Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Jazz Study Group: Autumn Leaves, ATTYA, etc.

Kanga, like in the early example, start off with long tones first. That makes it easy to think about. No need to rush into long lines (although you can fit some memorized lines in there too).

Jazzwee - Thank you. I'll tackle all of Miss Donna in that fashion and add the Charleston to it.

That youtube guy was amazing. Yes, Yes, I want to do that (be still my heart).

How far are you with Donna Lee, Barb? Can you do chords on the LH while playing the melody in the RH?

BTW some of the fingering in Donna Lee is really difficult. It wasn't really intended to be played on a piano. I use Donna Lee as the technique builder tune. I suffer from a little pain between RH fingers 1 and 3 from overstretching and I think it's from Donna Lee...

Jazzwee - I've been playing root, b7 in the LH. But, I didn't know about the Charleston beat so I just played on 1 and an occasional jab on another beat - nothing scientific.

I worked out the fingering last year, so that's not a problem for me. It may not be the best fingering, but it works for now. Hopefully, it will work as I get faster.

Ooops, didn't even realize you could preview it. My bad. Thx.

On Barb's request, here's an example of me playing straight eight swing bebop style.

http://www.myspace.com/jazzwee

This is something I recorded in 2006 I think. I don't think I have a copy of this anymore. This was when I had played piano/jazz for close to 2 years.

Anyway it's played pretty straight with just offbeat accents(accenting '&s'). This was specifically an exercise I did to learn to play in this manner.

GANG - Listen closely, over and over, to jazzwee's myspace link. His example helped me out BIG TIME with Donna Lee.

Thank you, jazzwee

Gosh, you girls are doing great. Barb, your accents were clear and I could hear them....wish I could do them, LOL!

Rosa.....good work and keeping that left hand going at the same time. I'm impressed!

These accents are really hard for me to do...spent too many years accenting 1 and 3, I think.

Jazzwee's playing is so great and only after 3 years??? Where did I go wrong...I sure can't do that after many years.

Oh, oh, back to the practicing for me!

Alene

Alene - For those accents - here's a tip. Set your metronome to beat on eighth notes. In 4/4 time, you will have 8 clicks to the measure - 1&2&3&4&. Accent each "and" right on the click. That's how I did it. I started very slowly - I almost fell asleep between clicks

Then, of course, you play the game of increasing the metronome speed little by little - so your fingers don't even notice it.

This exercise works great with the Lesson 8 scale.

I pop in from time to time to listen you guys and you all just blow me away! Your thread about the stars and all was really a trip! Jazzee I listened to your my space page and I was really impressed! Loved it!

I love jazz, I would really like to learn some jazz piano. I just recently received the book "Exploring Jazz Piano" by Tim Richards. It's Volume 1. Has anybody here ever used this book? I've also have his Blues book and it is truly outstanding.

I have both of those books as well. I've been trying to work through IBP for the past year or so. I've gotten through most of chs 1 and 2 and some of 3 and 4. I decided that EJP was a bit over my head and tried to focus on IBP first. I've done some of the material in ch 1. And, of course, now I've looked at the material there on Autumn Leaves.

I feel like I've made more progress here in a month than I did on my own with the books in about a year. It is really helpful getting the feedback and working through everything with others. And here we have jazzwee to keep us all on the right track. It's easy to convince yourself that you've got it down when you're on your own. They are really great books though. I plan on working through them for quite some time to come. There are several other folks on the board working through IBP as well. I see you've discovered the IBP thread already.

You should join us!

Babs, thanks for stopping by! I don't have that book unfortunately so don't know anything about it. I probably have a majority of the jazz books but probably more of the advanced ones.

We could probably even branch out to a Jazz Blues study group. Simpler chords but the points are the same.

I was going to rate you a 5 but you disabled your rating

Thanks Barb for the tips. That was what I was doing today after listening to your recording...had the metronome to count out loud the "ands" and REALLY REALLY SLOW was accenting the "ands" and yes, I was slow enough to be sleeping too and finally gave it up.....but if that's how you did it and made it work too, then I will keep it up. You guys may not hear anything from me for a while and then you'll know I really fell asleep or else I still can't do it...either way I'll be missing.LOL!

What is nice with Jazzwee's teaching is he gives us several things we can vary our practice on....either the Charleston Rhythm, the scales for accenting, and other things. Sign of a good teacher, I think!

More solo practice for me tonight:

http://www.box.net/shared/kn9rv78cgk

Still working on accents, rhythm and variation.

Hey Gang, I sure like coming into here everyday. There is always something new here and something exciting to learn. Just think if we keep this up everyday and do a bit of noodling at the piano, we should grow rapidly. We don't have to wait for a week for those live teachers piano lessons though I don't mind if there is a good one here that I can go to. I hope Jazzwee doesn't get tired of listening to our practise sessions but sure is good to get feedback to know what we are doing right or wrong and what needs to focus. Thanks a bundle to JW and all.

Rosa

Deeluk, great solo again. Wow, I hear confidence built in.

Rosa

(I don't dare to ask for the midi for 'you must sleep').

deeluk, nice note choices! Try to put more eighth note chunks in there as your project. It really sounds good when I hear a series of eighths. I can see the great progress there. It's really coming together.

It may be time for another lesson and that's to expand your note choices using Chord/Scales. It might help when noodling as there are more notes available than what's in the G major scale or G major bebop scale.

Chromatic Ideas for Lines

In the meantime, what I'd like hear everyone try is to put some occasional chromatic notes.

For example, if you're at F#m7b5, you could play a series of eighth notes chromatically as
(Going up)
F# G G# A
F# G G# A A# B C
G# A A# B C
etc.
(Going down)
A G# G F# E
C B A G# A


My point here is that a chromatic sequence of eighth notes will keep you also in a chord tone.

Here's another example. On the Em.
D# E F# G F# E
This little lick has a couple of chromatics in it.

Another one. If you know what chord tone you want to start at on Beat 1, then on the & prior, start with a chromatic approach note.

Let's say that on Am7 you want to play C as the first note on Beat 1, then you could approach it from C# on the &, so you play it as C# C in sequence. Starting on the & before it is called a pickup note.

Doing some chromatics gives you more choices for an eighth note sequence and is characteristic of Bebop.

Jazzwee, need a bit of clarification here.

Say for F#m7b5, if I play a series of eighth notes chromatically:

F# G G# A
F# G G# A A# B C
G# A A# B C

I presume that F# begins with the 1st beat, so if I want to start the melody line on the '+' of the 4, do I start with: F F# G G# A.

And for the Em lick that you noted:

D# E F# G F# E

Do I start that D# on the 1st beat or + of the 4?
IT seems to sound good on the 1st beat but then it is not a chord tone on the beat then?

Rosa

Ahhhh..........jazz blues study group? I like that combination.

Deeluk, thanks for the offer, but I am not sure I could keep up with you all. Although, I am just getting around to learning various chords and it's not too hard since I have a few other books to go by.

Gee thanks Jazzwee.....but I disabled my rating.....I was afraid once it was discovered that I like classical, new age, blues and jazz that I would be considered "weird" and be given a 1.