1. "On The Pipe" by The Steve Morse Band album "The Introduction".
I always wanted to learn how to play this, but really had NO idea how to approach it. So I found a guy online Hemme Luttjeboer who is a professional transcriber. His site is musiconpaper.com. His Transcription saved me so much time, and since I have less than an hour a day to practice, it got me much further, much faster than if I was to try to transcribe it myself.
This is a VERY difficult tune to play and after about 6 months I'm about 1:53 into the tune. It pushed me and my practice regimen. I actually learned so much about what makes Steve Morse's compositions sound the way they do and learned many practice tips. The hardest part of learning a tune like this is finding the correct fingering. And since I had the TAB I was able to write down the fingering which is SO important. Working out the fingering is EVERYTHING when learning a difficult composition.
2. "Donna Lee" by Charlie Parker
I play this nearly EVERY day. I can play it at 195 bpm, clean and mistake free.
This took me 1 month just to get through the whole thing and play it mistake free. Very slow tempo.
I put two obstructions in front of me before I started learning it.
1. I would NOT use the tab, I would read the notes.
2. I would not listen to the composition to see if I was making mistakes ONLY when I finished learning a full section.
I did this so my reading would get better. My knowledge of the fretboard would get better, and that forced me to make sure that my time was correct. BeBop (especially Charlie Parker) is always good to learn because musically it doesn't go where you expect it to, so you're constantly blowing open new doors in your brain. The time is especially challenging. BeBop is great for this. I got to study with Ken Navarro for a year, and he was really big on BeBop just for this kind of thing. The parts sound completely abstract when played alone, and then when you put the second part on it makes sense. He used to give me these BeBop duets to learn.
But I feel like I'll play Donna Lee every day until I can't pick up the guitar anymore. There are parts that are still challenging and I"m still experimenting with different fingerings to get my tempo up.
Keep up the good work on the newsletter Brian. You Rock.
Wow Fred, thank you so much for this reply. I appreciate it a lot. I have to listen to more Steve Morse. I listened to a bit of his stuff with the Dregs, but it’s hard to find some of his music on streaming. I just subscribed to Hemme’s YouTube and checked out his site. I got into transcribing through Levi Clay and the Guitar Pro app. I’m also using Transcribe! To slow things down without changing the pitch. What did you end up learning about Morse’s compositions and practice tips outside of the fingering? I’ve been trying to learn this damn Aristocrats song “I Want A Parrot” for soooo long. I have most of it down, but there are two insanely fast parts that still elude me. I’ve been looking at a lot of live videos for Guthrie’s fingerings - one day I’ll get it! That’s also excellent about the Charlie Parker tune. Were you using a fake book for this tune or something else? Back in college I wasn’t into jazz yet, it was bebop bands and guys like Scofield, Metheny, etc. that got me excited to dive deep into this style. Nowadays I listen to a ton of stuff by guys like Julian Lage, etc. I know I already asked a ton of questions, but what are a few albums you’re listening to these days that are really impressing you?
With "Donna Lee", during the TV strike here in LA, I took some lessons from Brett Vaughn Rechtfertig (instagram: inmybookofspells) and he posted himself playing Donna Lee on an acoustic nylon string on IG what seemed like effortlessly, and then the next day he posted the chart from the fake book and said, "who's next?"
Well, it was challenge accepted! Brett is a ridiculously talented player whose repertoire seems bottomless. He's a great teacher too. By him adjusting my pick slant alone it helped my playing. I finally understand "pick slanting".
The thing that I learned from learning "On The Pipe" by Steve Morse, was that he loves chromatic scales and there are so many passages in his playing and compositions. He also does really cool stuff with barring adjacent strings for notes (I hope I'm explaining this correctly) And it's interesting that once you "crack the player's code" the learning goes much faster. You find yourself saying, "oh he's doing a chromatic ending in a two string barre here". It's like you're getting inside their head to see what's going on. I have no idea what his composition process is but it yields amazing music.
I'm sure I'm really just simplifying it but you do start to see compositional patterns in his playing.
