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Hi Ten
Despite your protestation, I thought you played the JOI Lesson 10 tune perfectly. You really have the feeling.
And I enjoyed meeting your cool son, he was grooving to the trading in fours improv between Dave and Knotty.

Custard, you are too kind. I suppose I played pretty much the right notes, but there is a big difference between managing this, and feeling like I'm inside the notes and can do whatever I want with them, expression-wise. I recorded this today:

http://www.box.net/shared/soco80jc2y

I've also been trying to do this on guitar. This is my first ever joi guitar recording, leaves plenty room for improvement! Listen only if you have the patience, it's slow.

http://www.box.net/shared/ji29u2a0yu

It was maybe two months ago I started playing guitar without armbands (tab). Brings new meaning to the words 'getting the notes right'. I also need to work on how to record, because the chords (from the CD) are barely audible.

thank you all for a fantastic time yesterday. I enjoyed getting to know you and the technology was beyond awesome. We'll do it again:)

Blessings and keep swingin!

Dave Frank

Thankyou Dave it was joiful.

Let us know when you want to do it again. If we can't video conference then we can always do sound only. It was wonderful to see your faces and I know Daniel got a lot out of experiencing live music.

We should be able to video conference. I'm thinking of paying the yearly subscription, I believe only one person in the group needs the video conference moderator status.

Hi everyone

In typical Dave style, he is sharing his skill set for free. Here is the audio file version of our memorable Skype video conference session for you to benefit from.

Session 1
The JOI methodology

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19516551/Session%201_28%20May%202011.mp3

Session 2
Step-by-step approach to improv

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19516551/Session%202_28%20May%202011.mp3

Session 3
Knotty plays Cherokee
Knotty and Dave trade 4s
Dave's critique

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19516551/Session%203_28%20May%202011.mp3

Hi custard, thanks for recording. If you don't mind taking out the subscription, then that'll be great, and we make this a semi-regular thing. I'd look forward to that.

Here's Leaf Decomposition:

http://www.box.net/shared/zqph3pl3qx

I'm not sure how easy my scratchings will be to decipher, but for what they're worth:

http://www.box.net/shared/37tq8e0kyk

I should probably write it out properly?

10,

This is a great composition. You made good use of repetition. Short and long lines. I thought it worked really good. You played it well also, I know it's difficult to play one's own composition, I could never get that right!

There are tons of things to experiment with. For the most part, you can let your ear be the guide and not really worry about rules, but you can also choose to experiment with 1 or 2 new concepts each time.
For example, starting on different beats. I think you start mostly on 1 and 2. It's typical to start on 4&, or 1&. Experiment with different beats.
Also where you end. It's common on end on 1, but you can experiment with other beats also. The last note is the most important.

I don't know how you came up with this so fast. It would always take me 2 weeks!!

Hello JOI friends. I'm sorry to say I've been ill and had surgery. This is my first time back since mid March and I'm trying to catch up with all the neat stuff. I read the postings up to early April - I'll take a few days to get caught up. I'm probably several weeks away from having any fun on the piano, but it is good to be back. Back in March someone posted Lullaby of Leaves by LT. It sounds like Lennie has studied with Dave Frank. Also Knotty posted a Chet Baker tune. Knotty, your easy-going swing reminds my of Chet Baker a lot - much admired. Bye for now.

tf
p.s. welcome 2Shloe (sp?)

Hi TF,

Sorry to hear about all your trouble.
Good to have you back. Take it easy, and thanks for the nice comment.

Hi TF
I'm really sorry too.
I was wondering what happened to you coz you kinda vanished overnight after you did the great Lesson 1 composition.
Welcome back !

Time Flies - sorry to hear you've had a hard time. Like the others, I did wonder what had happened to you. All the best for a speedy recovery!

Thanks for listening to the decomposition, and also for the comments! I probably spent more time practising it than I did writing, especially as I didn't write the chords out properly. I figure it's a good exercise to read the LH chords without notes. Might spend a little more time getting comfortable with it, then, what would you suggest? Another leafy one or move on to #2?

The next lesson (Angel eyes) raises the bar another notch, so that will also take some time.

10,

The more of those compositions you do, the easier improvising will be. Since you seem to be really fast at them, you can always do another and see what happens.
But moving on is fine too.
At the end of each composition, we try to find an new area for you to experiment with.

You can choose to re-use Dave's chosen voicings for this. this is an opportunity to practice them. By the time you start improv, many will be second nature.

You've nailed it.
Nice blues.
For the jazz one, your singing with the LH chords captured well the modulation between the G key centre in A section and the D min 7 feeling in B section.

Hey 10
Are you sure Decomposition was your first one ?!
I agree with Knotty, it's really great. You really applied the Skype masterclass principles well.
I liked your melodic lines especially in A section. Like Time Flies, you seem to be a natural at it, and I'm sure you're going to love composing.

Yeah, it's unbelievable how you did this so quickly.
I took much longer than Knotty to compose each one.

This is what Sonny Rollins said yesterday at the age of 80 "I practise my instrument every day. I'm writing music. I always want to do better. But I just feel that there's no time now not to do better. I have to do better".

2 more sleeps until his Sydney gig.

Wow! This is the first time I've actually heard an international jazz workshop. It is so great to hear everyone's voices and to hear everyone having so much fun working on their jazz. Congratulations on such a successful session!

Keep it up!

Glen

Hi Glen, nice of you to stop by! Thank you for your kind words.

Custard, I must come clean. In school we did counterpoint and harmony alla Bach. We were quite thoroughly versed in phrase shapes. I found myself being aware of the old 'rules' while I was writing. It was a long time ago, but somehow it comes back to me. This was lots easier than writing a line of Bach. I realise that the JOI method is more about absorbing the genre than following rules or theory. But I did find it helpful to think about the shapes and intervals, and that really is down to my old school teachers, bless them.

I really wasn't aware of key changes, but I must go back and look into that.

I just wanted to share one other thing. My family have been exposed to a lot of what I play. I practice as much as I can when the kids are in school, but sometimes it's just not possible. I think what I've been playing has rubbed off on my son. Now that we're not preparing for his exam, the teacher today asked him to improvise. He played so well. I know every mother is proud, but really he played much better than before. The teacher had planned (I think) to say something about phrasing. But all he could say is, 'right, you've got it. Nice phrases, landing on a chord note'. Of course it is possible that the discipline of preparing for the exam made him sharpen up, and now it's over, he's moved on a notch. But I really think it may be down to JOI and me - sometimes I'm playing and he just starts singing. It's an interesting time.

custard - one more sleep now?

Hi 10
Yeah, I'm sure it's rubbed off onto him. This was the son who provided the rhythm section for your Louis Armstrong singing ? He's got a great sense of pulse.
Maybe when he is a bit older, he would like to use JOI for guitar, as you have kinda been inspired to do ?

Hi Glen
Thanks ! Yes it sure was international and a lot of fun.

I'm really happy I found this study group! I've been trying to catch up with the 30 pages in this thread so far so sorry if I ask question covered so far.

I'm wondering how far to go with singing along with the recommened solos.Do you practice it tell you can sing flawlessly with the recording or just get the jest of it? Should you be able to sing the solo without the recording?

I'm a pretty good reader so I find that I can learn the written lesson pretty quickly but it takes me quite awile to learn to sing the recomened solos. Should I move on to the next lesson even though I don't have complete mastery of singing the solo?

Also, I somehow lost CD that comes with the book. Would anyone be so kind as to burn me a copy or send me a mp3?