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The first chord is supposed to be a Gm according to the original recording, so I'd agree with you. The trouble is, the older real books all have Bb as the first chord so it misled a generation (or two) of players into playing it that way.

I was about to say that's quite a stretch. So this is rootless.

My changes have the first chord as Gm and I have to say I like that G in the bass so I'm sticking to that.

What I was developing on my end was a solo piano intro so that was with 2 handed voicings. It's similar to yours except of course So-What chords are more open. I'll try yours then when the ensemble starts.

I notice you're not doing block chords with the melody either. Do you ever do that with this?

What's a Kenny Barron voicing?

In the Levine book, I also forgot to mention the F7 was played as a VI upper structure or D/F7, which is just a b9 voicing. I'm not good at remembering the upper structures yet but I want to start including that for comping variety.

Scep - the tune to me is like a never ending loop so I don't know what kind of structure you were looking for. I think that's part of the effect of this. The vagueness of the structure. You don't even know exactly when it begins or ends once it starts. That's why it's difficult to play for many. I seem to relate to it though. It's more sensical then Nefertiti. You haven't forgotten about Nef have you?

So scep, why the lurking? No one's harassing you. We had a lot of fun with the past tunes. And I'm better able to handle new tunes than before. I thought you were going to post some Giant Steps too.

Hey Jazzwee,

I was just waiting until the idea came up again about working on tunes together. The last I recall of this was a Blues that you called and nobody responded. And I had not too many things to add to the thread otherwise.

I am into working through tunes though. I just posted (see my sig) a bunch of tunes that I've recorded that are somewhat passable to listen to, and will be recording others very soon. I've had about two weeks to myself in the house and have used a bunch of time to get some real practicing done. It's really different when others are here because I try to 'play' and practice at the same time, thus not really getting too much better along the way.

So, that being said, I was working on BiG tonight. I may even record something tomorrow of that and some other things. I'm still open to any critiques and criticisms along the way too. The more the better.

As for Giant steps, I really liked learning that tune, but haven't played it for months now, other than as a ballad type thing because I believe it must be really hard to hear someone working out ideas with such crazy changes. So not sure if I will be posting one of those any time soon. Who knows though.

As for upper structures and Blue in Green, this is exactly how I'm approaching it. Pretty much every chord is played as a sus or upper structure, depending on the function. In this way I've made it interesting (to me at least) to solo over and find my way around without feeling that I'm always in the same place.

And Nef, I think I'll record this one again soon too. I just started practicing this again but now with some chord subs, and some simpler voicing than I was using before.


By the way, I heard your Stella on another thread and was pretty impressed. Did you post that over here too? If not you should. You've got some really nice voicings and lines happening for yourself these days.

Scep, that was such a nice thing to say about my recordings. I think I just jumped another level. Something clicked recently. Anyway, for posterity, I will link the two recordings on my new FP7F on this thread.

Roland FP7F Combo Recordings

Stella by Starlight
http://www.box.net/shared/fm2s9z3luo

Blue Bossa
http://www.box.net/shared/y42kurb9h2

As self critique, there's the technique factor. I wish I could play more exactingly on the beat but I don't have that kind of control yet. Obviously the problem for jazzers is that we cannot practice what we are going to play in advance. We got one shot for the moment. However, I do feel that the musical ideas are good. And the phrasing is getting better. This is really where my teacher has been making progress with me and he's noticing it too.

Comping is boring and could develop more variety. Voicings could be more varied.

Back on topic...It would be nice if we notated voicings and such instead of just talking about it. There's just more clarity and exchange of ideas.

I need to get some notation tool but most are so expensive. I just got Symphony Pro for my Ipad but it's really difficult to edit. It's not easy to enter a two-handed voicing. But it's a little bit like Sibelius because you can play it back. Please give me good suggestions that aren't too pricey (not $300).

I'd really like to get some upper structure ideas on voicings so that would be neat if you can discuss specifics in BiG. In the absence of notation I guess E/F7 works for me (for F7b9 for example).

Stella voicings would be interesting too. I really haven't analyzed Stella enough to play it solo piano style but at the jam, someone played an intro on Stella that was obviously an arrangement. Block chords and everything. That would also be informative.

I also learned a lot from Nef and am open to playing that again.

I wish more would venture into Giant Steps with me too but I guess that's asking too much. If you guys recall, I just learned that this summer and after constant work, I've now played it twice at a jam. Hard thing to make melodic though so it's a work in progress.

