hi ya all, here is a quote from "strings daily" , they email me musical input everyday ........ and yes forget that this is written from a violinists perspective, but it is very valid advice and , the same that i give to my students when we start working on a new style......... thats to "listen" and get the important nuances of the new style in your head before you even start picking up the guitar ............. this works for any style flamenco/latin/cuban blues/jazz/classical, cos each style has "trademark" feels,and phrasing one should feel in your head before you can play it ....... for example listen to enough swing jazz to understand how to swing a piece ...so that feel is natural for you ..... and the other thing they mention which i also stress when i teach improvisation is to be able to "sing" a part before you play it ..you will reach a point when you hear the music/changes you need to improv over , you can instantly sing ..in the right key and the correct phrasing what will fit over it , then all it requires is finding it on your guitar this truly makes improv so much easier...

anyway just thought i'd share this piece cos it's a huge step many don't do when learning a new style .

enjoy
Keira

How to Get Jazzed About Alternative Styles
Hardly anyone would argue against the merits of traditional classical training as the foundation of good string playing. Yet for string players wanting to venture beyond classical music into jazz, rock, fiddling, and other genres, there’s an entire spectrum of essential licks and grooves not visible in the classical curriculum.

“The fact that many classical violin players feel humiliated around fiddlers and improvisers, and vice versa, is a sign that some people can do some things but not others, and there’s room for everybody to learn,” says jazz violinist Matt Glaser, who heads the string department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

But how to begin? Before you can get groove-based music into your fingers and bow arm, warns Glaser, you have to get it between your ears. Start by exploring recordings of Stéphane Grappelli, Regina Carter, Boyd Tinsley, and others. “The ability to sing the lines and mimic the phrasing is important,” Glaser says, “then you have to bring that to your violin and solve the technical stumbling blocks. It takes constant revisiting and revision. People should tape themselves playing these lines, and listen back and make an honest appraisal: Does that sound right, does it sound natural, does it sound organic in that idiom, or is it forced and unnatural in some way?”

By James Reel