Blue Monk Challenge

General · 82 replies · 3243 views · 21 followers

Jeffrey Croteau

22 days ago

So Awesome. It’s good to see what’s possible. The soft almost ghost like notes are really nice

Tomo Fujita Mod

22 days ago

Thank you guys! I played a little extra.... that's just like "Private Lesson" I normally add a little and see student's eyes... that's how we develope new ideas.

Amp is Musucmaster Bass Amp and Beth Reverb.

Tomo

5 Likes

Andy

20 days ago

Hey Blue Monkers... thanks for all the inspiration and learning. Here's my second Blue Monk video, this time doing Melody 1 + Melody 2 + solo etude. Few things I tried to do on this one compared to last time:

- Relax - I see from the videos how tense I get, especially in my face. I tried to remember to smile and breathe. Hard for me!
- Smoother phrasing - trying to learn from Tomo and all of you
- Thumb position. I tried to remember the feel of the chromatic exercises. I think I did better than last time, but it still came over the top a few times before I noticed it
- lighter touch - this was still hardest for me on the first (high E) string
- volume contrast between melody and 37 chords

8 Likes

Tadashi Morita

20 days ago

Wow, what a great performance, Andy! I get all tense while I'm playing too. But you've got a lovely smile at the end of this video, so it's OK! Thank you for sharing the video!

7 Likes

Clay

20 days ago

Great work Andy! Really nice feel and articulation.

6 Likes

Tomo Fujita Mod

20 days ago

Thank you Andy for sharing! Great points are listed there too!

1) Blue Monk Melody 1
Your time is good! Good job!
1) Move your body natually with tempo.
2) You can pick much softer
3) 0:38 Picking direction. Up beat is up. (Watch your alternate picking on 3rd melody too)
4) 0:42 You need mute other string from ringing
5) Overall you can pick a little closer to front pickup

2) Blues Monk 2
Good job! Keep in time!
1) First note… do not 1/2 mute. Play it cleanly.
2) 1:16 3&7.. play them much softer (very difficult)
3) 1:29 Your finger angle…
4) 1:31 You need mute other string from ringing.
5) 1:43 Pentatonic phrase. Watch our rhythm (triplet)

3) Blues Etude
Good playing in time! Not easy!
1) Your pickup phrase came in a little early so you shorten the blues form.
2) All fills with 2 notes. Should play a little softer.
3) 2:12 Around here you played a little hard.
4) 2:15 Muting other strings.
5) 2:22… Your picking is hard! So you need to turn up your amp so you feel uncomfortable (not easy to pick strong!)

Overall good job playing in time! I had to listen 5 times each to understand tiny detaisl.
You can practice each part and repeat 4-6 times and catch all the details.
Etude part, you need to practice much slower and much softer. I really appreciate your hard work which can inspire all of us!

Tomo

9 Likes

Kurt Schubert

20 days ago

Love this! Thanks, Andy, for showing us how to put it all together! So many details.
I am inspired once again by your pure hard work!
Thank you for sharing these updates.
Staying with it is paying off!
Kurt

8 Likes

Tomo Fujita Mod

20 days ago

Thank you Kurt! Love this thread! I love your thread! Almosy each one has own fun store!

Tomo

7 Likes

Sammi Fujita Mod

19 days ago

Great performance, Andy! Thank you so much for your willingness to share your progress with us. It's so inspiring and helpful to follow along.

I want to repeat what Kurt pointed out: "real practice is more fixing than learning something new!"
You learned it, you can play it, and now you are working on playing it even better. Forget about tempo and refine the details!

7 Likes

Jeffrey Croteau

19 days ago

Great job learning blue monk Andy! I felt the timing was really good and steady throughout nicely done

8 Likes

Sunil Menon

19 days ago

this is wonderful everyone.
thank you for contributing to this thread!
i have not started bmc yet but i am actively following, learning so much, i will start in a week or two. still working on daily sched and now r37 swing groove for daily.

8 Likes

Tomo Fujita Mod

18 days ago

Thank you Sammi, Jeff and Sunil for encouragement!

"real practice is more fixing than learning something new!” very true and so important!

Also practice is not just repeating same thing. Making it better each time.

Tomo

6 Likes

Sunil Menon

18 days ago

"Real practice is more fixing than learning something new."

Whoa, I know I read this several times above, didn't register until now.
Thank you Tomo, Sammi, Kurt!

So to learn something new,
I need to go slower.

To practice,
I need to listen,
go back to the beginning,
fix.

That is golden, man.
It is kind of like writing term papers in school, all the work is in the revisions.

This is good, thank you my friends!
Ok, had some tea, ready to go!

Hey Andy, forgot to add you looked so relaxed and happy while you were playing it! Feeling it!

BMC seems so simple (hahaha) and grooves so hard, seems like you just gotta feel it so that whomever is listening/watching can feel it too.
Feeling 1212 like this now.

Now I want to be Bach like Andy too :)

5 Likes

Tomo Fujita Mod

17 days ago

Thank you Sunil for noticing! Most people learn parts and pracrtice fast! Repeat a lot without reviewing so these people could develop some bad habits without noticing.... so most people could saved and developed some bad habits. I used to press the fret wire so hard! I picked the strings so hard and I used to break strings very often.

Play, practice slow is super important!
Feel rhythm and groove deeply!
Keep moving your body to feel music!

Listen!
Play, record...
Listen!
Repeat....

There are many great threads here at the forum!
We should start "Alternate Picklng Challenge"

1) Chromatic Scale 1212
2) R 3 7 Swing Groove
3) ?

Tomo

4 Likes

Sunil Menon

17 days ago

Thank you Tomo!

You're right, this will help me re-focus.

🙏🏾

4 Likes