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Working with project 3B at first looked like a modulated project 3A. That's true, A was a D minor exercise and B is an A minor. But working in a fresh key always makes me see things in a different way. So I wanted to take a look at how to look at the pieces as we get to know the overall whole that is this piece.
Thanks Fep, I'll steal your work as a reference.
The uncluttered changes
My outlining with some chord simplifications and re-interpretations
My chord chart with tonal areas and dominant areas in different colours
When I'm learning a piece, the first thing after a read through, it attempt to break it into topographical areas; that is, to understand where areas of solid tonality are (key areas in blue) and where areas of dominant chord movement are (dominant less grounded phrases that take me to something, in red).
These give me familiar and solid areas that I can use tonal lines and dominant phrases which make up the 'spice' of a piece. There are dominant 7 phrases, altered phrases, secondary dominants, tritone subs, modal substitutions, all of which give me not only a good indication of where I am in the piece, but cue me into where I can shift positions and what sounds I'm after.
This yin/yang of phrases can be the breakthrough that enables you to give your playing a sense of breath, and drama even when playing steady eighth notes.
For example, look at the first system: 3 bars of tonal centre and 1 bar of dominant transition.
Look at the second system: 2 bars of tonality and 2 bars of dominant tension.
How does this change the way you approach what you play, anticipate and execute the meaningful phrases in your playing.
Think about this in project 3B. It's a great piece, A minor, F in the bridge and a little section in E, then back to the top for the final A.
This is a really fun project and the space afforded to explore the areas and contrasts can be a great opportunity to bring a more articulate vocabulary to be a part of your playing.
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04-04-2023 12:06 PM
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I notice myself tending to repeat certain "moves," so, for example, I lean on an ascending Am7 arpeggio to begin this piece, then fall into an ascending G#dim7 arpeggio on the E7 chords. Both of these sound OK, BUT I struggle to break these "habits" and find some new and different ways of playing over these spots. In part, this may be because I am also trying to stay faithful to the 8 notes a measure rule. If I depart from that, I seem more able to try something different, even if it's just playing those arpeggios descending instead of ascending.
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My practice has been severely impacted by having to move out of a my domicile for several weeks. I've been limited to playing with backing tracks on youtube. At these tempos I have also been basically just playing d-minor for most of the tune. Also, trying out Benson picking based on the Cecil Alexander thread.
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Any time you pick up the guitar is time well spent. Good luck with the new digs. I know how disrupting that can be.
Originally Posted by charlieparker
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That's precisely why the steady eighth notes are so much of a challenge and why they can be so liberating. Originally Posted by Topper Roth
There are lots of reasons why we all reach our 'speed limits' and why a challenge like increasing our comfort zone leads to habitual safe (and uninspiring) lines.
It's not the physical speed that holds us back, it's coordinating the things you hear, the ability to know where and how to play them and the confidence to stay with the flow of time. If we're weak in any one of those areas, of course we'll fall back to what works. So coming up with strategies to push the boundries in any one of those areas will make you a better player. The steady eighths gives us an open playing field to come up with new dimensions of hearing and playing.
The easiest most convenient way to avoid the challenges of coming up with ideas fast (in time) is to use space to create thinking and regrouping time. The trouble with that is that can create its own traps, phrases that rely on pausing to hide the shortage of options or listening. So you might look at a line that you find annoyingly habitual and re-define it. Start it the way you usually do, but look at what it's doing, where it's starting, where it's going, and create an alternative line that 1) changes direction, 2) reaches a chord tone and leaps up or down to another chord tone or 3) proceeds to another strong note but approaches that note from above or below. These are just three of many options but keep them in the fore and practice them until it's part of your natural flow of ideas. It'll take practice and listening, but once you break open these concepts, you'll have more roads open to you so you don't need to follow the habits.
Listen to yourself. Do you get lost in some areas because you're following a chord chart? There's nothing more devastating to the flow of an idea than taking your ear off line to instruct your fingers as to what a chord symbol is telling you you should be doing. The more you sneak up on your ear day after day, the closer you are to the day when you can find, jump on and play on the changes in real time by ear. It takes persistence. Well worth it.
There's nobody telling you that you HAVE to play at a given tempo. If you're on the verge of making an eye/hand/ear breakthrough, by all means, TAKE THE TEMPO DOWN and give yourself the chance to get it all together.
Remember Howard Roberts didn't know what was keeping YOU from breaking the speed barrier. He did know that daily persistence was the key.
Focus, find and remove your obstacles. You'll get faster. Fast.
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Thanks, good advice, I've slowed the tempo down and I've found that I'm making better note choices on the changes. I'm really starting to hear the changes at a slower tempo. I have in previously weeks, definitely been trying to play too fast for my ear. Good stuff. Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Yes, thanks for that suggestion, David. I, too, slowed the tempo down today and found that I had more time to "think," so to speak, about my note choices/finger positions, with the result that I wasn't just playing my same old clichés. At least not ALL the time ...
