Just the melody.

[CliffR]

Right, there are so many other reasons to lose sleep.

The cats decided it was breakfast time at 4:30 this morning, for example.

Ha! We're lucky in that respect. If our cat finds somewhere warm and snuggly, she'll happily stay there until mid-afternoon before seeking 'breakfast'.

[GuyBoden]

You're enjoying yourself while playing, which is the main thing IMO.

[ragman1]

Rubbish! Awful crap! Give up now!

actually my toes were tapping :-)

[AllanAllen]

Gold medal thumbnail, Allan.

It could use some circles and arrows.

[lawson-stone]

Surprising how hard it is to play without mistakes, even with 30 minutes warm up! A couple of places I'm trying to push or pull the lines, and a couple of places I just plain get the rhythm wrong because I'm trying to be too clever and trip myself up. Ideally there'd be more method to the madness and some sort of musical coherency.

you have the basic melody in place and I know you are working really hard on this music. I learned jazz guitar later in life (post 30 years old) and I know it can be challenging to start from close to zero.

I would suggest working with a backing track or metronome to "force" you to play in time and not get behind. If you miss a note, don't go back and "get it right" but focus on staying with the music. Slow down the track or metronome if needed, but learn to play it in time.

I would also suggest not cutting off the notes, but let them ring when you have a beat or two after the note. Try to play a bit more legato. Look at the phrases (the words can help on this) and try to imagine how you'd sing them.

Keep it up, sir. You are making progress and don't let discouraging voices get you down.

[mr. beaumont]

I've decided to do Misty next...I realized how married I am to a chord melody arrangement I did of this...I just don't know it well enough on my own without throwing chords in.

Another one with some space that will need to be handled. I'll be trying not to do "too much."

[Ascend to Victory]

Here's one I did from around a few years ago. I'm just a beginner who enjoys Jazz, & playing guitar with friends for fun. I don't have good recording equipment, so this is what i got. I think I somewhat have the melody in the beginning. Obviously I have a long road of practice ahead of me.

[Mick-7]

Surprising how hard it is to play without mistakes, even with 30 minutes warm up! A couple of places I'm trying to push or pull the lines, and a couple of places I just plain get the rhythm wrong because I'm trying to be too clever and trip myself up. Ideally there'd be more method to the madness and some sort of musical coherency.

Have you tried playing it at different tempos? You may find it easier to play it at a faster tempo, so that you can focus more on the notes and phrasing rather than the rhythm. Ballads are harder to play well as any fumbles stand out like a sore thumb.

[alpop]

I took two passes at this melody. First one single notes and the second one in octaves. It's funny how playing octaves changes your rhythmic approach.

[guitarvegas]

Here's one I did from around a few years ago. I'm just a beginner who enjoys Jazz, & playing guitar with friends for fun. I don't have good recording equipment, so this is what i got. I think I somewhat have the melody in the beginning. Obviously I have a long road of practice ahead of me.

Reminds me of Charlie Parker

[ragman1]

Ah, they've cleaned up the thread. Excellent.

Cliff -

This is for you. Only 12 minutes out of your life, you can handle it :-)

(I remember this tune from way back, I even remembered some of the words. But I came to it fresh with an RB sheet. Which vanished pretty quickly. See if it's any good for you).

[kris]

I played AOM several hundred times on a passenger ship probably 40 years ago.
It was practically the best school.
Nowadays, I recommend practicing tunes with Band in a Box.
Real Book special for BB is very helpful.
With BB you can practice the melodies of most jazz standards.
You can experiment with keys, styles, tempo, etc.
You can also loop more difficult parts of the melody and you will practice properly.
Exercising with BB is a lot of fun.Thank you PG music.

[kris]

Reminds me of Charlie Parker

Why not Django?

[guitarvegas]

Very interesting

[kris]

Very interesting

[lawson-stone]

Here's another pass at "Misty" and trying to "make the melody my own" though I'm not sure I wasn't the one who was taken.

[wzpgsr]

Here's a go at Blue Monk:

[AllanAllen]

This is your sign to add Take Five to your setlist.

[wintermoon]

This is your sign to add Take Five to your setlist.

well you didn't need that, I already told you to learn it last week
ps double check the beginning of the melody and the end of the A section of Misty as well...

[pamosmusic]

This is your sign to add Take Five to your setlist.

I had a similar thing with some weird chord melody thing for All the Things.

Cue Christian telling us that the algorithm is a black box

[ragman1]

Here's a go at Blue Monk

Perfectly played, great.

So where have you been? I think you joined the Navy, sailed away to sea, grew a big hairy beard, and here you are again. Nice to see you :-)

[Mick-7]

I played AOM several hundred times on a passenger ship probably 40 years ago.

Ah, so that's why it sank! The report by the cruise ship line said, "unknown anomaly caused the ship to take on water and for their safety, we evacuated the passengers."

[kris]

Ah, so that's why it sank! The report by the cruise ship line said, "unknown anomaly caused the ship to take on water and for their safety, we evacuated the passengers."

That's why I don't like working at sea... seasickness.

[Ukena]

As a singer, melody is the first part I learn of a song. Of course, I hear the harmony as I'm listening to the song, but my primary effort is to learn the melody, and then the words. So as a guitarist, when I play the melody, I often hear the words to the song (if there are any), which helps me to phrase the tune.

For a tune like Take Five, which has no words AFAIK, this doesn't work, of course. And nobody paid much attention to my rendition of that melody anyway – AllanAllen's has 555 views, mine has 5...

[Sidebar: "When you feel like yelling at the world, just take 5... just take 5... just take 5."]

Here's my take on Wave, along with a short blooper video.

[ragman1]

Nice tone.

The A in your Dm runs should be flat.