Hal Galper on Technique

[docbop]

At first I over looked these videos thinking they would be piano focused, but as usual Hal Galper goes so much deeper than wiggling your finger and what he is say applies to any instrument.

[cosmic gumbo]

Hal Galper is one of those jazz education giants whose approach transcends instrument. Kenny Werner and Jerry Bergonzi are a couple other master educators with significant impact on jazz musicians, check them out too.

[hot ford coupe]

Thanks cosmic. I will. I heard these two vids before and I think they're pretty good ones. I tried his approach to improvisation and I must say, although I wouldn't call myself one of the great improvisors but I'm definitely better than I was by using the melody to work from rather than just the changes. It's important to get this kind of training.

[MarkRhodes]

Thanks for posting these, docbop. Good, good stuff.

[MarkRhodes]

This is cool too, Hal Galper on vocabulary. You learn it by doing it...If you don't have the vocabulary to do it, you can't learn it." "Practice what you like!"

[Philco]

Thanks for revisiting those Docbop.
His opinion of Chord Scale Theory is fairly damning.

[MarkRhodes]

.
His opinion of Chord Scale Theory is fairly damning.

To say the least!

[docbop]

Thanks for revisiting those Docbop.
His opinion of Chord Scale Theory is fairly damning.

CST has been falling from the forefront over the past few years. Like Hal I have been reading lots of biographies of old jazz musicians, and having worked in a jazz school and hearing lots of seminars and I understand where Hal is coming from and agree for the most part. To me too many treat CST as a rulebook. Like Bergonzi says knowing the right scale gets you into the ballpark, but it doesn't mean your on base.

[NSJ]

Everyone should get his book, "Forward Motion". It should be, along with Bert Ligon's stuff, in every jazz musician's library. I bought a PDF from Hal's webpage.

[docbop]

Everyone should get his book, "Forward Motion". It should be, along with Bert Ligon's stuff, in every jazz musician's library. I bought a PDF from Hal's webpage.

I just picked it up and scanning thru it now looks great.

[pierre richard]

agree...

Hal and Bert are great educators and should be looked into...

great stuff..

time on the instrument...

[MarkRhodes]

CST has been falling from the forefront over the past few years. Like Hal I have been reading lots of biographies of old jazz musicians, and having worked in a jazz school and hearing lots of seminars and I understand where Hal is coming from and agree for the most part. To me too many treat CST as a rulebook. Like Bergonzi says knowing the right scale gets you into the ballpark, but it doesn't mean your on base.

I think Hal says "there is no historical precedent for it (CST)," and I think by that he means, 'this isn't how great jazz musicians learned to play but how some academics began to teach.'

[RyanM]

Yup there's 8 of these Galper masterclass videos on YouTube and I think they're required viewing for any musician. I've posted them in several threads. I wish there were more videos.

Here's the full list of his videos:
https://www.youtube.com/course?list=EC8229CD8C6B473D91

His website has some great articles as well,
http://www.halgalper.com/articles/
http://www.halgalper.com/commentary/
http://www.halgalper.com/forward-motion/


Someone mentioned Bert Ligon; in addition to his 4 books (Connecting Chords, Jazz Theory 1 & 2, Comprehensive Technique), he has a lot of great supplemental material on the USC Jazz department website (where Ligon is the Director):
http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/jazz/index.html
http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/jazz/Examples.html


And I'd like to add David Liebman to the list; his website has great articles on par with the teachings of Galper.
http://www.daveliebman.com/educationalarticles.php


In all my research the above stuff is among the best of jazz education.

[MarkRhodes]

In all my research the above stuff is among the best of jazz education.

Thanks, Ryan. I'm most familiar with Bert Ligon's material (-not that I've absorbed at all yet.) The Galper videos are new to me and I'm enjoying them.

[MarkRhodes]

About Hal Galper, how does one *practice* forward motion? If beat one is a point of resolution, what does this mean for scales or arps (or something you warm-up on) ?

Also, if the point is to think in 2/2 rather than 4/4, does this mean one should practice with the metronome on only 1 and 3 (instead of 2 and 4)?

Today I placed an inter-library loan request for Galper's book. I want to look it over, see if I need to buy it.

[djangoles]

Also, if the point is to think in 2/2 rather than 4/4, does this mean one should practice with the metronome on only 1 and 3 (instead of 2 and 4)?

