jazzwee,

I looked into the Galper book on the Aebersold website (you can see a few pages) and it looks interesting. But I'm still working on the Mark Levine piano jazz book and I've only gotten to chapter 23. That's good stuff, but it's a lot to think about. (I loved the chapters on the melodic minor scale variations and on upper structures.)

Help! I'm getting too much information!

Tom

Tom, you're in a pretty heavy section so you'll need to concentrate. We won't distract you.

I frequently forget my melodic minor modes and have to keep refreshing my memory.

Hi Jazzwee,

Talk about being late for the party! Way back on the first page I posted that Autumn leaves was too advanced for me, but I've given the first bit a go and played it on a Rhodes stage piano. I'm gonna have to find some time to read through this thread to follow all the advice. I don't know why I'm posting this really (because this thread has moved on big time) but wanted to join in! I suppose next step is to get on to improvising with it, and also play it in different styles so I'll have a listen to some more examples.

http://www.box.net/shared/bor2jrex2t

Nicely played simon288! Smooth relaxed feel.
With that setup I want to here you improvise!

Love that Rhodes . . . every other week I regret selling my 88 keys Stage Piano.

Thanks Chrisbell! I love playing it - I've still got to go through the improvising advice on here yet. It's such a nice thing to play - I've always been addicted to Rhodes!

Simon - WOW!!!! You are a natural for this stuff. You are not late for the party. It's an ongoing event. Keep posting here.

Wow thankyou Swingin Barb! Trying to hunt through the thread now to listen to others.

Swingin Barb Just listened through your music on your site. You play beautifully and you also play my favorite My foolish heart which I'm struggling with at the moment

DUO DEBUT

Talk is cheap. We can talk ourselves blue in the face regarding theory. As Jazz Mallets was leaving for work this morning, he said "We need feedback". So, here we are with Misty.

http://www.box.net/shared/164l2i7ea5

Over the past 30 years, Tom has had a breathing problem. Too many notes - not enough pauses. He is working hard to overcome this problem.

The comping is new for me. I am doing it in a structured way for now. As I feel more comfortable with the rhythms, I will try for a more relaxed improvisational comping technique. (I am getting some help with this stuff.)

We want to someday play for retirement homes and private parties. Our audience will not be heavy jazzer types.

We value your feedback in helping us reach our goals.

Thanks so much.

You guys are ready for the gig right now!

This was real good. The vibes' sound is amazingly rich, and Tom's solo is excellent.

what else do you have on the list?

Knotty, You are so kind. Thank you.

I have managed to work up a comping repertoire of 4 songs. Besides Misty, we have:

Teach Me Tonight
Imagination
Don't Get Around Much Anymore (great for retirement homes)

Tom has a large rep and I need to just learn his tunes one by one. Plus, he needs to brush up on his comping for when I take the melody. We're in no rush to play out.

Simon288,

I loved your sound. That takes me back almost 40 years and is still a very sweet sound. Thanks for sharing that.

knotty,

Your words of encouragement are music to my ears. Thank you.

Tom

OK, buy me a cane and some trifocals, pack me up, and ship me off to the retirement home; I'm ready to sit back and listen!

I've got a name for the Duo: Good Vibes and Barb!

(You'll have to do a few uptempo tunes to be The Dynamic Duo!)

Very enjoyable. I liked the way you switched between comping styles. Great ending.

Ed

Hi Ed,

Thank you for listening to our debut. We have a long road to travel here. Yes, we need some uptempo stuff. Don't Get Around Much Anymore we're taking at a rollicking 90 bpm

We have decided on a name for our duo. It is being kept secret for a while. I'll give you a hint, though -- it's a pet name that we called each other in college (FSU)-- before we were married. :2hearts:

Hi guys, Simon and Barb, I heard great stuff! I'll check in tomorrow, I'm a little tied up right now.

Hi Simon, thanks for posting that. Loved it! You have the right feel for this. There is no late time BTW as there are many people who have joined this thread at various stages. As you go through the lessons, you can ask the questions here. I don't have any advice on your rendition of AL as it sounds great to me.

Now just so you're aware, voicings are typically different from EP to Acoustic Piano with Piano being able to support fuller voices. EP's often require more open voicings. Just something to keep in mind as you go through the lessons. We're glad to have you hear and keep posting.

Everyone improves when they post. What each person thinks is the worst they've ever done is often a big improvement over the last version. What we don't realize is that as we become a critic of ourselves, we are recognizing what needs fixing and by the point the problem is already solved.

So please attempt doing improvisations. Do simple things first and see what happens.

Good luck!

Barb and Tom, that's great what you're doing. There's nothing like going for it and putting the show on the road to begin pushing the learning. You have a built-in combo that I wish I had. Good luck and you'll be better than all of us here soon enough because of the experience you will gain from it.

Thank you, Jazzwee. It makes us feel good to know we are pointed in the right general direction.

