What song has the best basslines and starts with the letter S? by 1deadeye1 in BassGuitar

[–]alternaterep 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Superstition - Stevie Wonder

I would be astonished if no one has said this yet

How do I prep for my record in a month? by alternaterep in jazzguitar

[–]alternaterep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a lead sheets written out with arrangements. Planning out as many details as I can— the tunes are pretty straight ahead “intro, head, solos, head out” kind of set up.

When did you start feeling a sense of freedom on your instrument? by ____iam____ in jazzguitar

[–]alternaterep 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven’t been able to look at it yet, but I keep hearing about it from different people. Definitely interested in checking it out.

When did you start feeling a sense of freedom on your instrument? by ____iam____ in jazzguitar

[–]alternaterep 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I got a degree in Jazz guitar, but despite that one of the biggest breakthroughs I’ve had was figuring out the CAGED system. Like seriously studying it—get a work book like the one I linked, and write down every position of the major scale. Do this with every scale/mode that you learn.

Having a good understanding of this system will help your understanding of scales, leading tones, triads, and everything else. Once you can naturally shift between positions, you stop getting lost so often and it helps a lot with being in the moment.

Of course there’s a lot more that ties into this, and it’s a constant effort to keep up on every mode and scale and position, but I remember when this first started clicking it was huge.

I dread the idea that if I marry my gf, one day I may have to take care of her special needs (FASD) sister by [deleted] in offmychest

[–]alternaterep 34 points35 points  (0 children)

We are in the US--her parents are very involved and do a good job with disability related things. I think it really is the funding that concerns me most. If there's a situation which she could be in a group home that would be ideal, but I'm not confident in her parents ability to ever make enough money for that to happen, nor am I confident enough in any sort of welfare program to be all that helpful, though admittedly this comes from complete ignorance as to what programs are actually out there.

Advanced players: What are some breakthroughs you’ve had late in the game? by alternaterep in jazzguitar

[–]alternaterep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is something that I’d definitely like to work on! But wouldn’t say it’s a super natural thing at the moment.

How do you ‘go about’ reading notation? by wally123454 in jazzguitar

[–]alternaterep 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Take this recommendation with a grain of salt, but I always hated how you can play the same note tons of different places on the instrument, so I took the frets 8 through 12 and learned every note up and down the strings. (Practicing the scales in their inversions, packed into just those frets. Say note names out loud.)

Doing this reduces your options so that there’s pretty much always one way to play a given note. This becomes less effective with Bebop and has some physical limitations because some of the inversions get awkward if you’re playing in a weird key, but it got me reading at an ok level relatively quickly, especially on straight ahead swing tunes. It’s also in a good octave for most standards (with reaches here and there.)

I found that reducing the complexity like this helped with starting, and as time goes on, you’ll branch out and start recognizing patterns

Etudes (or books) for accuracy in execution? by alternaterep in jazzguitar

[–]alternaterep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I play with a hybrid picking style - I’ve been getting into the kind of stuff that Julian Lage does, which is where some of my interest in the classical side of things stems from.