While the seminal group Grateful Dead were originally categorized as psychedelic rock, by the 1990s the term “jam band” was used for groups playing a variety of genres, including those outside of rock such as funk, progressive bluegrass, and jazz fusion.

Stylistic origins: Folk, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Bluegrass, Country

Virtually, all American forms of popular music are fair game for a jam band.

Cultural origins: United States 1960s with The Grateful Dead

Continuing into the 1990s and beyond with bands like Phish, Umphrey’s McGee, Bela Fleck, Modeski, Martin and Wood among many others. Each group has unique inflections, stylistic influences and performing styles that help to create a loyal fan base, merchandise and an identifiable brand.

Instrumentation: Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keyboards – Guitar Dominant

Characteristics of Jam Bands:

1. Jam bands may be vocal , instrumental or a combination of both. The “jam” part is instrumental and improvisational. It is typically dominated by guitar.

2. Taping, collecting and trading was pioneered by the Grateful Dead. This culture contributed to the popularity of the Dead and led the way for the jam bands of the future. This was so encouraged that direct feeds from the sound board were provided for “tapers” who wanted to archive the shows.

3. Medleys, that is the stringing of songs together as a continuous song was typical.

4. Song Quotation is the use of a small section of a famous song in the beginning, middle or end of another song.

5. Theme – Extended Improvisation – Theme is not only the format of jam bands but as I’ll point out, characteristic of all types of musical styles and contemporary performing groups.

6. Jam bands can exhibit one particular style or a fusion of different styles. This explains in part why there is such diversity among jam bands.

Each characteristic of a jam band is shared with a jazz group like my own. Jazz itself along with Blues is the original “jam band” music. An early example was jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and his “All Star Jam Band”. In a very real way, the word “jam” is a synonym for extended improvisational jazz.

What often differentiates one “jam band” style from another is the sophistication of the chord progressions, melodies and improvisational excursions used in live shows. Virtuosity of soloists is typical though not essential.

Jazz, particularly guitar jazz, mirrors the approach of the jam band. Long extended improvisation is the rule not the exception. Perhaps the connection between jazz and jam bands has been blurred because so much of traditional jazz has been dominated by horns and piano.

I’m constantly discussing about my own belief in the jazz guitar as a market in and of itself. It’s not necessarily a subset of jazz. The guitar has its own market and legion of followers.

I hope that jam band followers will take a listen to guitar jazz a little closer then they would in the past – they just might hear the same spirit of freedom that they hear and feel in the jam band.

“When you play music you discover a part of yourself that you never knew existed.”

“Actually, I’m not interested in Zen that much, as a philosophy, nor in joining any movements. I don’t pretend to understand it. I just find it comforting. And very similar to jazz. Like jazz, you can’t explain it to anyone without losing the experience. It’s got to be experienced, because it’s feeling, not words.”

“Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can’t explain it. They really can’t translate feeling because they’re not part of it. That’s why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.”

“Sometimes it can happen that you see everything in terms of music. It’s like a fixation. You can’t help it. I get that way every time I’m trying to work something out. But it’s bad if you can’t pull out of it. Nothing should be that dominating. If it is, it is perverted.”

“I want to play as good as I can, not necessarily as different. I am not interested in consciously changing the essence of my music. I would rather have it reveal itself progressively as I play. Ultimately, what counts is its essential quality, anyway, and differences vanish in a short time.”

Bill Evans has always been my favorite jazz musician. Despite the fact that I play guitar, there has always been something about Bill Evans the man and the artist that fascinates me. His harmonic sense was legendary. His ability to swing – unparalleled. But the depth of this jazz artist and how he thought was to me, his most distinguishing and most valuable attribute.

Here are some of my favorite Bill Evans quotes. I find them realistic and inspiring. They have been a source of comfort to me throughout the development of my career in the creative world of jazz.

“In the long run, we must consider that what we do is an art.”

“I hope, through my music, to contribute to creating a better world.”

”I had to work harder at music than most cats, because you see, I don’t have much talent.”

“Everybody talks about my harmonic conception. I worked very hard at that because I don’t have very good ears.”

“Now in retrospect, I think it was a good thing I didn’t have a great aptitude for mimicry though it made it very difficult for me at the time because I had to work very hard to take things apart. I had to build my whole music style. I’d abstract principles from people I dug, and I’d take their feeling or technique to apply to things the way I’d built them. But because I had to build them so meticulously, I think, worked out better in the end, because it gave me a complete understanding of everything I was doing.”

