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Barb, that's good. Note choices fit the chords and there were spaces there. Now we need to slow you down a little. Put longer notes in (quarter notes and half notes). And put even more space. This gives you time to think of the melody in your head.

On the swing of eighth notes, make it less sing-songy (i.e. make the eights straighter) and don't forget to accent.

Lesson 10 - Beginning Solo Tips - Use Long Notes and Space

When I first did a solo for a teacher, the first thing I did (as probably all of us do), is play TOO MANY notes. And then it sounds a litle bit like a scale.

So the early advice I got was to first start off your development by using a lot of long notes (Quarter notes, Half notes), and just think of melodies.

Here's a short solo snippet where I had to concentrate on using long notes. To best do long notes, don't do AL too slow, otherwise, you will want to fill it in with too many ideas. As it goes faster, you really have no opportunity to cram too much stuff in there. This was played at 140bpm.

EXAMPLE 1:
http://www.box.net/shared/ziqj2zaww0

EXAMPLE 2: (EVEN SIMPLER)
http://www.box.net/shared/vegkoc4gk4

I was just getting back to the rootless voicing lesson. Are those played 2 handed similar to the 2+3 style we learned? Or are these intended solely for the LH with the RH continuing the melody? Do rootless voicings work as comping chords or do you stick with the 2+3?

For comping you can use Rootless LH only, or 2+3, and later Rootless BLOCK chords which is two handed.

But when you're soloing in a combo, you play LH only of course since your RH is busy. You can see me doing that on the recordings. Those are all live so you can see all the warts too .

Thank you jazzwee. You are a great leader and have given me lots to work on. Your solo example is just what I needed. I want to be able to play like that.

My natural tendency is to play with that triplet feel as opposed to straighter, but accented on the +, eighth notes.

ACTION TAKEN:
This morning I've been playing RH only with Lesson 8. I set the metronome to 260 so that it is clicking on the eighth notes. I put a lot of accent on the offbeats...probably overstressed it to get the point across to my fingers.
Next, I set the metronome to 130 to click on quarter notes. No problem there, Next, I set the metronome to 65 to click on 2 and 4. Big problem there. I'll stick with quarter note clicking a while longer.

jazzwee - I noticed in your Lesson 10 example that you covered 2 octaves. I'm just staying in one octave for now. My ears are not developed enough to jump around and know what it will sound like. This is where Band in a Box ear training will be most helpful.

Question re: Band in a Box. Do you recommend using their solo generation option for ideas?

If there are any lurkers out there tackling this solo business, PLEASE join in the fun and post. We need to share ideas.

This is Lesson 3A style with the LH shell voicing.

http://www.box.net/shared/sezcnebcw0

Is the RH swinging as it should, ie. marcato on those 2 quarter notes? I tried to play legato and then detached for the next 2 notes.

Jazzwee, many thanks for your continuing feedback & guidance.

Rosa

Al, how nice to see you here! Welcome to the party.

Just make sure you don't forget Barb that I'm just a student too so take my advice (and my playing) with some grain of salt. Rely on listening to the masters for your own verification. My interpretation is not the only possible one.

I thought about the solo I posted and I think I can simplify that even further. You need to start with the fewest possible notes so you get the tones in your head. I will see about adding a second example of Long Notes.

BTW this process is something I experienced myself as a student. Once I started with slowing down in note selection, it was a very quick step to play faster lines. Your brain has to adapt to the changess first.

Remember what I said in a much earlier lesson, initially target 3rds as the basis for your long notes. This will keep you in synch with the changes.


It's easier to sound like you picked the correct tones when you do stepwise movements. So staying within an octave is quite fine.

No I don't recommend using BIAB solo generation. In the end it's going to have to come from your own mind. So it's good you have the guts to do it because it's the outside feedback that will teach you (from me and others).

To others following this thread and not posting a solo, a lot of the learning in jazz is from making the mistakes, sounding awful, having lots of timing problems, picking the wrong notes. But often you're not going to see this on your own. The outside feedback is really helpful.

Barb, in a short time you will notice rapid development so keep at it.

