I sent you an invite at that address. you should receive the email shortly.

This is gonna be awesome. Dave and Time Flies you are now in my g+.

Time
We've tested out g+ twice now and the group conferencing is superior to Skype. On g+ the time delay is not as noticeable and there are no echoes.

Dave and Time
So Knots will invite you to the g+ hangout on Sunday. g+ will then ask you to instal the plug-in, which will give you the hangout functionality. I think this should be fairly straightforward on PC which is what you have.

Thanks Cus. I hope the plug-in works with Win7 64 bit.

Ok, I'm down for this Sunday at 10 AM NYC time. We'll do a modal improv class, this should be a superfun new topic, I'm looking forward to seeing you all.

DF

Oh!! Modal should be a lot of fun.

I installed the plug-in. Both Audio & mic work fine in the settings window (the only place I can test them) but I have no video in the settings window. I do have video when I start Hangout. Is this normal?

Duh. Never mind.

Holy Modal! I'm in.

It will be magic. Can't wait.

Hey Dave, when you're in google plus, you have this green "Start a Hangout" on the right.
You might want to click it once and see if everything comes up.

Here's lesson #3:
Besides what I'm uploading here I'm also doing hanons and voicings in all keys and even the solo pattern in all keys. That is slow going but I feel I need to do it. It's helping me understand what makes up a good melody.
The vocal on the blues is really awful and while I'll continue doing them I probably won't upload any more (vocals).

I also composed a one-chorus solo of Body & Soul (except the intro which I borrowed from an old Coleman Hawkins recording). I did it in a kind of four-to-the-bar style like the recording.

Blue Prints

A Froggy Day

vocal - Blue Prints

Body & Soul

Tf,
All sound really good.
Don't sweat it with the vocals. If you don't like posting them, then don't.

The Body And Soul sounded really good. Is that a composition or improvised? Either way, sounded really nice.

Thanks Knotty. It was not improvised - I'm a long way away from doing that. But that's why I'm here.

hey TF, everything sounded real good man! I liked the combination of LH "windshield wiping" (strumming) and block chords on Froggy Day, the vocals sounded fine, and the B and S solo was excellent. The LH 4 to the bar you can try not staccato, more like marcato or blended, it would sound a bit more modern. Try extending some lines on your written solos intentionally to 3-4 measures of swing 1/8th without a rest, it's a bit harder to do but will give it great flow (in addition to the 1-2 bar lines).

Blessings and keep swingin,

Dave Frank

Nice going tf! Body and Soul sounds professional, seamless. Did you write it out or had you internalised it? Just curious.

As for the scat singing, it helped me *a lot* to remember it's not about the singing. It's about listening and engaging. You've got the idea!

Dave - I get marcato, but what's 'blended'?

oh wow Time ! Your output was so kool.
B & S was awesome, your compositions are very melodic.
You played the JOI tunes extremely well, much better than I ever did. So are you up to Lesson 5 now ?
And as Dave said, your singing was fine. Even though I record all my singing, I don't post as I think I sound funny in the LH chords and the a capella versions.

Dave, thanks for the feedback! I'll work on those things. Also thanks for "windshield wiping" - love that phrase.

Thanks 10, I had to write it all out. My memorizing ability ain't what it used to be.

Thanks Cus. I just started lesson four.

Yo Dave,
Did you make it on Google+
And have you tried the hangout button to see if it works.

Perhaps not as long as you think!

Hi time, if that's written out, I'm tempted to ask you for the score. Sorely tempted. But then I would play it. So little time... Anyway, very nicely done!

I've been doing the improv practice as knotty describe, just in C. Nothing really to write about yet. Seems to work better when I go for longer phrases.

Tunes in lesson 16 trip me up. Persistently. There's this dom(b9) and no matter what I practice (and sing) I keep getting it wrong. Amazingly, both hands. Spent days on this. Moving on anyway. I can get it right, it's just hit or miss. It's not like it's difficult...

Progression lesson 19's a step up from before. Playing in 12 keys will take some time. How much time should I spend on this? It's a bit like playing the solo pattern in all 12 keys. Easy, with the capo.

Hey 10, here's the pdf. There are three choruses, #1 and #3 are just comping (sadly, I have to write everything down ) . They're for my sax-playing neighbor. I may have missed an accidental or two. If it sounds wrong, go with the chord symbol.
B&S pdf

Hi Time
What script-writing software did you use for this ? Looks impressive.

Hi Ten
I have Sidney Bechet's What is This Thing Called Love ? You can hear the blues in this very clearly.
The dom b9 diminished chord fits in harmonically very well with this blues sound.

What was difficult for me about this song was understanding the modulations. When I play D min7b5 and then G7b9, I expect to hear C min6 next. But instead C6 pops up to surprise me.

Hey 10
At the end of last year, Knots advised on this thread that I can substitute Lesson 19 progressions onwards for arrangements.

One day when I finally finish JOI, I hope to go back to Lesson 1 and do the JOI Solo Pattern in all 12 keys. Maybe I will also add the Progressions onto the list.

Hi Cus,
I use MusEdit (www.musedit.com). One thing I really like about the program is you can enter an entire piece using the keyboard which is much faster than the mouse once you learn the shortcut keys. Also as of this year, the program is free. If you do go to the musedit website and you're redirected, just back up and retype the URL in the address bar. When you get there, go to the bottom of the page and read the piece about Doug Rogers, the programmer. It's, uh, interesting. If you do give it a try I'll be glad to help you get started.

Thanks so much Time ! It's fantastic. I had trouble installing it on Apple but it worked on PC. How long did it take you to learn ?
Yeah the founder is amazing, reminds me of my ozzie surfie friends living on $6 a day in Bali.

I need to call a travel agent.

Glad you like it Cus. I don't remember how long it took me to learn it.

Let me know if I can help.

That major 3rd surprised me, but now I'm used to the sound. tbh, I don't think much about modulations.

The flattened 9th kept tripping me up, both hands, both tunes. I have called it sufficiently done to move on. One day I will play everything perfectly...

OK, I'll do something, maybe not all 12 keys. See when I have time for arranging.

tf - thankyou for the score. I'll have a look at it.

Dave
Thanks so much for listening to my improv progress and also for the awesome class on modal. This modal stuff was completely new to me and is very liberating. After I do all my JOI work, modal improv and tonal improv, I will be totally wiped out by the end of each day.

Knotty
Sorry for mucking up your lesson time ! The modal improv you did was terrific. One moment I'm in space, the next moment I'm in the desert.

Time
Nice to have met you. You picked up the modal improv so quickly.

Laura
You've done really well on your Week 1 improv.

Norm
Great stuff on playing Lesson 1 with 2 hands.