Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Jazz Study Group 2: Advanced Players

Although I didn't play over it, I just imagined playing over the track and I was able to stay in place. Just needs concentration though. I had to pretty much just focus on the bass and ignore the drums. Good training tool!

This is pretty fast BTW, Beeboss. 220-240?

Thanks for sharing! Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Rune

Thanks Dave!
Man it's hard to play with those drums. So busy!

Well I'm glad it's not just me.

You are welcome.
It is strange because I don't find it hard at all, actually I find it much much easier than playing with a metronome. Maybe because the drums are creating some rhythmic interest rather than just keeping time.

This is the kind of drumming I like ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QeW8gKf07U&feature=fvst

You have to work a little to follow the sequence here!

Thanks Beeboss for the Donna Lee track! I've never learned that tune but the changes are really fun to play over. I'm going to start working out the head.

Anyway, I tried playing over the backing track. I don't find it hard to keep track of the time and the drums are really cool, but it's just a bit too fast for me to stay in control. I didn't even bother trying to comp. Here's my messy attempt at playing over the changes...

http://www.box.com/s/7pypirj3vvt6b8dphpbq

After that I thought I'd like to see what I could do going slower, so I recorded lines on my keyboard with the metronome at 120, then played it back at 230 to record it on my computer and match it up with the backing track. So here's what I'd like to be able to do...

http://www.box.com/s/umzcfshmonlq8jmd3v3i

Good job Scott, it didn't sound very messy to me, just a tiny bit. Mine sounds messy as well. It is just hard to make all the right changes and play decent lines at that speed.
It should be easy enough to slow the backing track down a bit with any audio software. I should probably do that as well, and then push it a few clicks each day. Hmm got me thinking now.

I just put a version up on youtube ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTrf650Ot4I&feature=youtu.be

Sounded pretty good Scott. I think the fact that the drums are playing so aggressive that it feels faster than it really is.

a simple thing that makes playing fast against a metronome much easier is to put the metronome on 2&4. Y'a'll know that already but it's the effect of playing against a relaxed beat that really helps.

Nice job Scott! You did that so fast. Too busy right now to record this but I did try it quickly for a few choruses.

BTW Anytime I think of Donna Lee, I always have to play lots of triplets. Maybe because it's in the head a lot.

I might give this a try later on. I've really only spent time playing the head on this (which I can no longer do cleanly).

Remember how I talked about this drummer who subbed on piano to save the day at the mid atlantic jazz fest? Well there he is:

[video:youtube]d9y9Te3OOYc[/video]

AWESOME! I'm so envious!!! He's actually so good on each instrument!

He's also playing a left-handed drum-set which is pretty hard to do if you're right handed, so even more impressive.

btw - I actually played Donna Lee for awhile. Too bad I didn't record. I just used my iPhone app at 200bpm which was a tad slower than Beeboss' version.

So busy with gigs so we'll see if I get a chance tomorrow before I pack up for gigs. I've never recorded playing Donna Lee. But that and Giant Steps became my practice tunes for tonight.

Here's a mind-boggling fast version of Donna Lee...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nptqk7v7fP0

I don't even get the point of this!

Higher. Faster. Louder. What else is important to trumpet players?

Actually, I found it pretty impressive, but I don't usually gravitate towards this type of playing when I'm listening for pleasure. Live though, I'd love to see it just because it's so 'dangerous'-- like a train wreck could happen at any time, but doesn't.

I posted earlier how, starting with Comrade Conrad, I've been trying to play some standards in many different keys, both to help my memory of the tunes, and improve my ear.

My latest project is to re-learn Windows in B instead of Bb. As I've noted before, Chick plays in in B, but because of a sax player, my band ended up using a version in Bb. This is a piece I've played for years in one key, but I've committed to switching to a new key, by memory, of course. The point, I hope, is to shake things up a bit in the piece, and really hear the changes, rather than think of them in any one key. The early returns are that it's pretty easy to learn the head by memory in a new key, but I can lose it when improvising, particulary because we play it at a fast tempo. But overall, I'm really enjoying the different sound becuase each key signature does have a different feel.

I've been doing this too. Started with the Comrade. I worked on Someday My Prince Will Come in all 12 keys and now I'm doing Skylark. I don't really intend to get to where I can play these tunes comfortably in any key...yet. But I do think that it's great for the ear and memorization. And it is fun to see what different things come out due to the feel changing in different keys. Sometimes I'll accidentally discover really cool voicings or subs in foreign keys that I can use in the original key.

Scott:

what's intersting is I was telling my band that we were going to switch keys and one of the fun parts is that different keys sound differently. I realized that drummers and bass players probably don't hear much difference, but to piano players, different keys definitely have different personalities. Maybe they hear some difference, but just think the piano player is feeling it differently.

Yeah that Comrade is pretty challenging. It really showed up for me where my weak keys are. I am going to try and play in every day for a few weeks before I move on to other 12 key stuff.