-
I was checking out an interview and they were talking about the late great drummer Jeff Porcaro. Jeff laid down amazing grooves on tunes musicians are still talking about twenty-five years after his passing. What caught my ear was they said Jeff could sing complete Miles Davis solos in perfect pitch and feel. Yes, Jeff came from an extremely musical family, but a drummer singing Miles Davis solos. How many here can sing a complete solo or even a section of a legendary solo by another instrument. How many can sing a complete solo of a guitarist they idolize, section of the solo. How many are transcribing from singing the line. How many are practicing just singing some riff or line, then playing it in pitch immediately afterwards.
Oh I'm as guilty except for the last couple items. Just want to point out how important singing is to learn to play and what a practice tools it is for developing that connection between ear, mind, and hand. This is something to old jazz cats I get to hang with mention all the time and its something they say they still practice. Especially being able to just create a line, sing it, then play it first time.
So just throwing it out there for something to think about.
-
10-06-2017 02:12 PM
-
Great points. I want to continue to think about it before I add my 2 cents.
Originally Posted by docbop
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Ha. I once put Miles' So What solo on loop in the car for a few weeks. Took my entire family through all of the stages of grief involved in having that repeated over and over, the last of which is complete acceptance. They now laugh and sing along with mirth anytime they hear it.
My wife and daughter even made a spectacle of themselves in the movie theater , when it popped up during their viewing of "Hidden Figures".
Sent from my SM-J727P using Tapatalk
-
Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher
-
Yep. Haven't done this in a while. Need to get back on it. Once you get the fam going, the benefits go far beyond pure musical at individual level. Originally Posted by docbop
-
It's fun to sing a solo like a song while you play the chords.... A good way to find out whether or not you know the solo...
-
Here is my process in its full tortuous slowness, FWIW:
-
I have a big band director who expects everyone to be able to sing their parts - individually, as a section, or the whole band, from their charts at any time during rehearsal at his direction. While not as relevant for the rhythm section, all the horn players just take it for granted as a normal everyday musical task. The main purpose of this is to tighten up RHYTHMS...
Last edited by cosmic gumbo; 10-08-2017 at 08:30 PM.
-
That make sense Cosmic because even the finest of singers don't do particularly well attempting instrumental explorations (like a concerto articulation or jazz solo that is). Rhythm is something they have a shot at, but other than that the melodic explorations had better be fairly simple and stay within a singers range, unless we want to hear a lot of falsetto. Do we? I think not.
And oh - heck yes I can sing some Miles solos. Miles was a minilmalist at times.
But change the question to Trane, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, McLaughlin, Metheny, etc. Now we're talkin'! Get after it singers! lol.
-
I can sing Miles Davis' solo on So What, mainly because of the lyrics Eddie Jefferson put to it ;-)
-
Loved this video. Thanks. Unfortunately, I grew up with very different father behind the wheel where instead of learning to sing to John Coltrane, I learned to curse like a sailor. Originally Posted by docbop
-
Originally Posted by rob taft
Loved this video. Thanks. Unfortunately, I grew up with very different father behind the wheel where instead of learning to sing to John Coltrane, I learned to curse like a sailor.
Our fathers would of got along especially if in between cursing he was talking sports and in great detail.
-
It took me 6 months to do my first transcription Greens Greenery, my kids can still sing it with me. Feels so good.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
[QUOTE=docbop;810026]Our fathers would of got along especially if in between cursing he was talking sports and in great detail.[/QUOTE]
My wife used to work with another female internist who was a real piece of work. This woman took time off to have a baby, and we were reliably informed later that the child's first complete verbal utterance was "Oh sh*t".
We laughed about that for years afterward.Last edited by goldenwave77; 10-19-2017 at 11:38 AM.
-
I get some weird looks, or worse, become the target of threats of physical violence when I launch into Miles's solo off of that fast All Blues version on disc #7 of The Complete Plugged Nickel while in the presence of co-workers...
-
Originally Posted by Spirit59
In my younger bass player days I had a day gig in a grocery store. Any task that involved walking around like collecting carts or checking prices I would be singing bass lines as I walked around. I got some strange looks from some just singing bass lines especially singing Funk.
-
Half the time, I'm not sure what my father was talking about as we were generally gripping the dashboard in white knuckle fear. Mind you my father who had been behind the wheel since 1935 had not one single accident up until the time he passed away at the age of 78. Over the years he reminded me of this fact often, but in my view it was either divine providence or blind luck. Originally Posted by docbop
-
As an assignment in school I had to sing both the So What and Freddy Freeloader solos by Miles Davis. Took a bit of work, but not impossible by any means.
-
Those were the first two I learned to sing! Just came from so much listening. I got so much out of it, I decided singing solos was pretty important. Originally Posted by Dana
Reply With Quote
Playing live and getting the best sound from the...
Yesterday, 02:08 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos