Practise Tips 1

The most common question I get asked from guitarists is 'what should I be practising'. While there is no one answer to this question given each persons individual needs, there are some things I can offer that might help. I will do a series of blogs covering some ideas to try.

A big part of my practise involves playing along to recordings. Often when I speak with people I ask them if this is what they do, and usually they do not. For me, when I play along to recordings my goal is to match the timing as accurately as possible and the sound/tone. I want to absorb the feel, so to speak.

Here are a few tracks that I regularly play along to (click on the title to link to the tune). Some of these might be a surprise given that I primarily do Jazz and Blues gigs.

1. Rock With You - Michael Jackson. 

2. Rugged Road - Robben Ford. 

3. Josie - Steely Dan.

4. Chank - John Scofield.

5. Steve Vai - Fire Garden Suite (first tune).

... and one of my favourite things to do is to play along to solo drums. One of my favourite drummers to play along with is Keith Carlock. Check out this clip, it's a great example of his playing. Keith has a groove that I love and try to absorb. Another couple of favourite drummers are Bernard Purdie and Steve Gadd.

I save these tracks as a hidden playlist on Youtube then when I practise it plays from beginning to end without interrupting. This is just the beginning of my list, there are plenty more ranging from easy to difficult.

Any thoughts or things I have missed let me know? 

Keep in touch:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/nickgranny

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/nickgranvillemusic

... and you can download my latest album from:  nickgranville.bandcamp.com/album/home

Guitar Lesson: The Robben Ford Scale by Nick Granville

In this lesson I cover a scale I call the Robben Ford Scale. Some call it the dorian pentatonic or minor 6 pentatonic. I'm not a big fan of either of those names because they both imply that the scale belongs to a minor tonality. Sure, it is a minor scale, but I use it over dominant 7th chords primarily.

The way in which Robben uses this scale is to play over the I chord and the IV chord in a blues or similar progression - essentially to blanket. On the I chord it clearly spells a 13#9 chord and on the IV chord it spells a Dominant 9th chord e.g Bb13#9 to Eb9 if in the key of Bb.

Feel free to fire any questions you might have about this?

Thanks for watching and keep in touch:

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/nickgranny
Facebook - https://www.youtube.com/user/nickgranny
... and you can download my latest album from:  nickgranville.bandcamp.com/album/ home