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Hi Monty and welcome! Don't worry about repeating what's already in the thread.

I'm going to let others answer your questions. All I would say is that singing along to the solos seems to be a really important part of the process, though it's quite time consuming at first. The more you do it, the easier it'll get.

Ten Left Thumbs, actually it was your post of a lester young solo that made me feel I could really do much better with the singing of the solos.

The timber of your voice along with Lester Young's solo was quite lovely. I'm sure Lester would have gotten a kick out of it!

Hi Monty,

Welcome to the thread!

What lesson are you on?

Sing the solos as best as you can. Sing them slow and correctly, rather than fast and incorrect. Let the notes sink in.

Thanks Knotty, I actually went through the whole book years ago, but I never did any of the singing of the solos. I could read all the etudes at 120, the jazz Hanons, and patterns in all keys. But I never worked on the singing of the recommended solos. My excuse was I couldn’t find the CDs… Now it’s so much easier with iTunes.

Anyways, I want to go through the whole book 1 again. This time I’ll sing all recommended solos for sure.

Also I’m considering of not referring to the written notation. Just learn (re-learn) all the patterns, jazz Hanon, and etudes by ear. My reading is pretty good but my aural aren’t that great. That's why I really need the CD!

Monty, do you have Transcribe? I couldn't do without it, for singing the solos. I probably spend about a total of two hours on each one, though some of that is just looping while washing dishes, and some is dedicated time learning bar by bar. I might do 8 bars or 16. Sometimes I do it to the level of playing without the original, and sometimes I just sing with the original.

At first it did truly seem like an overwhelming task. I really needed to take it bar by bar, often repeating that bar many times before I've got it. But taking it slow like this I've been amazed what I can do, without trying really hard, or it being really difficult. It's just time-consuming.

I do record (sometimes) in order to encourage others to see it is do-able and fun. I'm glad this encouraged you. I try to think as little about my voice-timbre as possible!

As you say, mp3 downloads make it all much easier.

Are you doing struttin?

I'm off to do some war dancing (lesson 11).

Hi Monty
Welcome and thanks for joining us. That's awesome that you're going to revisit JOI.
Singing the solos is one of my favourite parts of the day.
Since you don't seem to be a beginner as if you've gone through JOI once, I like Knotty's advice to try and sing each solo as correctly as you can. I work out what is a manageable phrase and mark it up in Transcribe.

Cheers
cus

How was Sonny ?

This is this evening's effort:

http://www.box.net/shared/l12s8eahdi

Most of the phrases from Lester are wonderful. Every now and then he goes off in a little spin, seemingly unaware of the rhythm going on around him. Those bits are difficult.

I've been keeping up with my goal of a lesson a week, but this week I won't be able to. I have family over at the weekend, so I don't imagine there will be much time for playing. Also this lesson seems to lift the bar a little higher. I suppose they all do, but this one I notice.

Custard - Enjoy the concert!

10,

very nice!

>> Custard - Enjoy the concert! smile
Oh yeah, right, it's only morning there.

Nevermind, Enjoy!

Thanks Ten and Knotty. I only have to wait another 9.5 hours till Sonny. He says he has been composing more than ever. So there will be new songs which I don't know. I know I will get my money's worth.

Ten
Loved the blues swing in your Taxi War Dance. This wasn't an easy one for me. You did great.

Hi Knotty
I've been trying hard to keep my triplets even for Hanon Lesson 20.
As you know, this is really hard for me. I've been meaning to ask you what is the theory behind keeping them even for these Hanon exercises ?
I've developed a swing feeling on a lot of my triplets from listening to Dave play the JOI blues and swing tunes.
Thanks !
cus

>> I've been meaning to ask you what is the theory behind keeping them even for these Hanon exercises ?
What do you mean theory?

you should play those straight. Meaning you divide the beat in 3. you could set the metronome on triple speed to get the feel, but I don't think you need to.

I mean sometimes Dave plays his triplets straight and sometimes he swings them hard in his JOI tunes.

Like, in jazz, sometimes triplets are played straight and sometimes they are swung.

Are the Hanons to exclusively practise straight triplets, so as to highlight the contrasting feel of the swung 8ths ?

Sorry if this is unclear, I can ask you in person next time on Skype .

Thanks for the welcome back. I won't be posting for awhile, but I am reading and listening.

I recently found out there's a pro musician in my senior community. He a bluesman - guitar and drums - but has played with Paul Jackson Sr (the bassist with Herbie Hancock and The Head Hunters) back in the 80's as well as Stan Kenton's drummer and Charlie Parker's string bassist, Ted Wald. We're both temporarily a bit out of sorts but we're exchanging email. I was telling him about Dave Frank and his method. My new friend said:
"Dave Frank is right!"

tf

Cus,

I think I know what you mean. I believe it is incorrectly written on the sheet. It's often the case with triplets. Prob should be written as 1/8 + 2/16.
If you point me to a specific example, I might be able to tell you for sure.

But yes, in the Hanon, play them straight. Same for 16th. Straight.

Only 8ths are swung.

So how was Sonny?

I am not sure what you are sayng here, but I have noticed that some of the written triplets in JOI are played on the CD about equally and some are played so that the 2nd of the 3 comes when you would expect a swing eighth, and then the 3rd is half an eighth note after that second one. It is as if it were written as a quarter note followed by two sixteenth notes with a triplet mark over the 3 notes. For example, the triplet in The Joy of C 6th line last bar first beat.

Is that the thing you are referring to as as triplets swung hard?

added later:

I see that Knotty made a similar remark.

Good morning folks!

Probably my greatest weakness as a player is my ear. I'm thinking about learning all the etudes and jazz Hanons in the JOI by ear. I'll probaly just refer to the written music to get the chord changes for the etudes.

I figure between singing all the recomend solos and learning the hanons and etudes by ear, maybe aural skills will improve.

What do you think?

Yes Monty you should sing everything to develop what Dave calls "the inner ear".
Especially for each JOI blues and jazz tune, sing while playing both hands, then sing with LH chords, then sing a capella.

And if you sing the Master solos, you will find yourself singing them throughout the day.

Thank you Knotty and 2 shlow. I will find some examples of the swung triplets.
I didn't know that only 8ths were swung in jazz.