More Raw Lick Material

All right, yeah, now groups of three. Now groups of three through groups of six, we'll have four different ways to do them in each category. So you start on the first note of the box. On each note of the box, on the first way of the groups of three, you start on each note of the box and go up three notes. Okay, so starting on the seventh, or the first finger note of the shape, one two three, and count one two three, one two three, as you do it. One two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, (counting continues) Then repeat that top note to reverse direction: one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, (counting continues) So in context it would be: one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, (counting continues) So you could work these as speed exercises too, and focus on it, like put on a triplet subdivision in your metronome or drum machine, and work them like that. Absolutely, that's great. Now the second way is to do that backwards. Backwards means you start on the third note of the box: one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, (counting continues) Repeat that note to reverse direction: one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, (counting continues) So now when you do this, you were just speaking a minute ago about remembering where you are. Yeah, so make a mental note on each finger that's starting the group of three, and the next choice is always going to be the next note up of the box when you're ascending. And when you go down, it's always going to be the next note down from the starting point of each group of three. Now the third way is we combine them. We start on the first way and go up three notes, go up to the next note and go down three notes, next note up, up three notes, next note up, down three notes, and just continue that: one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three. When I get to the top, one two three, since I'm out of room I go down to the next note and go up three notes: one two three, next note down, down three notes, one two three, next note down, up three notes, one two three, next note down, down three notes, one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three. And if you do it right, you end up back where you started, on that first finger. Okay, so in context it'll sound like this. Okay, all right, mark down on your video counter, 38 minutes, okay. Now this is groups of three, second way, I'm sorry, third way. All right, this is 40 minutes 30 seconds into your video, this demonstration. I'm just going to do it slowly: one two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, (counting continues) Fourth way. Basically we just do the third way backwards. We start on the second way, or you can look at it as starting on the second way first. So I go up to the third note of the box and go down three notes, next note up, up three, next note up, down three, next note up, up three, next note up, down three, next note up, up three, next note up, down three, next note up, up three, next note up, down three, next note up, up three, next note down, down three, next note down, up three, next note down, down three, next note down, up three, next note down, down three, next note down, up three, next note down, down three, next note down, up three, next note down, down three. It's actually harder to say than just to play it, but what this is going to help teach you is to control sequencing of notes so that you can remember what you did, so if you're going, so I just use one as part of a lick there. Tell me again, it's going to help me do what? Get control of organizing your notes on the fly when you're making choices to do fills or solos. Okay, so you'll learn that. You practice these things a bunch, and then you can go, it's just part of a line, I just use a little bit of it. You don't, when you actually use this stuff, use the whole thing like you do in an exercise. The exercise is to get really comfortable with the movement so that you can control them, and by controlling them in the exercise you'll be able to control them when you actually make choices in a solo. Right, which will connect your ear to it too, so you'll. Yeah, and that's actually the perfect way to put it, because you can only play what you hear, and your ear is connected to your fingers, or it's not. That's exactly right. I mean, I just saw a lecture on a famous jazz piano player who was talking about just what you said. He said exactly what you just said, you can only play by ear, and the ear connects the fingers, the mind to the fingers. Exactly, so what you do is you're training your ear so you hear this, and you feel that in your finger. Yeah, and it's good to practice it, but again you don't want to practice it too much. I've seen it time and time again, and I made the same mistake for a long time. I would keep exercising things, and I had all my time put into exercising them, and I never got around to actually applying them. You need to practice playing music. A lot of people will practice stuff, and it's important to practice technical material and vocabulary and out of context stuff, that's important, but it needs to be balanced with the practicing of playing music, to where you actually put on a track and just say, okay, I'm going to throw in some of these guys, because that's where you want to be anyway. So you've got to practice doing what you've got to practice, the end result at some point.