fet Posted January 22, 2001 Share Posted January 22, 2001 For my money, learning a difficult bit of music improves your ability faster and better than working out of an exercise book. A few years ago I learned to play the head to Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee". From learning this piece, my jazz playing shot ahead 200 percent; now, I have a few characteristic Parkerisms under my fingers which enhance my jazz vibe. Lately I've been practicing excerpts from a book of J.S. Bach's solo violin pieces - a wild combination of spiritual profundity and brutal left-hand workout. Really good for pick-style guitar, because this violin music is all unaccompanied single lines. My overall playing has never been better, and I owe it to these great pieces I started a few months ago. Anybody else recommend a piece of music that, when learned, greatly improves your ability? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2001 Share Posted January 22, 2001 Eric johnson's "Cliffs of Dover" (not that I ever got it up to 100% of it's tempo, but the fingerings alone are worth the price af admission.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chip McDonald Posted January 22, 2001 Share Posted January 22, 2001 Yeah, the Parker heads yields some obtuse fingerings on guitar... "Scrapple from the Apple", "Ornithology"... Learning the head to "Giant Steps" by Coltrane was fun and I got a lot of ideas for arpeggio sequencing fingerings from that... Despite popular stigma against it, Pagannini's 24 caprices are invaluable for pushing one's chops outside normal bounds. Any Holdsworth solo is going to be difficult to learn. "City Nights" comes to mind, but well before that I remember doing "Metal Fatigue" and thinking "this is actually rather difficult"... Trying to match a singer's phrasing perfectly is sometimes and eye opener. I got really intensive with that for awhile and I think it yielded some melodic insight that translates as "blues phrases" that are not stereotypical things you hear on guitar. http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald This message has been edited by Chip McDonald on 01-22-2001 at 02:02 PM Guitar Lessons in Augusta Georgia: www.chipmcdonald.com Eccentric blog: https://chipmcdonaldblog.blogspot.com/ / "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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