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Truth be told, I'm always knocking the speed down, at least for one of the iterations. In these, I'll focus on a device or technique or linear concept. If I slow down in the 3rd or 4 time, I have fresh ideas after my fingers are warmed up. If I take my slower attempt at the start, it lets me catch my breath and armed with a more solid bond with my instrument, I find I CAN speed up with a more solid footing.
There are things I observe:
If I'm not sitting solidly and balanced, I don't play as well and my speed suffers.
If my left (fretting hand) is not squared for each position I'm shifting to, my speed suffers.
If my right (picking) hand is the slightest angle off, or I'm picking too hard or too soft, my sound and speed suffer.
When my brain shifts to hearing a distinct idea I've just played, I can think of things to do next. Speed goes way up.
The moment my mind drifts, it all goes out the window. This is as much a concentration exercise than anything.
If I don't warm up or clear my head before, I'll immediately fall into that bag of garbage habits.
If I listen to good playing, deep listening, before, I play clearer, I steal better and I internalize the things I hear. (I listen to Keith Jarrett and Dexter Gordon recently)
If my mind is focused, ideas come and even if I crash and burn, I make progress. Potholes are easier to fix when I know they're there.
And the biggest one: I don't think I'm improving or maybe even regressing into old habits, but at the end of the week, I think back to where I was at the start and I AM a stronger player. Daily metrics are deceiving. I'm mining for the breakthroughs and no matter how small they are, they're there and they're cumulative.
Hang in there.
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I'm off the reservation both literally and figuratively but I thought I would post some of today's practice session.
Stream Angel.m4a by Charlie Parker Fan | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
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Back from my trip, I've fallen behind but I'll just take it back up where the group is at now.
Getting back in the flow this morning and enjoying Angel Eyes. Playing without the chords or metronome, I find it easier to hear and navigate this way... at least for now.
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Nice tone! And fingerstyle, too! Wow. I like the lines, also. Originally Posted by fep
Very straight eighths is an interesting sound. It almost sounds classical without any backing.
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Week 6 Exercise 3-B, Angel Eyes(ish) in A minor at 120bpm, mission accomplished.
I very slowly increased the tempo over the week from 80bpm to 120bpm, I can now repeatedly improvise over Angel Eyes(ish) in A minor, with creative lines at 120bpm.
Very pleased.
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That's great Guy! Originally Posted by GuyBoden
Week 6 Exercise 3-B, Angel Eyes(ish) in A minor at 120bpm, mission accomplished.
I very slowly increased the tempo over the week from 80bpm to 120bpm, I can now repeatedly improvise over Angel Eyes(ish) in A minor, with creative lines at 120bpm.
Very pleased.
I get a bit north of 100bpm and my note choices suffer. I think I need to just baby step from there.
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I realized that some of you may not be following with your own copies of the book, but week Seven is a review of the pieces we've had so far.
The point is to take each project and do one a day at a speed that's managable.
This means don't push it to the point where you're playing in zombie mode, or moving your fingers without paying attention, but rather, use this as an opportunity to see what we've also learned about hearing, phrasing, cueing on section changes or just enjoying the inertia of a higher level of finger proficiency on forms that hopefully aren't unfamiliar to us.
During this week, you don't HAVE to do these past projects in sequence. Or if you'd like to slow down, pick a few to really concentrate on, or do them in reverse, that's certainly a good way to fold in our discovered skills with some forms that we should know on some level.
Have fun on this week and share what you're coming up with.
Here's some observations on my part:
I'm doing the form with a metronome, and for my own backing tracks, first time is bass note roots as half and whole notes depending on the measure.
Next I play broken 2 feel, two notes per change, this can be root and add another chord tone. This is really nice if you want to practice working with guide tones in the solo segments. That is, record 1 and 5, include 3 and 7 when you solo in eighths.
Then I'll do a walking bass line with a quarter note feel.
Next I'll work up to triads, closed and spread.
Then finally I'll be up to doing the backing track in full 4 part chords.
This gives me a real work out on harmony, on voicings, on hearing and on being steadily sure footed. When I do this, I really get to know the changes better BY EAR and the eighth note study takes on a deeper level of engagement. It's really good for me to work the spectrum between single note root to the eighth note line.
This format Howard Roberts holds SO much potential no matter what you're working on or which wall you find yourself held back by.
It feels great to make a breakthrough.
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This review is highlighting how much progress has been made since the beginning.
Even the previously daunting Cherokee bridge is just a bunch of Major II-V-I's.
I've been notating my fav lines, so I can remember lines I like and play them in any key.
Currently, I'm working on Baubles and enjoying myself.
Good stuff, thanks Jimmy Bluenote for organising the course, much progress has definitely been made.
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Week 8 Project 4-A All The Things we can do.
