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PLEASE SEE INDIVIDUAL GENRE CRITICAL REFLECTIONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THEIR PARTICULAR COLUMNS

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SUMMATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 1: Contrition by Sermon

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SUMMATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 1: Contrition by Sermon

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Performed by Levi Cano

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SUMMATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 2: What Is Hip by Tower Of Power

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SUMMATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 2: What Is Hip by Tower Of Power

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SUMMATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 3: Fred by Tony Williams Life Time

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SUMMATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 3: Fred by Tony Williams Life Time

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Performed by Levi Cano

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Funk:

I feel like I have some real potential in this genre and a real affiliation with it. My repeating of ostinatos/rhythms still needs a bit of work, but I am surprised to see that I have a good grasp of the timing and can remain in the pocket for most of a song. Mistakes seem to arise when I am thinking TOO MUCH about what to do, meaning I need more time in the practice room on rhythms.

Notable players: Prince, Guthrie Govan, Cory Wong

SMART TARGETS: |
Specific | Keep ostinatos repeating, dont stray from the pattern
Measureable | Is there any wayward string noise and can it be tidied up?
Achieveable | Play with suitable feel and appropriate techniques
Relevant | Dial in appropriate tone for this style
Time Bound | Learn some new funk tunes for next semester

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Personal_SWOT_Analysis Levi Cano - Acoustic

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Personal_SWOT_Analysis Levi Cano - Blues

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Personal_SWOT_Analysis Levi Cano - Metal

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Pop Backing Track - With African Moves.mp4

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Single Note Muting Practise and Observations.mp4

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32nd Note straight to triplet - 84bpm.mp4

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Pop:

Being that the genre is not very technically advanced, practices on Pop are oriented (not that that means technique is not important in playing it!) to learning songs and looking at the chord progressions and analyzing those. In particular, Yesterday by the Beatles, was one that I looked at and was surprised to see how quick the chords move, as well as the actual chords themselves, and how it all goes to serve the top line melody and the dominant chord relationships which is very interesting to see. Notably C7>F and G7>Bb. Need to just learn more songs and chord progressions and be aware of the notes of the vocal melodies (what interval relationships do they have with themselves and the roots? etc) as this will give me more experience with types of progressions and their sounds and be able to compose stronger and more chordally informed parts for songs.

Notable players: Prince, Lennon and McCartney

SMART TARGETS: |
Specific | Work on trascribing or learning more Pop songs
Measureable | How far have I come with my muting practice?
Achieveable | Collaborate with an artist to write a pop guitar part
Relevant | Learn to not over play, and show reserve
Time Bound | Have learnt 10 new songs by the end of the school year

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Strumming Rhythm Pattern - With Hertas.mp4

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Slap Guitar Try Outs and Evaluations.mp4

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Blues:

Still need to embody the “feeling” and “intention” of emotional content first and then think about notes etc afterwards, rather than the notes being at the forefront of my thought process. Less is more it seems, and conviction is EVERYTHING!
The turn around(4 to 5) still needs a lot of work and some instances of vocabulary could be ironed out and improved on for applications to the Jazz Blues and Country styles.
The bending is coming on as a result of just drilling the motion. I have a tendancy to over bend as a result of having such light gauge strings, so a lot of that has been finding the right amount of pressure when bending the string. Steve Morse in particular was a great player to listen to with regards to getting the blues down, as well as the many other genre's he encapsulates in his playing.

Notable players: Shawn Lane, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Morse

SMART TARGETS:
Specific | Be able to navigate the changes and play with proper vocabulary
Measureable | How convincing is it, does it sound bluesy?
Achieveable | Transcribe licks and listen to more Blues players
Relevant | Adding the 3rd to minor pentatonics in all positions
Time Bound | Know 1, 4, 5 progression in all positions by the end of next semester

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Acoustic:

Feel pretty adept to this genre and most forms of Acoustic playing as this was a focus and touring asset for a long time. I didn't work so much on this but I intent to take this area into Latin jazz territory in future and discover that more as Jazz has very much been the big focus of this semester. I also like the idea of using the acoustic as a hand strengthening tool as well as the tonal change it offers. Working with the 2,5,1s was my beginnings in getting into the Latin Jazz sound, and I will begin taking this onto actual songs in the future. Yamandu Costa is a massive influence for this kind of playing and watching him was very inspiring.

Notable players: Doyle Dykes, Tommy Emanuel. Matteo Mancuso, Yamandu Costa

SMART TARGETS: |
Specific | Start learning Latin Jazz Guitar
Measureable | How well can I solo on an acoustic, is it as fluid as on the electric?
Achieveable | Compose a solo for "Limerence" on the acoustic guitar
Relevant | Apply picking techniques to the acoustic guitar, selective picking, alternate picking, hybrid picking, etc...
Time Bound | Play in a bossa style by the end of semester

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Country Jam 5 - String bending and single note ideas.mp4

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Rock:

The muting side of things is coming on a lot and its great to see progress there. Learning songs, however, needs to be expanded upon in all genres, so that I have repertoire to practice as well as testing out and applying techniques learnt. Other things I learnt that were cool from this Genre was riffs that are based around the middle set of strings (D and G) and how cool these strings sound with a bit of gain on them. This is something I will definitely look into more in the future. I have noticed my wrist movements becoming a lot more natural now and not nearly as rigid as it has been in the past.

