Theory
Yesterday you walked over the changes with chord tones and approach notes. Today you lay week 7's vocabulary — a ghost ("chka") and an eighth fill — onto that four-bar walk, gently, to breathe into the straight step. And today's real goal is the rehearsal — turning the four bars around for as many loops as you like without stopping at the end. Ornaments make the line sing; the loop keeps the line alive.
Lay ornaments only where they're needed. Behind beat 2 of bar 1 Gm7 (b3, Bb), slip in a ghost to make an in-between step, and behind beat 2 of bar 3 Fmaj7 (3rd, A) breathe with the same ghost. The rest of the beats stay exactly as yesterday's chord-tone / approach-note skeleton. The quarter-note skeleton stays firm, and only the ghost, like an in-between step, seeps between them. One per two bars is plenty — cram ornaments onto every beat and the step turns chatty.
The heart of today's practice is the full run-through. When the bar-4 C7 turnaround ends, don't stop; carry straight on to bar 1 Gm7 so that one loop flows into the next. Even if you slip in the middle, moving on to the next bar without stopping is the point of a rehearsal. With tomorrow's graduation recording ahead, today get the non-stop full run-through into your hands.
First, look at where you'll place today's ghost, using the Gm7 bar as an example, on the fretboard.
▶ 4-string. The map of bar 1 Gm7. Onto the skeleton R(G)·b3(Bb)·5(D) we add the ghost spot behind beat 2 (open 3rd string, x) and the approach note B.
▶ 5-string. Same spots as the 4-string. Back the low end more with the low B string.
See it
Now walk the ornamented walk — the ghost laid over the four-bar walk. The ghost enters as an in-between step only behind beat 2 of bars 1 and 3; the rest is exactly as yesterday. The skeleton stays firm and even, and between it the in-between step breathes. Each example comes in both 4- and 5-string versions.
▶ BPM 85, 4-string, swing quarters. Behind beat 2 of bars 1 and 3, a ghost ("chka") enters as an eighth. The quarter-note skeleton stays as is, and only the ghost breathes in like an in-between step.
▶ 5-string. Same notes and spots as the 4-string. Back the low end more with the low B string.
Today's practice
0–10 min · Warm-up Walk yesterday's four-bar walk once at BPM 72 to bring the chord-tone skeleton back into your hands.
10–20 min · Brain training Press the ornamented walk at a slow swing BPM 60 and check by ear that the ghost never pushes the beat-2 downbeat aside.
▶ BPM 60, 4-string. The ornamented walk, slowly. Keeping the skeleton, carve into your hands the feel of slipping "chka" behind beat 2 of bars 1 and 3.
▶ BPM 60, 5-string. Same notes and spots as the 4-string.
20–40 min · Real play (rehearsal) Turn the ornamented walk as a loop at BPM 85, without stopping. When bar 4 ends, carry straight on to bar 1 and walk two or three loops as one flow. Learn it on 4-string, then check on 5-string too.
40–50 min · Review / record Record a full run-through two or three loops around without stopping, and keep the take where the loop is smoothest. Keep both 4- and 5-string and today is done.
Done when: you can play a full run-through of the ornamented (ghost, eighth fill) four-bar walk, carrying straight from bar 4 into bar 1 without stopping, cycling on both 4- and 5-string. — Today's deliverable: your first full run-through of the ornamented walk.
Keep in your eye the three roots that anchor today's looping rehearsal. Once the picture of turning the three spots G·C·F into one loop is in your hands, tomorrow's graduation recording gets much easier.
▶ 4-string. The three anchors of the rehearsal loop. Passing through Gm7(G)·C7(C)·Fmaj7(F), the bar-4 C7 turns back to bar one.
▶ 5-string. Same spots as the 4-string. Back the low end more with the low B string.
- You put in too many ornaments. A rehearsal isn't a time to make the line flashy but to make the loop smooth. One ghost per two bars, and the skeleton first.
- You stop and restart when you slip. The point of a rehearsal is not perfection but finishing. Even if you miss a note, don't stop; move to the next bar and build the habit of never breaking the loop.
Two months ago you could barely press one bar; now you turn four bars without stopping. Tomorrow you'll record this loop as your graduation piece. Just one day left.