Jim Campilongo practice method...

[itchybro]

Stumbled on to this in his myspace blog. Good stuff:



How I practice guitar:


The amount of time given to each category depends on strengths and weaknesses. This can be done over 1 hour or 8 hours.

1.) "Breakfast"...Warm up with arpeggios and scales. Apply the arpeggios to a song ( "Up a Lazy River", "Prelude to a Kiss","Tennessee Waltz", " How High The Moon", " Sleepwalk", "Giant Steps", "Mary had a Little Lamb" etc.) The song progression will prohibit you from playing on auto-pilot. This will hopefully "test" you and "awaken' you. In this context, tempo and meter aren't crucial. Apply scales to the song ( Major, natural minor, melodic minor, and harmonic minor). Try playing the appropriate scale ascending and descending, then play scales in thirds. While connecting the scales, arpeggios and chords, always strive for small intervallic jumps. Inspiration will most likely follow, but isn't necessarily a prerequisite.

2.) "Lunch"...... Learn a song and memorize the chord progression and melody ( otherwise you don't know the song!). Transpose it.

3.)"Dinner".....Make a tape of the song progression on a boom box or a simple recording setup. Do not get caught up in production. Play the melody and solo over the changes. Sometimes, I try a different approach over every chorus. Octaves,chord melody, steel guitar, "James Burton plays Jazz" etc etc. When you memorize the song , put it on a list of songs you know. Run through that list every few days, so you don't forget them.

4.) Now for "Dessert"......Play and improvise. Try and write something. Experiment with your tone. Play Blues in E. Whatever. Sometimes I learn solo's instead of songs, but I try to keep my practice sessions song oriented. This is for a number of reasons, here are a couple of them. 1.) A musician should know a lot of songs! 2.) Songs give me a challenging musical frame work to apply scales, arpeggio's and chord voicings. 3.) It allows me to see the history, structure and formula of other artists - giving me new perspectives and choices.

5.) Optional - "Snack" - noodle mindlessly while watching Columbo re-runs!

Materials ...

a good book with scales & arpeggios -
Guitar Complete: Chords, Scales, Arpeggios, and Melodic Patterns
Jay Friedman (Author)

Amazon.com: Guitar Complete: Chords, Scales, Arpeggios, and Melodic Patterns: Jay Friedman: Books

Amazon.com: Guitar Complete: Chords, Scales, Arpeggios, and Melodic Patterns: Jay Friedman: Books

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A good book with a ton of songs -
One can start with the "Real Book" but I find it over-harmonized (four altered chords in the context of tri-tone substitution that replace the composers original intent of one simple chord) and filled with many useless songs. Personally, I'd rather have access to "Stardust" then a Frank Zappa tune. Unfortunately, the best "Fake" books, are "homemade" and hard to find. This is a compromise, but I suppose it's a start.

Amazon.com: The Real Book: Sixth Edition (0073999683059): Hal Leonard Corporation: Books

Amazon.com: The Real Book: Sixth Edition (0073999683059): Hal Leonard Corporation: Books

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Something that records and plays back quickly and easily -
Boomerang Phrase Sampler - The Boomerang is a great tool for instantaneous recording (3 minute limit). It also has many features like reverse-sampling, and pitch shifting.

Buy Boomerang 4MB Phrase Sampler Plus | Looper & Sampler | Musician's Friend