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Hello Knotty
I leave in a couple of hours, I timed it so that I could finish this composition and study your detailed comments !!
Once again, you have been most helpful. Yes all the singing must have filtered into my subconscious and helped me develop the varied phrasing. For my 5th composition I will try to start on upbeats as well, as well as working on repetition.

Section B was my least favourite section. I agree that ending on the maj 7 for the Gmin7b5 phrase sounded a bit weird.

So my weaknesses are scalar movement and counting in 2s. Did you practise your Hanons in a particular way to help you count in 4s ?

When I come back in a month, I will revise Lesson 13 and then go onto Lesson 14. I know that you said that at Lesson 15 I should be ready for improvising. Should I hold off improvising until I get the counting in 4s right ? How long did it take you to have counting in 4s ingrained ?

What is the jazz standard for Lesson 5 ? The JOI jazz song is Sweet and Low.

Bye
cus

>> So my weaknesses are scalar movement
no, scalar is great, you just want to add some chords here and there. If anything, your strength is scalar movement

>> counting in 2s
yeah, but don't sweat it. I never bothered with it until I really started to improvise. All in good time.

>> Did you practise your Hanons in a particular way to help you count in 4s
I don't think so.

>> Should I hold off improvising until I get the counting in 4s right ?
No, you will see how painless improvising will be. That's when you'll want to really nail the counting in 4s. You hold off on other things such as LH rhythms, speed, complicated scales, reharm, you name it.

>>What is the jazz standard for Lesson 5 ? The JOI jazz song is Sweet and Low.
Sugar.

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Hi Knotty
I hope you’re well. I’m back in Australia now and can’t wait to get back into JOI. During the next few days I will do the chord analysis of Sugar/ Sweet and Low for you to check. Did you do a composition for this ?
Can I please confirm that when you say counting in 4s, you mean every four notes as opposed to every four beats ? So for a measure in 4/4 time, I put the accent on beats 1 and the 3 ?

Cheers
cus

http://jazzitup-knot.blogspot.com/2009/05/honey.html

>> Can I please confirm that when you say counting in 4s, you mean every four notes as opposed to every four beats ? So for a measure in 4/4 time, I put the accent on beats 1 and the 3 ?

Yes, you count your notes in blocks of 4. You slightly accent the 1st note. Counting in 4s is not just about accents, it's about creating longer, more melodic lines.

If you take any jazz recording, and I mean just about any, where someone plays 8ths, unless he is doing something specific to get some kind of effect, you will hear this feeling in 4. Let me try to extract a few examples for you.

When you start improvising, you will keep something dead simple until you've completely taken care of this.
When playing from sheet or memorized, for me at least, it's a bit more difficult, so you don't necessarily need to worry too much, but start paying attention to this when you listen to records.


Hope you had a good time in the US!

Kenny Barron
http://www.box.net/shared/3a31pkiq38

Keith Jarrett:
http://www.box.net/shared/zil8cck3tt

Bill Evans:
http://www.box.net/shared/yztuqmo67z

If you have transcribe, slow down a lot and see if you can hear blocks of 4. It doesn't always start with a block of 4, or ends with one. But in the middle of the line, that's what you have.

> I put the accent on beats 1 and the 3
Don't worry about counting the beats so much. Just counts blocks of 4 notes. When we do improv, this will be more obvious.

Hi Knotty
Thanks very much for your composition and the mp3s you created for me to slow down to 25% with Transcribe - in particular for Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans, I could then hear the blocks of 4 notes.

I had an excellent time in San Francisco and England. One of my highlights was the Jacky Terrasson trio at Yoshi’s San Francisco. The evening had everything I could want - Jacky could swing, play ballads, standards and own compositions, use his left hand, use all registers of the piano.

Hi Knotty
Would you mind doing a quick check of my chord analysis for Lesson 5 Sugar ?

http://www.box.net/shared/t0xhuoix4d

Thanks so much !

Have a beautiful day
custard

looks great. Not familiar with the notation ii+
what does it mean?
Anyway yes, a- then d-, with just minor 2-5s.

Harmonic minor scales will work great. As far as arpeggios, on the 1 minor, you can use 1 3b 5 M7. So for example A C E G#.
Blues scales will work great also

This such a great tune to compose a solo on. have fun

Hello Knots
Thanks for confirming I’m on the right track and for the harmonic minor example.
For ii+ I just meant that it wasn’t simply a straightforward min7 chord, that it had a color added to it such as b5.

What are you working on and how is your band going ?

custard apple - I'm printing that out and jamming on it, thank you. Hope you don't mind

Hey Cus,

Working on Donna Lee, the head and the changes in a couple of keys.
I started the very early arrangement also.
And writing an arrangement on Unforgettable.

Band is doing ok, it's been hard with the vacation and all, but we're having fun.

Hey Geoff
You’re most welcome and it’s good you’ve joined the forum. I’m really looking forward to composing over the changes to Sugar. Do you have a recording device ? If so, it would be great to hear your jamming.
I like Stanley Turrentine’s improv here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wls-GDb3Yw0


Knotty
The songs you’re working on sound complex.
I’m nowhere near your standard. This weekend I will look through the Bill Evans arrangement book and try to find something easier than Very Early

Geoff
This shows the timing of the chord changes for Sugar/ Dave Frank’s Sweet and Low. You will probably find this more useful for jamming. Have a kool time.

http://www.box.net/files/0/item/f_512913243#/files/0/item/f_512913243/1/f_512913243

>> The songs you’re working on sound complex.
Not really. Donna Lee sounds scary, but it's the changes to Indiana. The head is tricky, but that part is just memorizing.

The very early arrangement is very playable at any level. It's just how much time you want to spend on it. I think 4 hours and you'll be able to play it slow (say 60 bpm). Another 3 hours and you'll be going 100 or so.

I think the first one I played was Letter to Evan or Periscope. All of these are easy. I am not good at playing from sheet. Someone with decent reading skills would sight read them easy.

Knotty, your guidance is appreciated and I think I will start with Letter to Evan.

Apples,

I recorded it some time ago,
letter to evan:
http://www.box.net/shared/n5iqf45qke

your box link above is incorrect. To share, you have to right click the link , choose share and "get link to file"
A simple URL copy paste does not work.

++

in these arrangements, it's worth spending a bit of time trying to understand why they work. While these are easy to play, they are harmonically very advanced. In letter to Evan, check out the 3rd and 4th line and see how he moves from G to C to F.
You'll want to reuse some of these tricks, whichever bits you understand, in your own arrangements later on.

Much of it, I do not understand.

Knotty- I listened to your arrangement. Kudos, I wish I could phrase and be comfortable with inversions like that. Reminds me of Bill Evans ha

Knotty
Your rendition is so very beautiful, thank you for sharing. I'm going to start learning it this week.
Nowadays when you play ballads, do you prefer to work with the metronome/ play rubato/ both ?