SESSION SHENANIGANS
The studio guitarist’s guide to happiness and personal fulfilment, as related by session ace Mitch Dalton. This month: Are You Getting Better?
“If a guitarist practises three hours per day for nine months and there is no one there to hear him, is he getting any better?”
And with that existential conundrum, I offer you an insight into the practice and learning routine that has made me the King Of Cat Food Commercials, The Emperor Of Entertainment and The Sultan Of Strictly. Follow this schedule and then marvel as middle-aged men accost you at the end of gigs to discuss string gauge options and plectrum thickness, attractive women glaze over when you attempt conversation, and invitations to “I’m A Jazz Guitarist, Get Me A Gig In Here” evaporate.
Here then is your New Year’s musical routine and reading list. Run this little lot up the fretboard and see how it goes. You aren’t doing anything much at the moment, are you?
1. Learn to read music, by which I don’t mean tablature. By expending the effort now you’ll save incalculable time later. And you will be afforded the opportunity to share the gift of rehearsing efficiently with other musicians. If you know any. Check out The Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method, and whizz through grades 1-7. And then crawl very slowly back to grade 1. For light relief you could also peruse the original Mel Bay Orchestral Chord Method, whose cover promises ‘Atomic Chord Power At Your Fingertips’. What’s not to love?
2. Robben Ford - Blues. (Hal Leonard Publishing). You could do worse than jump on this slim 16-page volume, organised conveniently into bite-sized chunks of between two and four bars. Lots of ideas to incorporate into your solos, particularly influenced by Albert Collins. Nice.
3. Larry Carlton - Edited and transcribed by Leon White. I suggest you start with Night Crawler, a perfect introduction to the master of melodic rock-fusion guitar on account of its friendly tempo. Even the simple (but not simplistic) opening melody consists of two kinda inverted blues licks which you could incorporate almost immediately into your personal riff vocabulary. And that’s before you sink your metaphorical teeth into the solo itself. Epic.
4. Joe Pass Guitar Style. I’m not telling you when I purchased this jazz-bebop guitar essential, but it cost me £2.50 from Ivor Mairant’s Musicentre. The maestro takes you on an extemporisation excursion divided into in two parts, ‘Harmony’ and ‘Melody, taking in the usual concepts of chord construction and substitution and then providing examples of soloing on different types of blues (Minor, modern, 3/4) and Rhythm Changes, finishing with a complete solo transcription of Rosetta by the maestro. Joe Pass Chord Solos is worth $5.95 of your hard earned too, but I suspect strongly that you’ll pay more than I did. Classic.
5. Jeff Beck - A Step-By-Step Breakdown Of His Guitar Styles And Techniques (Dave Rubin, Hal Leonard Publishing). Although you might well enjoy a step-by-step breakdown of your very own, this meticulously transcribed anthology of the Metal Maverick’s greatest hits is heaps of fun to work through and provides a refreshing change of attitude in your practice routine. I like Goodbye Pork Pie Hat in particular. Iconic.
6. The World Of The Jazz Educators. For a walk on the academic wild side, why not check out the plethora of (mainly) American publications - Fusion Guitar by Joe Diorio (Dale Zdenek Publications), Jazz Guitar Structures by Andrew Green (Mel Bay) and Fusion by Don Mock (REH Publications). I notice that my research indicates that I paid $14.95 for the latter, ‘including tape’. Astonishing.
7. Jazz Guitar Scales & Where To Use Them (Paul Brelinsky). Forty-eight concise pages containing all yer favourites - Modal, Minor, Symmetrical and Blues. Or you could wait for my forthcoming eagerly awaited tome - Jazz Scales And Where Not To Use Them. Ironic.
8. Top Tips For Those Of A Depressive Disposition. These learning aids are not to be absorbed note-for-note, ploughed through relentlessly or learned in their entirety. Unless you wish to. Clearly, that is a confidential matter between you and your therapist. Better to pick out phrases that appeal, practise them independently and then use them in context with your own ideas, should you possess any.
Learn to play phrases accurately by finding a tempo that enables this, no matter how slow. You will then be able to speed up gradually over time, but still retain accuracy.
Transpose your favourite phrases into other keys. Practise for no more than 45 minutes at a time, then stop and take a 15-minute break. Enjoy a refreshing beverage of your choice or take a nice stroll, where allowed (Tiers and Conditions apply).
It merely remains for me to wish you an immeasurably Happier New Year, filled with assiduous practice and fulfilling progress.
At least, until the next edition hits the shelves...
“HERE THEN IS YOUR NEW YEAR'S MUSICAL ROUTINE AND READING LIST. YOU AREN'T DOING ANYTHING MUCH AT THE MOMENT, ARE YOU?”