“Jazz is not a what, it’s a how. If it were a what, it would be static, never growing. The how is that music comes from the moment, it is spontaneous, it exists at the time it is created. And anyone who makes music according to this method conveys to me an element that makes his music jazz.”

“Intuition has to lead knowledge, but it can’t be out there alone.”

“I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.”

“I think some young people want a deeper experience. Some people just wanna be hit over the head and, you know, if then they [get] hit hard enough maybe they’ll feel something. You know? But some people want to get inside of something and discover, maybe, more richness. And I think it will always be the same; they’re not going to be the great percentage of the people. A great percentage of the people don’t want a challenge. They want something to be done to them — they don’t want to participate. But there’ll always be maybe 15% maybe, 15%, that desire something more, and they’ll search it out — and maybe that’s where art is, I think.”

“To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument.”

“Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.”

“First of all, I never strive for identity. That’s something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually.”

“My creed for art in general is that it should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise…a part of yourself you never knew existed.”

“I believe in things that are developed through hard work. I always like people who have developed long and hard, especially through introspection and a lot of dedication. I think what they arrive at is usually a much deeper and more beautiful thing than the person who seems to have that ability and fluidity from the beginning. I say this because it’s a good message to give to young talents who feel as I used to.”

“A guy is influenced by hundreds of people and things,” he said, “and all show up in his work.” To fasten on any one or two is ridiculous. I will say one thing, though. Lennie Tristano’s early records impressed me tremendously. Tunes like ‘Tautology,’ ‘Marshmallow,’ and ‘Fishin’ Around.’ I heard the fellows in his group building their lines with a design and general structure that was different from anything I’d ever heard in jazz.”

“Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument. This is a comprehensive technique…a feeling for the keyboard that will allow you to transfer any emotional utterance into it. What has to happen is that you develop a comprehensive technique and then say, Forget that. I’m just going to be expressive through the piano.”

“When you begin to teach jazz, the most dangerous thing is that you tend to teach style…I had eleven piano students, and I would say eight of them didn’t even want to know about chords or anything – they didn’t’ even want to do anything that anybody had ever done, because they didn’t want to be imitators.

Well, of course, this is pretty naive, but nevertheless it does bring to light the fact that if you’re going to try to teach jazz…you must abstract the principles of music which have nothing to do with style, and this is exceedingly difficult. So there, the teaching of jazz is a very touchy point. It ends up where the jazz player, ultimately, if he’s going to be a serious jazz player, teaches himself.”

“It’s performing without any really set basis for the lines and the content as such emotionally or, specifically, musically. And if you sit down and contemplate what you’re going to do, and take five hours to write five minutes of music, then it’s composed music. Therefore I would put it in the classical or serious, whatever you want to call it, written-music category. So there’s composed music and there’s jazz. And to me anybody that makes music using the process that we are using in Jazz, is playing Jazz.”

“I’m using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable. I feel its the only solution to that particular problem that I presented myself.”

“Especially, I want my work – and the trios if possible – to sing.”

“It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.”

“Im…a rather simple person with a limited talent and perhaps a limited perspective.”

Regardless of the resources you use to learn to play the guitar, it’s important to know what there is to learn and how that affects what you want to do. Whether it’s playing in a band, singing and playing or being a singer-songwriter. there are specific things to learn and specific skills to develop. Here’s an overview of the ten most fundamental things to learn.

1. Chords

The first thing that almost all guitar players learn is chords. A chord is played by holding down multiple notes simultaneously on the fingering hand. The opposite hand makes a chord sound by strumming it or finger picking it. There is nothing more fundamental than playing basic chords.

The first 14 chords are E, A, D, G ,C, Em, Am, Dm, E7, A7, D7, G7, B7. C7. Typically, barre chords are learned next. Barres have an advantage because they can be moved to different keys. Their disadvantage is that they’re harder to play, at least initially.

The ability to play chords and switch them smoothly is the first requirement for playing alone or with a group. It immediately qualifies you for a band in the role of rhythm guitar. This job is an accompaniment job and does not have the attention given to the Lead guitar player but it is your quickest route to playing in a band!

Resources:

chordfind.com

Guitar Room

2. Technique

Technique is the ability to control your hands individually and in combination. It is primarily a physical skill not a musical skill. The training and development of your hands is a prerequisite and necessary to develop musical skills.

Sports offers a good parallel. Football has physical skills and football skills. Passing, receiving, blocking, running and tackling are football skills. Running through tires, road work, weight lifting, wind sprints and stretching are physical skills. You need both to be successful.

