1/17/08 – Last Nights Practice

I am getting back in the saddle this new year.  Things are settling down and I am getting back onto a good schedule.  Last night I got a good hour and a half of practice in.

I started out with the intention of running through Jim Ritcher’s arpeggio exercise.  BTW, I highly recommend checking out Jim’s youtube page….he is a very versitile player.

The thing is, all of these great players say that they love running through arpeggio’s.  Personally I have not found much use for them.  From my point of view, arpeggio’s are just shortened scales.

But I know my problem.  I have been simply reading the notes and playing them.  Especially when you read tab, you only think about where to place your finger.  You are not thinking about what note you are playing and it’s relation to the previous and next note.

So, last night I tried to resolve this.  I started out playing Jim’s arpeggio pattern, thinking about the notes, but I quickly found myself straying from the pattern.  I allowed myself to explore the fretboard.  I looked at the arpeggio pattern it’s 3 notes from all perspectives on the neck.

It was fun.  I found new voicing in G way up the neck by the 12th fret, and lower on the D string.

Next time I want to do the same thing but in A.

I have to say that I am enjoying the D’Addario J75’s I put on recently.  They are chunky and they really require some strength in the fingers.  But, the richness and complexity of the tone is just awesome.  And the chop….wow.  They just dig down into the depths of my Weber, and my mando just pops the chop right back out.  Playing chops with these strings is really fun.

I also played along with some jam recordings.  I tried to focus playing the melody, staying loose, and experimenting with new voicings.  I also spent some time playing only arpeggio notes.

I finished up with some country blues fingerstyle exercises on guitar. It was a fun night.

Filed under: My Journal, Practice Session Notes