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Joined: Dec 2008
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Katt, What do you think about studying Oscar Peterson's book "Jazz Etudes" if you've seen it?
Also I've searched high and low for the Wurzbach book, it's available in a library in San Diego, and at some in Canada.
So far that's all I can find.
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Katt, What do you think about studying Oscar Peterson's book "Jazz Etudes" if you've seen it?
Also I've searched high and low for the Wurzbach book, it's available in a library in San Diego, and at some in Canada.
So far that's all I can find. Nik, I have a real old copy of some Oscar P transcription that came out about 1993. It is hammered with coffee stains, torn cover, yellowed pages, but I have it on a table next to my keyboard for reference. I also have some of the MP's with the tunes to read along and pick up some voicings, runs, etc. The book has Georgia, Hymn To Freedom, Nearness of You, Night Train and some other blues and standards the way Oscar played them. I have learned a lot of tips playing through the book, however unless you are a good sight reader, a student will have to work out some of the tunes bar by bar, but it's worth it. Don't know much about the etudes books, but if you punch in OP at Amazon, many of his jazz books and several of his biographies are listed. Regarding playing octaves in pentatonic scales, this builds technique, strength and a "power sound" to solo in blues, rock, jazz, etc. You can hammer them out in hard staccato patterns to build intensity in a solo. Try that and see what you some up with. katt
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Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt Here's a nice slow lesson on Billy Preston's solo from "Get Back". Are the guitar keys C, G, E, A, D? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DdIxvS1izw
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,082
1000 Post Club Member
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,082 |
Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt So here is a Reese Wynans solo. What kind of organ is he playing? I'm guessing that you could transcribe this for a regular DP...I'm just trying to figure out which voice to use from my keybard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXqdgU3JowA&feature=related
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Joined: Dec 2008
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Willie Myette has a weekly radio show and the show from this week has some tips on improv that are really helpful
Last edited by Nikalette; 08/01/09 04:44 PM.
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Joined: Jun 2008
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500 Post Club Member
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Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt Here's a nice slow lesson on Billy Preston's solo from "Get Back". Are the guitar keys C, G, E, A, D? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DdIxvS1izw Yes, guitar keys including B. Pianojohns' youtube piano lesons are some of the best free ones out there. He also has courses on his site that you can sign up for and very reasonable. He always does a good job of explaining as well as playing a solo or technique. katt
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 552
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 552 |
Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt So here is a Reese Wynans solo. What kind of organ is he playing? I'm guessing that you could transcribe this for a regular DP...I'm just trying to figure out which voice to use from my keybard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXqdgU3JowA&feature=related Yep Nik, that's a B-3. Just select one of your organ sounds with the leslie effect and start jamming away. You can download a youtube video, open it in Quicktime Pro and there is a speed and pitch control for transcribing. Good luck katt
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,082
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,082 |
Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt Katt do you have a Mac or PC? I've been reading the reviews of QuicktimePro and a lot of people hate it. Does anyone else have a program for slowing down videos on a PC?
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 552
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 552 |
Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt Katt do you have a Mac or PC? I've been reading the reviews of QuicktimePro and a lot of people hate it. Does anyone else have a program for slowing down videos on a PC? Nik, I only use a MacBook and Quicktime Pro works fine on my system. It's not the best but it meets my needs. I also transcribe using Audacity. The speed and pitch control on Audacity has more functions and precise. Audacity runs on PC, but you can check out their site here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It's free and much more sophisticated than QT Pro. I use it more than QT Pro for takedowns. But QT Pro can open youtube videos and save them in different formats and compression. katt
Last edited by nitekatt2008z; 08/02/09 02:13 PM.
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,082
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,082 |
Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt Katt do you have a Mac or PC? I've been reading the reviews of QuicktimePro and a lot of people hate it. Does anyone else have a program for slowing down videos on a PC? Nik, I only use a MacBook and Quicktime Pro works fine on my system. It's not the best but it meets my needs. I also transcribe using Audacity. The speed and pitch control on Audacity has more functions and precise. Audacity runs on PC, but you can check out their site here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It's free and much more sophisticated than QT Pro. I use it more than QT Pro for takedowns. But QT Pro can open youtube videos and save them in different formats and compression. katt Thanks, I'll check out Audacity. I found something called Enounce My Speed which works with flashplayer on U-tube to slow down or speed up.It loads up a little speed control bar. I didn't check the buy, but it's not too sophisticated. It only slows to 1/3 speed, but there was a free trial for a week. Anyway the good news. I was able to transcribe the Billy Preston solo from Get Back. I think I got it all right althou' I need to check the last measure. I didn't transcribe the rhythm, that I'll do by ear. Sad that Billy died at 59. I saw him in SF many years back. He was really late for the show (like 45 minutes) and then after a blazing 20 minute set, just got up and walked off the stage. We were pretty disappointed. BTW, has anybody seen the country riffs for keyboard by Andrew Gordon, since the Wurzbach edition is out of print?
Last edited by Nikalette; 08/02/09 03:16 PM.
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 552
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 552 |
Good solos are pulled off when you start hearing passages that relate to the chord progression and you become confident in your path to pull them off.
1. Get the book Country Riffs for Piano by George Wurbach. The book has all the cool licks that can apply to rock, blues and country. A CD is included to hear all the exercises played the way they are written and the feel. Transpose them to the "rock keys", E-A-D-G-B. It can be more of a challenge to play a great solo over a simple triad progression, I-IV-V than to blow on II-V-I like Autumn Leaves.