There are many exercises designed to get your hands in shape. Finger independence drills, barres and stretches are just three good ways to develop your hands.

Resources:

Technique Building Exercises

Guitar Technique Secrets

Guitar Player Techniques

3. Notes on the Neck

It’s unbelievable how weak guitar players are on knowing the notes on their own instrument!
No other instrument suffers from this same fate. Imagine a piano player not knowing the note names of the keys…or a trumpet player not knowing what notes come out if they push specific valve combinations. Yet, an amazingly high percentage of guitar players don’t know the notes on the neck.

This problem has certainly been created by the guitar world’s penchant for tablature and chord picture diagrams. Despite this, there is no excuse for the failure on the part of guitar players to learn what is absolutely rudimentary on any other instrument. The notes on the neck must be not only learned but mastered!

Resources:

Brendan Burns

Notes on the guitar neck

4. Strums

This skill is part of the rhythm guitar role. All songs, besides having chords, have a strum that is responsible for the “feel” of the song. If you play the wrong strum with a song, something will sound off.

The strum helps keep the tempo steady and propels the music forward.

Strumming captures the most primitive element of music – rhythm. That tendency to tap our feet when we hear music can often be traced to the strumming pattern of the guitar.

Resources:

Strumming 101 – A Beginner Guitar Strumming Tutorial

Easy Guitar Strumming Patterns for Beginners

5. Finger Picking

Finger picking is an alternative to strumming. Like strumming, finger picking uses the non-fingering hand and produces sound from chords. Fingerpicking was most common in Folk music but it has certainly made its way into main stream contemporary music through singer-songwriters and country artists. James Taylor is an outstanding finger pick artist who has fused Folk, Country, Rock and Pop music into a seamless original form. His influence has been significant ever since the beginning of the Folk-Rock movement.

Resources:

Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar

History of Fingerstyle Guitar

Ultimate Guitar Lessons

6. Scales

Scales are organized streams of notes that can be used to generate melody or improvisation. There are many kinds of scales to learn depending on the musical style you choose. The two most common contemporary scales are the Blues Scale and the Pentatonic Scale. The Blues Scale is used in the darker forms of Blues and in heavier Rock Music. The Pentatonic Scale is used in all things Southern: Southern Rock, brighter Blues, Country music and even Motown.

Beyond these scales, there are many more to learn if the music you play needs them. Santana used the Dorian Scale to great effect while Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits made a living from the Aeolian Scale.

Resources:

Guitar Scales

Guitar Scales @ Wikibooks

Guitarists.net Guitar Scale Finder

7. Lead Guitar Techniques

The lead guitar embellishments are physical moves that impact the sound of the guitar in a very significant way. Bends, slides, glisses, vibrato and harmonics are just some of the techniques employed. These are “guitaristic” effects, not external effects such as reverb, chorus and distortion. As in all cases, the style of music dictates which embellishments are applicable. Traditional Jazz guitar uses few bends while Blues music lives on bends as well as the other embellishments.

Resources:

Lead Guitar Techniques

8. Rhythm

Rhythm is one of the three primary components of music, It encompasses several aspects. On the one hand, rhythm is the duration of a note or a chord. It also includes tempo ie beats per second as measured by a metronome  and the stability of the beat. Rhythm, as in tempo, can vary during a song. Some songs maintain a steady tempo from beginning to end. Other songs vary the tempo. Slowing down is called Ritardando and speeding up is called Acclerando. These are intentional musical effects and not the result of a guitar player not being able to keep steady time or rhythm. The ability to “keep time” is one of the most important skills a guitar player can develop.

Resources:

Rhythm & Rhythm Guitar @ Wikipedia

9. Ear

The development of the ear brings your musical insides – out. Music is the only hearing art. As such, the ear acts as the intermediary between your musical ideas and the execution of these ideas. Solfeggio, the Italian art of sight singing has been used for centuries to develop musicianship. Ear training contributes to the ability to play what you hear. There are virtually unlimited applications of ear training from working songs out by ear to improvising to writing. The European tradition of ear training has been far more stringent than that of the United States.

Resources:

Good Ear

Ear Training

Ear Trainer

10. Songs

This area is your song list, your repertoire, what you can play from beginning to end. Without a repertoire, you have nothing to play. An audience is certainly not interested in listening to scales, arpeggios or exercises of any kind. They respond to songs no matter what style of music you play. It could original or cover but one way or another, you need to learn songs.

