Practice Tips and Thoughts

Hello, guitar fans, today the topic is daily practice.
I am often asked, "How often should I practice?" The best response I have is simply this, "How good do you want to get?". This is not sarcastic thinking it's simply a fact, if you want to get good at doing something then you have to make it a regular part of your life... as in every day. For example, some of the incredible musicians I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from over the years are practice monsters. Practice is not a once a week thing, it's a daily thing for those that want to improve. My friend Tony Smotherman was recently signed to Steve Vai's record label (Favored Nations). I can assure you that Tony practices the guitar for hours every day and he works hard on his career every day.

Here are some ways to consider the 'how good do I want to get' mentality:
if you want to get good at playing football then you... go to football practice every day,
if you want to get good at riding a motorcycle then you.... ride a motorcycle very often,
if you want to get good at video games then you... play video games very often,
if you want to get good at playing a musical instrument then you... (shocking) .... (wait for it)..practice very often.

Along with practicing daily here are few other recommendations:
1. use a metronome - there is no better way to improve your timing then to utilize a time keeping device whose meter (tempo) does not move.

2. sing - a very good way to learn songs or write your own is memorize words and melodies and then accompany with your instrument; your notes, chords and timing will support the melody much better. This will help to develop your "ear".

3. jam - practice and perform songs with other musicians, going through the effort of trying to perform songs together is a great way to improve your timing and develop a better "ear".

thanks, and until next time... keep jamming,
JayBone

Jamming with Other Musicians 8Nov.2010

Hello, Guitar people, and welcome to another edition of JayBone's corner.

I want to talk about the importance of working with other musicians. There are many things we can learn by getting with other musicians and "jamming" on some tunes.

"Jamming" simply means to get together with other musicians and work on some songs together. First of all, it's alot of fun and secondly it's a great way to learn new songs and techniques, ESPECIALLY the issue of timing. The quickest way to "jam" is to pick a song that either A.) you all know how to perform and/or B.) is easy enough that you can teach it to any fellow musicians.

For my students it's a good way to put into practice the things you are learning during your weekly lessons. In fact some of my weekly lessons include some "jamming" together with a drum machine so the student can learn what it means to perform "in time" with another musician.

In my years as a performing musician I have found that the best way to improve something I need to work on is to find someone who is better at it than I am and then work on it. For example, timing and precise picking have always been challenges for me. To improve my timing I began practicing with a metronome and performing music with drummers who use a metronome. To improve the precision of my picking I "jammed" with my friend Tony Smotherman, who was recently signed to Favored Nations Record Label. Tony is much better than I am at the techniques required for precise picking; his teaching helped me tremendously.

There is no substitute for "jamming" with other musicians. It is our hope that each of you will get involved in "jamming" with other musicians as soon as possible. In fact, I am pleased to tell you that in 2011 the Friese Studio of music will be introducing a program designed to put together groups of musicians in band(s)... more details to come.

Thank you,
Jay "Bone" Fettinger
Guitar Instructor
912-552-2522
jayfettinger@tds.net
http://www.myspace.com/guitarmanjay

Lead Guitarist
Dennys Revenge Band
www.dennysrevenge.com
www.myspace.com/dennysrevenge

Degree and Interval discussion

I have been teaching alot of students lately about scale degrees and intervals. Here is a basic reference, in our one - one lessons I can break it down and help anyone understand.
Basically think of it like this, Remember one thing:
follow the alphabet. You must have one of every letter of the musical alphabet to complete a scale... some of the notes may be # or b but you will still have 1 of every note.

The musical scale only goes from A to G, so when identifying notes and chords in any key, just follow the alphabet, note some of the notes will be incidentals (# sharp or b flat), but it still basically follows the alphabet.

Once you follow the alphabet, just remember the pattern of steps and half steps for the Major scale.
Pattern: R w 2 w 3 h 4 w 5 w 6 w 7 h 8
(Root note - whole step - 2nd degree - whole step - 3rd degree - half step - 4th degree - whole step - 5th degree - whole step - 6th degree - whole step - 7th degree - half step - octave)

so to plug any key into the formula, start with the root note and do the steps:
example: key of C
C w D w E h F w G w A h B

Here is an example with the degree indicators and then a 1-4-5 chord progression based on each scale.
Key of C:
C D E F G A B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

a 1-4-5 chord progression in C is C, F, G

Key of D:
D E F# G A B C#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

a 1-4-5 chord progression in D is D, G, A


Key of A:
A B C# D E F# G#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

a 1-4-5 chord progression in A is A, D, E

Moveable Chord Shapes

Hello, Students, I am unable to upload the video to my blog site at this time. In the future we will work on getting some video on the site.
In the meantime, I will show each of you a clip of the video covering the chord shapes during your next lesson.
The main points to rembember are the following:

• Many chords are "moveable"
• Moveable means to take the shape and move it to other positions on the fretboard
• Example: B minor style chord starting on the 1st string 2nd fret, if you take the "shape" of a B minor chord and move it up one fret then you have a C minor chord, another fret and it's C# minor and so on.

Remember this rule also:
All Natural notes are a step apart (2 frets) except B to C and E to F which are a half step apart (1 fret). Any note between naturals is Sharp (#) of the note behind it and flat (b) of the note ahead of it.
Examples on the 6th string:
F 1st fret
F# 2nd fret
G 3rd fret
G# 4th fret
A 5th fret