Absolutely! In the words of General MacArthur, "I shall return!"

Actually, I already have - kind of....

Well... Actually... I shall return... with Birds Bounce recorded and submitted!!! Eventually!!

...after I finish with Angel Eyes, Funny Valentine, Another You, Take the A Train, How High the Moon and other various and sundry assignments.

Gotta Run.

Hey Knots
Where have you been and what are you up to ?

Hey Cus,

I've been good. Still teaching DF a few tricks ;-)

How about you, how's Dr Laverne? I will see him in July btw. Me, Chris and my sax buddy are all going this year.

hehe Knots, you're funny.

I'm glad you, Chris, and Andy LaVerne can all make it again this year to Aebersold. So Chris' socks couldn't have been too bad last year

Unfortunately I'm not ready for Aebersold yet. I'm only doing solo piano. It's very difficult to find a good jazz rhythm section here which is primarily fusion and Latin.
I've looked at the Mark Levine ATTYA backing track he did for Aebersold in 12 keys but there were a couple of problems for me:
(i) I prefer different chord extensions e.g. in the bridge, I feel a strong pull towards B7 b9 not the B7 #9 used by Mark.
(ii) I've been practising delaying the resolution of my dominants e.g. when I'm playing extensions over G7, the backing track would already have moved onto C maj 7.

I've been practising the Gary Burton you-tube masterclass concept of thematic improv, also I've begun working on the Gary Burton/Andy LaVerne modes.

At the end of last year, I finished Andy's Chord Substitutions book which has given me the confidence to do arrangements quite quickly.
But I'm taking a long time with reharms, although I now have acquired the vocabulary for it, so I'm parking my reharm of the last section of ATTYA.

I've decided I won't take lessons with Andy until after the Gary Burton course which is April-May.

Keep in touch even though I know you must be very busy with work and gigs.

Hey everyone

I hope your doing fine.

Its been a while I guess I've been practicing and revisiting the "old" tunes again for a month now. And hopefully next friday I'll be back on track again with a new teacher. Since last week I can humm random melodies in my head again. I really enjoy practicing.

Welcome back Simou.
Glad you found a new teacher.
Which lesson do you plan to do with your new teacher ?

Hey Apple, i'm doing lesson 5 right now having just finished with the blues. Hopefully by the end of the week I can play the jazz tune. The teacher is a professional jazz pianist, I haven't seen him yet. But there shouldn't be a problem if I continue with lesson 6... I hope

That's really cool Simou that you got through the difficult Lessons 3 and 4, and that you finally found a jazz teacher.
If I remember correctly, the second tune in Lesson 5 was a blues tune too. So the learning curve in Lesson 5 for your second tune shouldn't be huge.

Well, I ordered book one too
Untill it's here I think I'll just read this topic a lot . Can't go wrong with Dave Frank seeing his master classes on yt.

Welcome lost wood. A lot of stuff to sort through. This thread is very helpful for getting info on how to use the book.

Hi knotty!

@apples
You're right both tunes are a lot simpler. Especially piece #2 is perfect for me to learn it just by ear.

@Woods
Here's a total beginner but I think Dave Frank's material is fun to work with. He presents you with just the right amount of information so you can enjoy the ride. Other books I looked into were either too technically demanding, too theoretical and offer very little guidance for a beginner. Now I can concentrate on playing music rather than worrying about how to learn and what to learn when.

Please have a look @ p. 49 bar 4 & 5 (book 1)

There you're supposed to hold the E below middle C for 2 bars (bar 4 to bar 5).
At the same time you're playing a Bmin7b5 chord in bar 5, voiced as B-D-A. So the E I'm supposed to hold comes right in between the chord notes of the Bmin7b5 chord? I guess that makes the chord effectively sound like
B-D-E-A. Is that ok if I add the E to the chord in my LH?

And two beats later same thing happens again with the E7 chord, played out as B-D-E-G#. Only this time the E is already there in the chord.

The other questions is for bar 4. The Amin6 and its missing notes in the bass clef is probably covered by A and E.