Is it just me? Box.net seems to always be down.

Box.net? No problem........tuesday 29 jan 19.20h local time (Europe)

JB

OK - jazzwee, you're a student, BUT, you are also leading the way. So, do you accept the term "mentor"? You are mentoring all of us 'jazzer wannabees' from utter darkness into the light.

Yes, I listen to the masters. It's one thing to know how you WANT to sound.. but, it's another thing to know what steps to take to get that sound. So, great mentor that you are --- you are providing those steps. Thank you!


Box.net is fine for me here in NC around 1:38 pm. In fact, each of the times I have posted, I never had a problem with it. Maybe you need to move to NC

Thanks, Jazzwee for your comments. I will continue to work on it.

This is fun to learn how to do but lots of work before I learn and got a late start on this thread so lots of catching up to do.

Hi Rosa....happy to be joining you and Barb and everyone else that is doing this...

MIDI of AL Combo Backing Track was modified. Prior version was missing voice/bank changes.

Rosa, the melody is in pretty good shape. Sometimes you make the quarter notes too short but that's just occasionally as you are more aware of it it will be consistent.

Now the left hand is not on 4/4 for some reason. I would play with a metronome because the LH is on a waltz rhythm (3/4). Although I stab the chords 3 times on many occasions, note that I land still on one of two landmarks of the measure, Beat 1 or + of the 2. Now this is a little hard to master so start off with just whole notes on the LH (following a metronome). Once you're successful with that, then you can go back to Charleston. We just have to make sure you don't lose your count. Especially at this early stage, the counting is critical. By the time you get to the advanced level, you will have to know upbeats and downbeats by instinct since some advanced ideas come in related these.

Don't forget Lesson 9 (Playing in the Pocket). Hopefully everyone is getting started on that. That could take a couple of months to show solid improvement so it's important to start that early.

You're working hard Rosa and you're paying attention so you'll see solid improvement shortly.

Don't worry Alene, most are still on the early Lessons. Barb has had jazz lessons before so she has a little edge over many.

This is an eye-opener indeed!!!!

I thought I was playing 4/4 times. LOL!!!!

How did I manage to do 3/4 on LH and 4/4 on RH .

Thanks for pointing this out to me. I would have not known at all.

I will go back and just hit on the first beat for a whole measure and see what happens.

Rosa

That's the spirit Rosa!

Everyone, please note that I added a second solo to Lesson 10. It's even more simplified. The idea here is to learn to solo just using very few notes first.

Pay attention specifically to the phrasing because there are some cliche phrasings that's part of the jazz vocabulary and you'll notice it not just in the way the notes are phrased (as discussed in the lesson on Phrasing), but also endings. For example, listen for repeated eighth notes and how they're specifically handled.

This stuff is simplified and I'm not using any fancy scales or dissonant harmonies. It's just simple melodies and if you just listen deep in yourself you can come up with it. Then the next step is to phrase it like jazz.

In the end, when you really know how to play, you will find that a lot of phrases are the same simple stuff but just played four times as fast. This is the meat and potatoes so to speak. Then from here one deviates harmonically and then you start breaking rules.

BTW - Thanks to Deeluk for fixing my MIDI file (backing track). There's so many people involved in this thread and everyone's helping to make everything a professional record.

Barb, I think the fact that I'm a student of Jazz (as an Adult Beginner), is the perfect example of what can be accomplished. Just remember that I started Piano and Jazz only a little over 3 years ago. So, if I can do it, why can't all of you?

So I accept the job of a role model so all of you know this is something possible from adults. However, I will not lie to you, just like anything else, it takes a lot of work (and a good teacher).

I've been following along eager to participate. I finally got set up to record (MIDI for now) and got an account at box.

Rosa2007 and Swingin'Barb your stuff is sounding great!

I started with 1/7, 1/3 in the LH and the melody in the RH. I tried really hard to stay pure this first time but I have to admit little variations and riffs naturally want to sneak in. But I really wanted to practice the LH as a rock solid rhythm that jazzwe refers to.

Anyway here it is:

http://www.box.net/shared/byagc3hgkg

It's late and I must sleep!