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I certainly agree that there are not lots of errors, but I noticed not just the b6 instead of 5 at page 23 of 1 JOI, but also a consistent error in the third voicings in Lessons 40, 41, and 42 where the 1 3 11 7 9 voicings are actually 1 3 5 7 9. While these errors are easy to spot at my beginner's level, I fear there may be errors I cannot see, especially in the Blues and Tunes, for which there is no objective standard. If others see few errors, too, I guess I should just not worry, though.

I still think it would be good for Dave Frank to put an errata list on his site.

In Lesson 1, unlike the others I have seen, the Blues is in Bb and the JOI Line seems to be in G minor, the relative minor of Bb. Is this oddity on purpose, or is Leaf Line in some sense to be seen as in Bb? (As I recall, the preface says that the Blues and Tunes in each lesson are in the same key.)

I also note that in Lesson 1 Leaf Line ends all 4 8 bar sections on the 5th of Gm, which is like some European folk music as used by Bartok. Is that at all common in jazz? I am used to songs ending on the tonic or 9th.

Hi 2Shlow and welcome to the JOI joint. I think the important point is to focus on playing the music and training your ear. I also used to overanalyze everything with my "classical" mindset but it didnt help me to become a better jazz player.

There are many success stories of people having been through this method and there are definitely "objectives standards" when it comes to jazz theory. I wouldnt spend to much time trying to find minor typing errors.

The Jazz tune immitates the chord changes of the famous standard Autumn Leaves. The origianl tune switches from Bb mayor to tis relative minor which explains wjhy the line is in Gmin. I guess the reason is the choice of the composer.

custard and knotty: I think what I'll do is write out my own lead sheets for these standards - no music, just words and chords. I'll type big, then pencil in the voicings, and try playing from that. I'm not overly worried about not instantly being able to come up with all voicings I want - but I do see working through this book as an opportunity to get all sorts of things done - getting to know the common standards, reading chords quickly on piano and guitar. So I'd rather do it as I go along.

2Shlow - Autumn Leaves is commonly played in Emin/G and Gmin/Bb. Also Bb is frequenly used in jazz, presumably for the horn's benefit. So there is no particular reason why Autumn Leaves shouldn't be found here in Gmin, though, like you, I'm more familiar with Emin.

With my proof-reader's hat on, I've also noticed some little mistakes in the book, though nothing I couldn't instantly work out. I'm happy to give Dave some feedback if there's to be a reprint/2nd edition.

2Shlow,

>>While these errors are easy to spot at my beginner's level, I fear there may be errors I cannot see, especially in the Blues and Tunes, for which there is no objective standard.
Honestly, I think it doesn't matter. You're right, the error on lesson 40 is obvious. I seem to remember an error in one of the tunes, too. But it doesn't matter. It's just not a big deal. What you're trying to get out of the tunes is to train your ear for how improvised jazz lines may sound like. If you look back in this thread, I've posted my own compositions for several of the tunes. They would be valid, other than not being as good as Dave's. Dave could come up with a new compositions on the spot. So see those tunes are samples. If you think a line would sound better another way, then that is your own preference, and that will come out sooner or later. Look at the phrasing, how lines respond to each other, etc...

Autumn Leaves, I like to play in Bb myself, but the realbook has is in G, so it's probably why it's often played in that key.
In records, it's mostly in Bb.

Thank you to those who have responded to my questions. A further question:

In the sing with masters' solos exercise I find that a typical 3 minute recording has so much material to memorize that I am (at least at this stage of my studies) not really up to remembering the whole thing to sing along by heart (I tend to mix up rifs in different choruses). Perhaps the idea is that we take a chorus or two to learn as a mantra instead of a whole song recording (some recordings are LONG, such as 9:25 for So What on Kind of Blue!)? So meantime, I use Transcribe! to break the songs up into 1-chorus mp3s for study. Am I on the right track in that?

Hi 2Shlow,

I did exactly as you suggested. So far, I found a 16-bar stretch or so, and concentrated on that. The last one, I took a longer stretch but didn't test myself with memorizing it clean, I just sang along with Transcribe.

Now I'm on Skid dat de dat. And I don't know what to do! Any suggestions?

I am a beginner myself and in Lesson 3, but I did already break up that 3:07 min song from Lesson 4 into 4 mp3 chunks: 0:44; 0:42; 0:43; and 0:50 to the end. Of course I cannot say if that worked for me yet, as I have not gotten to it. My hunch is that it may be better to work with whole choruses, and not shorter sections, but I could be wrong about that.

I hope we both can get feedback and advice from the more advanced people in the forum.

Hi. When singing with the master solos, you don't sing with the whole tune: only the solo from the master:)That will cut it way back. With some Lester young solos or Charlie Parker solos that are longer, it's fine to concentrate on one chorus at a time. So for the Louie solos, for example, you can sing the melody at the beginning if you like, but then only Louie's trumpet solo(s).

The banjo solos are a bit difficult to sing with...but you can't do it without smiling:)

I'm looking forward to sharing the recent Dick Hyman and upcoming Lennie Tristano master classes with you guys..

Blessings and keep swingin

Dave

Thank you for your comments and suggestions, Dave!

I am sure that all are looking forward to your latest master classes. And speaking of the master classes, I found both yesterday and today I could not get the "Eric Dolphy master class with Dave Frank 6/4/10 06/04/10 05:12PM" at

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7442784

to play (just a black rectangle in the middle of the screen with no button to click on to play it, and I tried in both FireFox and IE8. Has it been taken down, or is there some other problem?

it's working for me today..

DF

2Shlow,

Which solo are you singing along too now ?

Strange, as I just tried it again and no go. Maybe they are blocking to Israel? Some YouTube videos are not available here.

[later]

I just retried again and found that not only NONE of your videos plays from here, but other people's videos do not play either. I guess it may be another new ban on service to Israel.

I am happy you are using YouTube now, Dave! I did get to see the other 4 master classes on Upstream.TV; just missed Eric Dolphy. :-(

The 31-second third chorus of "Got No Blues" (Louis Armstrong).

don't worry - it wasn't that good

DF

Bless you for consoling me, Dave! @:-D

question: where do you guys get the louis armstrong tracks from? I am struggeling to get that here in south africa

They're probably quite good. Just not holy enough...

Fortunaely, you can find them at YouTube, use FireFox and DownloadHelper to save the flv file for video (naturally a 1929 version has just photos, not a real video), play them directly in VLC or jetAudio Players, or generate mp3 from the flv file with the free video to audio converter from http://dvdvideosoft.com/ and then use Transcribe! to listen in any key at any speed you like. Many YouTube videos can also be downloaded as mp4, which can be watched and played with directly in Transcribe!

Only Transcribe! isn't free, and it and Andy (its programmer) are so good you will never regret buying it (http://seventhstring.com and http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/MusicTranscribers/ )
and you can download and try it free to be sure before you buy.

lololol so it's taken you no time to work out that Dave is the biggest joke artist !
When you are next overseas, check out the Eric Dolphy one for a laugh. The bird noises are pretty hilarious.