A way to nurture your inspiration and your creativity
Each day of the week, choose one subject and work on it all day long.here is how a typical week might look..
Monday
Gesture improvising,all day. Letting go, feeling your way up and down the neck, checking out the possibilities.
here the basic idea is to shut off the thinking process and let your fingers and your feeling or intuition take over.
try to tape it if you can, while listening to it a couple of days later you might find some nice melodies, riffs that are really original and that reflects your own musicality.
Plus the bonus of creating new ideas for future use. this exercise will help you to develop your own style and vocabulary.
Tuesday
Melodic playing.
Today we start to put two or more notes that soubd "pretty". Take a look at your REAL BOOK and notice how some of the great tunes are made up of simple intervals.
Some of them are short scale passages. This gives us a clue that it does not take much to write or play a good melody. Approach this exercise like the gesture improvising, i.e. playing any two notes untill you find something that sounds decent, then begin to add to it with other me- lodic sounding intervals.
Write at least one melody this day, and it will help you to think melodically and will add more substance to any style.
Wednesday
New chords.
Today, the objective is to take any chord you know and move one finger at a time up and down the neck as far as you can reach. This is possibly the most simple way of finding new chords.
Every time you move a finger, you find a new chord. Some sound great and others don't sound so great.
experiment with positions you already know, try to develop a melodic approach to you chord playing, try to find sounds or tensions that you like and develop your own style.
the hard thing when you develop your chords skills is to fing a either a good method or a way of playing that talks to you.
in my case, i found a book called "Jazz guitar chord system" by Scott Henderson, i found it was a good starting point and the possibilities are endless.
Thuersday
Melodies and Chords
This day we take some of the melodies created on tuesday and add some of the new-found chords from wednesday and put them together.
don't judge your new pieces but keep trying until you find something you like. Remember you have all day to come up with something that makes you feel good. If you have two bars you are a big winner. Also, try to take the new chords and use them in some of the tunes you know. Or make up your own progressions with them. you are being creative this day.
Friday
Listen to music all day long, new and ols CD's
Get saturated and make notes of the players'style, how they phrase, keep time, how they let space and silence become a part of their solos.
can you recognize sounds and influences? Are they available for a lesson? Be eclectic! Listen to Rock, Jazz, Classical, World music, anything. Be inspired this day.
Saturday
What caught your musical fancy?
was ther someting this week that made you light up? This is the day to investigate further and go deeper into that subject.
Try to understand what moves you. Is there a possible direction for you to take? it it caught your fancy, stick with it untill it reveals itself to you.
This day may change your life!
Sunday
Repose, silence, and meditation.
Be still this day and listen for the inner voice to guide you. Ask you guide questions and be ready for the answers. Trust and they will come. Remember, your intuition is your very best friend. Listen to it and be ready to act on it.
Be still, be quiet, and be ready.
Arrange the seven days your own way. Add subjects that you love. Add new directions from time to time. Go slowly, enjoy the journey and grow.