What does it mean to learn a song? The singer songwriter’s version of learning a song would be to memorize the chords, the strum or finger pick, the melody, the form, the chords and the lyrics. The jazz guitarist version is to learn the single note melody, the chord changes, the form, the melody and chord version (combining single note melody and chords) and the improvisational structure. Unless you use the lyrics as inspiration for the mood and feel of a song, lyrics are not part of the instrumental process.

Resources:

Top 100 Guitar Sites

Top 100 Tab Sites

Guitar Tabs

Conclusion

Now that you have a sense of what there is to learn, you can focus on how you’re going to learn it. Whether it’s formal lessons with a good teacher, self teaching, books, DVDs or on line resources, get started! The rewards will far outweigh the effort.

Though many music schools teach the modes as versions of the C major scale, it is perhaps the worst possible way to teach them. This explanation is valid historically but is relatively useless for jazz guitar applications.

Chuck records Flight from the "Freefall" CD

Each mode is characterized by a specific whole – half step scale pattern, a characteristic scale step and three primary triads. By focusing in on the scale tones while emphasizing the characteristic scale step melodically and the primary chords harmonically, you can get an authentic modal sound. Jazz makes particularly good use of modality. Early jazz use of modality would be Miles Davis and his work on Milestones, So What etc

For more information on modes,  look at “Mastering the Modes” in the Books section.

On my new CD “Freefall”, Flight is an example of Lydian tonality while Diablo’s Dream demonstrates the Phrygian tonality.

What is interesting about this production was Sonny Casella’s vision to contrast a rock – blues guitar player with a jazz guitar player. Whenever a lead guitar was featured, it would alternate between the rock sound and the jazz sound. As such, it may well be the first major release that fused jazz and rock together, pioneering the term fusion.

The song is a very hip jazz waltz type of pop – jazz tune with great vocals and funky, jazzy horns. I just recently came across this song and it brought me back to the beginnings of my career. Recording in New York at that early age was a bit intimidating – but I survived and went on with my career.

I hear in the jazz guitar solos and fills the seeds that developed into my current CD “Freefall” on the Dreambox Media label. I’ve included a Youtube link to this classic recording.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording the jazz guitar parts so long ago.

Too often cut time is thought of as having two beats in a measure. There are not two beats in a measure of cut time – there are four beats in a measure of cut time. So what makes this different than common time i.e. four beats in the measure?

The confusion all centers on understanding the difference between the concepts of beats and pulses. It certainly doesn’t help that virtually everyone who counts off cut time does so with a 1 – 2  1 – 2 count. The confusion about the beats is understandable, especially with this misleading counting convention. The 1 -2  1-2 is accounting for the two pulses in the measure, not two beats.

In traditional common time, each beat is represented by a foot tap. Four beats in a measure – four taps of the foot. If you don’t tap your foot, think of a metronome which clicks on each of the four beats.

When you play in cut time, the beat will feel slower but it’s an illusion. The beat itself is exactly the same speed as it was in common time. It’s your foot or the pulse that’s moving half as fast.

Think of a measure of four in two equal halves. Beats one and two represent the first half of the measure and beats three and four represent the second half of the measure. The first half of the measure gets the first tap or click. The second half of the measure gets the second tap or click – two pulses to the measure.

Here’s a simple example: Four quarter notes in a measure of common time. The foot tap or click occurs on each quarter note. If the quarter notes were to be read in cut time, the foot would now tap on beats one and three. The speed of the quarter notes would remain the same as if being read in common time.

Since the foot now taps on beats one and three, the “feel” of cut time is established. Although I’ve never heard anyone do it, I always felt that the count off for cut time should be 1 – 3  1 – 3 not 1 – 2  1 – 2.

When is cut time used? Broadway music, sambas, polkas, bluegrass, classical, many ethnic forms and anytime the tempo gets so fast that it would be unwieldy to count and tap in four. In the case of a runaway tempo, the cut time is used as a convenience, sometimes a self defense. In all the other situations, it is intended to produce a definite and distinctive feel.

When chords are being played in cut time on piano, the root is played on the left hand on beat one, the chord on the right hand on beat two, the fifth on the left hand on beat three and the chord on the right hand on beat four. The bass notes on beat one and on beat three create a strong stress that is responsible for the “two” feel of cut time. A guitar player hits a bass note on one,  a chord on two, an alternate bass note on three and a chord on four. These are all down strokes and produce the characteristic “Boom – Chuck’ sound. These piano and  guitar applications are both in the accompaniment role not the reading melody role.

