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Just to make you all feel good, I just came back from a jazz lesson and I was messing up so badly that I have to retrench again. I'm not disappointed because I've learned that it's when we accept our failings that we get better.

It's frustrating as heck but improvements only come in chunks.

So just like my own playing requires re-practicing some basics, pick the area that is the toughest problem for you. Only one. Don't try to solve everything. Set other issues aside and then just work on that for a few days. Then shift to the next problem. Isolate to small issues first. The smaller the issue the easier to solve.

For example, if you have problem accenting a stream of 8 eighth notes, you can work on using 4 eighth notes?

Jazzwee -Thank you for sharing your jazz lesson with us. You're right - misery loves company

Alene - Good going! Keep posting. It's fun listening to everyone's progress.

Deeluk - I'm tackling the accent issue calmly. Retrench is a great way to put it. I've got my Band in a Box group all set for scales. I've been practicing those scales with all eighth notes and offbeat accents.

The problem I've encountered while improvising is that there is that little issue of what notes to play. Hard to keep track of where the upbeat is while playing lines with dotted rhythms. Well, I want my fingers to go on autopilot with the correct swing feel, since that is the sound I am after. So, scales it is!

jazzwee - I'm also working on Charleston LH with a Dean Martin style RH.

Maybe like me Barb, we're all trying to do too much all at once. I think if we improve one single aspect of whatever it is we're working on it would be more achievable.

I was trying to something far too advanced myself and I fell flat on my face.

Jazzwee, I hope we haven't messed you up on your own playing....trying to teach us must be a hard job, LOL! Thank you for the instructions on what I need to do....you are exactly right! I had been playing without the pedal and then when I turned on the recorder...all that went out the window along with my brain. I seem to be able to concentrate on only one thing so the pedal got right back in there and I wasn't even aware that it did. Also, you're right on the left hand being too loud so sure will work on that. I think the accents are so hard to do and so my left hand decided to do them . This is going to take a lot of practice so I will be busy, but now I know what to work on again so Thanks so much for the help.

Deeluk: Thanks for the encouragement and kind words. It is nice to know that we all seem to have the same problems. The suggestion of just putting my left hand over the keys, seems like a real good plan and I am going to try that out too. I may never be able to play Jazz correctly, but I'm having a lot of fun trying!

Alene

Thanks Barb, and I will keep hanging in here and posting....after I get some more practicing done. I'm also still practicing the Charleston rhythm with some of my other songs and with AL.

Jazzwee is right when he said to focus on one thing....right now I guess I need to just focus a lot on getting the chord notes and 8th notes (or less of each and breathe) and then I will worry about the accents....whew! Funny how the fingers seem to have a mind of their own and don't seem to pay attention to what I'm telling them. LOL!

Alene

Alene your story is so funny!

But we're all struggling together here. Just working on different tunes...

In the Pianist Non-Classical Forum, jazzer Disciple posts this link about Lennie Tristano.

Listen specifically to the second link because it shows the style of accenting with relying on the triplet feel.

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/37/1259.html

Hi Gang,

As you all noticed, I had not posted any recordings for the last 2 days. It's not that I had not been at the piano and I made a few recordings. But it did not pass my custom here to go out .... so I hope to do better today, esp when everyone has done so WELL with so much IMPROVEMENT.

Alene....your sounds are developing quite well. I like what I am hearing from you. It's the rhythm and the accents that give those jazzy feel & I dont have that yet in my fingers too.

Barb....yes for sure, I can hear those accent beats. Now I know what makes a tune jazzy.

Deeluk....I am still so impressed with your recent solo that I kept listening to it again. Is it possible for you to post a midi file so I can see what you did. You sounded so smooth and relaxed, and a part of you.

Jazzwee...good to know that we are all in the same boat as we move on to the next level. Sometimes we are like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back, but at least we are always moving a step forward.

Rosa

Absolutely. I'm flattered. I still don't feel like I deserve it. Gimme a bit. I might not get it done tonight, but I'll try. I had some caffeine not too long ago...

OK, a MIDI of my solo from a couple of days ago:

http://www.box.net/shared/143ear7s4w

I'm off to practice for a little bit. Then "I must sleep".

Look at all the hard work guys. That's why everyone keeps improving so much

Thanks Deeluk for doing the midi before you went to sleep.

Before I be too critical on myself, I better hand in something to see what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong.

http://www.box.net/shared/8gy2wrlcsc

Here I mainly added the 8th notes and tried to catch the + of the 4 to start my melodic lines. Not always successful though. As a result in the middle, I lost my rhythm, but I caught back to the metronome beat at the end to try to end the song decently :rolleyes: .


Rosa

Hey Rosa - Welcome back to solo land. I enjoyed listening to your latest. Keep up the good work and post often!

So, you're telling me I need to spend another $0.99 on this thread? Sheesh. Most expensive thread I've ever participated in. Maybe we should all keep track of our expenses. Then, when we all become touring jazz pros, we can write them off.

You forgot to add his hourly rate...

Hi Everyone - One of our family phrases is -- "DESPERATE TIMES CALLS FOR DESPERATE MEASURES".

I've been glued to the piano this morning tackling my "even eighths, accent the upbeat" problem. I took out a bebop tune that I had been working on for a year. I've been doing it all wrong as far as accents go.

The tune is Donna Lee by Charlie Parker. I played the first 14 measures over and over ..... It's supposed to be played faster than the speed of light. I worked up my speed this morning from the snail's pace of 80 bpm to the turtle pace of 110 bmp.

jazzwee - Am I on the right path for those upbeat accents? If I am, I will start practicing my LH charleston with this. I hope it doesn't distress you too much this morning listening to Donna played at such an excruciatingly slow pace. Since it's a midi file, you can speed it up to a nice bebop tempo.

http://www.box.net/shared/zypv0w54ww

ps - I know I mentioned in a previous post yesterday that I would be doing scales to tackle the problem. Well, Donna Lee is just too much fun to resist.

Hi everyone,

This is just to keep in touch & let you know, I have not gone to ground.

Many of you are progressing very fast & it's sure good to see & hear. I am still struggling with the creativity of soloing... so used to seeing the notes in front of me previously...., but I am still hear trying to make progress. When I have something new to post, I shall do so.

Kanga

This is good to post this Rosa. This shows how you're practicing. I see you're finding the chord tones most of the time. All you need here is confidence.

In practice these continuous lines are good. In actual playing it should be easier because the phrases are short (it has space) so you have to just have an eye on each chord tone. It sounds like you're getting there though.

Now try to cut down on the triplet feel sing-songy swing. That's what I want to make sure every is practicing. It doesn't really require a lot of notes to sound jazzy but a few notes with the right kind of articulation and it's already convincing.

Keep it up Rosa!

There was dude on the internet that posted hours and hours of jazz practice, with mistakes and all. It was actually quite helpful to listen to especially since it was MIDI just like this.

That's perfect! That's not triplet anymore. Now when I play Donna Lee usually it's close to 200bpm, actually I'm comfortable at 180bpm (hard to solo at 200bpm), it has to be played completely straight, just like sixteenth notes.

Do we need to start a Donna Lee study group? That would just blow everyone away (including me).

As long as we don't have to play it this fast...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=62ohKUU03pc

BTW this is pure Bebop which means chord tones on downbeats and this guy is doing it at what 300bpm? So at this speed it's all bebop scales.

deeluk, this time I'll save you 99 cents. You don't have to buy the Tristano thing, just listen to the swing in that sample. Tristano is the master of accents.