Welcome to week 8. This is a project based on one of the most played, loved and maybe overlooked or misunderstood standards played. That's because as early improvisors, so many guitarists can't appreciate the art of shifting to and from different key areas, and this piece is full of them.
Let's take a look at the project itself:
In a simplified non cluttered form
You'll notice this takes its inspiration pretty closely from the standard itself. Here's All The Things You Are which in many ways is a more straightforward chart than Project 4A. Or to put it another way, the project takes the ATTYA form and ads some substitutions, dominant chord approaches and devices we've now become familiar with and lets us run a mix of old and new.
If we break the tune down into bite sized pieces, each of which indicates an ear and positional shift, it might look something like this
Starts with tonality of Ab in blue with VI II V I IV
Then shifts to key of C in green
Then a new key of Eb again with the VI II V I IV progression which is in purple
Then a turnaround into yet another key change to G
The B section Bridge is in that same key, G (orange) until the last system
The last system of the bridge is the red coloured section in the key of E
And finally we return to Blue Ab key with a nice elaborate extended turnaround which brings us home.
Here's All The Things in Key blocks
And the functional analysis of the Project 4-A
Play the project through and you can refer to these help aids to help you see the contours if you like. These can be very useful for getting off book too, hearing and sensing the big picture and where the shifts are.
Have fun.
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Here is the pdf of the SuperChops lesson 4-A chord chart: Box
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Love this tune! Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
Week 8 Project 4-A All The Things we can do.
Welcome to week 8. This is a project based on one of the most played, loved and maybe overlooked or misunderstood standards played. That's because as early improvisors, so many guitarists can't appreciate the art of shifting to and from different key areas, and this piece is full of them.
Let's take a look at the project itself:
In a simplified non cluttered form
You'll notice this takes its inspiration pretty closely from the standard itself. Here's All The Things You Are which in many ways is a more straightforward chart than Project 4A. Or to put it another way, the project takes the ATTYA form and ads some substitutions, dominant chord approaches and devices we've now become familiar with and lets us run a mix of old and new.
If we break the tune down into bite sized pieces, each of which indicates an ear and positional shift, it might look something like this
Starts with tonality of Ab in blue with VI II V I IV
Then shifts to key of C in green
Then a new key of Eb again with the VI II V I IV progression which is in purple
Then a turnaround into yet another key change to G
The B section Bridge is in that same key, G (orange) until the last system
The last system of the bridge is the red coloured section in the key of E
And finally we return to Blue Ab key with a nice elaborate extended turnaround which brings us home.
Here's All The Things in Key blocks
And the functional analysis of the Project 4-A
Play the project through and you can refer to these help aids to help you see the contours if you like. These can be very useful for getting off book too, hearing and sensing the big picture and where the shifts are.
Have fun.
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This will be very interesting to see what the eighth note treatment and all you've begun to do means as you go through this and next week. Originally Posted by charlieparker
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PLAY TRIPLETS WEEK 8 to 13
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@Frank aka Fep thank you for working out the charts in PDF format. This looks great.
The Howard Roberts exercises are still just as hard, but it looks good
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Triplets are the next step in increasing speed and in my experience, this is where I was really forced to think about the importance of each note. In triplets, I learned to think of arpeggios as a unit, scale notes as a unit, approaching a chord tone as a unit, enclosures as a unit.
As a matter of fact, once I started to think this way, it actually became easier to play faster because hearing a unit and just playing thoughts skipping from one beat to another forced me to plan and see some kind of larger shape; it made me connect ideas. This, I would later find out, would lead to developing a vocabulary of "cells" which would really be the key to long beautiful, interesting lines with ease.
If you aren't doing so already, begin to see notes as part of individual units that become your own vocabulary.
Triplets can be a real game changer.
Don't be afraid to include repeat notes or combination note phrases. Listen to what you've played and play off of that.
Good luck!
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Triplets over ATTYA first day done, but I'm down around 75bpm for the first day. Hopefully I'll be able to increase that a bit this week but I doubt I'll get to the 96bpm goal.
I enjoy the most step 4, eight-note triplets without metronome or chords, I spent almost an hour on that 2 min step.
And another thing, I was using the Real Book progression (which is less complex than the SuperChop version). So, I've gone off book a bit, but it's still plenty challenging for me.
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Triplets day 5. I'm actually finding triplets more enjoyable than straight eights. Maybe it's because they have a swing to them, maybe it's because I'm playing more by ear with them, but they're really flowing. I'm having a ball and it's feeling really solid.
Enjoying the 'stepped up' ATTYA too.
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I'm not doing too well with the triplets, struggling even at a low tempo. The triplets are messing up my rhythmic ear, I can't seem to hit the chord tones on the down beats, maybe because I've just never practiced playing triplets throughout a whole song.
On a positive note, I've created some very interesting triplet lines.
All The Things will improve with perseverance, I know.
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