UNWRAP THE SECRETS TO A SUCCESSFUL, EFFECTIVE AND FUN PRACTICE SCHEDULE WITH -AWARD WINNING BASSIST AND AUTHOR TONY GREY

Learn how to master your time so you can keep growing and moving forward by practicing in a simple creative way...

Join us for this limited unique 2 day course that will change your practice habits forever. YOU TOO CAN BENEFIT FROM LEARNING THIS PROVEN SYSTEM

YOU WILL HAVE MORE FOCUS

PLAY MORE MUSICALLY AND MELODICALLY

DEVELOP A STRONG TECHNIQUE

GAIN MASTERY AND AWARENESS OF YOUR FINGERBOARD

IMPROVE YOUR EARS AND HOW YOU HEAR MELODIES

LEARN HOW TO PLAY THROUGH NON RELATED CHORD CHANGES

PRACTICE LESS TIME WITH GREATER BENEFITS

LEARN HOW TO APPLY THESE CONCEPTS INTO YOUR PLAYING IMMEDIATELY

YOU WON’T BELIEVE THE RESULTS Unwrap the secrets to a successful, effective and fun practice schedule with award winning bassist and author Tony Grey

•About Me

My path to music was rather different to most, in the sense that it came to me through a life changing accident. When I was 18 years old I was a victim of a horrific car accident which left me with a broken back. It was during my recovery that a family member bought me a gift which happened to be a 4 string bass guitar. It was a complete mystery and surprise to me as I had never shown any indication or desire to learn a musical instrument of any kind.

I was simply told to stop feeling sorry for myself and to do something creative, like learn this bass. After wrestling with my ego for a some time I finally decided it may be fun. To my surprise I feel in love with the bass immediately. I tried a few local teachers to get me going and really found it exciting to learn new things and apply them to my new universe of music. As I progressed my father sent some tapes of my playing to my uncle and mentor Guitarist John McLaughlin.

After hearing me play John invited me to his home in the South of France to study and learn from him personally. He advised me to go and study at the world famous Berklee College Of Music in Boston USA as soon as possible. I had many concerns that I wouldnʼt be able to make it or catch up with the high level of some of the students who had dreamt of a career in music from a really young age. He then looked me square in the eyes and said these life changing words to me: “you still have time, just believe in yourself”.

At the age of 20 I auditioned and successfully won a scholarship to study at Berklee for 4 years. Listening to Johnʼs stories of his career and journeys he had been on over the years with the likes of Miles Davis, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti, and listening to the vast and diverse recordings he had done had really given me a strong desire and passion to have a life involving music. I went from thinking I want a life in music to thinking I must have a life in music and what that really meant.

I spent my first two years at Berklee making frantic notes of what the teachers told me. I felt I was being exposed as a complete beginner - I quickly started feeling overwhelmed and fell behind. I started practicing on my days off and holidays for about 12 hours a day and during full school days practicing up to 8 hours - not a healthy solution for your mind and body. Quickly, I started developing tendonitis and muscle problems.

I was trying to learn everything at once and cramming so much information into my brain that it left me drained, burnt out and feeling I would never be able to play the way I dreamed of.

In a desperate effort to continue my dream and not let it kill me, I started to break up the information I was given into categories of subject matter. For example : Technique, Sight Reading, Transcription, Ear Training, Fingerboard Harmony etc.

As I couldnʼt continue to work the way I was working I had to be more organized and efficient with my practice time. I started breaking things down into 30 min lessons for myself so I could work on a few things a day without overloading my brain. I learned that a simple and clear way to keep track of what I was working on was using a practice diary so after 30 mins, no matter what my progress was, I stopped, made a note of where I was up to and moved on. The next day when I came back to that topic I found myself refreshed and ready to go again.

I also learned in doing this that most important lesson I have is to accept where you are musically and where your ability lies, there is nothing you can do about it, so with that I learned how to practice in a very creative way to help me apply these things to my playing immediately.

I graduated Berklee in 2004 with High Honors and during my time there I was presented with the Outstanding Performer Award.

I have gone on to perform all over the world and record with Artists such as : John McLaughlin, Hiromi, , , Karsh Kale, , Gavin DeGraw and Bliss. I have also written a Bass Method Book for Yamaha and released 3 solo CDs, of which the latest, Unknown Angels, was voted Best Album 2011 in the Independent Music Awards. •Course Introduction part 1

Since beginning my musical journey I have been searching for the most effective and productive way to practice. I have tried it all - from intense 12 hour practice days which resulted in tendonitis, fatigue and being burnt out, to 6 hour practice days which was full of clock watching and unfocused study, which left me with a feeling of frustration and lack of growth.

