Guitar · 1-Month Programme · Repeatable
Halvorson Approach — Month 1
Six lessons on a weekly loop, a four-week arc over the top. Run it, then run it again with new keys.
How this works. Six lesson-types repeat every week (Mon–Sat), so the mechanics become habit.
Over the top, a four-week arc rotates the key and the transcription target so you don't plateau: build → sharpen →
restrain → integrate. Finish the month, change the keys, run it back. The .ics file drops all 28 sessions into
Outlook with reminders. Sessions are short on purpose — 25–50 min — because a session that fits your week actually happens.
AThe weekly loop
| Day | Time | Lesson | Min |
|---|
| Mon | 19:30 | L1 · Warble Control (+ week brief) | 25 |
| Tue | 19:30 | L2 · Wide-Interval Lines | 35 |
| Wed | 19:30 | L3 · Open-String Displacement | 30 |
| Thu | 19:30 | L4 · Wrong-Note Reflex | 25 |
| Fri | 19:30 | L5 · Transcription (week's target) | 40 |
| Sat | 10:30 | L6 · Integration + Record | 50 |
| Sun | 20:00 | Active listening — optional, no pressure | 30 |
Weekly load ≈ 3h 5m of focused work. Move any block — the .ics events are editable; the order matters more than the clock (mechanics early week, transcription and synthesis late).
BThe six lessons
L1Warble Control25 min · Mon
- 5m — warble patch on, held single notes, sweep the exp pedal heel↔toe. Feel the portamento.
- 10m — ornament drill: slow simple melody, one warble per phrase only.
- 10m — pitch-target sweeps: sweep to a chosen note and land it clean.
Goal: the warble becomes an accent you control, not a texture you hide behind. Restraint is the skill.
L2Wide-Interval Lines35 min · Tue
- 5m — finger/ear warm: P4s, tritones, M7s across the strings, in the week's key.
- 20m — Study-Pack Line Lab: generate 2–3 lines, learn each in position, loop clean and slow.
- 10m — take one line, transpose up a 4th, own it.
Goal: install the leaping vocabulary your Mercury squares. Awkward-but-reachable is the target zone.
L3Open-String Displacement30 min · Wed
- 10m — Drills A–C, slow, let the open strings ring into the fretted notes.
- 10m — splice open strings into one of Tuesday's lines.
- 10m — improvise 8-bar phrases over a drone using open-string octave jumps.
Goal: the collage move — phrases that leap register mid-line and can't be pinned to an octave.
L4Wrong-Note Reflex25 min · Thu
- ~6m each — Land Wrong · Detune Mid-Note · Hold the Clash · Break the Phrase.
Goal: kill the fusion flinch. Dissonance stops reading as a mistake and starts reading as a colour.
L5Transcription40 min · Fri
- The week's Meltframe target. Learn a 4–8 bar phrase by ear, no tab. Slow it down.
- Match her phrasing and time, not just the pitches. Her feel is the lesson.
Goal: get her language into your hands the only way it sticks — by ear, off the record.
L6Integration + Record50 min · Sat
- 10m — warm up, anything.
- 30m — free improv over a drone/vamp, consciously deploying the week's tools + warble. Record it.
- 10m — listen back once. One thing that worked, one to push. No self-flagellation.
Goal: the collision. Halvorson's tools running through your fusion voice — the record only you can make.
CThe four-week arc
Same six lessons every week — but the key and the transcription target rotate, and the emphasis moves through four stages:
Week 1 · Foundations
key: A Dorian (home turf)
Build the warble mechanics and the wide-interval base where you're already comfortable. Get the tools under the fingers before you stress them.
Transcription: Aisha (McCoy Tyner) — the warble masterclass.
Week 2 · Edge
key: D Dorian
Attack, the RAT, live detuning. Get rough on purpose — this is where the fusion politeness starts to break.
Transcription: Cascades (Oliver Nelson) + Sadness (Ornette Coleman, she detunes on the fly).
Week 3 · Space
key: B minor
The opposite pole. Slow everything down, let silences carry tension. Learn what she doesn't play. Hardest week for a fusion player.
Transcription: Solitude (Ellington) + Ida Lupino (Carla Bley).
Week 4 · Integration
key: player's choice
Metabolise all of it through your own voice. The Saturday record should be something you'd actually keep.
Transcription: When (Tomas Fujiwara) + Cheshire Hotel (Chris Lightcap).
Month 2 and beyond. Same skeleton, new flesh: rotate keys you avoid (Eb, Ab, F# minor), swap the
transcription targets for tougher cuts (Platform, Leola, or move off Meltframe onto Cloudward /
Amaryllis). The loop stays; the material deepens. Don't add more sessions — add more demand inside them.