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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
Thank you my friends. I need to create more variety in there I think though. Modal playing is a whole different animal for me.
Now here's a tune, as I mentioned, that I just spent a few minutes on the day before. No one in the band has played it before at a gig. In fact the bass player and drummer had to pull out their Youtubes and give it a few seconds of listening before the set started. LOL. But that's Jazz!
How's the gigging out there? I sent a guy from camp down your way to go see you at your usual gigging spot. Say hi for me if you see him. Now if only I could remember his name. All I know is he's in the car review business.
Summer slowed down the gigs but partly that's my fault because I'm not out there looking for it. I'm only doing what comes to me. So I've been down to 3-4 a month. But the good news is that the crowd is getting bigger.
You kind of have a special market there if tap into the Government/Corporate gigs. I managed one Hollywood gig. Pay was good and lots of eye candy but no one really pays attention to you.
I'm finding that I'm really getting into playing the real "Jazz" gigs now where they just show up to listen to you. A real listening audience, like that restaurant we headline in every month. It's a really crazy gig. By the end of the night, we shift to funk all the time and the people start dancing.
*NEW* Jazz Master Class -"Using the 15 Stylistic Elements Plus a Few More:)
Join Dave for a spinoff of his popular YT video "15 Stylistic Elements for the Advanced Jazz Pianist". New elements include Ghost Notes, 2 level LH, Smashcords, Phunny Phrases, Basslines on 2+4, Shifting Time Signatures, and others. Dave concludes the video with 4 Improv flows on All the Things You are with screen titles highlighting the shifting elements as they appear.
Afro Blue: When we play it, the solos are over a minor blues, which is how Mongosantamaria did it, I believe. Coltrane does it like jazzwee's group, soling over an open F-7 chord vamp. Gotta admit I run out of ideas where I'm soling over one chord, whereas the minor blues progression keeps me going!
Afro Blue: When we play it, the solos are over a minor blues, which is how Mongosantamaria did it, I believe. Coltrane does it like jazzwee's group, soling over an open F-7 chord vamp. Gotta admit I run out of ideas where I'm soling over one chord, whereas the minor blues progression keeps me going!
Yes - it's a challenge to vamp on one chord, but if I did it right, then I would have just gone completely free. The bass player knows to just listen. But it's a work in progress.
The problem is we play so many minor blues tunes all night already: footprints, stolen moments, sugar (in this particular gig).
I can see your point when you've got 3 other minor blues. On vamping on one chord, I was just at a friends house who had the physical CD for Kind of Blue. I was reading the liner notes and Miles says he created those tunes so they could just focus on melody. Sounds easy in that we think we're always focusing on melody and the chord changes make it hard, but in reality just creating a melody ain't easy. I actually enjoy vamping at the end of a song on one chord. The nice thing about vamping at the end of a song is you let it go as long as it feels good and the bring the song to a close.
If you listen to us vamping on one chord, we're not really doing one chord. As I learned from McCoy Tyner, you can really play ANYTHING. I was talking to the bass player tonight and when we both listened to what was in the recording, we were feeding off each other without even thinking about it. We were switching chords in 12 keys.
You can do this pretty much in any dorian mode.
Now my normal drummer wasn't there so there was a sub but otherwise it would vary rhythmically even more.
I'm going to do more of this far out kind of playing.
There's a whole world, nay, a whole universe inside of one chord; you just have to spend time to get in there. It's not easy, takes patience. But it's well worth the effort.
There are quite a few of them out there on the 'net - some better than others. Seeing how MT plays over his own tune is a world of instruction.
Another world are Coltrane transcriptions. There's probably a few on the web for Impressions and there's a fabulous book of transcriptions of A Love Supreme.
The Dave Liebeman & Steve Grossman book of transcriptions Elvin Jone's Live at the Lighthouse is another great source.
Of course, there's the "old-fashioned" way, which is transcribing whatever you find interesting. Or you can make up your own licks. From there practice them in whatever way suits you so you can work them into your playing.
I'm suggesting transcriptions and practice/analysis of licks only as one kind of thing for a practice routine. There are a million other ways too. Or you might continue trying stuff out in performance (and feeding off your bass player as you mention). You'll begin to see, if haven't already, what you like in your own playing that you'd like to develop further - whether that's through practice of your own exercises and licks or comparing what you do to stuff you find in transcriptions. Or again, the feeding exploration you're doing now sometimes may get you to exactly where you want to go.
Of course, this is the tiniest tip of the iceberg of course. There are classical scores to look at. And techniques for playing outside chord changes that work well over a one-chord tune or vamp are right there in Charlie Parker's Omnibook too ...
Thank you Mark. I've planned on studying this transcription before but haven't gotten to it. Do you know if the LH was transcribed too somewhere? I was first starting off with that.
I had also, noticed that I need to build more vocabulary (and maybe confidence) in playing these kind tunes intervallicaly like McCoy does. This type of playing requires more practice than is obvious. I've got the visualize the lines differently.
In the heat of the moment, I can run out of ideas and fingers begin to drive me.
*NEW* Jazz Master Class -"Using the 15 Stylistic Elements Plus a Few More:)
Watched this one and enjoyed a lot. Dave mentioned that Bill uses doorknob style a lot. If I listen to Bill Solo I also hear a lot comping in the crax or in other words, attacking chords. Especially on his Solo albums vol. 1 and 2.
for example from 4:20 and some time further .. am I right?:
jazzwee nice work on the Hollywood gig, must have been at some fancy hotel or venue. Take some photos next time!!
I haven't played many gigs at all, summer is the slow period. People want to be outside. I'm rehearsing with a groove/ smooth jazz type band. May look for group gigs soon. Really helps having good rhythm section hold down the time.
Changing topics for a second, for comping how many different ways do you play a chord in normal or gig situations?
I find my hand remembers shapes that I like and usually play around 4-5. But if I consciously try to work in a new chord while playing it doesn't happen much. I have to sit down and figure out what I want to play.
Like say a 2-5-1 in C, I have my usual chords that my left hand gravitates to. It's almost by habit. But like everyone I can get bored of those sounds.
Dominant chords have more variety because of the ALT notes you can throw in. A b2 #5 on a C major 7 chord ain't gonna sound too nice.
I've been looking at some Keith Jarrett transcriptions and trying out his inner harmony moving notes. It actually takes the fingers a while to get used to it. The hardest part is he uses both left and right hands, while playing the melody note on top. Very tricky.
