Introduction to Jazz Guitar Soloing Chapter 13, 14 & 15

[Frank67]

Dear friends,

I didn't mean to rush but it came up in another context that I had a go at trying to write and disguise licks. I took the first sixteen bars of "Black Orpheus" (a more complete recording is in the amps and gizmos section under "Jazzified my Country Club".

Embarassingly, I don't have reasonable music notation software yet (basically illiterate in standard music notation). So I wrote down my thoughts of what I played when and why in a power point file in a sort of TAB way (PDF attached). pretty bad, but I hope it comes through what was implied. A quick recording of what I meant to write down is below.

After I fumbeled around and wrote things down I realized that I did not group bars according to the standard situations that we had discussed. This means that those licks are not really reusable which I guess is the entire purpose of the excersize. Well, never mind, it is a first shot and it certainly was fun :-)

Enjoy practicing!

Fep, could you move this post into the appropriate thread of the study group once you have created the "official" chapter 13 post please? (I wouldn't know how to do it)

[Frank67]

... sorry, here is the pdf.

EDIT: fep has been so kind to help me with the score. There were a few mistakes and inconsistencies. This here is all of what was played (imperfectly so) on the video in the Gear part of the forum.

[fep]

Hey Frank, I'll talk to Mark, he's a moderator, and see if we can change the thread title to conform to the other thread titles and just use this thread. I like to have that same style of thread title to make it easier for folks to search for these threads.

I still need to look at the chapters. I think you may have wrote, inserted and disguised licks here so perhaps this thread will be Ch. 13, 14 & 15. Like I said I need to read those chapters first.

Good on you, you're pushing me to get moving on learning this stuff. And your licks sound really good.

I really like the rhythm of Lick #2. I'd say that is a E7b9b13 arp.

I don't know if you saw my mention of the free notation software MuseScore. Check it out, http://musescore.com/.

I wrote a couple of your licks out in MuseScore. I just used the slur sign for the p.o. and slides, I sure the other symbols are in the software, this is just my lazy way of notating.

[Frank67]

Hi Fep,

That is really so very nice of you! Thanks a bunch for your work and your continous encouragementa,

I am so amazingly illiterate when it comes to writing music (translates to reading music of course ... I can only do it in an elementary school type of way and it takes me forever to read even the simplest of melodies ...). Many thanks also for pointing out that program! I will check it out right away! Hopefully they have a mac version. Otherwise I can still run it in a windows emulation mode when my computer has left its present sad state (all those updates that make it presumably much better first of all make 80% of the functionality ceasing :-().

I guess I have also more or less intuitively used a few things that come up later in the book like chromatic connections. I didn't mean to rush it or anyone here on the forum. It just came up when ai was working on that tune with my teacher. I am more than happy to further practice the connecting game and all the scales and arpeggios that we have met so far.

Have a nice day and enjoy music!

[Frank67]

Hi Fep,

That is really so very nice of you! Thanks a bunch for your work and your continous encouragement!

I am so amazingly illiterate when it comes to writing music (translates to reading music of course ... I can only do it in an elementary school type of way and it takes me forever to read even the simplest of melodies ...). Many thanks also for pointing out that program! I will check it out right away! Hopefully they have a mac version. Otherwise I can still run it in a windows emulation mode when my computer has left its present sad state (all those updates that make it presumably much better first of all make 80% of the functionality ceasing :-().

I guess I have also more or less intuitively used a few things that come up later in the book like chromatic connections. I didn't mean to rush it or anyone here on the forum. It just came up when ai was working on that tune with my teacher. I am more than happy to further practice the connecting game and all the scales and arpeggios that we have met so far.

Have a nice day and enjoy music!

[Frank67]

Hi Fep,

I managed to download MuseScore and here is my attempt at writing down what I played. Thanks a bunch again - a nice program. Presently it still makes knots in my brain to hit the right notes but when I keep using it there might be a little hope :-) I wish it could translate to tab's as well. As it stands I would have a a real hard time playing what it written there :-) ... maybe I just need that kick in the b**t to finally learn how to properly read music ...

Have a nice day all!

[AlsoRan]

Hi Fep,

I managed to download MuseScore and here is my attempt at writing down what I played. Thanks a bunch again - a nice program.

God you caught on to using MusiCore quickly!

I downloaded it a while back at the suggestion of fep, and I have know idea of what I am doing with it. There are tutorials available, which I am going to have to add to my list of things to make time for.

Nice solo, too IMHO.

If I may comment, I met a sax player who is in his late sixties and has been playing since he was very young. He has been around such great music that unlike me, he can't go to a local Jazz concert and enjoy himself. He says there is good Jazz and bad Jazz, and I have not figured out if his statement was arrogance or truth.

I say this to say that in the videos from this study group, I can hear some what I call "nice, pleasing Jazz" taking shape. So I have to compliment you.

The sax player, I get the feeling, would put it down.

