Hey Hey, I am back from the road and it is time for our next newsletter.

I have been out on the road a lot since the last newsletter and I tell you when you get out there it can be grueling at times, but the love for playing music will always keep you going. So, love the music and let the world hear and feel the music that comes from your heart.

Now, let's get to it. Last time I told you that I would discuss how to expand your musical vocabulary. No, I did not mean musical terms, I mean how to increase the things that you can say with the music. First of all, try to learn as many songs as you can and continue to listen and learn new songs. This will help you not only with phrasing, but you can use things from other tunes inside your solos and make them very interesting because people will hear that something that is familiar, even if it's some funny little ditty from a commercial or something. You see, the more songs you learn the more phrases you have in your arsenal of licks. When you practice different licks try to put them together in a lot of different forms - I mean like, if you started the lick on A this time start it on another key the next time and keep going. Also try to place the notes of different scales in different places such as starting in the middle of the scale and at the end. Play it backwards, sideways however many ways you can think of. Another way to expand upon this is to sing melodies to yourself or out loud and try to play them. Expand your use of the scales and licks as you would words that you learn from the dictionary. Speaking of dictionaries it's almost time to go back to school - Sorry about that...LAUGH! Seriously, when I think of the dictionary I want to tell you that as words in the dictionary are defined, the notes you play must define what you are trying to say. I have heard a lot of musicians who have big vocabularies but say everything at once. Like I said before, you don't want to hear anyone talk on and on so use that as a guide to playing your instrument whatever it is.

Remember that you should always practice your scales and things like that but you should also get used to playing what you are feeling. I find that if you don't think about it and just play from your heart that you will be a lot more interesting in your choice of things you play. Try to expand your musical vocabulary as much as possible, there is always something new to learn - in fact, you never stop learning!

There is a lot of music to learn and that is how you expand your musical vocabulary by learning as much as you can and trying all those things in your playing. Myself, I still listen to all the great guitarists from the past and those of the present because I know there is something they may say that I did not know how to say, and I listen to great instrumentalists who don't happen to play guitar, too. Look at it like learning a different language and you have to learn all the different words and how to say them so they make sense to whomever you may be talking to. Also, there are a lot of books out there and I won't try to name any specific ones since to me they are all pretty good, but books on scales and modes will be very helpful to you in expanding that vocabulary.

I also want to take this time to tell you that is very important to learn to read the music not just the tabs. Tabs are great, BUT, that is not reading music, I mean the little dots on the lines and spaces. Nothing is greater than being able to play a piece you have never heard before and tabs can not do that for you. It does not give you note values and rhythms.

Speaking of rhythm - This is a special note for drummers: You also have to think musically, not just beats. I find that drummers who do this are much more interesting when soloing because they think of musical phrases to play and not just bam bam boom boom bang. Think about it. Next time I will talk more about phrasing and how to go about putting phrases together that will make you a more interesting player.

I will leave you with these three things: practice, practice and remember to play it straight from the heart...

Until next time,

NICK

P.S. Forward this newsletter to your friends or sign them up yourself by sending an email to jazz@nickcolionne.com. Adults welcome, too, but they need to ask to be added to the list!!!

photo taken at the Epiphone Guitar Clinic at Naperville Music, Naperville, IL.