Cut time is not as difficult as it seems. Play melodies in four and then in cut time so that you can see and feel the difference and similarities between them. You’ll find that they’re not as incompatible or as difficult as you feared!

Becoming aware of this lack of progress, he begins searching for sources of information. Books, recordings and other musicians are primary sources. Though these approaches are sometimes helpful, they are not flexible enough to solve specific problems for specific students. An individual can form habits from misinformation that can be detrimental to his progress for years.

Studying with a qualified teacher solves the organizational problems and provides a type of security for the student. Having dealt with so many self taught players and their problems, I encourage any serious players to find a qualified and creative teacher to assist their development. Every player is comfortable with and responds to varying programs of study but most can be helped by the right teacher. I do not deny the difficulty of finding this teacher but the effort required is worth it.

Assuming that the player is involved with a teacher on a regular study program, the following practice problems are common. The traditional school system has affected the attitude of many toward learning. It has traditionally been a matter of remembering enough to assure a good grade or at least to pass the course. The larger more important sense of education tends to get lost in the pressure for marks.

Education in the long run is intended to broaden the interest and awareness of its students as well as to develop the individual’s ability to think and to reason. However, so much emphasis is placed on the specifics of a required subject that the student frequently loses sight of the long run and the deeper objectives of his study. It is at varying degrees of this state that the “student of education” becomes a student of music.

The teacher of music and the lesson itself often become identified in the student’s mind with the traditional concept of school.The teacher becomes a rather dogmatic authority figure, the lesson becomes class and the practice material becomes homework. Of these, the last point seems to create a sense of urgency, even panic, in many students. This feeling works against the sense of freedom, flow, exploration and joy which should be within the study of music. Many students seem to feel that there will be terrible repercussions if every assignment is not done “perfectly”.

Some of these repercussions are teacher disapproval, a “failing” grade, being “dropped” from the teachers’s schedule or worse. These are among many possibilities conjured up in the student’s conscious or subconscious mind. In objective disciplines like math tables, formulas or facts of history, the task of recalling something specific by a certain day is not unreasonable. It is sometimes difficult to see the importance of these specifics but it is usually not an overwhelming task. However, music and the study of it is not so objective, not quite so specific. Time is needed to explore, to listen, to develop and that cannot be geared to a specific day. The student should explore his studies as guidelines, organizations of material.

The purpose of performing the lesson is not to put the a student under the pressure of a deadline but to allow the teacher to check for problems, listen for progress and to determine the next direction for continued development. There is pressure in the teaching situation but it is part of the education. Music by its very nature involves pressure on the professional level. Audiences, conductors and time limits are only a few of them. Learning to cope with pressure in the lesson situation is a first step toward coping with the professional pressure that lies ahead.

There are no demerits in the study of music, no necessity of marks and competitive grading. The student’s individual development is the only consideration. Naturally, if the student is avoiding practice consistently over long periods of time, he should re-evaluate his thoughts about pursuing music in general. However, most student problems in practicing are more commonly related to very normal conflicts of time and priorities. The student’s complaint of a lack of practice time in his schedule is common and understandable.

After making a serious attempt to streamline time obligations, the student must concentrate on the quality of his practice time. Too many aspiring players confuse the importance of concentrated efficient study with the self proclaimed necessity of quantity practice. For most, quantity practice is not as beneficial as it may seem. Span of attention being what it is for most students, long periods of practice are rarely concentrated and directed toward the most important material.

Far more common is the following pattern: ten minutes of structured practice, twenty minutes of playing what has already been mastered, ten minutes of “lost” time, twenty minutes of emulating recordings. This “schedule” is most typical of those pursuing Contemporary forms of music but it is loosely equivalent for students of all forms of music.

Each student must determine a schedule and an approach to practice that suits his individual situation. Many have developed severe problems with their practice consistency because they have failed to deal with the variables of practice. These variables include the length of practice, time of day, what preceded practice and the rotation of the study material.

Consider the effectiveness of morning vs. night practice, one hour vs. fifteen minute practice sessions, practicing after work or before it and practicing two, five or seven topics per day. The student must develop a personal program that will lead to the greatest efficiency and progress.

Students at all levels, even the most elementary, seem to have an instinctive awareness of how much there is to learn, how far they have to go. For many this awareness, even if it is subconscious, becomes overwhelming. The student may respond to this in a most illogical though thoroughly understandable way. He practices less, fearing on some level his own ability to cope with the vast field into which he has had a glimpse. It is certainly a common human maneuver to avoid or delay that which lies beyond one’s ability to accomplish. At least, this is the fear.

