Work, with Miles Okazaki

This series of videos takes a close look at one of the greatest improvisations of all time, Charlie Christian's solo on "Stompin' at the Savoy" from May of 1941, live at Minton's playhouse. It's focused on the guitar, but other instruments may also dig it.

This series of videos takes a close look at one of the greatest improvisations of all time, Charlie Christian's solo on "Stompin' at the Savoy" from May of 1941, live at Minton's playhouse. It's focused on the guitar, but other instruments may also dig it.

Today we start a new series - one of the most famous improvisations of all time, Charlie Christian's solo on "Stompin' at the Savoy," recorded live at Minton's Playhouse in May of 1941. In this episode I give a brief biography of Charlie Christian (with some recommended reading), and we listen to the solo. I also talk about the history and context of the Gibson ES150, a very important instrument in the history of the electric guitar.

The perks of membership keep coming! I finally got this thing working - "Fly Shit" is a thing built in MAX/MSP that generates sight reading material based on all kinds of settings. Make it as easy or hard as you want, customize to the range and tempo, melodic and rhythmic material, and never run out of sight reading material again. This is something that I wish I had when I was younger, because sight reading on guitar is hard, and many of us suck at it.

Right now, you can download this version here and use it right away if you have MAX/MSP. If the display doesn't look right, you will need to download an additional package called "BACH" that includes the score display and the pitch circle. I'm working on making a standalone version that works like a regular app, but it's not as easy as I thought.

If you don't have MAX (it is expensive), I'll be doing some guided practice sessions here for sight reading, where you just follow along and I'll do different levels of difficulty. Guitar players, we need to get our reading together, and I think this can help!

Some disorganized thoughts in response to a member question about how to "get organized." Got a really special post coming tomorrow, make sure to check it out. The Octavia Butler quote I was trying to remember in this video is:

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.”

Let's start the week nice and easy. Here's short one in A minor.

This is a follow up to the "Pentatonics in three keys" Guided Practice video, putting that concept into practice on a common tune. Note: This video ends abruptly as my system went down, and I didn't have time to make a new video. But you all can get the main idea, as it was long enough already.

Here's a primer on "Lush Life," using Billy Strayhorn's version of it as reference. I'll make another video that goes deeper into analysis, but this a basic chord and melody arrangment. This is similar to the a cappella version that I play on the album "Trickster, Live in Brooklyn."

This post is a bit of a weird one. Lately I've been building some stuff in MAX/MSP. I give a little look here at one of my practice tools. Once I work out the bugs, I'll put it up here for free, for people to use as they see fit.

A deep dive into Melodic Minor from a recent member question. We cover uses of this sound as a tonic and dominant in improvisation, a brief look at Raag Charukeshi (a related Indian raga), and then some exercises for getting it under your fingers.