Before We Get Started....
We students always have a lot of questions before starting the course of study, so let's take a moment to answer some of those questions. Probably the number one question I am asked is about Mickey himself. I have never met nor contacted Mickey Baker and have no information as to how to contact him. As you will learn during your course of study, I am a big fan of Mickey's. Since writing his classic Volume 1, there have been many Jazz guitar methods written. None pack the volume of data Mickey put into his 64 pages. Due to this size limitation, there are many explanations that are either inferred or not given. I've tried to give explanations or expound on subjects, lesson by lesson, keeping the spirit of Mickey's philosophy in tact. This study is authorized only by Mickey's suggestion of writing everything down. That I've done, and I'm sharing it with you.
Repeating my comment from the Home Page, I have selected TablEdit as a musical notation editor. There are many musical notation editors available, with many tailored to use with the guitar. My choice is because, in my opinion, TablEdit is the best- easy to learn, very versatile, and has a MIDI sequencer built into it. The art of archiving sound with paper and ink, whether we are talking about music or words, is an abstract concept. Using the MIDI capabilities of ones computer to accurately store our musical ideas removes that abstraction. We have the option of listening to a lesson without actually playing it on the guitar or having a teacher play it for you. Some students, with lots of rationalizations, avoid using a computer based editor. If you are reading this now on a computer, you have everything you need to begin to use TablEdit after downloading the program.
Students without an instructor have a tendency to want to "cherry pick" lessons. That is, they scour the manual looking for lessons and exercises that may interest them, rather than a disciplined course of study. Early on in the course Mickey warns against this method of study. In my conversations with students of this course, a common comment is "I've studied this course for x number of years and never seem to get through it." Invariably, they all admit to "cherry picking". Another common comment is "I'm working on the rhythm lessons at the same time I'm working on the soloing lessons. This course of study may seem ambitious, but really is counter productive. To create our solos, we need a firm foundation in harmony. If we are learning harmony, we do not yet have the foundation needed, and thus the soloing lessons will not be understood as completely. Master one subject at a time. I've found that soloing is much easier when the harmony is burned into the brain. In the end, how and what we study are determined by each individual's personal goals, and I would be the last person to criticize ones study plans. If your goal is to get the maximum out of this course, then cherry picking is not an option you seriously want to consider.
Mickey divides the course into two parts: Rhythm Guitar and Lead (Soloing) Guitar. Let's discuss each part.
Rhythm Section: All of the lessons are written in 4/4 time, arguably the most common time. As we are primarily learning harmonies and chord substitutions, Mickey has limited the rhythms to the "chunk" style so common in Jazz groups since the earliest recordings. I believe he did this purposely as to not overload the student starting out. As the student becomes more comfortable with the new philosophy of harmony, he can then use whatever right hand techniques he feels is appropriate for the tune he is accompanying. Mickey devotes a lesson on this early on, but then returns to the chunk style. A discussion of different time signatures and rhythms is planned for inclusion in Appendix IV of this website.
Mickey has chosen 34 chord forms (26 forms at the beginning of the course and 8 additional forms later in the course). These forms are all moveable to any position on the guitar. As any owner of a "40,000 Guitar Chords" book will testify, I'm sure, there are dozens of chord forms for each type, major, minor, augmented, and diminished. What I believe to be Mickey's goals are to provide a foundation of chord forms that will allow the guitarist to play in any of the 12 major and 12 minor keys by using a minimum of easily moveable forms. When we analyze Mickey's chosen forms and the fingerings he suggests, it becomes apparent that he's chosen forms that will progress from one to the next with a minimum of movement. That minimum movement translates into greater accuracy. Everyone has their particular favorite forms and favorite chord progressions. Rather than argue with Mickey's choices, just accept it and later you'll realize that in addition to your favorite forms and progressions, you have a second set to use from time to time. After finishing the course, you may find that Appendices II and III will give additional insight into chord form selection.
Mickey uses a system of naming chords that may be a little outdated. I've attempted to standardize these names. There seems to be as many different conventions for naming chords as there are musicians naming them. Rather than curse the differences, wishing for a "chord police", try to embrace the freedom. It doesn't take very long to learn many different ways of naming the same chord. There are lots of musicians that reject names altogether and know what chord to use by where it progresses. Many Jazz pianists play wonderful stuff and have no idea as to the names we guitarists give to chords.
Soloing Section: This section gives fundamentals in single string soloing, using Blues, Rhythm Changes, Vamp, and Bridge chord progressions as the harmonic foundation. Lessons in this section refer back to lessons in the rhythm section, which is another argument against cherry picking. Mickey introduces us to scales, arpeggios, and riffs as the building blocks in making a solo. The course ends with the technique of soloing around the melody of the tune being played without actually playing the melody. There are a number of other methods of soloing, such as chord soloing, that Mickey introduces in his Volume 2 (which I have added to this course as Appendix VI.)
And last, but certainly not least, is the question of "Do I really have to learn to read music?" Some musicians answer the question of whether they can read music with a flippant "Not enough to affect (hurt) my playing!" No musician in the history of music has regretted the effort he made to learn to read. It's a tool and one can't have enough tools in his tool box. Another advantage that the ability to read music gives us is to be able to converse with other musicians that play other instruments. Remember that the most difficult part of learning to read music is getting the courage to say "today, I'm going to start to learn to read music."
Some students say "I am very comfortable with tablature, why do I need to learn standard notation? Actually, if one is comfortable with tablature, then he is more than 50% along learning to read music. Additionally, some students who studied classical guitar may have had a teacher that discouraged the use of tablature. I believe a healthier attitude is to find middle ground in this argument. Tablature is an early form of written musical archiving for stringed instruments, predating standard notation. Many students of the lute and theorbo (early relatives of the guitar and still actively studied) still use Tablature as their scores. Another way of looking at this is to remember that when the score shows a number in a circle (indicating the string) next to a note, along with a number 1 through 4 to indicate which finger of the left hand, and possibly a P, I, M, or A to indicate which right hand finger to use, that standard notation has had tablature superimposed upon it. I personally prefer both staves so that the standard notation is not so cluttered. You make up your mind as to how you feel about it.
All that's left is prepare to have the most fun imaginable!
