The Importance of Lists

At the moment, it is not possible to buy the Mr. Goodchord Voice Leading Almanacs. I would like to propose that, although I do find them useful (especially vol. iii), this can be viewed as an opportunity rather than a calamity.

What are the almanacs? They are lists. If you've read through the Advancing Guitarist or any of Mick Goodrick's magazine articles, then you know might be familiar with the following kind of proposition.

First take a look at pages 57-61 of the Advancing Guitarist. Nice list, right? The Goodchord Almanac Vol. I consists almost entirely of writing out all those chord voicings note by note and in every possible inversion and chord type (1st inversion, drop 3 etc). More nice lists.

Why would a person bother to do all that work? Well to help us out. But maybe we could make our own lists to help ourselves out. Maybe the most important lesson Mick Goodrick teaches us through all his books is not to use his lists, but the value in creating our own. There are an infinite amount of ways to present this kind of information.

Let's take a look at an excerpt from pages 41-42 of the Advancing Guitarist. Mick is suggesting we create random sequences of the 48 triads and then voice lead through them. But wait. Don't stop there.
***
Things To Do:
1. Now go back to the "triad row" and voice-lead through the entire progression.
2. Now play it backwards.
3. Start with a different inversion of the very first chord and go through the sequence again.
4. Play it backwards.
5. Start the sequence with a spread triad voicing.
6. Guess what now?
7. Can you see other things to do?
***

So, like you, upon reading that, I think alright let's rock and roll. Maybe I get through it once, maybe I start on number 5, maybe I will read them in columns instead of rows, or read every second or third triad etc.

There are lots of possibilities. Now here's a little experiment. Try doing it without the list or "triad row". WTF? is the proper reaction. It can't be done. There's no way you could retain all 48 triads and which one's you'd already played, let alone systematically juggle their order or anything like that.

Mentally writing and maintaining the triad row while you do the exercise is way too complicated. Without the list, it becomes impossible to do this kind of work thoroughly.

So let's make our own custom lists, tailored to our own needs, in addition to whatever other ones we might have in the Advancing Guitarist, Chord Chemistry, Voice Leading Almanacs, Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony etc. (All great books full of many lists worth considering).

In fact, I just made a list of books which I might open up when I start practicing.
Making a list of all the songs you know is also a great idea. Arranging them into a binder, your own custom fake book, is an even better idea.
Mick talks about the Chinese Menu approach to practising. When there are simply too many things to do, arrange them in a numbered list, and in categories: Warm-ups (appetizers), Theory (soup), Application in Songs (entrée). Every time you sit down to a meal... I mean to practice, order the dishes that you feel like eating. And try to order every dish at least once a week or every few days or whatever makes the most sense to you. 

Recently with a saxophonist, I made a list of everything he knew how to do while soloing, the point being that when you see how huge it is, and then consider how many tunes and keys and changes there are, there is never an excuse to run out of work.