Tunes I Know, Tunes to Learn...

The following very small list is what I feel comfortable with. I know these melody and harmony:

• All The Things You Are 
• Autumn Leaves 
• The Shadow of Your Smile 
• Here’s that Rainy Day 
• Alone Together 
• The Girl from Ipanema

 I even arranged the first four above into chord-melody tunes. The last two in the list did not quite lend themselves to that.

This largest list is what I need to work on:

• My Funny Valentine
• Stella by Starlight
• All of Me
• Alice in Wonderland
• Blue Bossa
• Green Dolphin St.
• Misty
• A Nightingale Sang… 
• Round Midnight 
• Night and Day 
• My Favorite Things 
• How Insensitive 
• Desafinado 
• Wave 
• Giant Steps 
• Naima 
• Take the A Train 
• Summertime 
• Have you met Miss Jones? 
• When Sunny gets Blue 
• Satin Doll 
• Body and Soul 
• Just Friends 
• Autumn in New York 
• Black Orpheus 

 You just might be able to look at the list above and tell that I am a Jobim fan =)

Ideas...

It's been a long time since I posted anything here. I revisited my musical goals yesterday and it was a good thing. The basic areas are still the same:

1. Repertoire - learn as many jazz standards as possible (melody and harmony). The Real Book has been VERY helpful with this. So has the internet. NOTE: I need to post a blog on the tunes I would like to learn and the ones that I have learned.
2. Sight Reading - this one is fuzzy. How much time do I spend here? How good do I want to get? Spending too much time here means less time for other goals. I don't think I will ever need to read A Vista, but I would certainly like to be better. I am currently working out of Arnie Berle's 'New Guitar Techniques for Sight Reading'. Too bad this one is out of print now. It's very helpful.
3. Composition - I would like to take some of my original compositions and record them for posterity. I also have some etudes and small pieces that I have written (think Leo Brower's Simple Studies here). I would like to collect these together and finish the unfinished ones.
4. Technique - at one point, I wanted to do sixteenths at 144 bpm. I think that is still a good goal and I would like to do it. However, I have been reading some Tom Hess articles and I think that he is absolutely correct. To play sixteenths at 144, the sixteenths will have to be absolutely perfect at 50 bpm. Slow it way down, economy of movement, waste nothing. I have also been a long time fan of Troy Stetina's 'Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar'. I don't think style matters so much here. Technique is technique.
5. Play what I hear - be a better improviser.
6. Play over changes - this is best accomplished with goal 1. I think that learning tunes - both melody and harmony(chords) will be incredibly helpful with this. This also ties in w/ goal 6.
7. Play with other musicians - this is a tall order with my time constraints and responsibilities, but not impossible. It will also get easier (I think) as time goes on. There is a Columbus Jazz Society (Columbus, GA) and the music department at the local university (Columbus State University) has a jazz studies department. These could eventually be two good starting places.

Guitarists That I Admire and Wish to Study More

Not necessarily in this order:

1. Barney Kessel
2. Pat Martino
3. Mike Stern
4. Pat Metheny
5. Joe Pass

I also want to know more about Charlie Christian and Grant Green. I'm ashamed to admit I don't know anywhere near enough about these two. Also want to know more about Johnny Smith and Ted Greene.

First Entry

It's late and I'm already going to be a bit sleep deprived come tomorrow, but i have had this blog for a while and I at least wanted to post SOMETHING here. In the future, I would really like to keep this current. Here is a list of guitarist goals that I wrote down for myself at the end of 2011.

I. Develop a Chord-Melody Repertoire of Jazz Standards in the Style of Barney Kessel and Joe Pass
II. Learn to Solo Over Jazz Changes
III. Speed Work with Metronome - Quarter Notes @ 144 BPM (Note to self: is that TOO fast? TOO outrageous? Not sure - it seems like a good goal)
IV. Improve Sight Reading
V. Formulate Chord/Scale/Fretboard Method
VI. Record Original Compositions for Posterity
VII. Play Out in a Group Setting with Other Musicians