In order to understand and overcome these problems, they must be faced. Though music is depressingly in the future for many aspiring players, it also provides unique and exciting challenges in the present. The student must relax and learn to enjoy each stage of his development. There must be a balance achieved between what one can accomplish now and what one wants to accomplish in the future. Concentration must be placed on specific material with the realization that everything becomes cumulative. It is the exploration and development of specific skills and general principles that create an essential balance helping the student to maintain his equilibrium.

Approaching any new topic of music, the student should realize that it involves several levels. Awareness, physical and aural development, creative exploration, practice, application and “mastery” are most important among these levels. Most students want all these levels to happen simultaneously or at least within a short span of time. This is, to say the least, unrealistic. One level leads to the next in a type of evolution. This development of levels is exactly how the individual’s progress can be measured. A student first becomes aware of something to practice. With a clear idea of what to do, he begins to physically execute it, listening carefully as he does. This is nothing but an exploratory stage and should not be confused with anything else. Getting a grip on the execution side, the student begins to accelerate his work exploring the creative possibilities — original themes, interpretations of themes, dynamics, spontaneity, etc.

The next question is how can it be used? Considering the uniqueness of the principle, the student begins to explore the possibilities of integrating it into his playing experience. Practical application is nothing more complicated than using a principle in performance vehicles which takes it out of the theoretical realm. It is something like the addition of new words to one’s vocabulary. It allows greater expression. Since the primary goal of music is self expression and communication, the parallel to language is a good one. If one improves the control of language, one has a much greater opportunity to express oneself to others with a finer degree of assuredness and subtlety. In a similar way, every musical technique that one has developed allows a greater flexibility and depth in the communication skills of music.

It is most important that the student should concentrate on specific musical techniques and not get overly discouraged by the long run musical objectives. Mastering specific techniques will lead effortlessly to all long run objectives.

Students seem to think that they should be above low points of practice enthusiasm. They are perhaps unknowingly denying their own humanness. No one is perfectly consistent. Musicians are not machines. There will be peak periods and the opposite. The true measure of one’s potential is not the consistency of highs but rather the ability to recover from low periods. During periods of depression and sagging enthusiasm, students often begin to tell themselves that they must not have the ability to achieve in music.

Because if they did, so their reasoning goes, they would not have any difficulties with their own motivation toward practice. They tend to look at an established player and assume that this player never had problems like theirs. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is their assumptions only that is giving them their “information”. If the established player were to be questioned and if he were to be honest and open with the inquiring student, he would reflect the same problems as the student himself. Naturally, it must be looked at within the framework of the established player’s development.

The player has passed from level to level in his own development and if he has achieved a balance within himself, he will not be facing the same type of problems now that the student is facing. However, he did face them at one time. I have never met a player who could say that he was equally motivated to practice at every point in his development. Being aware of this, it should be easier for the student to cope with the peaks and valleys of his own development. Straight line, uniform progress happens to no one. There are always setbacks followed by advances.

The tragedy is when a student overcome with depression about his playing and guilt over his lack of practice motivation abandons music. As long as the long term trend is upward, the specific setbacks have no significance at all. The true measure of a student is not his avoidance of problems but his ability to overcome them. The peaks of progress do not last forever nor do the lows of practice problems. As long as the student wants to play and develop, there is no limit to the number of times he can rebound from setbacks.

Any student who has an authentic interest in music and his own development will practice. However, practice is not the only consideration in pursuing music. Many students have convinced themselves that practice and practice alone leads to successful performance. If they are not able to spend a great deal of time practicing, they tend to develop guilt feelings which naturally make relaxed practice a difficult thing to achieve.

Music is basically a type of self reflection, a communication form intended to convey the uniqueness of the individual player. The uniqueness of an individual is the sum total of his experiences. These experiences shape the personality of the individual to a great extent and it is this personality which is reflected through music. The importance of life involvement and life experience is greatly overlooked. Many have confused the reality of music with the theories of music. Music is part of this world. It is not above, beyond or outside of it. It is so integrated with day to day living that it should not become separate.