I came to understand that the key is not how many hours you spend practicing, but how you organize the material you are working on. After I left Berklee College Of Music the time I had to spend on my instrument was becoming more and more limited due to being on tour, writing or generally finding ways to make my rent. I had to find a way to keep practicing and growing as a musician whilst being busy and having limited time and energy.

Teaching helped me uncover these practice secrets as some of my students didnʼt have the luxury of being full-time musicians and in place had full-time jobs taking up all their time. One of the most frequent questions I was asked was “I donʼt have time to practice - how can I get better?” I had one student who was father to 5 kids and in the Army full time - the only time he had was when everyone was asleep and he could squeeze an hour in here and there.

I decided the best way to approach this problem was to:

1. Decide on the areas you really want to improve in.

2. Make the study lessons short and focused (30 Mins).

3. If possible decide how long you can commit to practicing each day.

4. Keep an organized practice diary and system so you can review and update daily. •Course Introduction part 2

1. If you decide what areas you want to improve in you can focus on designing lessons to help make your precious time most productive and beneficial to you.

2. The more you practice one thing the more difficult it becomes to keep your focus and inspiration intact, you start forcing things, becoming sloppy and irritated, your body becomes tense and posture starts declining. All of these things lead to you becoming disheartened, burnt out which can really have an effect all the other things you practice and work on. All of this negative energy can lead to repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel and tendonitis. It can also have an overall effect on your enjoyment of music. The reason I put lessons and things I study into 30 min sections are for these following reasons: You are where you are in terms of ability and skill, for sure you can improve with dedicated focused practice but basically you canʼt really grow long term by forcing things. An element of calmness and patience is needed to be in order to be focused. If you practice sight-reading all day it will improve but once you have to improvise or comp you will be exposed in those areas. Basically I like to practice covering many topics, and since there is only a certain amount of time you can devote to your practicing itʼs better to find a balance in what you work on. You will find your overall growth will improve at the same time. Setting a time limit will force you to stop accept your progress and move on to the next thing. More often than not some time and space away from a particular lesson is really important so that you can absorb this new information. Donʼt forget even when you are not physically practicing your mind is still subconsciously working out problems you have come across. Sometimes my mind wonders whilst practicing so when I create things to work on for myself and my students I like to find a few things to work on at the same time for example, technique, fingering and neck study etc. This way there is many things to help me keep my concentration whilst practicing. With these short lessons I feel it is really important and possible to maintain full focus.

3. It is helpful but not essential to try to devote a set amount of time to practicing each day. Momentum is one of the hardest things to get into and one of the hardest things to get out of. In this course we will talk about the psychological aspects of generating momentum. For example if we generate enough reasons why we should practice in a productive and stable way you will quickly see the benefits of practicing and the excitement you will generate over your practice time. However I understand in some cases itʼs almost impossible to commit the same amount of time each and everyday, which brings me to my final point.

4. Keeping an organized practice diary and system so you can review and update daily really helps you keep the momentum in your practicing schedule. There is so much to work on so by keeping a diary helps you keep moving forward and continuing from where you left off each day you practice. For those of you that are unable to practice everyday keeping a diary helps you remember where you left off so you can just pick it up from where you stopped. •Course Content part 1 Over this 2 Day course you will be learning from me

• How to properly warm up and warm down before and after each practice session

Practicing is a physical and mental exercise that requires your muscles and body to be in good shape. It is so easy to pick up repetitive strain injuries due to not warming up properly. In this course I will be bringing in an expert in fitness and physical conditioning to help you learn some quick and simple warm up and warm down exercises before and after you practice along with a good posture for practicing in.

The benefits you will gain by understanding these exercises are so important and beneficial. They will help you stay clear of injuries and give you more energy to practice with.

• How to structure your practice schedule

Being organized with how and what you practice is the most important thing in aiding your development. I used to practice up to and over 12 hours a day and found my lack of growth frustrating which resulted in me not enjoying my practice time and made everything feel like it was a waste of time and energy. I quickly found that organizing and documenting my practice schedule allowed me to stay fresh and focused on what I was working on. I found myself practicing less and growing more and having extra time for other things in my life. Music is about expressing life and emotions if you spend all your time practicing and feeling frustrated, it limits the intake of inspiration which we all need to have. In this course I will show you how to structure and maximize your practice schedule to fit in with your daily life schedule - no matter how much time you can devote to it.

