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Hi custard, that sounds good to me. It's a funny one, isn't it?

tenleftthumbs, good job. Maybe try starting phrases on the "+" instead of right on beat 1. Also, try accenting the "+" a little more often. target towards the end of your phrases on a good note.

sounds good

Thank you 10, jazz + and Knotty for your feedback.

Hey Knots
All this talk of me not swinging my improv has got me real worried about whether I'm swinging my JOI tunes
Here is Lesson 51, what do you think ? Thanks for reviewing.

https://www.box.com/s/33ec76c7683aa183ae45

Cus,

Are you kidding? this is perfect.
I dont think I ever really swung these too well either, but it's already hard enough just playing the notes!

I think those are more about training you to hear cool lines, rather than speed, technique or swing.

The improv, of course, that's a whole different challenge.
I guess only one lesson left for you then, huh? More time for other things then.

Ok, the one thing that is tricky is that 16th figure you play towards the end, must be 5 bars before the end. If you start singing with Bird or even playing along, you run into a lot of those. They add a very cool sound. You can start using that in your improv quite a bit, it's easy and sounds great.

Are you kidding Knots ? Your swing is so good !

Thanks so much for your kind words, it's kinda a relief as one of the reasons I did JOI was to learn how to swing.

Lately I've put in extra effort into my JOI tunes firstly to achieve my 2 year target and secondly because I'm going away in May.

I can't wait to start on new stuff in June. You've internalised Bird so well, I've always been impressed by your 16th note stuff on you-tube. Perhaps I can work on Perhaps 10 min a day after JOI.

oh and I forgot to ask you, what are the standards for
Lesson 51 A Line Together in D min 6
Lesson 52 Frank's Francs in C maj 7 ?

Thanks Knotty.

>>I can't wait to start on new stuff in June. You've internalised Bird so well, I've always been impressed by your 16th note stuff on you-tube. Perhaps I can work on Perhaps 10 min a day after JOI.
Thanks Cus,
if you want to play along, try Leser Young first, it's much easier than Bird.

As far as Bird, I think Moose is a relatively "easy" one and also really great. Billie's Bounce is a good start also.

51: Alone together
52: Pennies from Heaven?

52 is a major twist on Lennies Pennies, which is a minor twist on Pennies from Heaven. Haha

hehe Dave, I knew you'd make the last one complicated. So it's your original hey !

OK, when you gave 10 Oh Lady Be Good, it made me realise I didn't know it. Should I start with this one ?

About drop 2 voicings, I know that you've found them really easy and natural. But for me they've been difficult to internalise so I've spent 10 min a day for the last 3 months doing 4 note drop 2 voicings (1 LH note, 3 RH notes).

In 12 keys in all inversions, I've done
C maj 7
C min 6
C7
C min 7
C min 7 b5
C dim

Then I did maj 2 5 1s starting from the root position of the 2.

Then I did min 2 5 1s starting from
- the root position of the 2
- the 1st inversion of the 2
- the 2nd inversion of the 2
- the 3rd inversion of the 2

Now I feel like I should move onto the next step. Is that a 5 note drop 2 voicing ? Do I add a 5th to the LH ?

Cus,

Lady be good, I think with Count Basie, yeah, that's a great one. you don't have to play at full speed.

For the drop 2, Dave told me not to try and master them, rather, just do the exercise with closed eyes and saying out loud that you should be familiar with.
Then just refer to them for your arrangements.

I wouldn't say I found them easy and natural, but I didn't really try to master them either :-)

Thanks for getting back to me Knotty.

Do you tend to use Drop 2s for comping or when playing the head ?

And do you tend to use them for scalar passages or for 2 5 1 sequences ?

Custard, it's great to see you making such progress. All those hanons have made a big difference to your rh technique, I can hear it. You have good rhythmic control now, even in the tricky spots. Just one more tune to go!

That's nice of you 10.
Yeah I came to JOI with very little technique and even less rhythmic sense.

I'm happy to continue with Hanons after I finish JOI. As I spend about one month per Hanon, I will be doing them for another 20 months.

There is no way I could have handled the Lesson 51 rhythm before JOI.

Cus,

For comping, I usually simply try to open up the left hand a bit, playing it same as if soloing, or more open, or higher. It's just that you have more options if the rh doesn't have to solo.
for the RH, I try to provide some basic counterpoint, doubling notes, or creating simple melodies, filler, or sometimes copying whatever someone is playing. That's the part where you try and listen a lot.

Drop 2 I would use mostly for the arrangements, all things considered, when written down, they are easy to play and provide a great open sound for a 4 note chord. They allow you to use a bit more of the keyboard than you normally would with more closed type voicings.

Cool, Knotty. I really like your comping. I can hear it clearly when there's only the sax, with the rhythm section, sometimes it's hard to hear what you're doing.



So don't you think it's weird that you only play 1 note with the LH ?
I'm thinking that I should add a 7th or a 3rd to my LH ?

you can add any note you want. You might add the bass for example.
But if the arrangement sounds good as is, it's good. The more you add, the harder it is to play. In my view, it's hard enough coming up with an arrangement with 4 note chords. Start with something simple but complete, and then add on to it. Drop 2s are easy to play and have a nice open sound.

As far as comping, probably most important is the time / groove. You don't want to over play. It doesn't matter all that much if you add a 9 or a b13, as long as you play with good time.

for the duet, I've been working on a few intros for tune. That's a lot of fun to do. It's basically composing a short tune that leads into the one you play. So we're playing It could happen to you, starting on Fmaj. You think of which way you can go to Fmaj7 and then walk backwards. You can almost play any chord and it works.

We should nag DF for an "Intro" masterclass ;-)

That's a good idea, like the walking bass one.