A SUMMARYA popular weekly class exploring concepts, breaking them down into easy to understand manageable chunks, providing countless creative ways to practice them & use in real-life playing! 6pm - 7.15 pm Thurs, £10
Info -
http://paulrichardsguitar.com/sussex-jazz-guitar-school/
This is a no-nonsense jazz guitar course with the aim of giving you the necessary skills to become the musician you want to be.
Every Thursday 6pm UK time, 1.25 hours £10, Zoom. Dip in and out.
I will be providing specific information in key areas by introducing concepts and rinsing those concepts for all theyre worth and providing countless ways of practising them from many angles to make learning fun whilst progressing at your maximum potential. No more plateaus, no more frustration with practice and development but plenty of eureka moments and a focused route for improvement as a jazz guitarist.
Practising:
I always found I never knew what and how to practice when learning jazz guitar. I would get frustrated and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material to work on. Should I practice licks from books? transcribe solos? How should I practice scales and arpeggios? How can I learn and memorize tunes? Theres just too much, Im never gonna learn all this!
Improvising with arpeggios & scales:
When I asked musicians about how to solo over this tune, chord progression, chord whatever Id always get responses like, Well, you can play D Dorian over that D minor chord or To get an altered sound over C7 alt, whack Db melodic minor over it or play the arpeggios of the chord etc And Id always think, yes fine, but HOW should I play these scales and arpeggios? How do I make it sound like JAZZ? How do I get the twisty, turny, zig zaggy melodic lines that sound jazzy? How do I apply this to tunes and make it come out in my playing?
Time is precious, and how do I make the most of that time to learn and improve as a musician? So over the years, I started investigating concepts. Id listen to recordings, watch live jazz gigs, read books, get the occasional lesson off a high profile jazz musician and through practice and hard work stumble upon certain concepts. I had many eureka moments finding these concepts. But the main point is that I take a concept and think of as many exciting ways to exploit it so that I practice it in countless ways using different approaches.
Exploring concepts:
So rather than saying as mentioned above whack Db melodic minor over C7alt, Id explore all the possible permutations of that scale, which are the important notes, how I can incorporate passing notes, targeting and enclosure of notes, what are the arpeggios built off the scale degrees, superimpose arpeggios over the chord, which arpeggios sound best over the chord, how to link these arpeggios together, ooh well I could play the arpeggios in all possible inversions, which inversions sound best? How can I mix the scale and the arpeggios so I devised numerous devices to mix scales and arpeggios, what interesting rhythms /time signatures can I use? Play it scacatto, legato, loud, quiet, fast, slow, standing on my head upside down, make it sound classical, baroque, old Skool, modern, jarring, nice, orrible! , beautiful, sleazy, twee, anything! I want my practice to be fun and I want to sound good when I play live. Im still learning, and am nowhere near where I aspire to be, but I am meeting my goals over time and am actually now where I aspired to be some time ago when I set my old goals. So any, heres the plan Stan!
COURSE CONTENT:
Soloing over chord changes using single note lines:
Well be thoroughly exploring concepts using scales, arpeggios, triads, playing the melody of a tune and embellishing it, guide tones, targeting and enclosure and more to develop fluency when soloing thru the changes.
Well start by looking at the common chord types- minor, major, dominant and getting our gnashers around soloing over vamps over these chords.
Well move onto chord progressions such as the 2,5,1 in both major and minor keys and how to create interesting lines through the chords using guide tones and other devices.
Well analyse tunes, breaking them down into chord progressions and key centres and Ill provide countless ways of practising over the tune to gain fluency in creating meaningful lines weaving through the progressions and key changes.
We will leave no stone unturned in our quest for mastery of the fingerboard so will be practising in all areas of the fretboard (including the dusty end!) and all string sets so that you are not limited by your easy familiar patterns. Youll soon be flying all over the shop.
Chords:
Well be looking at triads and 7th chords, inversions of these chords up and down the neck, quartal chords stacked in 4ths for that oh so modern sound, chord substitutions, tritones tri what? Chord alterations, superimposing cheeky chords over chords, Voice leading, different ways of comping and of course APPLYING it to TOONZ, its got be used in context in real life.
Chord melody:
The guitar is a solo instrument. As well as playing single-note lines and chugging chords in a band, you can actually play it on your own playing the melody, chords and walking bass lines. Its true! Check out Joe Pass, Martin Taylor, Fred Greene, Lenny Breau, Francesco Buzurro, Diego Figuerido and youll see!
And even if you dont aspire to be a solo guitarist, this will still help fill out your playing in a band setting. Well be looking at how to come up with chord melodies by analysing the melody notes of a tune in relation to the chords, exploring which chord inversions can be used and various other techniques such as inner voice movement, baroque counterpoint and classical guitar stuff so your arrangements dont all end up sounding like clumpy chords with the melody shoved on the top. Lets make it sophisticated.
Threads running through the course:
There will be threads running thought the subject areas. For example, it is common for jazz guitar students to learn all the info n bumpf then wonder why they cant execute it. So Ill be providing support on guitar Technique, a commonly neglected area. Minimal movement and pressure, proper hand positions, left and right-hand techniques, playing with and without a pick. All the stuff thatll help you play well and cleanly, develop speed, chops and avoid the dreaded RSI and tendonitis.
Making practising fun so you actually want to practice and look forward to it rather than regarding it as drudgery and hard graft. As I mentioned, taking concepts apart and wringing them out, rinsing them for all theyre worth and practising in as many fun ways as possible. Getting the most out of your valuable time, reaching your goals but most importantly practising concepts over jazz standards, Latin and bebop tunes. Yes, Ill show you drills, exercises and the like but when we find ways of practising these concepts over tunes, itll come out in our playing.
Analysing/performing jazz standards, be-bop & Latin tunes:
Well be getting our teeth into jazz standards by analysing the chord progressions, key changes, melodies and heads so that you can play fluently through them. We will also work on MEMORIZING tunes and transposing them into all 12 keys so for example if a singer says lets play Just Friends (or just friends, teehee!) in D youll be able to play it instantly without faffing with your iPhone to transpose it. Ill be showing you techniques for this both on the guitar and AWAY from your instrument. If Im ever in a boring queue in a bank or something, Ill take a standard and go through it in my head in all 12 keys, stuff like that.
Course venue, structure and times:
Each session will run for 1.25hours with me demonstrating the material, answering any questions and you practising it with the other students. Ill be showing you how to play effectively in jazz guitar duos and other practical situations. I will provide students with Prep work before each class there will be key areas to look at and be aware of, which we will explore in detail during lessons so were all singing from the same hymn sheet. I will email the link to the Prep work to students which will be found on the Blog section of my website; http://paulrichardsguitar.com/blog-new/
After you make your booking I will respond with the zoom invite