I'm jealous Barb, I need to take the whip and convert my kids to jazz, then I could potentially have a combo. But Metal -> Jazz, big jump

Be patient, Jazzwee. It took you HOW MANY decades to refine your musical tastes and finally decide to learn jazz? Your kids may still get into jazz at some later decade. And you will be years old. Better late than never! There may be some fun family gatherings in store for you after you are empty nested.

My son (now 20) plays drums in a punk-rock band; sort of Blink 182/Green Day. I turned him onto jazz via the drummer Billy Cobham > Gene Krupa > Steve Gadd > Dave Weckl. Anything loud and fast always impresses them when they're young.
Anyhow, those Metal musicians are wicked instrumentalists! Maybe you should play some jazz solos on a keyboard over some Metal cd. Play it loud and let them discover it.

Kid does like MMW (Medeseki-Martin-Wood) so there's at least a chance...

I would like to harken back to Ed's comment about using the pentatonic scale in improvisation:

I just read Mark Levine's chapter (in the jazz piano theory book) about the pentatonic scale. He said that you can use the same pentatonic scale on all 3 of the chords in the iim7-v7-imaj7 chord pattern. The kicker was that, for example in the key of C, it's not the C pentatonic scale you play, but the G pentatonic scale. He used a process of elimination like this:

Dm7 - no avoid notes
G7 - avoid C
Cmaj7 - avoid F

So, if you eliminate the C and the F from the C major scale, what do you get? The G pentatonic: G-A-B-D-E.

Levine shows some nice examples of this, but admits that it may wear thin eventually. Nevertheless, he points out that Coltrane's Giant Steps, long considered an extremely difficult tune, can be played with just 3 pentatonic scales.

Tom

So whilst all of you are practising those pentatonics, here's a free online Jazz Rhythm course.
As my practising focus these days are on my rhythm (apart from practising right-hand runs in thirds and sixths) playing. Doing research I came across these above mentioned pages. Great stuff. Check out his piano technique pages, he knows what he's talking about.

Anyone got any tips for MIDI resources for jazz piano?

I've recently started taking jazz lessons, pretty cool stuff . Currently working on Mack the Knife and keeping the voicing simple (chord every beat LH) so I can concentrate a bit more on improvising and soloing.

Will certainly have a look at Autumn Leaves the coming time.

What specifically are you looking for?

KHZ, let me refer you to LearnJazzPiano.com which has a lot of MIDI's and such. But you'll have to search a little. There's a lot of them.

But seriously speaking, this stuff just gives you an intro and watching the MIDI's doesn't really give you enough to pick up on. It's better to just learn from the actual masters. I have to same advice related to YouTube videos. Although it's fun to compare with others on the same jazz journey, it's the masters that will excite you and teach you so set your eyes to a higher goal, if you will.

Although this thread says "Autumn Leaves", it really is a general jazz thread with the sample tune being AL. You apply the same concepts explained here to any jazz tune. ANY.

Ask away if there is anything you want to know and realize that there's enough in this thread to have a little book.

Chris, your comments hit home with me. My teacher has certainly changed focus on me and he's just about criticized every so-called jazz expert on Youtube as having rhythmic problems or mediocre playing.

He told me to study this youtube video instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8CDtEVNFNc&feature=related

It was a very interesting because he's asking me to study the groove here and how relaxed Chick Corea and company are in this uptempo tune. I think he just echoed what you said. It is the accuracy of time that differentiates the mediocre from the masters. Now I can understand what you went through in your class. Watching that video shows me a whole different class of playing and I view it in a different light now.

Now admitedly it's a whole different level than what I was focused on but the fact that he points me in this direction is kind of cool. It's like saying, I can do this so focus on it and take myself closer to the level of the masters. I thought I had to settle for mediocre. It was good to hear.

wow, not bad. Interesting to see how high CC sits. I have been experimenting with different heights as well as discussing this with other pianists. It seems everybody has their take on it.

Yep, it seems I've become totally obsessed with cut time, sub-divisions; it's amazing by slowing down the inner beat one can actually play faster.

Here's another great example of a trios ability to throw the beat around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev5pxmsUzus

I don't think he sits that high Chris. His arm is pretty straight to me. But Chick's perception and awareness of the music is so far out. I cannot comprehend at that speed.

Is there an exercise to slowing down the inner beat? Just feel the pulse in half time?

Lately, I've been very conscious of where to put the notes within a beat. I like to vary it so it's constantly changing. I think that it has an effect of improving time too because of that extra awareness/consciousness. I picked it from my teacher and from listening to Fred Hersch, and it can also be heard in Brad Melhdau (his student).

As an effect that I notice that even when I don't actually swing in solo playing, the positioning of the note implies the swing. I've seen others do this but they position their notes in the same spot, either ahead or behind the beat. The constantly changing position has a different dynamic to it and almost has a tension-release effect. This seems to be an almost signature style of Fred Hersch.

For others not aware of Fred Hersch, I suggest you check him out. He's a fantastic player. One of the best.