Wow! That's some major improvement there! That's pretty amazing. All in a few days. Excellent work

I now hereby give you this award
STUDENT OF THE WEEK[/b]

Nothing like a few chord tones to shape up a solo.

Now let me add some new things for you as you develop this further.

1. See that you land on these chord tones on the downbeat. And you can play anything else on the upbeat (extension chord tones or half step neighbors).

2. When you develop a melody, stick to it and expand on it on the next line. It sounds great when it is connected. As you can see here, it isn't the number of notes that make a good solo. It's making it memorable.

3. I want to teach you something new in your phrasing to make it like jazz vocabulary. In your solo, you will find yourself ending a lot with Short-Long notes. I believe Eighth+Half. Sounds good. Now in jazz, it's common to also use Long-Short. Like Quarter+Eighth. Then you chop off the eighth with a rest so it ends abrubtly.

4. In general when ending a line with an eighth (whether a stream of eighths of just one by itself), the eighth is chopped off with a rest. So lift your finger from the key. This will jazz up the feel of your lines.

It's so exciting to see how quickly you are developing here (which I forecasted). Reminds me of myself when I started.

Phrasing/Swing Lesson[/b]

This is easy. All you have to do is listen to this same video again.

Keith Jarrett - Autumn Leaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io1o1Hwpo8Y

I just want to see if you can pick out a few things.

1. Listen to the way he plays the eighth notes. There's no exaggerated swing. Listen to the accent. Sometimes he does it more. Usually it's very light.

2. Look at phrase endings. Lines ending with eighths or quarters. If he ends with an eighth it is cut short, if he ends with quarter (and longer) notes it is played long. This applies to endings only.

3. Listen to ending combinations. Long-Short, or Short-Long.

4. See him drag his lines slightly from the main pulse of the rhythm section.

5. Listen to the breathing (meaning space). Now Jarrett is an underwater diver. He can go longer without breathing that normal mortals).

6. Listen to the shape of the lines. How he keeps changing the direction (up or down).

Now this is pretty fast playing so I don't mean for any of you to emulate that. It's just convenient to point out phrasing here since this video is already posted.

The only thing you need to hop on this thread is motivation. Sounds like you already have it, l's dad. So, listen to jazzwee and hop on board.

Jazz Homework[/b]

Since you are all Adult Beginners, I can assume you can spend a few bucks on some music (especially you Deeluk with your fancy Motif XS8 ).

I found a unique version of Autumn Leaves while listening to the local jazz radio one day.

Album: Somethin' Else
Leader: Cannonball Adderly
Miles Davis
Hank Jones
Sam Jones
Art Blakey
at the Blue Note

(I got mine from Itunes).

Barb, you'd be able to transcribe this. All the lines are just simple. The whole thing is along the lines of Miles Davis style. Very laid back. As far as I'm concerned (and the DJ of the jazz station), this version is just amazing. You'd learn so much transcribing this. Pretty easy too. Even last night I just tapped out what they were playing on the piano. The solo lines are so long and slow that you'd have no problems at all.

This is something that beginners can tackle. No don't start transcribing Jarrett in the video.

Well, I've been practicing.

When I listen to this, I'm a tad late on some of the &2 LH. Also, I think I'm crossing too close to staccato instead of non-legato in the melody.

http://www.box.net/shared/h21ltm94ok

I think I understand what to do, it really does take practice to get it right!

jazzwee - Thank you for such quick and thorough feedback.

I now hereby give YOU this award
MENTOR OF THE WEEK[/b]

This next step may take a while to incorporate all of your suggestions into my playing.

Ted (stegerson), this is easy to fix. Now tap the pulse (i.e. 1234). You'll clearly see where your LH is landing. You're doing 1, 2, 1+. Melody is great and just make it non-stacatto like you say. You're in great shape here. Good job!

Hey, my kids don't need to go to college do they?

I'm a CD buying kind of guy. $7.97 for a remastered version over at amazon. http://tinyurl.com/2lx2f3 My order will be placed momentarily.... Need to get some other new CDs anyway.

Yeah, tell them to get off their butts and get a job to help Dad out (so he can buy some more keyboard gear).

For the last hour I was reading the recent posts and listening to the recordings on 'solo'. I thought it will be months before I can start soloing so I never bothered reading the recent posts and just stuck to the beginning pages.

Tonight, everytime I was about to turn off my computer, another post appears -- did you guys notice that this thread has been jumping.

I am now a bit caught up because I want to do SOLO.

But it's almost 3AM....I am losing sleep staying in this thread.....

But I want to tell EVERYONE here especially JAZZWEE how INSPIRING you have been to me and to everyone else here. You are really the BEST in your coaching to each one of us step by step.

You are really paying attention to help each one progress to the next level and I can really HEAR each improvement in recent Barb's recordings because of your close coaching.

WAY to Go Barb.

And also thanks to all those who are posting your recordings. I listen to each one to learn from your recordings and the feedback given by our mentors are superb!!!!

THIS IS SUCH A GREAT CLASS. I AM SO INSPIRED.

Rosa

But 'it is late, I must sleep now.'

I don't usually stay up in these late hours....but while it is tucking in my heart, I must say the above to all of you.

jazzwee - When you say "downbeat" - Do you mean the strong beat of each measure as in beats 1 & 3, whereas the upbeats are beats 2 & 4 (along with the ANDs of course.)


OR
Do you mean to land on the chord tone for EACH beat - 1,2,3,4? And play anything else on the AND of each beat?

I hope you can follow my confused mind here

Also I am upset & find it incomprehensible why there are others using their time to criticize this thread.

What's wrong with them?

Rosa

Also I am upset & find it incomprehensible why there are others using their time to criticize this thread.

