Barry Greene Video Lessons

If you're just practicing the scales and working on getting them into your ear, use the same principals with all scales. 2nd's, 3rds, 4ths, etc. Also any repetitive patterns, sequences ascending and descending. 8th notes, triplets. Start on different parts of the beat. It's amazing how you can take the exact same sequence and play different note groupings and start on a different part of the beat and it sounds totally different.

I like to start playing a scale in each of the 5 positions and get that down. Then I work on connecting them. Barry mentions challenging yourself to move horizontally on each string (one at a time), which is a great idea. if you want to work on a ii-V-I and use the altered scale over the V, then play a dorian idea for one bar and whatever string you end on, move up or down either 1/2 or a whole step to get to the nearest note of the alt scale. Do that will all six strings, in all 5 positions. Same thing when you come out of your alt idea and resolve to the tonic.

I've covered a lot here, and I don't recommend getting overly academic. The goal is to free yourself from hunting on the fretboard and getting to the point where your ear is the guide.

I haven't posted in this thread in a while, but here is another nugget for the new or old student. There is a tendency to "just push play" on these lessons. I watched the diminished lesson this morning and it really reminded me that I tend to work on these lessons in 10 minute chunks when I have my guitar. There is so much there that it's overwhelming and I really don't get much value in trying to absorb 40 minutes of material in 40 minutes. Many times I will watch the videos beginning to end without my guitar to try to digest the concepts, but If I'm really trying to apply it to my playing I make sure that I take it nice and slow and pay attention and make sure that I understand and can play everything that Barry covers.

All of that said, one of the thing I like about this site is the sheer volume of content in each lesson. That diminished video could easily have been broken down into five 30 minute videos with extensive examples and commentary on each device. But that's what the pause button is for. I've got shelves of music books that are filled with examples of the same idea in all 12 keys and it ends up being a 120 page book with 10 pages of ideas.

Make sure you guys are following Barry's YouTube channel so you can see his live streams (even if you watch them after the fact). One thing that came up on a recent one was the idea of making sure you balance your chord and line study. Most of us strive for the "never-ending bebop line" and in doing so neglect growing our chord vocabulary. You should try to keep a balance and always be able to grab a chord or line that fits the harmony wherever you are on the neck at any time.

I started with jazz in High School reading chord charts in a big band, so I rarely played solos and at that point I was much stronger in the comping department. Now I have to be careful that I'm not spending too much time on linear material. If I had a good voice, I probably wouldn't have had to worry about either because we all know that the chicks like the singers :)

I am new to the site and wanted to ask Barry or anyone on the forum who could possibly answer a couple of questions. I am working on the secret jazz chord and noticed that the chord Bb9(#11) had the top note of G on the first string which would indicate the 13th of the chord and that the chart indicates this to be a dominant chord. Isn't this a altered dominant since it has a flat 5 in it or #4 as indicated in the chord symbol? I guess I am confused as to what criteria is being used to determine a dominant chord and how that differs from an altered dominant. I always thought an altered dominant was where the 5th and or 9th degrees were altered in some way.

I would also like to know if you can get away with using another grip for the one that Barry states is very hard to achieve? Using the same chord as above with the G note on top, the chord I am referring to would be on strings 5 through 2 and the frets would be 11, 10, 7 and 8. This is a bear and I don't believe with my hands I will ever be able to achieve coming up with this chord on the fly. Thanks. Tom

I've been working on Barry's videos just over a week and I find them fantastic & enlightening! I started with "There Will Never B Another U," then went on to "Solar." I've been playing these songs for years but I found Barry's method's on these tunes to be like a breath of fresh air. I'm also doing some of the scale studies, and tried to do augmented and diminshed yesterday. Barry mentioned there was other material on augmented, but I didn't find it. I do have a question about PDFs, which are located in Drop Box. I'm not successful in downloading them, into Drop box or by just trying a file "save as." Nor can I print them out because the screen is in two parts. I can only print a small portion of the PDFs. So I'm wondered if they are protected against being copied or printed?

Thank you! No as long as you have logged in, you can print and download anything. Maybe someone else can chime in to help you. But you have full access to every pdf on the site as a subscriber.

Barry

Yes Barry, there was an extra step I wasn't taking to save them properly. Now I have no problems. I using a Google Chrome Browser with Windows style PC. Thanks for checking back with me

You guys are awesome and seem very helpful, but this is so far over my head. Can I figure this out if all I know is open chords and bar chords and the basic pentatonic scale? Would love to get on the path to jazz.

Thanks for starting this thread Kurt and everyone else who has posted here. There's so much content, it's great to read how each of you is processing these various lessons and in what order. I've been looking at Barry's website for years and purchased a few things along the way but I'm now a subscriber. It's nice to be able to come to the site and have access to everything, what a great source of information and inspiration.

I haven't posted in this one in a while, but wanted to keep it rolling. I've been doing a deep dive into the Blues Basics lesson (Billie's Bounce). I have probably been working it for the past three months. I am learning every note on the PDF lines and chords. I have found that if you can get all of those down, to where you don't need the sheet music, you will inevitably start to embellish the lines and actually mix them up with each other as you play them. You will also notice that the lines have a "lead in" which actually covers the bar before the line starts. The end of many lines actually goes into the next bar as well as they are broken up into bars 1-4, 5-8 and 9-12. The fist step is getting them down as they appear on the sheet. Once you do that, treat it like a menu and take a line from the first four bars, and connect to a line from the second four. Be mindful of the start/endpoints. If you can do that, you will end up being able to run the entire 12 bars (and repeat) endlessly. Then you can do the same with the chords. How about some lines/some chords (like Barry does)? Most of all, don't forget to take advantage of what you already know. The old reliable blues scale and those licks we all have played for years, still work great! If you can do this, and you take Barry's advice to transcribe good blues solos here and there, you can continue to build vocabulary. At first, you think that it's boring to play the same lines over and over, but I can tell you that for the average listener they don't notice the subtle nuances. The first time I watched this video, I had no idea that some of the lines Barry plays are very similar and employ the exact same phrases that I've learned in other PDF's.

Trust me, it's very tedious, but if you like the way Barry plays, and you take the time to thoroughly digest the material on the PDF's, they will get easier as you go along. There are probably thousands of pages of transcription on this site, and I'm not giving away any secrets when I tell you that every line Barry transcribes is not unique. The same stuff appears all over the place. This is true of any improviser. Most of the greats will tell you that 80% is the stuff they have practiced and play all the time and it's only the other 20% that truly comes from on the spot inspiration. It's probably closer to 90/10. And when you increase the tempo, it's all stuff they practice. Nobody can play rhythm changes at 240bm on any instrument and create lines they have never played before on the spot. Well, maybe drummers.....

Hi Kurt,
It is always nice to hear your comments. I tend to start on a Lesson and then later listen to a different BG video while I'm running. And there I go... off in a different direction. Geez, I just need to focus. Was it Ray Benson that said, "The only habit I don't have is that one called "Self Control" :-)

-Cliff