So how about that as a start to idea exchange/working on tunes? It's good to restore this thread to the original working model, and maybe we can get more participants.

Scep, very nice voicings on God Bless the Child. I just recently learned that and just took the quick approach of modern stride. Bass + rootless. That's one more thing I've got to work on.

Yes, these are rootless, the bass note is just in there for clarity. Though if I was working on a solo version, I would either roll the whole chord (with bass note) or play melody and bass note then fill in the chord - or mix them or drink some coffee.



Maybe as a variation, but I prefer the "chopin" approach here, singing melody, colour chords.

You could always try Noteflight http://www.noteflight.com

And in that spirit I'll share my trio's foray into Stella, a not-rehearsed-let's-spring-it-on-the-guys-and-see-what-happens version. I like to do that, play a piece I haven't played or rehearsed - keeps me/us on our toes. On the other hand, total train wrecks do occur. But they haven't fired me yet so . . .

any comments/criticisms/yeh-or-ney are welcome

It’s in the Levine book (I forget which page but I will check.) You can also google it.

Left hand plays root + 5th + 9th, right hand plays 3rd, 7th, and the 4th on top.

It’s a very big voicing that works well some minor 7th chords in ballads.

I assume Kenny Barron used the voicing but I don't know if he really invented it or not. He is one of my favourite players. Maybe its a bit silly to name a voicing after a performer. Its been a while since I read the Levine book so I might be using the wrong terminology. Everyone seems to have a different name for these type of things.

>> Left hand plays root + 5th + 9th, right hand plays 3rd, 7th, and the 4th on top.
nice sound if you reach it!

Bill Evans used it a lot. It comes from Ravel.

Hi Chris, I haven't talked to you before, but I've listened to a number of your recordings. Unfortunately things get buried in the thread pretty quickly so it becomes difficult to comment sometimes. In any case, I've liked a number of things you've recorded with your trio, but had a hard time listening to it. More on that later.

As for Stella. Well, my vote is yeh. I think you've got some great ideas in both your melodic choices and your voicings. I love the parallel movement stuff in the last few turnarounds and will probably look into stealing that.

I strongly suggest, however, that you find another location to put that mic. I'm not sure how small your room is, but what I used to do when I was gigging was put the recorder right in front of my amp, which was also close to the bass amp. The drums would always come through no matter how far away they were, and I wouldn't pick up half as much 'table chatter' as your recording.

Keep up the great work. And just a thought: do you ever do up tempo things at that gig? If so, I'd love to hear them too.

I haven't listened to Chris yet, but Scep, I listened to your stuff last night.

Voicings and touch are always excellent on Beautiful Love and Night and Day. However, I'm always disconcerted by the lack of pulse on Beautiful Love. I know when you play in a trio the time is tight but when you do solo, I feel you give up on the rhythm in favor of note choices.

I might that your note choices are actually quite good at 16ths. I'm quite impressed at your ability to build on motifs and even be melodic at such a fast stream. That's out of my league.

Night and Day had a steadier rhythm so I liked it more. How about some more variety instead of all 16ths? My teacher often tells me that space has a secondary purpose. It is to give a chance to reset the rhythmic pulse in case it's off. It's a time to listen.

Having a good pulse in solo piano is a tough thing and I struggle with that too. I figure that for me the issue is having a LH that never gets distracted. Hard.

But I've heard you in an ensemble setting and so I know your time is good there.

That's pretty much like the 2+3 voicings I talk about in the other jazz thread. Are you sure about the 4th on top? Just on minor 7 then. I use this voicing as my standard actually so I'm trying to vary it as well.

I haven't visited the Levine book in awhile so I was checking out voicing ideas. Sometimes he talks about specific tunes like Stella and BiG. Perfect for this thread!

Hi JW,

One thing I've been working on this past two weeks is doing metronome stuff, so I believe I'm getting closer to keeping a decent pulse in my solo piano. But my problem still remains that I actually like and gravitate to 16th note lines. That being said, I believe the other part of my problem is when I don't play fast lines I find myself sometimes/often hanging on notes that I don't particularly like. This though, is also being addressed through paying closer attention to singing the slower lines as I play them. In this way I'll lead myself to more 'melodic' choices, thus avoiding having to jump off of some bad choice by doing a string of 16ths.

Finally, for those interested, each of my tunes has a date in it's title, and this can hopefully point to some progress from earlier recordings to those more recently done.