What's wrong with them?

Rosa

2nd One is correct. 1,2,3,4 are downbeats. Upbeats (offbeats) are the &'s.

This one is difficult to do Barb, but you are ready for it.

Once you learn to put the chord tone on the pulse, you can go off like Jarrett with half steps and still get back in line. It does take awhile to build this.

As far as I know, we've only gotten criticism from one 'chappie'. So forget about them. What's important is that we have fun learning (even without the sheet music).

Don't waste your time on other threads, Rosa. We're using lead sheets here (melody and chord symbols). That's all any jazz improviser uses.

Possibly others are just jealous

You know, what I should have said is, looks who's talking. Mr. 1917 rebuilt Hamburg Steinway. -AND- a Motif XS6. Shessh! I'm over here banging away on my rickety old Wurlitzer spinet. My XS8 is my Steinway

I do have my eye on an Access Virus TI next Don't tell my wife. Or my kids... I think they call it "G.A.S.".

What? Who? Where? Let me at 'em.... Why I 'otta... Grrrr... This thread really is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Criticism? No way.

Yep Deeluk, I'm very familiar with GAS. I was at the store intending to buy a cheap PSR and walked out with an XS6. But I have an excuse. I needed a workstation to demonstrate some stuff on AL

Hi guys,
I've been playing hookey for a while, since I decided to concentrate on my classical stuff this year and wait until my chops are a little stronger before veering off into popular styles.

Even so I still spend a few minutes a day on jazz and blues, so today I recorded a new AL. No big whup. Just another shot at the elusive swing rhythm. There's a few wrong notes and missed beats, but this was the best (or least bad anyway) of today's attempts.

http://www.box.net/shared/ll3qtm4u8g

Hats off to you dedicated jazzers. I'll stop by now and then to see how you're doing. LOL!

Nice RH Bluekeys! You certainly got that licked.

Regarding Classical vs. Pop, I never studied Classical (at least not with a teacher). The chops issue is the same in either style, as I discovered when playing classical.

Perhaps what we can contribute here is improvisation. Just look at everyone's excitement once they actually started to improvise. It's a bug let me tell you. Some people will just be driven by it.

So if the bug hits you, we're here...

I did a YouTube search. I believe this is it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-3x-dSHKew

The circle of fifths was first described by Johann David Heinichen, in his 1728 treatise Der Generalbass in der Composition.
Not sure if it was in the autumn though . . . :p
Sorry couldn't resist that one!
Yeah, the circle has been around for quite some time, it's an extremely important discovery, Mozart got it from his studies of course, he like so many others at his time learned it by studying the masters; like Bach. (Mozart was a huge fan of Bach).
I'll post 16 bars from a rondo by Mozart tomorrow, it's incredible, sounds like song Michel Legrand wrote, or an improv by KJ.

The CoF is really really important to study and learn.

Solo tip:
Something that jazz soloists use is patterns. Patterns are mixed in with scales, arpeggios, licks, etc.
Practicing patterns is a good aid for soloing, but it can make a solo fall on it's feet if used to much.

A pattern could be something like this:

and applied to AL:

another way to use this pattern in creating one's own exercises:


This pattern is known as 1-2-3-1
(as always, swing the eight notes):

Yep. That's the right one

Pretty easy to transcribe, right Barb?

If I look at my playing in general, I'm a bit sloppy about holding notes to full value or placing them exactly where they need to be.

Just for clarification, are most of my LH stabs on target with only a few missteps? I just am making sure I'm not completely wacked on hearing the &2 upbeat!

Here's another quote, "it is no trivial feat becoming your own metronome!"

stegerson, your LH was consistent so your time was good. But it's just in the wrong spot. So like I said tap or even count aloud while you do it. Just listen to your recording while counting aloud and the positioning will be obvious to you. So from Beat 1, Beat 2, to Beat 1+ is not correct. Correct way is 1, 2+, repeat...

As far as hold notes, etc., that's phrasing and this does not come automatically. It's like a new language. It only comes from regular practice and listening so you hear lines that way. So I wouldn't worry about that side. I thought your RH was very good.

You gave me a hefty assignment, jazzwee. Transcribing will have to stay on the back burner for a while.

What I like doing, before I transcribe anything, is to listen until I can sing the part. So, I'll be doing a lot of listening when I'm not working on all those solo tips.

Barb and others, I just want to add something that hasn't been said. So far, I've just told you to solo using the G Major Scale, Chord Tones, and neighbors, which is a very simplified concept.

Later on we will discuss in much more detail what scales can actually be played for each chord. This can be much more complex and I'm afraid offers a multitude more of note choices. As you can see you can come up with good solos using the simple concepts I've discussed.

When playing more complex Jazz tunes like Stella by Starlight, All the Things That You Are, Dolphin Dance, Invitation, Giant Steps and so on, simply addressing soloing as chord tones isn't going to work too well. The reason for this is the constant modulation of key. In many tunes, you're only in a key for one bar. In this case, the theory helps one visualize the scale choices to generate some structure to the solo.

Fortunately, AL is simple enough that it can be be played with one scale. The Blues is also simple enough but beyond this a lot of knowledge of scales will be necessary.

But that's for later...

One just can't noodle jazz and you're learning the basic thought processes to creating good solos...

As promised. 4 bars of Mozart. No notes have been added. The phrasing is all Mozart's. This is from a rondo composed (I would say improvised) 1786. Check out the melody notes, just as Jazzwee has described to you earlier. (I've added the chord analysis). It's in the key of Fm (Ab).


Also; check out the pattern M uses: 1-3-2-1 and how it connects to the ninth of the chord.

Ok. Here's in the key of Em (AL):