I have a fantastic teacher
For nearly 3 years I've been having lessons twice a month with him.
Almost immediatley - he had me playing scales, it took me a year to get all of my major scales down. At times I hated it. It was slow, tedious and really no fun. I persisted and tried to do everything he suggested. At times I really had to push myself to practice.
My reward for practicing scales was jamming to Aebersold's with blues and Pentatonics, later my reward was playing tunes from the real book.
When I couldn't practice, I read about theory - something I never took the time to do when I played when I was younger. I read everything I could get my hands on. Lots of it I didn't understand. I bought books and asked lots of questions here, lots of SOTW'ers helped me. The thoery helped me understand the scales, which meant I played more scales, which continues to train my ears.
Probably 12 months or so after starting lessons, my teacher introduced me to the 2-5-1 progression. At the time this made little sense to me as I was really struggling with the theory concepts. About a year ago, I made a conscious effort to nail 2-5-1's in every key, arpeggios, scales and the general "feel or sound". I've spent hours and hours and hours on it to the point where my wife can hum a 2-5-1!.
This bit has been invaluable, I can now construct the beginnings of solos that follow the chord tones instead of relying on pentatonics. If I see a major, minor or dominant chord I can spell it out (usually). If someone says "take it up a 3rd" I can. If someone says "play blues off the VI chord" I know what it means.
Why this post?
Last night we had rehearsal with the Rock/Blues band I play in. A lot of the songs I've played the same way for two years. It was fairly casual practice and I took some chances on some lines by playing up a third instead of the root and transposing on the fly. In solos I put in a few nice little half step resolutions and generally tried to add colour to the tunes. Some of it was a train wreck, but a lot of it just sounds, well - light years ahead of where I was 2 years ago.
Before I went, I also transcribed 3 heads from some funk tunes in about 30 minutes, two years ago I wouldnt have even got the first note right.
Do the work, it sucks, it's boring, it's tedious, it feels like you have made no progress over months and months. All the time your ears are being slowly trained without you even knowing it. Then one night it all comes together and you will be able to see the fruit of your effort.
I've come so far, yet I have so far to go.....
I have a fantastic teacher
For nearly 3 years I've been having lessons twice a month with him.
Almost immediatley - he had me playing scales, it took me a year to get all of my major scales down. At times I hated it. It was slow, tedious and really no fun. I persisted and tried to do everything he suggested. At times I really had to push myself to practice.
My reward for practicing scales was jamming to Aebersold's with blues and Pentatonics, later my reward was playing tunes from the real book.
When I couldn't practice, I read about theory - something I never took the time to do when I played when I was younger. I read everything I could get my hands on. Lots of it I didn't understand. I bought books and asked lots of questions here, lots of SOTW'ers helped me. The thoery helped me understand the scales, which meant I played more scales, which continues to train my ears.
Probably 12 months or so after starting lessons, my teacher introduced me to the 2-5-1 progression. At the time this made little sense to me as I was really struggling with the theory concepts. About a year ago, I made a conscious effort to nail 2-5-1's in every key, arpeggios, scales and the general "feel or sound". I've spent hours and hours and hours on it to the point where my wife can hum a 2-5-1!.
This bit has been invaluable, I can now construct the beginnings of solos that follow the chord tones instead of relying on pentatonics. If I see a major, minor or dominant chord I can spell it out (usually). If someone says "take it up a 3rd" I can. If someone says "play blues off the VI chord" I know what it means.
Why this post?
Last night we had rehearsal with the Rock/Blues band I play in. A lot of the songs I've played the same way for two years. It was fairly casual practice and I took some chances on some lines by playing up a third instead of the root and transposing on the fly. In solos I put in a few nice little half step resolutions and generally tried to add colour to the tunes. Some of it was a train wreck, but a lot of it just sounds, well - light years ahead of where I was 2 years ago.
Before I went, I also transcribed 3 heads from some funk tunes in about 30 minutes, two years ago I wouldnt have even got the first note right.
Do the work, it sucks, it's boring, it's tedious, it feels like you have made no progress over months and months. All the time your ears are being slowly trained without you even knowing it. Then one night it all comes together and you will be able to see the fruit of your effort.
I've come so far, yet I have so far to go.....
I have a fantastic teacher