I actually use a piece of software called "Anytune" for slowing stuff down for learning and I learned so much about how a practice regimen is REALLY important. And with compositions like this, you REALLY have to stay on top of them to be able to keep playing them.
I read a study that said "if you spend just 18 minutes a day, every day practicing anything, that you'll be better than 95% of the people in that specific practice".
Consistency is key. You can't miss weeks, and expect to still have the music under your fingers.
There's also something about writing down the fingering which is so important, because (well at my age anyway) it doesn't come back that easily. Trying to keep track of a complex run or piece of music (especially when you're really just learning it) without having that kind of visual reminder is so much more difficult.
I also learned that when you're trying to learn something difficult to play it RIDICULOUSLY SLOW until it's under your fingers. When I took piano lessons in my 30's my teacher used to say to me "just don't make mistakes". And I asked him what he meant, and he said, if you don't play it ridiculously slow and methodically until you own it WITHOUT misatkes, you'll learn the mistakes!
And that is SO true.
To tell you the truth, I'm not really listening to much new music these days.
Days Between Stations (band) is certainly interesting music.
There's a band here in Los Angeles led by Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi, which is like nothing I've heard before. He's a multi instrumentalist, but mainly a drummer, and I have never heard anything like his playing. He's beyond amazing and Genevieve is beyond an amazing singer. Go watch some of their videos and get their latest album on Bandcamp. It's like a movie that you watch over and over and get something new from it every time.
Had to reply one more time, because I didn't realize the band by the musician's individual names..but I think you're talking about Knower! Their album Life was on repeat a couple of years ago. I think I first heard about them through Adam Neely. Great stuff.
Just subbed to Brett on Instagram! Maybe you've heard about him already, but for me and a bunch of other people who are friends of the newsletter, we've been fans of Troy Grady. His insights in to pickslanting have been phenomenal.
I totally get what you're saying about cracking the code with different players. That's why I always feel like it's important to actually spend a little time with the material, rather than just quickly learn it and walk away. I'm also wondering if Petrucci from Dream Theater got some of his chromaticism from Morse.
Thanks for the comment and the kind words. I truly appreciate it!
So currently there are two.
1. "On The Pipe" by The Steve Morse Band album "The Introduction".
I always wanted to learn how to play this, but really had NO idea how to approach it. So I found a guy online Hemme Luttjeboer who is a professional transcriber. His site is musiconpaper.com. His Transcription saved me so much time, and since I have less than an hour a day to practice, it got me much further, much faster than if I was to try to transcribe it myself.
This is a VERY difficult tune to play and after about 6 months I'm about 1:53 into the tune. It pushed me and my practice regimen. I actually learned so much about what makes Steve Morse's compositions sound the way they do and learned many practice tips. The hardest part of learning a tune like this is finding the correct fingering. And since I had the TAB I was able to write down the fingering which is SO important. Working out the fingering is EVERYTHING when learning a difficult composition.
2. "Donna Lee" by Charlie Parker
I play this nearly EVERY day. I can play it at 195 bpm, clean and mistake free.
This took me 1 month just to get through the whole thing and play it mistake free. Very slow tempo.
I put two obstructions in front of me before I started learning it.
1. I would NOT use the tab, I would read the notes.
2. I would not listen to the composition to see if I was making mistakes ONLY when I finished learning a full section.
I did this so my reading would get better. My knowledge of the fretboard would get better, and that forced me to make sure that my time was correct. BeBop (especially Charlie Parker) is always good to learn because musically it doesn't go where you expect it to, so you're constantly blowing open new doors in your brain. The time is especially challenging. BeBop is great for this. I got to study with Ken Navarro for a year, and he was really big on BeBop just for this kind of thing. The parts sound completely abstract when played alone, and then when you put the second part on it makes sense. He used to give me these BeBop duets to learn.
But I feel like I'll play Donna Lee every day until I can't pick up the guitar anymore. There are parts that are still challenging and I"m still experimenting with different fingerings to get my tempo up.
Keep up the good work on the newsletter Brian. You Rock.
