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Working on more mindful practice by applying everything on a tune.
Specifically, I am doing the following as much as possible all on the same song.
Record a bass line
Record some comping
Record a melody head on top of the accompaniment
Practice lines over accompaniment
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09-23-2025 06:18 PM
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Four Brothers
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Am I to blame for that, Allan? I mentioned it in the "favorite bebop tunes" thread.
Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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You certainly are. It was either review the bridge to joy spring or start something new.
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It's a nice tune, I'm still trying various positions to see which are the speediest. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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I was starting t in on our middle C, but saw someone on youtube playing it an octave higher 8th fret e string. So I'll eventually work both of those. I only got 3 bars in. There's a lot of B natural over Bb.
Drumless trio version.
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Even better, with Jim Hall. But do they have to play it so damn slow!
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... and it's for this reason, I'm sorry to say, I gave up learning 'Swing To Bop'. Instead I'm learning Holdsworth's version of 'Inner Urge', in the same way as I mentioned above, not writing it down - though I think when it gets to some fast bits I may have to take recourse to the slowing-down facility on youtube. Originally Posted by James W
Anyway, I don't think it matters too much what one decides to learn, just that one keeps at it...
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I play jazz mostly for fun, which involves playing with others, so mostly I practice tunes.
Since finishing the once-a-year street jazz festival gig a couple of weeks ago, for which I practiced quite a lot, I've been practicing Blue Monk. I sort of knew it, but it was missing some of the details. And I noticed it gets called faster these days, sometimes as a jam session closer, but after listening to Thelonious Monk playing it with Art Blakey, I realized that it sounds like fun playing it rather slow, maybe as intended. I had also been fudging a few of the rhythmic subtleties that make it a Monk tune, not just a typical blues tune, which more often than not in my experience is just an excuse for some bluesy blowing.
At last night's weekly jam session, I called Blue Monk. There were 5 horns in the house, 2 saxes and 3 trumpets, and we had a blast playing it. I tried to work through in situ some of the angularity and messing with the barlines of Monk's playing for my ad-lib, and also experimented with his preference at times for using 6/9 rather than dominant 7th chords, so I tried using them in some places. I can practice such things at home more in solitude but when on stage in an unpredictable spontaneous situation those touches take on new dimensions, something that I find missing from solitary practice. Maybe a lot of what we need to know to play jazz is embedded in various tunes if we work at getting inside them.
Later in the evening, I called Well You Needn't, which was one of the tunes we played at the street jazz festival and happens to be one of my favorite tunes. So it was a two Monk night! Although it's in the Jazz Standard Bible we use as a common baseline for jazz jams here in Japan, it's rarely called at a jam session. Everyone really loved it and we really got things cooking, perhaps due to the fantastic drummer. And it was quite different than the festival gig which was one of the tunes we played there, too. The jam version was looser in some ways, and tighter in others, not as rehearsed sounding as on the gig, but more, I don't know, real. I'm just a part time player so maybe that's common for full time players.
Besides jam sessions being something like a lab for trying out things one is practicing, its inherent spontaneity and playing with various people every week is inspiring to look into new tunes, or revisit old ones, to practice. For example, last night there was an soprano sax player who I had not seen in quite some time. She called My Favorite Things, which I've played before but not recently. My 3/4 feel was a little rusty, so I listened carefully and laid back at first. What's interesting about 3/4, of course depending on the players on the stage, is that it can almost at times feel like 2 or 4 beat, if one uses dotted quarter notes in comping, especially in the more up tempo takes. Still my feel is more deliberate, not as intuitive as I like, so that gives me something to practice at home for next time it's called.