Those who have decided that a four, six or eight hour practice day takes precedence over or eliminates the need for other experience should think again. Based on the thought that isolated practice is the key to success, all great players should be single, unattached, without responsibility or pressure and totally free to devote all their energy to music. However, the smallest investigation reveals the opposite facts. Great players throughout history have been human beings fully involved in the business of living as well as in the pursuit of their art. They have married, divorced, had children, mortgages, debts and emotional trauma. In short, they are exactly the same as non – players except for their specific ability and direction.

Every day is filled with alternate ways to spend one’s time. They can be loosely divided into two categories– those which are an obligation and those which are discretionary. One’s family and one’s work are most commonly in the first category. Social contacts and recreation are among many alternatives in the second. It is important to note that the term “discretionary” does not mean unimportant. It only implies that the individual is able to exercise more control in those areas. After taking care of obligations, an individual’s determination to excel in music will generally guide his priorities for discretionary time.

Progress is in direct proportion to the time spent on disciplined practice and creative performance. But a musician’s growth is not determined by practice and playing alone. Life experience is an integral part of a musician’s development. As an individual matures, the learning experience requires increasingly thoughtful decisions. The musician must learn to decide when practice is most important and when the value of other pursuits outweighs the value of specific practice. Many people do not achieve their goals because they use time unwisely. This is a most common source of frustration. But it often takes this frustration to enable the individual to see the necessity of making better decisions on his own priorities of time.

Practice should be approached as a means and not an end. Music should be a personal expression and not an endless series of exercises. With this in mind, it becomes easier to trust the intuition for pursuing interests other than practice for its own sake. Unless this is done, the student begins to resent practice even if it is only on a subconscious level. This resentment ultimately makes the practice and the resulting progress less effective.

Practice leads toward performance. Keep an open, searching mind in regard to different types of music and innovative new forms. This openness keeps interest fresh and often leads to interesting original ideas.

Practice should be considered in all its aspects. The technical, aural, theoretical and creative facets of music must be explored to discover the possibilities of expression through discipline. There is no freedom without discipline and no useful long term discipline without the freedom of creativity. To practice is to search and to search with motivation, dedication and determination is to achieve.

Learn more about this month’s issue of Jazz Insider Magazine

Jazz guitarists have never had a way to organize the subject of rhythm in a way that would systematically benefit their solos and their comping. Modular Phonetic Rhythm offers a solution.

The concept of rhythm is simple. It’s the duration of a note, a chord or a pattern. Rhythm is integrated into every facet of music. A melody is a sequence of pitches with rhythm. A chord progression is a sequence of chords with rhythm. Rhythm impacts Melody, Harmony and even Lyrics. It’s also a subject in and of itself. Rhythm is so intuitive, that it’s often overlooked as an independent topic of study.

The difficulty in the study of rhythm has always been its abstract nature – and its mathematical approach. Rhythm has traditionally been taught as a function of math, particularly fractions. Though accurate, this approach has missed one of the most fundamental facts of rhythm. Rhythm is a sonic language and is, as such, phonetic not mathematical in nature. The average student exposed to the math orientation of rhythm has rarely absorbed the essence of rhythm. He or she rarely becomes proficient at sight reading or using rhythm effectively. This often remains a lifetime barrier to the developing musician.

Though rhythm can be explained in mathematical terms, this approach does not give you a practical command of the sounds of the rhythms. Rhythm is a series of sounds! How can these sounds be organized?

“The Modular Phonetic Rhythm represents a fresh and innovative approach that helps bring the abstract into focus, examining the core of the real, linguistically aligned processes actually involved in reading, understanding, interpreting, and executing rhythm.”
- Arthur Bernstein, Head of Music Department, Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts

This approach to rhythm is based on the concept of Modular Phonetics. Modular refers to the interchangeability of rhythm syllables and Phonetics refers to the sound of the rhythm syllables. Phonics has always been the key to sound in language. Without phonics, we could not pronounce words. We could not hear the sound of the words. Without Modular Phonetics, we can not hear the sound of rhythm. Without the sound of rhythm, it is difficult to use.

There is a strong correlation between the ability to spell and strong fundamentals in phonics. Phonetic skills allow us to “sound out” words, even words that we’ve never seen before! We understand the principle of sound as it applies to phonetic combinations. The “sight” of the letter combination triggers a reflexive “sound” reaction. If rhythm could be broken down into a system of phonetic units similar to the syllables of language, then rhythm would become an easily recognized and applied aural language.

