Re: Pat Martino's "Nature of Guitar"
No need to be sorry dude. People learn/process things in different ways.
I'm sure you already got it, but for anyone else who didn't get my (understandably) confusing diagram, here it is in note names:
ii-V in Gmaj
ii — Left hand: A-C / Right hand: E-G-B
moves to
V — Left hand: D-C / Right hand: E-G-B
But with that second voicing you don't get a third so probably best to move the G down to F#, so:
V — Left hand: D-C / Right hand: E-F#-B
So the only movement is the A down a fifth to D and the G down a half step to F#, the rest are common tones.
I'm getting a lot of thins thinking from the little bit of jazz piano that I've studied, where common comping patterns for ii-V-I progressions usually keep common tones where they can. Right hand voicings that alternate between 7-3-5 and 3-7-9 patterns are very common because you only move one note between those voicings in a ii-V (key of G again):
ii --> V
7-3-5 --> 3-7-9
G-C-E --> F#-C-E
Of course these patterns can work on Stick I just don't have them under my fingers, or at least not with enough facility to move through a progression. It's amazing to me that I worked on getting my left hand working in the bass fifths for so long and now I feel like my right hand is the gimp these days.