-jazz guitar tone. (Flashing on Jim Hall is my guess.) From swaying blues to spacious free improv, his band tunes in to a love vibe of total beauty. Grinning Scott Amendola skims the lightest skins rhythm you’ve ever heard from him, leaving room for Joel Hamilton’s big bass. Scowling Ben Goldberg ripples out ecstatic long runs on clarinet. . . . Metal-looking wraith Becca Michalek adds chewy coarseness on baritone and alto. Now it’s 10pm. And everyone is very, very satisfied.
Have another review from LA Jazz Collective and a few pictures.
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Aug
26
I landed a web programming job, started today. It's pretty fun.
Like I said last month, I'm not practicing full-time anymore. I've been cut down to 2-4 hours a day. That's not bad, but it's no 8-10. It'll be nice to work for money for a while, even if it's not in music yet. Especially after being Craigslist Jockey all month. I responded to over 70 job listings in 4 weeks.
Last time I was working and practicing guitar without playing in a band was the summer of 2004. I was a software engineering intern by day and working exclusively out of Shelton Berg's Jazz Improvisation: The Goal Note Method by night. (That's my favorite out of all the musical books I own.) I think I made more progress in my jazz playing during that summer than I did in this past year. I was focused on working out of a single book, and I was motivated by a specific goal: to get into Bobby Bradford's Jazz Ensemble at Pomona College in my final year at Mudd. It paid off.
I spent the first half of this year working for that LAMA scholarship. I'm proud of the demo videos I produced, and I started developing a unique playing style, but I wasn't studying as much jazz as I would have liked to. I think I'll shift my efforts in that direction again. I've been learning CSUN's and SDSU's repertoire of standards from my fake books (PDFs, all digital, w00t) for a couple weeks. I'm still only halfway through the Berg book, so I'll hit that for a few hours every night again.
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