2. Learn the solo on the Beatles Get Back tune that the "fifth Beatle Billy Preston played on electric piano. A simple, but very fine solo on 2 chords, A and D. Transpose the solo to the guitar keys.
3. Listen to all the tunes that keyboardist Reese Wynans plays on with Stevie Ray Vaughn. Reese is on youtube, so download the videos, open them in Quicktime Pro, slow them down and learn them note for note.
If you can find a teacher to work with, that's fine too, but really you have to work it out yourself by listening to the tunes and trying to copy what the keyboard players are doing, one note, one bar at a time until you can duplicate it 24-7, awake or asleep.
4. Play pentatonic octaves of I-IV-V up and down the scale in quarter notes, eighth notes and eighth note triplets until it;s smooth with a metronome.
Do these suggestions and you will see successful results in a month with daily practice. The key to all this is listening and then duplicating. Take it a day at a time, have patience and results will come
katt Katt do you have a Mac or PC? I've been reading the reviews of QuicktimePro and a lot of people hate it. Does anyone else have a program for slowing down videos on a PC? Nik, I only use a MacBook and Quicktime Pro works fine on my system. It's not the best but it meets my needs. I also transcribe using Audacity. The speed and pitch control on Audacity has more functions and precise. Audacity runs on PC, but you can check out their site here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ It's free and much more sophisticated than QT Pro. I use it more than QT Pro for takedowns. But QT Pro can open youtube videos and save them in different formats and compression. katt Thanks, I'll check out Audacity. I found something called Enounce My Speed which works with flashplayer on U-tube to slow down or speed up.It loads up a little speed control bar. I didn't check the buy, but it's not too sophisticated. It only slows to 1/3 speed, but there was a free trial for a week. Anyway the good news. I was able to transcribe the Billy Preston solo from Get Back. I think I got it all right althou' I need to check the last measure. I didn't transcribe the rhythm, that I'll do by ear. Sad that Billy died at 59. I saw him in SF many years back. He was really late for the show (like 45 minutes) and then after a blazing 20 minute set, just got up and walked off the stage. We were pretty disappointed. BTW, has anybody seen the country riffs for keyboard by Andrew Gordon, since the Wurzbach edition is out of print? Nik, I have personally talked to Andrew Gordon and almost forgot that he has many piano method books, some with CD's that include blues, rock, jazz, funk, country, etc. His books are available online and retail music stores. The books that I have seen are very well planned and aren't real expensive. Andrew also does or used to teach privately. I think he lives in the Los Angeles area. Look him up online. katt
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This is my conclusion:
Music is the "pearl of great price."
You just do whatever it takes to make it happen, and that means a whole bunch of trial and error, among other things...
BTW, I went through my piano books and found 2 Andrew Gordon books with Riffs. He has a lot of good riffs in the bunch, with a CD, but no explanation, just the riffs...some of them are pretty challenging.
Last edited by Nikalette; 08/03/09 02:53 AM.
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it's cool to see how this thread has grown into some cool stuff.
1. what books do you guys recommend for solos and transcriptions?
2. what devices do you guys use to transcribe? how do you guys do that?
a. i'm a mac guy. i have a macbook pro. do you burn tunes to your iTunes and then move them
somewhere else?
b. do you download tunes off iTunes?
c. what's the most effective way to do this?
Thank you!
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also.... when working on blues and pentatonic scales. i like to jam and turn the exercise more into fun playing, so that i'll play longer  so, i'm wondering do you guys have some good voicing that you guys like to use in left hand for rock/blues type songs. i tend to go with the 3,7,9 do you guys change this up at all? how can you work on the left hand voicings as well as your pentatonics? also, as far as scales and soloing, what are the most important to have down pat? 1. Blues? 2. Pentatonics? 3. then what? thanks!
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Transcribe! is free for 30 days, it works with Mac and play both mp3 files and Wav. http://www.seventhstring.com/
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and i need help and guidance. is there ANYTHING out there or ANYONE i can talk to about help here? a book? a teacher? a site? anything? i just want to be a good soloist. i want to be able to burn... why is this so hard? what am i doing wrong?! please help!!!!!
Look within your self, you must find what drives you. You must come in contact with your inner feelings, and find the passion and love, hate or sorrow you feel at that exact moment. While playing the solo of course.
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Instead of telling yourself that you suck, you should focus on what the problem is. Listen to yourself, or find a teacher. Like Bill Evan's said knowing your problem is half the battle.
I am sorry to say but music is hard, and it's a very slow learning process. Pretty much every great players (including Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Bill Evans) will tell you that they are slow learners and it takes them month to get one new thing into your playing. It might take 10 yrs of hard practicing to be able to burn like the guys you look up to. But you will get what you put in it if you let go off your expectations and just focus on what you need to work on.
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So... let's hear it, then.
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Old thread, but still valid for a lot of musicians.
In order to improvise, you must do four things:
1. Identify the tonic chords in your song
2. Harmonize or re-harmonize the melody around those tonic chords
3. Know the set of tones that is appropriate to play for *each* chord in your final harmonized version (and likewise which tones are *not* appropriate to play).
4. Identify the pivot or "fulcrum" tones on each chord. These are one or two tones that are attraction points during the improvisation. The choice of fulcrum depends on the harmonic function of the chord in relation to the key of the moment.
The stronger your harmonization of the melody and the more carefully chosen the fulcrum points, the stronger your improvisation.
rock on
Peace
Last edited by Michael Martinez; 11/22/12 05:31 PM.
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