Sorry simou, I don't know what you mean about holding the E.
Yes it is fine to add notes, E with a B min chord creates the lovely min 11 sound.
And it is fine to take away notes e.g. the 5th, if you think the chord sounds too thick.

So you don't have to play exactly what's in front of you.

Thanks Apple I got it

Ok, here's last week's assignment. I had to come up with a tune based on the progression of
lullabye in blue (on p. 42).. This's my first tune

https://soundcloud.com/simou-pw/songw23-2

What do you think?

That's great work Simou. I liked your sense of phrasing.
But since you are paying me for a suggestion "winks" I would say that you could make your phrasing even clearer e.g. you could try
"Call" "Response" "Call" "Response"
or
"Call" "Response" "Clarification of Response".

I received book one took a quick look and looks really nice.
But now I ask myself how to combine all those books. I mean.. my piano practice isn't structured atm but want to get back again on everything.
I have like 2 sight reading books, now JOI, Solo Jazz Piano: The Linear Approach (Neil Olmstead), I got some books like Triad Pairs and Expansions, I always work on a rag (from Joplin book) and a classical piece with my teacher (last I did was Debussy, now getting new piece).

Well I think Triad Pairs and Expansions are maybe out of my league right now... so that's for later. Thinking about dropping practice Solo Jazz piano and keep it at reference when working on walking bass. So it should be JOI + Sight reading + Ragtime + Classical piece from now on. If I only had more time (and less tension problems).

we usually skip the JOI solo pattern and go with the jazzhanon, chords and tunes)

DF

Hey LW
So you have a classical teacher ? That's great.
You seem to be practising too much. In my opinion, you've correctly identified your problem as the need for structure. You need a great jazz teacher
(i) to give you the focus; and
(ii) to teach you how to relax at the piano. Are your tension injuries from piano or sport ?

Got it from sporting - weight lifting last year (after 2 year break). Not a good combo with piano. Next to that I wasn't (and still am not) structured. This means I could work out and practice piano directly after working out. Not a good idea. Next to that I pratice/play a lot during the day several times since I don't have classes atm (almost every day free). Tried rest (a few weeks) and physical therapy didn't work. It's not really painful more irritating.

Decided from now on to practice structured every day at the same time and no playing in other parts of the day (so always "22 hours of rest").

Good point Apple, I haven't thought about the call&response pattern, thanks.

I've read the first 40 pages, looks good.. can't wait to begin.
Few questions though:
- Do you have to do innerear line method for every transposed JOI Solo Pattern (so every key repeat the 5 steps)?
- Jazzhanon says; Maintain the same fingering at each scale degree, in all keys. Maybe it's because english is not my native language.. but I don't know exactly what this means. I would begin the first jazzhanon with the 2 instead of the 1 (on the Bb). Should I begin ALL jazzhanon in all keys with the 1? So even in Ab?
- Sing along with solo. How do I know I'm listening to the right recording on youtube? Should I sing all solo instruments?

Lw,

We usually skip the joi pattern. Playing in all keys can be a bit hard.

Yes, use thumb on bb. There is no crossing of the thumb ever in the hanons

Some of the recordings you will not find on YouTube. Some are hard to find our have been repackaged under different albums. I can help you with the versions I found if you tell me which one you are on.

Tend to sing in "one octave" for example a C4 when playing a C5 or C6.. cause it's easier for my voice.. is this a problem?

By the way, I tried the hanon thing with the same fingering and it's actually much easier than I thought. Just knowing your basic scales well makes it "easy" to play the pattern (ok, mayb not with perfect swing, articulation etc.) cause you don't have to care about fingering just about the notes. Played only one pattern though lol so maybe I'll come back on this one

Edit: to be honest I'm feeling like I'm boring you guys with all these questions. But I don't have time to read al 90+ pages.

Lw
Check out df latest video on ear training and see how great of a ssinger he is. :-)
Yeah, switching octave is fine.

Thanks again,

Yeah that's true ha.. but still, thought DF tried to hit high notes with his voice. Well I'm trying singing and swinging atm . Really fun. Like how it says spend like 2 weeks on 1 lessons, a lot of books don't give you time indication and you're trying to get through them really quick. For this book, I'll just take my time.