• A daily technique workout

Having a solid and sound technique is essential to any musician trying to improve. These daily exercises, focusing on the left and right hands, were designed to develop different areas of your technique from speed and dexterity to stamina and strength. They will help and allow you to learn things a lot quicker, play a variety of styles and songs, play fast and challenging tempos, play slow and steady to controlling dynamics from loud to soft etc.

• Fingerboard Study (fingering patterns)

If your goal is to obtain complete mastery of your instrument or you just want to be able to have the freedom to make your own creative choices whilst playing you will need to have a solid and sufficient knowledge of your instrument. Throughout this 2 day course I will be giving you exercises that will help you master your fingerboard knowledge in simple and creative ways enabling you to apply these techniques instantaneously to your way of playing. You will learn how to maximize the use of your entire fingerboard with a series of positional, whole range linear and intervallic fingering patterns. You will also learn how to write simple melodies and be able to improvise over sustained chords and progressions whilst applying these techniques. •Course Content part 2

• Ear Training

Playing and practicing your instrument is an obvious way to improve your skills as a musician. Developing your ears away from your instrument is also a very worthwhile exercise. The benefits of Ear Training help connect what you hear internally to what you play with knowledge of harmony and fingering patterns on your instrument. Developing your ears can also help you react spontaneously to chords thrown at you in a live performance. In music we can only control what we are doing and playing - we canʼt control what the other band members do. Thatʼs the beauty of live music. Itʼs kind of an all for one and one for all moment. To be aware of whatʼs going on around you is so important, sometimes you or a band mate gets lost or inspired and takes the music somewhere else - to be able to hear the chords or melodies/solos will help you all stay on track and be able to take some fun musical risks. In this 2 day course I will introduce you to learning solfège. Solfège is a great musical system taught at Berklee College Of Music in which a syllable is assigned to every pitch.

• Linear Solo Concepts

In this section of the course you will learn how to tackle playing through a series of non-related chords within a progression. I will focus on using a sequence of chords all derived from the Major Modes, later showing you the possibilities by adding chords from other Modes such as the Melodic Minor or from Diminished Harmony. This simple step by step technique will unlock some of the secrets to playing melodically over seemingly complicated chord progressions.

• Chord Study (Triads, 4 Note Chords)

You will be learning or reviewing all the available Triads and 4 note Chords found within western harmony and their intervallic characteristics, ways of moving them around the whole range of your instrument and improvising with them over a series of non related chord progressions.

• BeBop and Blues

In this course I will introduce you to techniques used by some of the Jazz and Blues greats. These simple and effective exercises will open up your mind and world to a whole new beginning. You can learn how to begin applying these concepts to your playing immediately with these carefully constructed exercises.

• Walking Bass Lines

The purpose of Walking Bass Lines is to support the soloist during their solos. The idea is for us to outline the harmony without getting in the way of the soloist. I have carefully constructed a series of exercises to help you master this beautiful art form. Quotes “Tony Grey has gone from displaying the most potential to living up to it as fast as any musician that’s swung though Berklee’s doors.” - All About Jazz

“It’s no shock that he’s quickly become one of fusion’s most promising bassists.” - Bass Player Magazine

“Tony Grey will, in any event, “Extraordinary talent, character, dedication, develop into one of the great these are some of the things that one finds in and innovative musicians of Tony Grey, A rarity these days and any day. He our time.”! is very impressive on all counts, a great bassist, - John McLaughlin writer, and all round musician. I am proud to know him.”! - Ahmad Jamal “Tony grey is an innovator of the bass. He has the musicality, facility and sound to take the “On ‘Chasing Shadows’, his second recording as a instrument places it hasn't leader, Grey steps out in impressive fashion as a been before. a joy to play bandleader, accomplished composer, and outstanding with and listen to.“ soloist.” - Bill Evans - Bill Milkowski on “Chasing Shadows”

”I thoroughly enjoy listening to Tony Grey. In addition to his interesting bass playing and impressive technique Tony's musicianship shines through.” - Rich Appleman, Berklee Bass Department Chair Some Final Thoughts

•Learn how to enjoy your growth as a musician

•Learn how to stay motivated and inspired

•If you work hard with diligence and patience you will reach your goals

•Each step of your journey is valuable, a solid foundation of knowledge will aid your growth.

•Join us on this one of a kind 2 day course to change the way you practice forever.