Wow Fred, thank you so much for this reply. I appreciate it a lot. I have to listen to more Steve Morse. I listened to a bit of his stuff with the Dregs, but it’s hard to find some of his music on streaming. I just subscribed to Hemme’s YouTube and checked out his site. I got into transcribing through Levi Clay and the Guitar Pro app. I’m also using Transcribe! To slow things down without changing the pitch. What did you end up learning about Morse’s compositions and practice tips outside of the fingering? I’ve been trying to learn this damn Aristocrats song “I Want A Parrot” for soooo long. I have most of it down, but there are two insanely fast parts that still elude me. I’ve been looking at a lot of live videos for Guthrie’s fingerings - one day I’ll get it! That’s also excellent about the Charlie Parker tune. Were you using a fake book for this tune or something else? Back in college I wasn’t into jazz yet, it was bebop bands and guys like Scofield, Metheny, etc. that got me excited to dive deep into this style. Nowadays I listen to a ton of stuff by guys like Julian Lage, etc. I know I already asked a ton of questions, but what are a few albums you’re listening to these days that are really impressing you?
With "Donna Lee", during the TV strike here in LA, I took some lessons from Brett Vaughn Rechtfertig (instagram: inmybookofspells) and he posted himself playing Donna Lee on an acoustic nylon string on IG what seemed like effortlessly, and then the next day he posted the chart from the fake book and said, "who's next?"
Well, it was challenge accepted! Brett is a ridiculously talented player whose repertoire seems bottomless. He's a great teacher too. By him adjusting my pick slant alone it helped my playing. I finally understand "pick slanting".
The thing that I learned from learning "On The Pipe" by Steve Morse, was that he loves chromatic scales and there are so many passages in his playing and compositions. He also does really cool stuff with barring adjacent strings for notes (I hope I'm explaining this correctly) And it's interesting that once you "crack the player's code" the learning goes much faster. You find yourself saying, "oh he's doing a chromatic ending in a two string barre here". It's like you're getting inside their head to see what's going on. I have no idea what his composition process is but it yields amazing music.
I'm sure I'm really just simplifying it but you do start to see compositional patterns in his playing.
I actually use a piece of software called "Anytune" for slowing stuff down for learning and I learned so much about how a practice regimen is REALLY important. And with compositions like this, you REALLY have to stay on top of them to be able to keep playing them.
I read a study that said "if you spend just 18 minutes a day, every day practicing anything, that you'll be better than 95% of the people in that specific practice".
Consistency is key. You can't miss weeks, and expect to still have the music under your fingers.
There's also something about writing down the fingering which is so important, because (well at my age anyway) it doesn't come back that easily. Trying to keep track of a complex run or piece of music (especially when you're really just learning it) without having that kind of visual reminder is so much more difficult.
I also learned that when you're trying to learn something difficult to play it RIDICULOUSLY SLOW until it's under your fingers. When I took piano lessons in my 30's my teacher used to say to me "just don't make mistakes". And I asked him what he meant, and he said, if you don't play it ridiculously slow and methodically until you own it WITHOUT misatkes, you'll learn the mistakes!
And that is SO true.
To tell you the truth, I'm not really listening to much new music these days.
Days Between Stations (band) is certainly interesting music.
There's a band here in Los Angeles led by Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi, which is like nothing I've heard before. He's a multi instrumentalist, but mainly a drummer, and I have never heard anything like his playing. He's beyond amazing and Genevieve is beyond an amazing singer. Go watch some of their videos and get their latest album on Bandcamp. It's like a movie that you watch over and over and get something new from it every time.
Keep up the good work brother. You rock.
Had to reply one more time, because I didn't realize the band by the musician's individual names..but I think you're talking about Knower! Their album Life was on repeat a couple of years ago. I think I first heard about them through Adam Neely. Great stuff.
Just subbed to Brett on Instagram! Maybe you've heard about him already, but for me and a bunch of other people who are friends of the newsletter, we've been fans of Troy Grady. His insights in to pickslanting have been phenomenal.
I totally get what you're saying about cracking the code with different players. That's why I always feel like it's important to actually spend a little time with the material, rather than just quickly learn it and walk away. I'm also wondering if Petrucci from Dream Theater got some of his chromaticism from Morse.
Thanks for the comment and the kind words. I truly appreciate it!