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A new, inexpensive (10 bucks) course in which Frank teaches you to play ten songs. Ten old songs: Dinah, Sweet Georgia Brown, I Never Knew, Stardust, Strike Up the Band...
There are three videos for each song. First, the chords. (With variations.) Second, the melody. Third, a play-along, where Frank plays a while and comps a while and you do the one he's not currently doing.
Take a peek and see if you think it might prove useful to you.
Frank Vignola's Jazz Studio - Channels - TrueFire
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07-17-2018 01:12 PM
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I'm really excited about this! Right now all of my studying time is dedicated to earring my next stripe in the Air Force, but after that I plan on pursuing goals outside of the military and one of them is to get decent at jazz. Frank seems like a good instructor as well - I've got a bunch of his videos waiting for the day when I can relax and focus on the stuff I really want to. ;-)
I also like how this course is the songs in their entirety. One of the more frustrating things to me is how a lot of lessons use examples "close" to songs or use real songs, but only parts of them to illustrate a point and I'd really like to learn just the songs and then dive into them deeper to get the understanding down. I'm sure it's a legal issue with copyright and all that, but it's a bit frustrating.Last edited by Just Russ; 07-19-2018 at 11:38 AM.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
They are great books, someday I will start up a study group based on those books.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Originally Posted by Doublea A
But this is whole tunes, starting with the chords, then the melody, then a play-along for purposes of comping, playing the melody in time with good phrasing, and improvising.
And simpler tunes, for the most part. Good, strong melodies. (Frank's a big believer in playing melodies well. It's why he uses so many downstrokes---he thinks they make melodies sound better.) I find that learning simple melodies well, playing them often, sharpens my ear. (Helps my singing too...)
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I haven't checked out that particular lesson, but I've had good luck with some of his other lessons. A few months ago I subscribed to his channel. For $5 a month you get an awful lot of information.
I really like Truefire in general. They've got a good thing going.
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Frank's doing a live Q&A tonight at 8 PM (EST).
TrueFire Live: Frank Vignola - Chord Melody
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I've always thought that Frank Vignola is that rare combination of an excellent guitarist and an excellent teacher.
I remember going through his DVD called Vamps, Jams, and Improvisation when that first came out and learning some cool things from it.
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Frank mentioned something Joe Pass showed him: "play the scale up to the (melody) note." I got interrupted during this portion of the broadcast and when I got back, Frank was playing a series of chords up to the note A but I wasn't sure what the series was. Can anyone clarify this for me, please?
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I didn't catch it but you can watch it again if you like. I'm going to try to watch it this weekend.
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Wow. I lost that broadcast I was playing yesterday but I'm glad to know that I can watch it now.
Frank is incredible I have his modern method, subscribed to his channel and do a private lesson from time to time. A great teacher that really knows how to teach.
True fire is a very nice source of material, the Jazz Channel is a real bargain.
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Originally Posted by clebergf
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Mark, I believe he harmonized the C Scale.
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Originally Posted by edh
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Originally Posted by morroben
I had to a double take. No handle on that guitar though...
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
I also appreciate your comment explaining why he uses downstrokes so much. I often wondered about this.
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Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
I don't know that I understood that exercise. What did you understand it to be? Is he playing an "A" note against maj/min/dom chords in all twelve keys followed by playing a scale of the chord up to the "A" and down again? How do you play a Bb dominant scale to an "A", for example? Or Fmin to an "A"? I'm not sure I understand.
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I haven't seen the Frank Vignola video, but this sounds a bit like an exercise Joe Pass did in one of his own videos (the 'hot licks' series possibly?)
From memory, I think Joe picks a 'melody' note then puts a randomly-selected chord under it (which 'fits' that note). So for example you could pick F on the 2nd string 6th fret and hang a D7#9 chord under it. He then plays the scale up and down which fits that chord, i.e. from the bottom note of the chord to the top note and back again. I think Joe said he found this a more useful way of practicing scales because you are applying them to a chord context and a melody note.
Of course doing it this way, you would not encounter anything odd like an A on an F minor chord, so maybe the Vignola exercise is a bit different.
Actually I think Joe then chose another chord but kept the same top note, and repeated the exercise. So for example you could pick Ebmaj9 with the same F top note. But in his video I don't think he said "keep on doing it keeping that F note for all chords in all 12 keys". I think he implied you should try as many chords as you can fit to that top note, then choose another 'melody' note and start again.Last edited by grahambop; 07-31-2018 at 07:59 AM.
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Originally Posted by rlrhett
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Originally Posted by grahambop
Frank is something of a stickler. It's very much like him to want to do things every possible way. (He has a lesson on 101 ways to play a C major scale. He would!) Joe might not have wanted to go through all 12 keys on one note.
And yes, playing the scale up to the melody note is something Joe did a lot. (I wonder if Joe developed this from his father's instruction to "fill it up!" when he was playing tunes at home.)
Getting hung up on rhythms when transcribing
Today, 11:59 AM in Ear Training, Transcribing & Reading