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Improvisation Discount Bundle
Improvisation Discount Bundle


 
Price: $34.95


Product Code: 3119
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Save $15 when you buy these two products as a bundle!

In this discount bundle you will receive Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 5: Improvisation and Style Studies, plus the 90-minute Guitar Player's Guide to Improvisation DVD by Tim May and Dan Miller


Read more about these two projects:

Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 5: Improvisation and Style Studies
152 page book, 2 Audio CDs (over 120 minutes of audio)


Improvisation is one of those things that flatpickers always ask about at workshops and seminars. It is one of those mysterious and elusive concepts that is hard for many people to grasp. In this Volume of the Flatpicking Essentials series authors Dan Miller and Tim May take away the mystery by presenting a step-by-step gradual learning method that will have you improvising immediately and then build your skill slowly and steadily. By the end of this book you will have the confidence and the skill to step out and start improvising at your next jam session.

The method used in this book works off of a two-part approach, the first is from the blues perspective, working with the minor pentatonic scale. The second approach works more with root notes and chord tones as a basis. Many Jazz players work with this structure for learning improvisation. Tim May has developed a similar approach for flatpicking and bluegrass. Flatpicking Essentials Volume 5: Improvisation and Style Studies presents both the blues approach and the root note/chord tone method, and the many exercises and examples associated with both, as vehicles to get you very comfortable with improvisation. Also included are many practice tracks that will help you build your improvisational skills. This book presents a very accessible and systematic approach to learning how to improvise.

In the Flatpicking Essentials series, the approach to teaching anything is to build gradually and move step-by-step so that the student can achieve success at each step, and each step builds upon the previous one. The approach to teaching improvisation in Volume 5 of the Flatpicking Essentials series will build your improvisational skills gradually, without frustration.

In addition to the extensive improvisation section, part 2 of this book includes "Style Studies" that are focused on the "founding fathers" of flatpicking: Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Clarence White, Tony Rice, and Dan Crary. This section of the book profiles elements of each of these player's flatpicking styles, and then teaches you how to work those style elements into your own solos by giving you many song and fiddle tune examples.

Flatpicking Essentials, Volume 5: Improvisation and Style Studies Table of Contents:

Part 1, Section 1: Blues Improvisation
Minor Scales
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
Dorian Mode
G Minor Pnetatonic Scale
The Blues Improvisation Exercise
Stage 1: Three Notes and a G Chord Shuffle
Stage 2: Five Notes and a G Chord Shuffle
Stage 3: Five Notes and a I, IV, V Shuffle
Stage 4: Note Targeting
Stage 5: Bluegrass Rhythm
Stage 6: Same Notes, New Octave
Stage 7: Two Octaves
Stage 8: The G "Blues" Scale
Stage 9: The Closed G "Blues" Scale
Stage 10: Combining Patterns
Stage 11: Blues All Over the Neck
Stage 12: Connecting the Boxes
Stage 13: Licks and Bends
Stage 14: Learn to Say Something
Stage 15: Working with New I, IV, V Progressions
Carter's Blues
I Am A Pilgrim
Stage 16: Exploring Other Keys
Blues Section Conclusion

Part 1, Section 2: Improvisation: Finding Root Notes and Chord Tones
Stage 1: Finding the Root Notes
Stage 2: Filling in the Spaces in G
Stage 3: Root Notes and the I, IV, V Progression
Stage 4: Leading Tones
Stage 5: Filling in the Spaces in a I, IV, V Progression
Stage 6: Using Repeating Patterns
Durham's Reel
She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain
Stage 7: Finding the Chord Tones
She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain (Improv 2)
Stage 8: Working with the Major Pentatonic Scale
Stage 9: Working with New I, IV, V Progressions
Stage 10: Exploring Other Keys
Stage 11: Song Analysis and Practice
Improvisation Conclusion

Part 2: Style Studies
Introduction

Doc Watson
Combining Scales and Folding Scales
Lonesome Road Blues
Wabash Cannonball

Norman Blake Strumming Exercises
Lead Pattern Examples
Arkansas Traveler
Blackberry Blossom

Clarence White
Clarence White Licks
Shuckin' The Corn
Farewell Blues

Tony Rice The Riceolian Mode
The Mode's The Thing
Tony Rice Licks

Dan Crary Dan Crary Licks

The Tunes Billy In The Lowground
Banks of the Ohio
Blackberry Blossom
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
East Tennessee Blues
Salt Creek
Long Journey Home
More Pretty Girls Than One

The Road Ahead

Appendix


The Guitar Player's Guide to Improvisation DVD:

In this instructional DVD Tim May and Dan Miller, authors of the popular eight-volume "Flatpicking Essentials" course, teach you an approach to improvising guitar solos. You will first learn what scale notes will best fit over diatonic (of the key) chord progressions, and how to employ those scale tones using techniques such as scale runs, folded scales, harmonized scales, and crosspicking. Next you will learn how to target chord tones in your solo as the tune changes from one chord to another, thus moving with the structure of the tune and getting closer to the melody. Then you will learn how to use techniques like phrasing, note articulation, and dynamics to make your improvised solos better fit the song while sounding interesting and engaging, while remaining tasteful.

In the Flatpicking Essentials course (Volumes 5, 6, and 8), Tim May and Dan Miller teach a structured approach to improvisation that starts with very basic techniques and moves on to more advanced concepts. Tim and Dan have been teaching their beginning approach to improvisation, what Tim calls "fake it until you make it," at workshops across the country. This DVD was produced in response to workshop students wanting a visual reference that they could use at home. While many beginning students feel as though they are "not ready" for improvisation until they "get better" on the guitar, Tim and Dan's philosophy is that even beginners should be working on improvisation skills and so the methods that are taught on this DVD are appropriate for guitar players at all levels.

The goal of this DVD is to give any guitar student the tools that they will need in order to sit in at a jam session and improvise solos on songs and tunes that they may have never heard before. If this seems like a daunting task to you, check out this DVD. Equipped with the right tools, techniques, concepts, and ideas, it is easier than you think! Participants at Tim and Dan's improvisation workshops are able to improvise a solo on a song that they are never heard before after about 30 minutes of instruction, even if they have no previous experience with improvisation.

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