I should add that these jam sessions are not to entertain an audience at bars and such. In Japan, there are a proliferation of "live houses" in which the main business is to provide a space for live music events. They are not concert halls, and are usually limited to maybe 50 people with a small stage. The one I went to last night is about a 45 minute drive each way. Some live houses have daytime sessions, others nighttime sessions, and while they do serve drinks, most people at jam sessions are not there to drink but to play. So there's no opening set by a house band after which players are called on stage to join. Instead, it's almost like musicians are entertaining one another. On occasion, people who are not playing come to jam sessions, and that's fun, too. But we all "pay to play," meaning that there is an entrance fee (sometimes with a drink minimum; I always have coffee) while the venue provides the amps, a piano, drum set, percussion, a PA with mics, lighting, etc. Open jam sessions are part of their weekly activities, which are mostly performances by regional musicians for which tickets are sold and people come to watch. Once in a while, a jam session alumnus who lives elsewhere is back in town. As one example, this coming weekend an alumnus drummer who lives and works in NYC is in town for a performance, which will be followed by an open jam session. Maybe I'll get a chance to call Blue Monk!
Thanks for reading, and I'm looking forward to reading about what you all are practicing.
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The local amateur operatic society plan to do "Anything Goes" in the spring next year. As they already have a bassist I volunteered to play the guitar part for it. This is hard work, but should be beneficial in improving my skills with rhythm playing.
Otherwise, I have been working on a few tunes that turn up at the local jam (currently Blue Bossa, Autumn Leaves, Mercy Mercy Mercy) in the hope that I might play an adequate solo without charts over them when someone else is sitting in on bass.
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I'm also learning swing to bop recently (well re-learning it since its been a decade since i played the complete solos). Its pretty fun, only thing for me is to be able to keep up during the busy parts along with the recording. Originally Posted by James W
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Nice. Originally Posted by jazznylon
But see my above post - I have since given up on 'Swing To Bop' owing to the fact that it's in B-quarter-tone-flat or something.
I wonder how you have got around this issue?
Anyway, I am now working on Holdsworth's rendition of 'Inner Urge'.
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I just kind of approximate it. I try to keep the intervals consistent if anything even though it sounds a bit off. I imagine though if I had perfect pitch trying to play along with it would further aggravate me lol Originally Posted by James W
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Yeah I think the real issue is with me being pedantic lol. Originally Posted by jazznylon
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Now I've discovered that Holdsworth's rendition of the head of Inner Urge goes up to the 23rd fret - E flat - which doesn't exist on any of the guitars I have.
Enough with the excuses already haha.
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I used to get this problem quite often when figuring out phrases from some of the older jazz records, I just retuned my guitar slightly to match the pitch of the record. I didn’t see it as a big deal to be honest. Originally Posted by James W
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Obviously a new guitar is the solution… Originally Posted by James W
Now I've discovered that Holdsworth's rendition of the head of Inner Urge goes up to the 23rd fret - E flat - which doesn't exist on any of the guitars I have.
Enough with the excuses already haha.
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blue in green
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I just started working on that one! Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Robert Conti told me that when he took some lessons from Joe Sgro back in the '50s, this was a tune Sgro taught to kids when their technique reached the adequate level. It was a rite of passage for the guys Conti knew in his teens.
He played it for me in a lesson.
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Same, a bunch of Chet Baker sides are off pitch. Tuning to the piano back in the day. It just happened. Originally Posted by grahambop
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If you need to take a break to de-stress from Four Brothers, add a brother, i.e., play Gerry Mulligans Five Brothers - it's in Real Book II. Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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They are both in RB II Originally Posted by Mick-7
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If you stick the audio in Reaper or some equivalent (maybe even Audacity) you can change the pitch that way. Originally Posted by James W
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Swing to Bop is probably even worse because it was recorded live on some kind of early tape recorder as I recall (a wire recorder?), then it probably got transferred to 78 rpm records or something like that, any of that could have been at the wrong speed. Amazing that we have it at all. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Yeah there are many spots for pitch to drift. It’s a real shame Charlie Christian never got to lead a small group session or cut a solo guitar side. Originally Posted by grahambop
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