His point is you should strongly feel the 1 and 3 internally, you could set the metronome to anything you want I guess. Just retain the strong 1 and 3.

[MarkRhodes]

His point is you should strongly feel the 1 and 3 internally, you could set the metronome to anything you want I guess. Just retain the strong 1 and 3.

I've experimented with the metronome on 2 and 4 (-which I will keep doing for comping, at least) and then on 1 and 3. With it on 1 and 3, I am more relaxed and feel more fluid.

That said, I still don't know how to practice things in forward motion. If beat one is the resolution for a phrase from a previous measure, on what note (and what beat) does one begin a major scale? (I'm working on on Bruno's fingerings for their own sake and for the sake of technical exercises, which I'm emphasizing lately.)

[JanLF]

Ahh, man, great links - thank you sir :-)

Jan

[RyanM]

MarkRhodes,

Ok, let me try to summarize some of the key points in the book, and address some of your questions.

First, it doesn't matter where you start a phrase. And actually it doesn't matter where you end, because we all know that in practice phrases start and end anywhere. The point of this concept is to correct your perception of phrasing, so that you hear/feel "& 1" as a grouping, as opposed to "1 &" (and, "& 2" opposed to "2 &", etc.). However this isn't the whole story, it's a means to an end (I'll get back to this...).

The Last chapter is actually devoted to how to practice forward motion. However, it isn't so much so that one practices forward motion itself, but you learn how to apply the concept to everything that you practice.

"Practicing is external behavior that affects internal processes that in turn affect external behavior, i.e. performance" (p.164).

Galper distinguishes between the "practicing attitude" and the "playing attitude". The kind of scale patterns and warm-ups you talk about I think he would actually advise against; instead you want to practice in a way that develops your performance skills... otherwise you get on the bandstand and bring with you the mechanical finger routines you develop from that kind of practicing.

However he does give exercises, that can apply to all the scale/arp patterns you want to practice, but in a way that develops a sense of Forward Motion. I'd give examples, but it would be too much to try to write out.

But What I was getting at, is the whole concept of the book is about training yourself to develop your ability to Pre-Hear; a vivid aural imagination, so you can really be in control of what you are playing.

The reason being, if you have a strong conception of the line, internally, and can learn to listen to your inner ear, it will (1) make your playing effortless and (2) let you be truly creative, without letting you fingers lead the way. Remember the part of that one video when he talks about Dizzy saying he hears a line in his head loud enough that it's as if he's yelling? It's that kind of stuff.

So the reasoning behind this concept (grouping the beats towards the next downbeat), is that it forces you to think ahead of where you are: to be able to pre-hear, you have to know where you are going. For example, part of the exercises is to start with a strong conception of the guide tones on the downbeat, then start adding "pick-ups" towards those guide-tones, one note at a time (a single eighth-note approach, then two, then three, until the whole bar is filled).

It'd be difficult for me to try to explain the book in any more depth, without letting this post get to an unreasonable length!

[MarkRhodes]

MarkRhodes,

Ok, let me try to summarize some of the key points in the book, and address some of your questions.

Ryan, thank you so much. I appreciate you breaking it down this way for me. It helps.

I understand the emphasis on vocabulary and performance-related material / playing. I do my share of that. But I also do some technical exercises daily to increase finger dexterity and accuracy. (I've made recent changes in grip and pick, requiring no small emphasis on technique so that I can get to point where I don't have to think about it!)

I'll look at / play over some of my favorite jazz lines / solos and see if I can detect the forward motion in them.

Thanks again.

[RyanM]

An easy way to apply forward motion to any exercise, is to just start it on a pick-up.

For example, a basic scale pattern in thirds: 1 3, 2 4, 3 5, etc. (e.g. C E, D F, E G, etc.) Instead of starting the pattern with C on the 1 downbeat, play C on the and of 4, so the 3rd falls on the downbeat. (So it becomes: C, E D, F E, G F, etc.)

(notice that this would be the same thing as changing the pattern to a descending seconds pattern, if it were to be played without the pickup, (i.e. without forward motion). But this is a perceptual change, and shifting the pattern over a half-beat makes all the difference.)

[edh]

Ryan, thanks for that description of playing forward and for the example. Going to practice this.

[djangoles]

Just to throw it out there....he absolutely says something to the effect ..."if you get one thing from this the book it should be your perception to the beat/tempo."