Notable Players: Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa, Steve Morse

SMART TARGETS: |
Specific | Tidy up my playing and reduce unwanted noises like loose ringing strings
Measureable | Am i still making loads of noise, or is it better?
Achieveable | Improve alternate picking
Relevant | Get good at dialing in a good rock tone, rhythm and lead
Time Bound | Be able to play tapped pentatonic arpeggios by the end of the school year

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LIMERENCE Selective Picking Section .mp4

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Metal:

This was an embarking on picking up some new techniques. The Slap/thump guitar thing is still miles away from being applied or written with, but it's good to know I have the abilities to still pick up new skills. Will want to work on this more alongside my tapping and Selective Picking exercises as these techniques are not only areas that I have interest in, but are ones that I still would like to incorporate and make my own in some way. In going about learning the Thump technique I also looked at players who DONT play 8 strings, like Tim Henson from Polyphia, to see what other players are doing in this field and with this technique. My slapping needs a lot of work if i wanna get good at it, but the selective picking has come on a great deal and I can see it being a part of my playing if i KEEP working at it. One thing I neglected was working on scales like the Melodic and Harmonic minor, as these are definitely areas i need to improve in, but I mostly just wanted to look at the mechanics of what I'm doing, before delving into any new harmonic content.

Notable players: Tosin Abasi, Ando San, Tim Henson

SMART TARGETS: |
Specific | Keep my metal chops strong and strengthen where necessary or where you can
Measureable | How solid does the playing sound, does it fit well with the other instruments (tonally), mainly drums?
Achieveable | Apply picking concepts to Harmonic Minor Scale
Relevant | Work on new techniques like Selective Picking and Thumping
Time Bound | Be able to improvise with the harmonic minor scale by the end of next semster

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Country Jam 6 - Single Note - Open String Practise Lines.mp4

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Jazz:

When playing along with a sheet/chord chart I can navigate the changes with not too much difficulty, in a very simplified manner, both comping and soloing. Have been looking at the changes for Stella By Starlight and, after practicing, can see how my lines evolve to be 1) More convincing and 2) are more informed by note choice and chord shape, than just the scale tones, which it has been for some time now and that approach is still relevant and helps colour the framework of notes that are Inside the chord harmonically. I also tried transcribing some jazz solos, which have been very helpful, but is very time consuming and in 3 hours I learn about 3 seconds of jazz phrasing from a Josh Meader instagram clip. So I still need a lot of work on this genre to make it totally convincing, which is why i really focused on it more than any other genre this term, but Jazz is a lifes work and I will keep working on it in the future.

Notable players: Josh Meader, Domi and Chris Potter

SMART TARGETS: |
Specific | In a key, be able to cycle through, Major, Minor, Dominant and Half diminished 7th arpeggios
Measureable | Monitor my use of chromatics in lines and gauge whether it fits and/or sounds right
Achieveable | Drill the arpeggios and Inversions and identify where the b3 and 3rds are, the b5 and the b and raised 7ths
Relevant | Be able to improvise over a jazz standard
Time Bound | Achieve this by the end of the school year.

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Country:

This is really new territory for me as I have never tried learning anything like this before, but do have some skills that help to make me sound legit in this style. Notably the Travis Picking, which I picked up from years of playing acoustic guitar. That particular technique has proved to be a very good grounding point and the alternating bass note idea is heard consistently through much of the country back catalogue and as such is a valuable tool in keeping motion and also informing single line and accompanying playing. There are still a large amount of vocabulary based things which I would like to integrate more into my playing, the most notable being country music's use of the 6th interval and how pedal steel players use this interval to solo and accompany with. I drew inspiration from banjo players like Bela Fleck as well to better get inside the Country/Bluegrass sound  taken into more jazzier territories, as well as trying to replicate sounds and phrases that Doyle Dykes might have played who is a great player in that he can emulate a number of great country players and does so live frequently (like in this video).

Notable players: : Doyle Dykes and Bela Fleck

SMART TARGETS: |
Specific | Be able to play along to country styles
Measureable | Can I play along to a country backing track?
Achieveable | Break up practise into manageable chunks and trouble shoot to solve problems or achieve what I hear with my ear
Relevant | Using the proper vocabulary, turnarounds and troupes to successfully play in this style
Time Bound | Have this underway by the end of the school year

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During my practices I have been working on and recording an EP, (and producing another album,)
which took up a great deal of my time alongside my practices. In future, I want to be able to balance these so I'm not working on the creative stuff when I should be doing the important and focused stuff in equal measures to facilitate ideas in my compositions. In fact, much of this semester was spent working on composing music and targeting areas that I feel need improvement for composition or sessions and then working on those techniques, the alternate picking, selective picking and overall tidying of playing was mostly to aid in recording and composing.

The inclusion of repertoire is something I have definitely neglected as a result of wanting to compose a lot. But I think, due to the nature of not really playing live at the moment, that I arguably havent needed to keep up on an particular repertoire. In any case, I have learnt a few songs this semester and have put into practice many concepts and ideas in ways that overlap and are starting to show the beginnings of new ideas or the cultivating of older ones. Learning a number of songs next semester will be on a couple of my SMART targets and I am beginning to enjoy the process of learning new songs and analysing them. Just for interest and to showcase my unfinished accomplishments, I attached the 2 songs I have been working on below.

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BACK UP LINK TO SUMMATIVE Performances and Reflections

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BACK UP LINK TO SUMMATIVE Performances and Reflections