Over the course of my life I’ve been focused on technique to varying degrees. I’ll admit, it feels really nice when it feels like you’re able to execute anything, but of course you can go too far and sacrifice musicality for the sake of technique. The “flow state” comes when you’re playing enough music that the technique follows.

That said, there are some simple exercises that have helped me with finger independence, finger stretching, and picking technique, especially when I was newer to the guitar. Here are ten that you can do in front of the TV

Continuing on the theme of... thematic practice, Days of Wine and Roses gives us some opportunities to explore relationships between harmonic areas within a key. Specifically, and what notes can be changed or kept constant between harmonies to accomplish the dual aim of emphasizing (1) harmonic changes and (2) thematic development.

Thoughts on how to play and practice Alone Together…

Here is another concept to consider adding to your practice arsenal. It falls broadly under the umbrella of giving yourself a "goal" for any given solo, not unlike the last post on Falling Grace, where we looked at building your solos in a specific direction. Here, we start with a two note motif and see how long we can sustain it, giving some liberties to deviate, but also an obligation to return to it. See video below for a demonstration.

Thoughts on how to play and practice Falling Grace…

Falling Grace, by Steve Swallow, is one of my favorite tunes. It’s an odd one, for sure. Despite traversing around 8 key centers (depending how you count) and having a 24 bar form (divided into 14 plus 10), it’s very listenable, logical, and widely played. Especially at Berklee, where it felt like every jazz performance student knew it well.

Very few things are as frustrating as coming back to your instrument after a break, whether forced or voluntary. There was a time when I thought even a day away from the guitar was the end of the world. I’d take a full sized guitar or Martin Backpacker with me on every trip, ensuring my fingers stayed limber and that I retained whatever concept I was working on at the time.

Some thoughts on how to play Inner Urge…

This is without a doubt a hard tune, especially at tempo. Released in 1966 on Joe Henderson’s album of the same name, this tune contains several challenges.

Some thoughts on how to play All the Things You Are…

I took some time to dial in a good sound for this video, which I normally don’t have the patience to do, given it requires all sorts of gear manipulation and computers and software. I’d rather just plop down my phone and go for it, but I also realize the sound on those sucks.

Here is a simple tune that has intrigued me for a few months. Not the most common tune - not in any of the original Real Books… - but not esoteric either. What got me thinking about it were a few fairly recent YouTube releases. I find it odd that such an old tune would get this type of visibility across multiple artists within such a short amount of time. But it’s a great tune, and I’ll get to why I think that a bit later.