Mike Cramer's Blog

One of the tunes we've covered in the Swing Jam at All 12 Notes has been the classic Sweet Georgia Brown . This tune is a great vehicle for some hot pickin'. Soloing Tip The tune is primarily made up of Dominant 7th chords. A common chord scale for the Dom. 7th chord is the Mixolydian scale. The Mixolydian scale is nothing more than a major scale with a lowered 7th. The formulas is: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7 8. Take a D7 and record yourself playing the chord. Now that you have a practice track try playing the D Mixolydian scale over the D7 you just recorded. Listen to how the notes of the scale fit with the chord. Reference Recordings Below you'll find 10 different recordings of Sweet Georgia Brown. Taking ideas from recordings is great ear training and it will help you develop vocabulary that you can use to create your own solos. Amazon.com Widgets You can also find many of these tracks on Emusic...

I've had a few people request a written version of my tune Adventures of Superball . So, for those who are interested, you can download a copy here . There are two versions one for guitar and one for mandolin. This tune is on my latest CD, Open Spaces . You can purchase the track, Adventures of Superball and the rest of the CD below. Have fun with it!

Here's a free lesson on playing the blues shuffle. If you've never played the blues before, you'll want to check this out. It's a great place to get started! Click here to go to the All 12 Notes site and view the lesson. To view it you'll need the Scorch plug-in, available from Sibelius (click here for the plug-in) . If you would like to spend a week with me learning the blues, I'll be teaching at the Chicago campus of the National Guitar Workshop , from July 12-17. The workshop has great teachers, great students, and awesome guest artists. Pamper yourself and sign up for a week of nothing but guitar!

Playing in time, with a good time feel, is a must for every musician regardless of the style you choose to play. If your time feel is solid, then people with want to play with you and you will be an asset to any group. The Metronome The tool that helps us develop a solid time feel is a metronome, so let's add it to our toolbox! A metronome is a device that generates a short sound at a specified tempo or speed. Many have a dial you turn to adjust the tempo, others have buttons that increase or decrease the tempo. Choosing a Metronome Metronomes all work pretty much the same way. Some have a needle that moves back and forth, others a digital needle on a display, and a few simply have a light that blinks with every click. They vary in price and size. One thing to check out before buying, is the sound. Some metronomes generate a beep and others have a wood block sound. I've had students comment that the beep becomes annoying after a while and that the wood block is less gr...

Welcome to the start of a new series entitled the "Practice Toolbox." Every great carpenter has a toolbox stocked with tools that are necessary to get the job done. We as musicians need to have a toolbox filled with the necessary items to practice effectively and efficiently. In the posts to follow I will suggest some of the tools I use and how to effectively use them in a practice session. To start, we need a place to put all of our tools. If you haven't already done so, pick a place that will become your practice space. This is where you'll keep all of your tools. Having a centralized practice space will help to minimize excuses and maximize productivity. The space doesn't have to be large or fancy; it could simply be a corner in your bedroom. Try to pick a space that will have few distractions. When you step into your space you want to get into practice mode and the more distractions the harder it is to get into that practice mode. Here are a few pract...