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Wow! That's some major improvement there! That's pretty amazing. All in a few days. Excellent work

I now hereby give you this award
STUDENT OF THE WEEK

Nothing like a few chord tones to shape up a solo.

Now let me add some new things for you as you develop this further.

1. See that you land on these chord tones on the downbeat. And you can play anything else on the upbeat (extension chord tones or half step neighbors).

2. When you develop a melody, stick to it and expand on it on the next line. It sounds great when it is connected. As you can see here, it isn't the number of notes that make a good solo. It's making it memorable.

3. I want to teach you something new in your phrasing to make it like jazz vocabulary. In your solo, you will find yourself ending a lot with Short-Long notes. I believe Eighth+Half. Sounds good. Now in jazz, it's common to also use Long-Short. Like Quarter+Eighth. Then you chop off the eighth with a rest so it ends abrubtly.

4. In general when ending a line with an eighth (whether a stream of eighths of just one by itself), the eighth is chopped off with a rest. So lift your finger from the key. This will jazz up the feel of your lines.

It's so exciting to see how quickly you are developing here (which I forecasted). Reminds me of myself when I started.

Phrasing/Swing Lesson

This is easy. All you have to do is listen to this same video again.

Keith Jarrett - Autumn Leaves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io1o1Hwpo8Y

I just want to see if you can pick out a few things.

1. Listen to the way he plays the eighth notes. There's no exaggerated swing. Listen to the accent. Sometimes he does it more. Usually it's very light.

2. Look at phrase endings. Lines ending with eighths or quarters. If he ends with an eighth it is cut short, if he ends with quarter (and longer) notes it is played long. This applies to endings only.

3. Listen to ending combinations. Long-Short, or Short-Long.

4. See him drag his lines slightly from the main pulse of the rhythm section.

5. Listen to the breathing (meaning space). Now Jarrett is an underwater diver. He can go longer without breathing that normal mortals).

6. Listen to the shape of the lines. How he keeps changing the direction (up or down).

Now this is pretty fast playing so I don't mean for any of you to emulate that. It's just convenient to point out phrasing here since this video is already posted.

The only thing you need to hop on this thread is motivation. Sounds like you already have it, l's dad. So, listen to jazzwee and hop on board.

Jazz Homework

Since you are all Adult Beginners, I can assume you can spend a few bucks on some music (especially you Deeluk with your fancy Motif XS8 ).

I found a unique version of Autumn Leaves while listening to the local jazz radio one day.

Album: Somethin' Else
Leader: Cannonball Adderly
Miles Davis
Hank Jones
Sam Jones
Art Blakey
at the Blue Note

(I got mine from Itunes).

Barb, you'd be able to transcribe this. All the lines are just simple. The whole thing is along the lines of Miles Davis style. Very laid back. As far as I'm concerned (and the DJ of the jazz station), this version is just amazing. You'd learn so much transcribing this. Pretty easy too. Even last night I just tapped out what they were playing on the piano. The solo lines are so long and slow that you'd have no problems at all.

This is something that beginners can tackle. No don't start transcribing Jarrett in the video.

Well, I've been practicing.

When I listen to this, I'm a tad late on some of the &2 LH. Also, I think I'm crossing too close to staccato instead of non-legato in the melody.

http://www.box.net/shared/h21ltm94ok

I think I understand what to do, it really does take practice to get it right!

jazzwee - Thank you for such quick and thorough feedback.

I now hereby give YOU this award
MENTOR OF THE WEEK

This next step may take a while to incorporate all of your suggestions into my playing.

Ted (stegerson), this is easy to fix. Now tap the pulse (i.e. 1234). You'll clearly see where your LH is landing. You're doing 1, 2, 1+. Melody is great and just make it non-stacatto like you say. You're in great shape here. Good job!

Hey, my kids don't need to go to college do they?

I'm a CD buying kind of guy. $7.97 for a remastered version over at amazon. http://tinyurl.com/2lx2f3 My order will be placed momentarily.... Need to get some other new CDs anyway.

Yeah, tell them to get off their butts and get a job to help Dad out (so he can buy some more keyboard gear).

For the last hour I was reading the recent posts and listening to the recordings on 'solo'. I thought it will be months before I can start soloing so I never bothered reading the recent posts and just stuck to the beginning pages.

Tonight, everytime I was about to turn off my computer, another post appears -- did you guys notice that this thread has been jumping.

I am now a bit caught up because I want to do SOLO.

But it's almost 3AM....I am losing sleep staying in this thread.....

But I want to tell EVERYONE here especially JAZZWEE how INSPIRING you have been to me and to everyone else here. You are really the BEST in your coaching to each one of us step by step.

You are really paying attention to help each one progress to the next level and I can really HEAR each improvement in recent Barb's recordings because of your close coaching.

WAY to Go Barb.

And also thanks to all those who are posting your recordings. I listen to each one to learn from your recordings and the feedback given by our mentors are superb!!!!

THIS IS SUCH A GREAT CLASS. I AM SO INSPIRED.

Rosa

But 'it is late, I must sleep now.'

I don't usually stay up in these late hours....but while it is tucking in my heart, I must say the above to all of you.

jazzwee - When you say "downbeat" - Do you mean the strong beat of each measure as in beats 1 & 3, whereas the upbeats are beats 2 & 4 (along with the ANDs of course.)


OR
Do you mean to land on the chord tone for EACH beat - 1,2,3,4? And play anything else on the AND of each beat?

I hope you can follow my confused mind here

Also I am upset & find it incomprehensible why there are others using their time to criticize this thread.

What's wrong with them?

Rosa

Also I am upset & find it incomprehensible why there are others using their time to criticize this thread.

What's wrong with them?

Rosa

2nd One is correct. 1,2,3,4 are downbeats. Upbeats (offbeats) are the &'s.

This one is difficult to do Barb, but you are ready for it.

Once you learn to put the chord tone on the pulse, you can go off like Jarrett with half steps and still get back in line. It does take awhile to build this.

As far as I know, we've only gotten criticism from one 'chappie'. So forget about them. What's important is that we have fun learning (even without the sheet music).

Don't waste your time on other threads, Rosa. We're using lead sheets here (melody and chord symbols). That's all any jazz improviser uses.

Possibly others are just jealous

You know, what I should have said is, looks who's talking. Mr. 1917 rebuilt Hamburg Steinway. -AND- a Motif XS6. Shessh! I'm over here banging away on my rickety old Wurlitzer spinet. My XS8 is my Steinway

I do have my eye on an Access Virus TI next Don't tell my wife. Or my kids... I think they call it "G.A.S.".

What? Who? Where? Let me at 'em.... Why I 'otta... Grrrr... This thread really is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Criticism? No way.

Yep Deeluk, I'm very familiar with GAS. I was at the store intending to buy a cheap PSR and walked out with an XS6. But I have an excuse. I needed a workstation to demonstrate some stuff on AL

Hi guys,
I've been playing hookey for a while, since I decided to concentrate on my classical stuff this year and wait until my chops are a little stronger before veering off into popular styles.

Even so I still spend a few minutes a day on jazz and blues, so today I recorded a new AL. No big whup. Just another shot at the elusive swing rhythm. There's a few wrong notes and missed beats, but this was the best (or least bad anyway) of today's attempts.

http://www.box.net/shared/ll3qtm4u8g

Hats off to you dedicated jazzers. I'll stop by now and then to see how you're doing. LOL!