Here's another Miles Davis tune - Solar - comprised mainly of descending whole-tone II-V-I's. The tricky thing about this tune is the II-V-I's aren't symmetrical; the first one is 4 bars, the second one is 3 bars and the third one is 2 bars.
As with the last lesson, I've included the song in the video with me playing both parts. If this were a one-on-one lesson, we would play this together; you would be playing the chords ("comping"), using the open and close voicings we've covered previously, and I would play the melody.
(NOTE: This is a members-only page; you must be a site member and logged in to view)
Announcing the Launch of Unit 7: 9th Chords!
The launch of Unit 7: 9th Chords will begin December 9th! It will run from the 9th through the 13th.
This launch is an opportunity for you to obtain a complete, methodical approach to learning 9th chords - all types, positions, voicings and alterations. This material notched up my own playing significantly when I was first taken through it by my teacher, John Elliott. As far as I know, it is a unique approach and is superior to anything I have seen.
Fuzzy on 9th chords? I can help!
This is a special one for me! The goal has been to rewrite and reformat my method book, Vertical Truth: Chordal Mechanisms for the Guitar (published in 1999), in a format that is relevant to the internet environment. It has taken 10 freakin' years! The story of how it all began is at The Fun Has Not Yet Gone Away.
Getting to Unit 7 was the minimum goal, and here we are! There are 3 more units to the book, but I am not committed to redoing those. It's advanced material, therefore the market is small. Depends on the demand, and whether I live long enough to undertake the job.
Heads up! The initial Launch Blog will be published on November 25.
The week of December 2nd will be the pre-launch content (lots of goodies for y'all there!), and the Launch will open Monday, December 9th. Watch for it!
NOTE: Launches are to SITE MEMBERS ONLY! So if you're not a Site Member and want in on this Launch, sign up now!
Blogs Published Since Last Newsletter
Default Tipping: Not! I want to understand what, exactly, is my customer’s experience?
Stumbling Into The Spanish 8-Tone Scale: How I stumbled into the Spanish 8-Tone Scale and how I use it.
Good & Bad Music: Musical snobbery is an ugly thing, especially when it falls along genre or stylistic lines, which are artificial.
What's Wrong With My Hand? Listin' to Port! This one addresses the tendency of the fretting hand to drift towards the headstock, thus fingering the backside of the fret which raises the likelihood of muted notes &/or fret-buzz.
Concepts for Comping: Lesson 10: October Newsletter: Concepts for Comping: Lesson 10, Blog Links, Tune of the Month and more!
Past Newsletters
As I wrote in one of last month's blogs, List Management: A Guitar Teacher’s Search for an Email Marketing and List-Management Platform, all the email links to past newsletters are broken due to the demise of the email-marketing platform (Mad Mimi) I've been using since I started this newsletter in 2014 - Yikes! That's 10 years ago!
Never fear! Since February of 2019 all the monthly newsletters have also been published as blogs. If you want to see any of those, here's the link: Monthly Newsletters.
For newsletters previous to February 2019 I just happened to save them all as web pages! - Because I don't trust 3rd party providers, that's why! And Mad Mimi going away just proves my point.
There's a buried and rarely visited webpage on the site that links to all past newsletters: Past Newsletters.
NOTE: that link (Past Newsletters) is in the Members Only area of the website; you must be a Site Member and logged in to view it.
Not a Site Member? See: Why Become a Site Member?
By the way: in case you haven't noticed, the free lesson series given away at the top of every monthly newsletter is also in the Members Only area of the website; you must be a Site Member and logged in to view that as well.
Conversely, the Blog is open to all. Currently there are well over 300 published blogs.
Tune of the Month
I saw BEAT in Dallas on September 22. For those who don't know, BEAT is Adrian Belew and Tony Levin of King Crimson fame, along with Danny Carey (of Tool) on drums and, taking Robert Fripp's place, Steve Vai. They cover 3 iconic 80's-era King Crimson albums - Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair.
That's the first time I've seen Steve Vai live, although I've been aware of him since Flex-Able in 1984.
So seeing BEAT was a twofer for me, Adrian Belew and Steve Vai in the same band! I thought it was great! I realized that Tony Levin is THE guy! That music is not easy, even if you only play one instrument. There were times he was playing bass with one hand, keyboards with the other hand, and singing backing vocals! Amazing musician.
There's been controversy; some King Crimson fans are offended and feel like Steve Vai is not right for the gig, and that BEAT dishonors the legacy of King Crimson.
In my opinion, these folks are missing the point. This reaction stems from the inaccurate expectation that what they're hearing/seeing is supposed to be King Crimson.
BEAT is not King Crimson. They're not claiming to be. Belew characterizes it as “a creative reinterpretation.” Put simply, no Robert Fripp, no King Crimson.
According to Belew, “I don’t think I even thought about trying to [use the name]. I know Robert very, very well, and he thinks of King Crimson as being his, and rightly so…it truly is not King Crimson without Robert involved."
Besides, Fripp gave it his blessing and said, “Steve Vai is the only guitarist who could play my parts.”
That's good enough for me.
So in honor of Steve Vai, I thought I'd share “Vai-able.”
This track is another one of my tunes that was never used for anything and only released to my Soundcloud page.
How About 5 FREE Lessons?
The 5-Lesson Foundational Series teaches the Circle of Keys as an organizational mechanism by which you ensure that whatever you learn is drilled in every key in all possible positions. It also gives you a method to find any note, anywhere, without memorizing note names on every string. That is a beautiful thing!
Almost every lesson I teach presupposes it.
You can download the 5-Lesson Foundational Series right here for free (a $39 value) with no further obligation or commitment:
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