Question about Intervals

[jay mitchell]

For me, the only person I can speak for, it’s helpful for more than just chord tones. If I’m improvising over a one chord vamp

That's where vocabulary comes into play. You can't tell a coherent story with just knowledge of the alphabet; you have to know how to spell words, create phrases with those words, compose complete sentences, then link sentences together into paragraphs, and then compose multiple paragraphs into a story.

(for shame) I’m gonna get bored really quickly if I’m just locking into seven notes and never throwing in anything else.

Getting bored is the result of limited vocabulary. It would be a worthwhile exercise to add to your seven-note vocabulary. There are infinite possibilities even within that limited space. For that matter, an infinite number of beautiful melodies can be constructed from fewer notes than seven.

That came from loading up an app on my phone

Any port in a storm, I say. If "loading an app" works for you, that's great. The only musical app I have on my phone is IRealPro, which has been a real life-saver at jazz jams. I never use it for practice purposes, however.

and getting to where I could accurately identify the properly named intervals generically, out of context. And by then finding those on the fretboard and learning the sound generically out of context and then experimenting with them in different contexts so that I started hearing melody lines using those intervals in lots of different contexts.

Those are all good things to learn.

 

[Sascha Franck]

If you got 5 and 7…maybe not bad to spend half an hour on 6, just for the brain, it’s not a practical position obviously.

It's quite a drill to be sure, especially as he's using classical position definitions, as in: "Position is determined 1 fret below middle finger, only pinky or index finger are allowed to stretch out per position, never both."
But seriously, it's really just more of a mental/concentration drill rather than of any actual playing value.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I just started lessons and as soon as my teacher saw that I didn’t know the note names, he started with triads!

What, no Petrucci?

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

. The only musical app I have on my phone is IRealPro, which has been a real life-saver at jazz jams. I never use it for practice purposes, however.

I’m lucky they don’t charge per hour…cause I spend many hours with it as a practice tool, almost daily. And indeed “the book” in jazz settings these days.

 

[jay mitchell]

I’m lucky they don’t charge per hour…cause I spend many hours with it as a practice tool, almost daily.

For practice, I much prefer to use the Real Book and all its variations (I've got a dozen or so in pdf format), as IRealPro doesn't include melodies (for copyright reasons).

 

[Mikael Dez]

What, no Petrucci?

I have his dvd on my list lol

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

It's quite a drill to be sure, especially as he's using classical position definitions, as in: "Position is determined 1 fret below middle finger, only pinky or index finger are allowed to stretch out per position, never both."
But seriously, it's really just more of a mental/concentration drill rather than of any actual playing value.

Yeah…I remember doing some pages of it at conservatory, and to this day I use the same definition of position…probably picked it up from him…and the 2 students I still have are under strict regime of this

 

[jay mitchell]

Gmaj in 6th position is really making little to no sense.

Perhaps. I'm not saying that that would or should be a first choice, although it does result in 3nps fingering, with the exception of the second string:
-----------------------------------------5(s)-7-8
-------------------------------------7-8
----------------------------5(s)-7-9
-------------------5(s)-7-9
----------5(s)-7-9
-5(s)-7-8

Fwiw, I absolutely agree it's sometimes worth going for a little drill outside of what comes naturally, but Leavitt is taking it too far.

Again, perhaps. I learned the principles behind those fingerings back in the day, and that knowledge has been very helpful in my familiarity with the fretboard.

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

For practice, I much prefer to use the Real Book and all its variations (I've got a dozen or so in pdf format), as IRealPro doesn't include melodies (for copyright reasons).

Yeah, I got a couple of those also, but so large, hard to find pages. If I need the melody, I usually find a pic in google (also realbook source), and import that into forscore. You know that one?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Yeah…I remember doing some pages of it at conservatory, and to this day I use the same definition of position…probably picked it up from him…and the 2 students I still have are under strict regime of this

Fwiw, that definition of position is spot on. And it's defenitely making me cringe when people tell you "this is A aeolian 5th position" when the entire hand actually moves down to 4th position on the G string to play b, c, d.

Leavitt is pretty good at explaining some other things, too. But nonetheless, it's pretty outdated.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Again, perhaps. I learned the principles behind those fingerings back in the day, and that knowledge has been very helpful in my familiarity with the fretboard.

Of course Leavitt was fine. And a kind of standard for a reason. But I still think it's outdated in some aspects.
And you'll never know whether you wouldn't have learned things quicker using a newer approach, either.

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

Fwiw, that definition of position is spot on. And it's defenitely making me cringe when people tell you "this is A aeolian 5th position" when the entire hand actually moves down to 4th position on the G string to play b, c, d.

Leavitt is pretty good at explaining some other things, too. But nonetheless, it's pretty outdated.

I need an audio sample of “the notes where correct, now plz stay in position”

 

[la szum]

 

[jay mitchell]

Fwiw, that definition of position is spot on. And it's defenitely making me cringe when people tell you "this is A aeolian 5th position" when the entire hand actually moves down to 4th position on the G string to play b, c, d.

While that's the way I originally learned that fingering, it's not Leavitt. In his system, you'd play the B with a fourth finger stretch on the D string. I use that approach at times, especially when I may have occasion to play B and C simultaneously.

 

[jay mitchell]

And you'll never know whether you wouldn't have learned things quicker using a newer approach, either.

What would you characterize as a "newer approach?"

 

[JasonE]

I bought the book you guys are discussing about a year ago. It may have been Jay that recommended it to me. I believe that recommendation may have come from a thread on TGP. I remember looking through it and it not really sparking anything different for me. Now that you guys are debating over it's approach, I am going to dig it back out and look at it again. Sometimes things have a different impact a year later.

 

[jay mitchell]

I bought the book you guys are discussing about a year ago. It may have been Jay that recommended it to me.

It wasn't me. Although I've had the books for years, I've never recommended them - available in a single volume these days - to anyone. If anything, I may have made reference to Leavitt's fingerings, as I did here.

 

[Sascha Franck]

While that's the way I originally learned that fingering, it's not Leavitt. In his system, you'd play the B with a fourth finger stretch on the D string.

That is precisely what I was saying.

 

[JasonE]

It wasn't me. Although I've had the books for years, I've never recommended them - available in a single volume these days - to anyone. If anything, I may have made reference to Leavitt's fingerings, as I did here.

I pulled the book out. This one isn't one of Leavitt's books. I followed one of the links in this thread and ended up at Noel Johnston's site. That is the book I was referring to. I think I have some of Leavitt's books too. I will have to scroll back and see who posted the link. I am almost sure I got the recommendation from someone on TGP and I am surely not going to log into there and try and find it. :)

EDIT: I scrolled back looking for the link and couldn't find it. I am now wondering if I somehow imagined the whole thing and somehow ended up on the site of a guy that I bought his book a year ago... Maybe the link was from another thread. I know that I received the recommendation for the book in a discussion about Modes. The book is titled Voicing Modes. If any of that matters.

 

[Sascha Franck]

What would you characterize as a "newer approach?"

Something such as focusing more on, say, "comfort zone" playing.
Or just as using up to date techniques. Such as 3nps, hybrid picking and what not. Those simply don't exist in Leavitt's universe. Which obviously isn't his fault at all, but still, methodology has improved ever since.