K1r Guitar Mentoring Options

[Alex Feather]

Hi K1R!!!! I am glad you joined! Two teachers is better! I will give you a very fun and interesting material to learn and practice!
And you will double your progress! I will tell you everything I know and will teach you tricks and secrets!
I have a few questions for you! It will give me a better idea about your goals!
-What are your goals?
-What is your weakness?
-What is your strongest point?
-Your favorite guitar players?

[K1R]

Hi Alex
Recently I've started to listen to a lot of jazz and I just fell in love with it, so I want to play jazz myself. My goals are to learn jazz theory, freely improvise using modes, arpeggios, intervals and so on and to compose my own music
Well, in my opinion my playing is good enough, but theory still needs some work. Not to say I'm bad at theory, but I'm not satisfied with my improvisation, as I can't use theory freely.
Regarding the strongest point, it is easy for me to come up with a melody
At the moment my favorites are: George Benson, John Scofield, Guthrie Govan and Carlos Santana.

This post has been edited by K1R: Mar 23 2012, 12:02 AM

[Alex Feather]

Great! I like the same players as you are!!!
Nice tasty guitarists!
Playing jazz is not as complicated as it might seem!
If you will simplify it you will end up with II-V-I chord progressions!
So as they say: "If you want to learn jazz, learn to play over II-V-I"
That's what we will be working on!
I have a cool chord progression for you
It's Emi7 - A7 -Dmaj7
Here it is!
http://soundcloud.com/alex-feather-akimov/ii-v-i-jam
In order to play over chord changes you need to learn how to play chord tones!
Chord tones:
If you will analyze a chord you will have notes that this chord is made of
those are the chord tones!
I will give you an example:
E minor 7
E - G -B - D
The most important chord tones are III and VII because that's how you can tell the difference between major and minor chord and also know what kind of VII is there!
In our case it's G and D
So what I want you to do is first to analyze each chord and find III and VII for each of them!
Please post it here and I will show an exercise that you can do to practice your chord tones!

[K1R]

E minor 7
E - G - B - D
III - G
VII - D

A 7
A - C# - E - G
III - C#
VII - G

D major 7
D - F# - A - C#
III - F#
VII - C#

[Alex Feather]

E minor 7
E - G - B - D
III - G
VII - D

A 7
A - C# - E - G
III - C#
VII - G

D major 7
D - F# - A - C#
III - F#
VII - C#

Great! You did a very good job!!! Now I have something challenging for you!
Here is the exercise to practice all the chord tones!
It includes all the chord tones all over the neck!
This exercise will help you develop your chord tones playing and will improve your picking technique!

                           Chord tones exercise                               


Track 1
           E minor 7                                 
     S S S S         S  S S S  S  S  S  S S S  S  S  
E||--------------------10---3--------------------15-|
B||------------------8----3------------15---3-15----|
G||--------7------------------------12----0---------|
D||------5-----------------------12-----------------|
A||----5----------------------10--------------------|
E||--3----------------------------------------------|
 
 
                        A 7                 
   S  S  S  S S S  S  S S   S S S S S S  S  
-----15-------9----------------------------|
--14------------8-------------------2------|
---------------------12-----6-----0--------|
-----------17-----11----5------------------|
--------16----------------------4-------10-|
------------------------------3-------9----|
 
 
                        D major 7              
  S  S  S S S S S S S S S         S  S  S S S  
----------9-----------2-9-----------14----9---|
------------7-------2-------------7----14---7-|
-------11-----6-------------------------------|
----11----------4-----------------------------|
--9---------------4---------------------------|
----------------------------------------------|
 
 
                    D major 7                      
  S S S S  S  S S S S         S S S S S S S        
--------------------------------------------|----||
----7-----------------------------2---------|----||
--6---6------11---6-----------------6-------|----||
----------11----4---------------4-----4-L-L-|----||
--------9---------------------4-------------|----||
--------------------2-----------------------|----||
 

Here is Guitar Pro file!
 Chord_Tones.gp5 ( 2.14K ) Number of downloads: 33


Make sure to practice it a slow tempo using a metronome!!!

[K1R]

Great! Shall I record a video of me playing it?

[Alex Feather]

Great! Shall I record a video of me playing it?

Video would be perfect!!!! I am glad you like it!!!

[Alex Feather]

Hi! I just wanted to follow up and check on your progress!
So you have any questions or need help with something please let me know!

[K1R]

Hi! I'm working on the exercise and I'm actually ready to record it, but this week was very busy so I didn't have tume to record the video. I will post my take as soon as I can. Sorry for the delay.

[Alex Feather]

Hi! I'm working on the exercise and I'm actually ready to record it, but this week was very busy so I didn't have tume to record the video. I will post my take as soon as I can. Sorry for the delay.

Hello! It's all good! Just take your time! I am looking forward to hear your recording!

[Alex Feather]

Hi! I'm working on the exercise and I'm actually ready to record it, but this week was very busy so I didn't have tume to record the video. I will post my take as soon as I can. Sorry for the delay.

Hi! How are you doing? I just wanted to follow up and see how is your practice going and if you need any help!

[K1R]

Hi Alex! I'm really really sorry for such a huge delay, I've had busy weeks, but know I have more free time. Here is my video:

It is not at 100 bpm, as 100 bpm is too fast for me at the moment.

[Alex Feather]

Hi Alex! I'm really really sorry for such a huge delay, I've had busy weeks, but know I have more free time. Here is my video:

It is not at 100 bpm, as 100 bpm is too fast for me at the moment.

You did a very good job with this exercise! I would suggest to use alternative picking and there is no click, it does sound like your timing is good tho!
Let me know if you ready for a new assignment or still need more time to practice this exercise?

[K1R]

Thank you I guess I'm ready for a new assignment. This one is already a part of my practice routine.

[Alex Feather]

Perfect! So now when you know about the chord tones we can start applying it to your playing!
We still have the same chord progression
E mi7 - A7 - Dmaj7
So let's do that:
First time through
E minor pentatonic over E mi7
D major Pentatonic over A 7
B minor pentatonic over D maj7

Second time through:
E minor Dorian over E mi7
A minor pentatonic over A7
D major scale over Dmaj7


You are free to use any shapes you want
If you need help please let me know!

[K1R]

So I have to make up a solo?

[Alex Feather]

So I have to make up a solo?

You don't have to write a solo I want you to play over the backing track using pentatonic and scales that I suggested
It's a good exercise to start playing over the changes!
I just want you to jam but also think every time the chord is changing!

[K1R]

Hello, Alex! COuld you send me the backingtrack so I could record a video, please?

[K1R]

Oh, and I also would like to play A mixolydian with flat 6 instead of a minor pentatonic is that okay?

[Alex Feather]

Oh, and I also would like to play A mixolydian with flat 6 instead of a minor pentatonic is that okay?

Hi! Here is the backing track!
http://soundcloud.com/alex-feather-akimov/ii-v-i-jam
I posted before and for now we will stick with it in a few weeks I will give you a new one
The chord changes are:
Emi7 - A7 - Dmaj7
You have mentioned that you would like to play A mixolydian b6 you can use it if you like!
But mainly I would like you to stick with the pentatonics!
Let me know if you have any questions!