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I hope you reconsider this. For one we're anonymous here. Second, as we progress from our learning stages we post better things. Others can learn when they see where we've come from and where we end up. I sounded pretty bad two years ago. I'm better now. So others can compare and see what they can expect. Obviously we have tunes we can play better because we've done it over and over. But in learning something new, everyone has to start somewhere.

Anyway, my attitude is that I stopped caring. Every year, I get better and the old criticisms bounce off my new armor of growing skill. What we do here isn't easy and not learned overnight.

As we learn and fail sometmes, others learn with us. So I vote we leave our egos at the door and keep ourselves open here.

Oh hey, I'm all for leaving my ego at the door I think. I just don't want those with the mucky boots to step on mine while they trample past.

But ya, I'll reconsider. I'm planning on posting some other stuff anyways, so...

Well for one, I posted Dolphin Dance after 1 take, and clearly I was kind of renewing my memory of the changes. So a lot of it was off time. I'll repost it when I get a chance. But you don't see me rushing to fix it

Just don't reveal your real name, Keith...err I mean Sceptical, and you'll be fine. Although, at your concerts, please stop making those vocalizing sounds as it's distracting.

Here's my Augmented triad exercise applied to 'All the Things You Are'. I'm basically arpeggiating an Augmented triad everytime I encounter a ii-V in the tune.

http://www.box.net/shared/8tith2fde0

I apologize for the recording quality. Instead of the H4 recording via Line, it recorded using the Microphone (forgot to reset the source) and unfortunately, I already deleted the recording.

Augmented triads are interesting because like diminished chords they are symmetrical. So this is an example of 'shape' based playing. My fingers remain in a basic shape at a ii-V.

In ii chords, the augmented triad ends at the b3 of the chord, in V chords, it ends on the root.

Because the sound is distinctive, it obviously cannot be overused.

I might also shoot for recording Beeboss's Diminished Cycle triads on Dominants. But I need more practice on that.

Interesting sounds wee... I tend to use the augmented triad as a chord rather than arpeggio. Was trying out some Major/minor sounds today. Found this chord that I really liked, C Eb G B / F Bb D , best used as a C-7th chord but with the b7 and 7 together, adds some spice to it.

I was working on some melodies where your switch from major to minor and back, basically all 12 tones can be used, but you are working from a tonal centre. I wish I could post some stuff up, as soon as I am able to record I will.

I like you way you incorporate the 'excercise' into the music, how you are using the whole tone idea to guide your improvisation rather than just playing a pattern over the changes.
I use this idea a lot in practice, especially over playalongs, basically improvising but using a restricted range of ideas to see what I can get out of them.
It works with any idea from the most specific to the most vague, but ones I use a lot are...
- intervals (using lots of 4ths for example)
- a rhythmic pattern (maybe a group of 5 1/8 notes)
- a shape of phrase (going up for 2 bars and then down for 1 bar)
- a dynamic (start a phrase pp and then up to ff and back)
-using large leaps of at least more than an octave
- doing a whole sequence within the range of a 5th
etc the possible list is endless. It's a great way of building up a store of approaches that I wouldn't normally use.

Hi All,

I've been snooping here on and off a bit. I liked your little exercise, Jazzwee. This is a cool thread.

beeboss -- I love your suggestion to take little patterns and play over the playalongs. So, I went a step further and listened to some music on Pandora to see if something would sound interesting.

It took only a minute listening to Eric Reed improvising to "I Should Care". I picked out a couple of little ideas of his and played along with my Jamey Aebersold 2-5-1 backing track.

Below are the results with a few little bloopers included.

http://www.box.net/shared/74uevai4u6

After doing it this way, then, I add the left hand rootless voicings and play the pattern with Band in a Box at a much slower tempo. The left hand addition is a killer for now. I won't be posting left hand for a while.

Barb

Beeboss, you got what I was doing exactly. Although I said I was arpeggiating, I don't want to imply that this was written out and I was doing some Chopin Etude. This is all improvisation. The concept is limiting the note choices. From the basic Augmented Triad pattern, there are some other scalar choices that allow me to alter the melody.

So hopefully doing these exercises expands my vocabulary. The specific thing that I'm training myself to do is intervallic playing, which in my mind is raising tension by moving in unpredictable intervals. Regular Bebop is typically heavy in stepwise and chromatic encirclement moves and can be predictable. Mixing intervallic playing adds that little modern touch.

Fourths are a particularly good for an intervallic pattern. As I'm learning more, it seems like you can make unusual sounds too if you consciously alter where you start your quartal pattern. I'm not going to post an exercise of this since I already practiced this before.

Now I can't say that the diminished cycle triads on dominants are automatic to my fingers yet so I'll be doing some more work on that.

Before I did this exercise, I understood Augmented triads in theory but didn't sufficiently practice it so I can apply it on anything on the fly. Now I think I can.

Cool Barb! Making good progress!

Hey -- that's like My Funny Valentine

Thanks, Jazzwee. The Aebersold tracks are helping me to improvise with the ballads in my repertoire. I mix back and forth a couple of measures of melody, then some improvisation. I am getting braver about all this.

Hi Barb, yes thats the way to do it. It is so easy to find an idea to try out, and if you do a few new ones every day pretty soon you have a large pool of ideas to dip into at any moment. Hopefully it can make practicing more interesting as well.
Often when I listen to music I try to remember ideas which I like the sound of to experiment with later.

hey Wee, I was thinking more like from C major to C minor, parallel. Valentine is from C - to Eb major, which basically is the same key, just relative.

Have you heard of Only the Lonely by Frank Sinatra? Jarrett did a nice cover of it. That's a tune where the melody has that shift.

Wiz, no the chords of Funny valentine starts with Cmin/maj7 | Cm7 | Cm6 | AbMaj7 | ...

It's probably the most remembered Cmin/maj tune...

Today I was cranking on Matrix again, getting it to tempo. I was exhausted after practice! The good news is that with the finger breaking stuff on this fast tune, you really have to focus on relaxation or you cannot play it. I'm not trying to overstress myself so I'm just doing 200bpm, which is fast enough to get a gist of the tempo. But the real tune is much faster. Maybe 240bpm. I didn't really time it.

It's not really the tempo that's the problem so much as I can play it faster, but I cannot remember the lines that fast. I end up pausing trying to remember where I am. And gosh no, I will not sight read this sucker. I have it committed to memory.

Tomorrow I play this in front of my teacher so we'll see.

As I worked on Matrix, I noticed another symmetrical Chick pattern that I was able to practice...

In the key of C:
Ascending:
G C D G (5 1 9 5 )

The nice thing about this pattern is that it works on just about every chord other than half-diminished. So it requires no thought to sneak into a line. Being symmetrical, it is really easy to remember. Chick arpeggiates this down then up again.

Now although it seems like a non-interesting pattern because of the chord tones, it's actually a stack of 2 fourths a step apart. So when played linearly it gives a vague tonality.

Nice work Barb! You got in the swing there!

Hey -- thanks TLT. I am having fun taking baby steps!

Swingin' Barb - I'm glad that, since I'm breaking my vow to stay off PW until I get work done, that I stopped in here. Great recording! I listened a couple of times thru - you are getting to be a pro -

Cathy

Cathy - You are sweet! But, I am trying not to laugh too hysterically. Pro is not quite the right word here. Let's just say I am getting to be a lot braver about posting this sort of stuff.

Barb