I just picked up volume 3, and Im going to take it with me to my lesson theis week, but before I figure out what Im doing with it, how do you guys use the play along cd's? What does your practise (with these books) consist of? Any tips for a newbie?

Thanks.

The play along CD is mixed so that the piano is on one channel with the bass and drums on the other. Turn off the channel with the piano and just play with the bass and drums.

Use the included chord voicing sheet to find the rootless voicings and play them along with the cd. Play the voicings in both hands. I think it starts out chromatically and then goes through the cycle of 5ths, etc. Just follow along however the cd goes.

The object of all this is to get the voicings into your hands and playing them so that you don't have to think about it. You will need to play these zillions of times, so this is not some quick, easy learning technique. It is just part of the work that you HAVE to do to learn jazz. The play along just makes it less tedious.

Later, you can play the rootless voicings in just the left hand and play patterns, solos, etc with the right. Also, if you are comping with someone, you'll take those same rootless voicings, spread the notes out (generally) so they are not so thick and then play them with both hands, which of course will be a different type of chord voicing than you used in the beginning of your learning, but it will use more or less the same notes except inverted, etc. There are other resources to teach you to invert, spread out and alter chords, but the volume 3 is designed to show what the notes for the rootless voicings are in the 2-5-1 progression and to show you what good voice leading is. Again, the point of the play along is to have a framework of music to play with. Playing with the CD will also help you to play with other people, and in time with them.

Hope this helps.

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The easiest way to move on up to two handed voicings is to play the rootless four note voicings in the left hand and play the 9th and 5th (or root and 5th) in the right hand.