To illustrate, take the word umbrella. This word could be expressed as 8 letters or as 3 syllables. Treating the word as 8 letters is similar to traditional rhythm teaching. A rhythm pattern could  be described as a note lasting one half beat followed by a note lasting one beat followed by a note lasting one half beat. The “sound” of the rhythm is not part of this equation. But using the syllable parallel (umbrella has 3 syllables), the rhythm can be grouped into a phonetic syllable that does have a sound. Now, rhythm can be reproduced in the preferable “eye-ear-hand reflex” – the eye sees it – the ear hears it – the hands execute it!

Modular Phonetic Rhythm is based on 24 basic rhythm syllables. These rhythm syllables vary in length from 1 note to 6 notes and from 1 beat to 4 beats. The system is divided into 4 levels based on the subdivision of the beat. Level I does not subdivide the beat. This is the level in which all notes are struck only on the downbeat. Level II divides the beat into 2 parts. Level III divides the beat into 3 parts. Level IV divides the beat into 4 parts. The levels do not express progressive difficulty, just progressive subdivisions of the beat.

As you begin to use this material, you will find an expansive, new vocabulary which you can then apply directly to your jazz guitar improvisation, your composition and to your accompaniment.

Chuck Anderson is part of an elite group: world-class jazz musicians who focused their careers not on performing, but on passing the baton to others. Like the late Dennis Sandole and Charlie Banacos before him, Chuck spent his career focused on educating and mentoring students, many of whom went onto illustrious careers.

Now at 62, Chuck Anderson has returned to his roots as a performer, and in his new CD Freefall, you can hear Chuck playing some of the best guitar of his life. Freefall contains 12 original compositions, 10 performed with the Chuck Anderson Trio. Music After 50 talked to Chuck about the new album, and why he was out of the public eye for so many years.

LRG: What makes this album different from anything you’ve done previously?

CA: This album represents the culmination of a long journey. The Vintage Tracks represented me as a young, over- the-top-jazz guitarist – lots of brash firepower. The next CD Angel Blue showed me more as a composer. It represented a more mature writer and player. After my long absence from the jazz guitar concert world, Freefall is an amalgam of young energy and passion as well as mature writing. It’s my favorite CD of the three.

LRG: Did you write all of the tunes or are there any covers?

CA: All 12 songs are original. Two are solo tracks and 10 are in the trio format.

LRG: You stopped performing for many years. What inspired you to return to performance?

CA: I had been suffering, unknowingly, from severe obstructive sleep apnea for many years. It drained my energy, stopped my metabolism, and caused me to gain an enormous amount of weight. I barely had the energy to teach. When the cause of my problem was discovered, I began sleep therapy with a CPAP machine. With the return of deep sleep, I was able to moderate my eating and begin an exercise regimen. The results of these changes has been a weight loss of 110 pounds. With this renewed energy, I felt that passion and drive that I remember feeling when I was 24 years old.

LRG: You prefer to play in concert settings over clubs. Talk about why.

CA: Clubs have many distractions that don’t serve an audience or the performers well. The wait staff, the bartenders and, the fact that so many people are not there to hear the music distracts the performers and those who have come to hear the music. A concert setting is exclusively intended to listen to music. This is a benefit to the performers and to the audience.

LRG: You call your music “audience friendly, progressive jazz guitar.” Talk about what makes it friendly.

CA: I think that it’s important to consider the audience when you perform jazz. This is not a compromise, but a balanced perspective concerning volume, repertoire, variety, and communication. The jazz world has developed a reputation for unfriendly and distant performers. The programming of the material and the spontaneity of the performance is what I believe makes it friendly. I am not a fusion player. The audience is the only thing that allows us to do what we do.

LRG: What type of guitar are you playing on the album?

CA: A custom Gibson L5. The “Green Hornet.”

LRG: The bass player and drummer both sound great on the album. Who are they?

CA: On bass, we have Eric Schreiber. Eric is relatively new to the jazz world but has excellent training, listens well, and works interactively and creatively with the trio. Ed Rick on drums brings a wide variety of experience to the band. His percussive work is solid and inspiring.

LRG: Although you’re a jazz guitar player, many of your students do not study jazz guitar. Is that correct?

CA: My students have a wide variety of interests and directions. I teach to the unique strengths of each student. I deal formally with guitar, bass, piano, and songwriting. The music business is another frequent topic of discussion in the lessons. I teach privately, as I believe in the power of one-on-one interaction.

LRG: Do you teach part time or full time?

CA: Very full time!

LRG: What does this album mean for you personally, and what do you hope it means for jazz guitar overall?

CA: For me, it’s a return, a rebirth. I hope that it will draw people all over the world to the jazz guitar.