Vol. 1 – Ticket To Improv

I''m 61 (yep) and play in a jazz combo. I do pretty well playing and reading changes which works fine because I'm the only rhythm instrument. Soloing? Even after all these years/decades, I struggle in spite of owning just about every jazz guitar instruction book there is. I mean, really. So, I committed this last month, come hell or high water, to go thru RC's first Improv DVD along with his Technique DVD. Every day. And you know what? I've progressed more in these last few weeks, improvisationally, than any time before. Again, mind you, I've been playing and getting paid to do so for decades!

For the first time yesterday I found myself really swinging playing two of the midi backed solos from 'Ticket to Improv 1'(Satin Doll and Green Dolphin Street) and I will be working a lot on Autumn Leaves today. It just keeps getting better and better now I am really getting this stuff under my belt. I've found that one of the keys is to master each step without rushing to substitute quantity for quality just by increasing the number of songs you can 'get away with'. This really drives home the subtle edges of the tasty licks on the DVD and makes that quality feel become instinctive - after that, as Bob says, they are yours for a lifetime of playing and endless reshaping. All that's needed is patience. I keep surprising myself all the time. I discovered yesterday that my ability to find notes by ear has suddenly increased - likely purely as a result of repeatedly playing the same licks thousands of times against their 'home' chord shapes. I have come to realise that jazz really is easy once the basic skills are hammered home by PLAYING not thinking about it. After you can play enough Chord Melodies and Solos the theory really does (as the master states) "take care of itself". As taught,it should always be secondary to the ability to actually employ it's desired outcome first - playing great tunes on the guitar and enjoy it. Bob keeps saying he "knows he sounds like a broken record" when he repeats over and over that it's "all in the playing". I have come to fully realise that he does this because he knows that a lot students just don't get into that mindset very quickly and totally stop worrying about theory the FIRST time he tells them to do so. I have to be honest and say it took me a long time to do that after years of thinking the opposite thanks to the blind alley of 'mode and scale misdirection' by others - who are not a fraction the player Bob is. Now that I have crossed that mental bridge, everything is starting to come up roses. I cured myself of the former belief by repeatedly telling myself "Bob's a world class player - and he didn't get to be like that by knowing less than me!" lol Now I just keep doing what he says in the order he tells me to do it in and good things happen all the time. I am 100 percent right in doing that as he never fails to deliver more abilities and insights! Sorry if I KEEP writing on the site, but this stuff really is eyesight to the blind. Keep working on it and it will happen for you - I know because it's happening for me every day.

I've been playing guitar for 20+ years and now have a new found enthusiasm for the instrument that rivals the day I got my first guitar. You know, when you strummed your first chord and fell in love. Both Volume 1 & 2 of this series is so awesome, I can not put into words how much I appreciate what you have made available to those who want to learn to play jazz, but never knew where to start. Concise and to the point, I was playing away with the backing track to Satin Doll on day one. Thanks for everything!

Hi Bob, It is doubtful you would remember much about me, Billy Stanley but I am a former student from back in the mid-seventies when you were in Jacksonville Fla. Because I was in the Navy, I was only able to stay with you for a couple of months before shipping out overseas but I kept virtually everything you ever gave me. I even have an order for two patty melts and a large coke that you wrote in that classic, hand written Conti style on the black of my lesson one night while you were starving to death but refused to stop working. Everyone that knew me back then said they had never seen anyone progress so rapidly on the guitar as I had while studying under you. As one may guess after we lost contact my progress slowed to a lame, geriatric snail pace. After being discharged from the military and returning to Charlotte N.C. I set out on a futile mission to find another mentor, anyone who could teach me anything about Jazz. This resulted in over fifteen years of frustration and wasted time and money. I will say in my own defense, I became a master at playing scales and modes at blinding speed and precision. At some point, out of frustration I walked away vowing to never touch another guitar for the rest of my life. In the late nineties, I found myself remarried to a wonderful woman who somehow sensed the sadness I had internalized due to my perceived failures related to music. After several months of prodding, she talked me into taking up...

...ago, it is simply amazing to see how little you have changed. Your energy, enthusiasm and commitment to helping your students comes across with professionalism and a sincerity that is uncompromised. Owning these DVD’s is like having the man himself sitting in my living room carefully guiding me, with a convenient playback button. I hold no reservations in stating there is no greater value for the student of guitar at any level, at any price! I apologize for the length of this little essay but it remains a pitiful example of just how grateful I am to you for your motivation, your inspiration and for rekindling a bright shining light in a once broken spirit. There is no doubt in my mind the line of people who could make that statement would stretch for miles. Someday in the not too distant future I hope to make the trip to Vegas for a private lesson. The wife wants to meet you. She says you remind her of one of the Sopranos. I keep telling her you are not a gangster, you are The Socrates of Swing!!! Take care Bob, we love what you do!

...hand, I said to myself, what the hell. At least I can hold a pick, what do I have to lose? I ordered Cherokee and Satin Doll from the Smoking Lineman collection. After working with them a few weeks, once again it became apparent it was not to be. It was just far too frustrating. None-the-less I had acquired the aftertaste of Jazz Guitar and I wanted more. For the next six months, I kept a hand written daily journal in hopes that the physical exercise would help me develop the fine motor coordination and strength I needed to control the pick. As the weeks progressed to months, I began to see the results I was looking for. Although it remained weak and slow I was finally able to rotate my wrist at the axis needed to pick the strings with reasonable control.  This past June I went shopping on your web site and found “Ticket to the Improv.” I purchased both volumes I and II. That turned out to be just what I needed. Thanks to The Great Gods Almighty a last! At this point, I am finishing “All the Things You Are”. On a good day, I am able to play all six songs up to tempo and near perfection! Over the weekend, I ordered The Comping Expo and The Precision Technique from The Source Code Collection. I am really excited about getting starting on them as well. I am quite certain I will eventually own everything you sell including a Blonde Equity for which I am currently laying cash aside!  After knowing Robert Conti personally from thirty-five years...

...the guitar again. Having no real teacher I quickly fell back into the old habits of playing scales and modes believing that somehow, it would all click and I would become the entertainer I always wanted to be. After a few years of rigorous practice, I had acquired some monster chops so I resorted to the needle drop/route memory method. As slow as it was, I was making progress and was steadily becoming the player I always wanted to be. Just about the time things seemed to be working out, for no apparent reason, on Sept 16, 2004 I suffered a massive stroke that left me near dead and completely paralyzed on my right side. Instantly I had to accept the fact I would never play the guitar again. I was devastated. To this day, it has been the biggest heartbreak of my life. Over the last six years, the recovery process has been challenging, as well as encouraging. I am happy to say, but for the fine motor coordination in my right hand, I have fully recovered. About a year ago I found myself reminiscing about those flashy lines you use to play in your studio in Jax and I remembered hearing you had released some recordings. I went to the web and goggled, “Robert Conti”. What I found was “Guitar Instruction by Robert Conti” which took me to your current web site. I spent the next two plus hours surfing through every byte of your web site. I was delighted with what I had found and only wished it had been there twenty-five years ago. Staring down at my cripple...