Most Helpful Exercises For Jazz

[Chris Templeton]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?
In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

[Dale Rottacker]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?
In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

I play a LOT of Jazz, not because I understand it, but because I hit a lot of notes I didn't intend on hitting.

I prefer T M too, but when I watch video of me playing I used my index finger more than I realize.

Something else I never developed, is the TT as a successive fingering thing ... I have no trouble with hitting more than one string with my thumb if I'm playing 4 note chords, but successive notes with my thumb as part of a lick I apparently have not worked on enough as I find it really difficult, especially if there's any speed involved and anything over 60bpm is what I consider speed picking

[Fred Treece]

I could be mistaken, Dale, but I think that TTMM exercise is just that - meant to get you used to using those two digits and building up the muscle control. Watching videos of Buddy play, I don’t see him doing consecutive hits with thumb or middle when doing fast single 8th or 16th notes - it’s always TM alternating, unless it’s a rake. When playing slower melodies, I often see him use thumb-only single note strikes.

[Tim Toberer]

What do you consider jazz? The C6 neck?

Jazz is as much an approach as a style of music I guess. Anything can be played as a jazz tune. Like from Time Changes Everything "rearrange it and make it swing". I am really just looking to expand my application of theory, expand my repertoire into the standards and get some more density in my playing. I suppose with exercises I am trying to improve my dexterity and muscle memory around more complex chord movements.

In Buddy's C6th course this picking excercise was my favorite:
Thumb- Middle finger (some people favor the first) T-T-M-M-T-T-M-M-T-T- etc.

Thanks for this exercise! I have comparatively odd approach to picking because I don't usually wear picks and I use T-I-M-R fingers, the same way I do on guitar. I know of at least a few other steel players who have done this. As of now I am mostly just a chord melody player, and I play a lot of 3 and 4 note chords. I want to learn more scales and learn how to do single note solos. An exercise like this will certainly help with single note playing.

[Tim Toberer]

Watching videos of Buddy play, I don’t see him doing consecutive hits with thumb or middle when doing fast single 8th or 16th notes - it’s always TM alternating, unless it’s a rake. When playing slower melodies, I often see him use thumb-only single note strikes.

How is he blocking in between these faster runs? Is he just palm muting? I probably am developing tons of bad habits in the picking area.

[Dale Rottacker]

Watching videos of Buddy play, I don’t see him doing consecutive hits with thumb or middle when doing fast single 8th or 16th notes - it’s always TM alternating, unless it’s a rake. When playing slower melodies, I often see him use thumb-only single note strikes.

How is he blocking in between these faster runs? Is he just palm muting? I probably am developing tons of bad habits in the picking area.

Seems to me I read that Buddy once said when talking about blocking, that he uses whatever is readily available. Picks, palm, thumb, thumb by the bar, pulling bar back ... I've seen Buddy even pick the bar up at times, which I was always told was a no no when I was starting. Someone forgot to tell Buddy.

[J D Sauser]

Here is another exercise using the circle of fifths I am working on. This exercise is pretty much instant piano blues! It is a piano exercise but the right hand is just part of the harmonized Mixolydian scale and it works out pretty well on my tuning at least. I worked out a couple patterns on different string sets and now I just have to move them around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-alpCPrsUA8

Rockabilly:
I liked Johnny Burnette (Paul Burlison on guitar) and Eddie Cochran (Setzer's idol) a lot, but was also very much a Sun Records fan... Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee being my preferred way over Elvis. Many of these cats were unique and impacted music and race relations in a way which is often being overlooked.

Circle of "5ths"...
I don't understand why so many "teachers" insist on "backward" movements. We count from 1 to invite not the other way around. Western music (and again, by "Western" I don't mean exclusively Country & "Western", but West of the Middle East) tends to move in fourths. Yes, one can call it "going down" a 5th (it's the same notes, but it's contrary to what functional harmony teaches us about the tendency to resolve UP a Fourth). I feel that when it comes to "teaching" using logical directions helps against confusion.

On C6th, once we understand the system of roots, and how we can move in 4ths from root to root, we should discover that we can play all 12 keys ANYWHERE on the neck within 3 frets, Mayor, minor, Dominant, minor b5 and diminished. Basically one can move that around ALL OVER the neck and play thru all 12 keys, in single notes without even using the pedals or levers.
Since we are on the subject of "EXERCISE", I would call it a "Discipline" to play every lick, "sentence", cliché or line off the 9th string, 8th string, 7th string and 6th string root tethered pockets, so that one can play them modulated up a 4th thru all 12 keys within 3 frets. Once you got that, as far as fretboard mastery, you are likely ahead of many who even play on stage.

I am writing from Barranquilla Colombia, where I just had very successful eye surgery... my first day trying to handle emails, reading and writing... It's still a bit blurry so my orthography today may be a bit worse than usual.

... J-D.

... J-D.