Have you ever sat down to practice and didn’t know what to really work on? Have you ever felt like you were not accomplishing much in your practice time.

We probably have all felt like this at some point in time.

Let me share some things with you that has helped me over the years.

If you are anything like me you are probably really busy and don’t have as much time as you would like to practice so therefore you have to make your practice time count.

I have found that it helps to make out a practice schedule.

1# Specify how much time you can allot to practicing a particular day.

2# Determine what you want and NEED to practice on.

3# Divide the time up that you have so you can practice on everything.(You have to stop working on a particular thing when the time is up or it will throw off your schedule)

4# Keep a log or diary of what you practiced on so you can track your progress.

A practice schedule for me may look something like this:

Practice Schedule

Time 1hour

Finger Exercises/Scales 15min

Sight Reading 15min

New song to learn 20min

Improv/Soloing 10min

Your practice schedule can be as long as you want it to be and you can include as much as you want in it.

The point is you have an organized approach to your practicing and overtime you will improve faster because you are hitting everything you need to work on consistently.

I find that it helps when doing finger exercises to use a metronome or something that keeps a steady beat for you. Set the tempo at a speed that is a bit of a challenge but not so fast that you keep messing up. As you get more comfortable gradually increase the speed.

One more tip:

When you are learning something new many times you will run across a section of it that gives you trouble.

For example you may be learning a new song and everytime you get to the first verse you mess up. Most people will go all the way back to the beginning of the song and start over and get to the first verse and mess up again. This wastes alot of time. You should isolate where the problem area is and focus on that.

Identify the area that is giving you trouble.

Play a little before the problem area, the problem area, and a then little after the problem area.

You will save time like this. Keep doing this until you work the problem area out and can move from before it all the way to after it smoothly.

Now start at the beginning.

Just a few Tips

Until Next Time,

Kenny Hollins

We now have available one of the sections from the DVD Learn A Neo Soul and Jazz Approach. We have made the section on Tritones available for instant download with screen capture. You will learn what the Tritone is, how it is used, and some easy but effective ways to apply it to your playing.

If You have the Learn A Neo Soul and Jazz Approach DVD then you already have this lesson but if not this is an opportunity to get the same instruction for a fraction of the cost of the DVD. The DVD is $19.95 but this download is only .99 cents.

This is a very small investment that you can make in your playing that literally may instantly take your playing to the next level.

Download HERE

Only .99 cents

The sound that we consider to be contemporary gospel is made up of many chords that have tritones in them.

A Tritone is theoretically an augmented 4th or a deminished 5th.  For example if you where playing the C major scale the notes would be CDEFGABC

C is the first note and F is the fourth note. Therefore when you play the two notes C and F at the same time you are playing a perfect fourth.

But a tritone is an augmented fourth so you have to raise the fourth note up one half step. So a tritone would be C and F#. It also could be a deminished 5th which would be C and Gb.

HOW DO I USE IT?

There are many ways to use tritones.

Commonly they are used in altered dominant chords. For example G7#5#9, Ab7b9.

Usually you play the tritone with your left hand and the extentions of the chord with your right hand.

The tritone gives you alternatives to what type of dominant 7 chord to play.

You can change the extentions in your right hand and get a whole new sound and chord that will work.

If you are familiar with tritones then you know what I mean. If not you can get the dvd

Learn To Play The Hammond Organ or

Learn A Neo -Soul And Jazz Approach.

These techniques are explained.

How do I figure out the tritone.

Say for example you are playing an Ab dominant 7 chord which is

Ab C Eb Gb 

Ab is the root of the chord

Whatever the root of the chord is you play the b7 and major 3rd.

In the case of Ab the tritone would be Gb and C.

Once you figure out the tritone then you add your extentions.

One little trick I learned is to play certain major triads over the tritones and it creates different kinds of altered dominant chords.

For example if I want to find another chord for the Ab dominat seven I can figure out the tritone and play that with my left hand.

Then I can add the number 2 major triad, b5 major triad, #5 major triad, 6 major triad

on top of the tritone with your right hand.

In the example of Ab dominant 7

With your left hand you would play Gb and C

Right hand you could play the major 2 triad which is Bb major

The number 2 in the Ab major scale is Bb so therefore the major 2 triad would be a Bb major chord

So I would play a Bb major triad over the Gb and C with my left hand.

Try these alternatives for your dominant seven chords. We will get deeper a little later.

If all of this stuff sounds like chinese to you and you want to be able to do it you should get either The Hammond Organ DVD or The Neo Soul DVD

www.hmpi.net

Be Blessed,

Kenny Hollins