Work, with Miles Okazaki

Here's a relatively short (16 min) video on the all-important three against four. I'll be doing a few videos on this particular one, because it is so useful in many musical traditions.

This has been a requested topic that's a real rabbit hole. So I figured I better get started on it. First a discussion of and then guided practice of the numbers two and three. Range is from very easy to very difficult

This is a kind of meditation, something that I like to do to get warmed up. I do about half of a session here, 37 minutes. This video is meant to be played along with, rather than watched without an instrument.

Here's an exercise to get you through all modes of all 12 keys in all positions on the guitar (in 20 minutes!). An excellent warmup - you will really feel like you ate your vegetables after this one.

Here's an extension of the pentatonics into diatonics, adding the 3rd and 7th degree of each scale. I do this along with singing, in order to hear the root of each scale. To do only the exercise and skip the explanation, go to 22min.

Here is a fun and illuminating approach to playing a chorale - layering each voice and then trying to analyze and improvise on it. To skip the part where I talk about and layer each voice, go to 11:30. A screenshot of the Chorale is attached, so that you can play along and understand what I'm referring to.

A long guided practice (to skip introductory theory, go to 8:30 in). We work gradually through four changing keys, two strings at a time, until all six strings are covered. Very useful for breaking down the pentatonic shapes into even smaller cells.

Continuing on the idea of the augmented, here is a guided practice on flowing through pentatonics in three keys separated by major 3rds. There's about 5 minutes of talking and then the exercise begins.

Answering a member question about augmented triads. I talk about common usage of this sound, as well as some more abstract things. Free to paid and unpaid members.

Here's an exercise that gets you through all keys in all positions. Highly recommended for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players. Play along with the video for best results. The exercise starts around the 20 minute mark - up to there is preparatory work. Hope you dig it.

Here's a mailbag episode, free to all folks paid or unpaid. The two questions have to do with: 1) Concepts for beginners 2) Use of the diminished in the 6th bar of a blues. These two questions lead me into quite a number of topics. Hope you dig it.

This is an epic video, an hour long. I go through the first chorus of Charlie Parker's solo on the Sep. 29, 1947 recording of Confirmation, showing how I would transcribe and figure out fingerings, articulations, and phrasing. The end goal is to internalize the feeling for the language of improvisation. For anyone who asks, "how do you transcribe stuff?," this is the video for you.

Here's something that I use constantly. Thinking of each dominant chord as a diminished 7th, and using that sound to create color and movement in the melodic line. If the theory doesn't make sense, I'd recommend to go back and look at the first couple videos in the "Symmetry" series.

This post addresses a member question from the previous post. I talk about how I was taught how to play changes, how I think about playing changes from a melodic perspective, and how it has very little to do with chords or scales. Examples are "All Blues," "There Will Never Be Another You," and "Confirmation."

One of my favorite exercises, that I've used for years to work on getting relaxed with forms and time. I give a bunch of examples from basic to advanced, and then explain what I'm doing at the beginning of this video. Upgrade on audio and video quality. Hope you dig it.

In this episode I go through a fingering for Charlie Parker's "Confirmation" as it is played on Sept 29, 1947 at Carnegie Hall . A lot of time is spent on ornaments, and how to get them to work smoothly and authentically on guitar, as well as the usual issue of where to play a particular phrase on the neck, and what you might consider when choosing a fingering.

Here's an exercise that I do on all kinds of music to make sure that I've actually learned the melody. It's called take offs and landings. Seems easy, but on a tune like this it's a real challenge to do smoothly. Let me know if you have requests for things to talk about with this tune, and I'll add them to the series.

An even longer video, finishing up the series on the 4th movement of the Sonata in C major for violin. Talking about specific choices in the passages from the last section, which is quite difficult with the pick. Also talking about ways of feeling the beat. Screenshot of the sheet music is attached.

A pretty long video where I go through the whole second page of the Allegro Assai. Talking about approaches to finding the best fingerings, isolating problem spots, and choosing strong fingers over weak fingers.

Third video on this piece, where we get into the part that is the real challenge for the pick.

Part 2 of the sight reading study on the Allegro Assai from Bach's Violin Sonata in C major.

Beginning of a series on a violin Sonata by J.S. Bach. I talk about how great the violin pieces are, and then I get into looking at the final movement of the Sonata in C major. Most of the talk is about strategies for choosing fingerings, and figuring out quickly which is the best one for you. A while back I made a home recording of this piece, which you find in the on my website, www.milesokazaki...

Here are two more ways that I use the scrambler to create randomized exercises.

This is one of the most powerful ways I've used the scrambler idea - creating random sequences of keys to get as quickly as possible by ear. Let me know if it makes sense what I say in this video, as I may have gone over things pretty quickly. I spend a couple of minutes at the beginning talking about training for the marathon, which you can skip over if it's boring.

Here is a video on a musicianship exercise that I like to do. A very simple idea but not necessarily that easy to do. I'll do a series on page 35 from my book, called "The Scrambler." I'd suggest printing out the screenshot attached to this video if you'd like to work on it.