This makes me wonder if you can get so good that you can't appreciate any Jazz except something on the level of Miles Davis, Coltrane, Montgomery, etc..

Not trying to hijack the thread. Just wanted to say that by my standards for Jazz, the nice tones and notes are pleasing to my ears. And in the end, they have given me great motivation. Thanks.

[Frank67]

Hi AlsoRan,

many thanks!

For the MuseScore - I found it a bit counterintuitive at first but after aimlessly clicking around for a bit it started to make some sense. The rate limiting step for me is still counting notes like "C, D, E ... ah, F it is". The important button is the "N" button which switches you in and out of the "note adding mode". The next confusing thing was with the breaks. You can adjust the length of them by selecting them and click on a note symbol of appropriate length. The arrows and note bindings you have to drag from the appropriate menu. That is pretty much what I found out yesterday night. I am sure there are many subtle things to discover. A nice feature is that it plays for you what you have written so that there is some control of success.

I really appreciate your friendly comments about my playing and I am really happy if it also helps you a little bit to find motivation or inspiration for practicing!

The comment about your fellow sax player, I think, touches upon a more general question and I am sure we could have a long conversation about it (might be more fun with a glass of red wine :-)). I'll just rant a bit (all meant to be friendly) and hope you don't mind.

I guess, it is just deeply human to have the desire to compete, measure and also to look down on others. Some have that desire more than others. When it comes to music this is something that I find a bit difficult as music is not sports - how do we measure the beauty of ones music and whether somebody is, say, 10.5 "beautiful" (viewed as a physical unit) versus only, say, 3.8 "beautiful"? Sure enough you can measure of how well one is on the beat or how many notes per unit time somebody is able to play but I guess that is not the point.

Music, of course, is a language in which one can be more or less eloquent. I suppose that learning to express oneself is the goal and motivation for picking it up. Obviously this requires some technical skills. Beyond a certain point they should not become an end in itself. Once these skills have been acquired it is a matter of personality and creativity of what one has to say.

That is what I like about the Elliot book - it approaches the subject from just this angle as opposed to, say, "learning 125 solo's of hero-so-and-so in only twenty days". It teaches us the technical aspect of speaking the language in a way that I find logical and comprehensible (sure enough hard work, but that is what learning a language is supposed to take). What I hope to have achieved at the end of working through the book is to be able to form correct sentences in the language of jazz; perhaps with time to be able to "write an essay" and to engage in musical conversations with others.

The one thing I do not have is illusions of how far I can possibly come along the way. I just picked up a guitar two years ago, in my fourties, after having done the generic noodling (the "smoke on the water" thing) as a teenager and nothing in between. At best I am just starting to learn the first few words of the language I want to learn ("me airport where going?" ...). I am sure that what it is falls a very long way short of taking place in a civilized conversation about poetry with a professional writer :-)

And of course I never had the incredible talent and lyricism that Wes or the other great players have - nor do I have to, or ever intended to, make a living out of it. But that is not a reason to give up. I also speak english, which obviously is not my native language. Clearly, no matter how hard I try, I would never be able to express myself in a way anywhere as pretty or subtle as, say, Tolkien (only as an example of an english writer who's language I find beautiful). Still, I have many wonderfully pleasing and interesting conversations in english.

The bottom line is - I see many moments of joy with music on the horizon - and if your fellow sax player can't stand to listen, well, he doesn't have to :-) (... and I'm also not planning on air polluting the elevators of this world :-)).

Have a nice day everybody!

[AlsoRan]

I share and agree with all your sentiments.

Also, I wish I could write in a different language the way you write in English. You seem to have mastered it as good as anyone I have come across. And I know English is not easy!

I have printed out your Musecore tips.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

[fep]

Frank and Alsoran, that is a very interesting conversation. Frank I really like what you wrote.

My analogy is there are a lot of birds in my neighborhood that are all making pretty sounds. The jazz masters are the mocking birds, the crows are heavy metal. Regardless of whether they are jazz masters or not, I can enjoy all of their sounds. It would be awfully sad if I couldn't.

Regarding MuseScore. I seldom use it as I have already learned the oh so expensive Sibelius 6 professional. Sibelius is a superior software, but for me I wouldn't buy it again. MuseScore is very good and for me will get the job done.

If you don't go to the top of line in Sibelius of Finale, they are lacking in important ways. Important ways so they can differentiate their product line.
There is only one version of MuseScore so you don't run into this problem with MuseScore.

Tablature is on tab (pun intended) to be introduced with MuseScore 2.0. However, I believe it's better for a musician to try not to use tablature most of the time.

Since I seldom use MuseScore, I still have a lot to learn with that software. But I can give a few tips. There are keys that will duplicate some of the functions of the mouse. For example the number keys 1 through 9 will select note duration (i.e. quarter note vs. eighth note vs sixteenth etc.). Many of the letter keys will perform functions also.

I think you'll much prefer entering notes from the keyboard and not from the mouse. The D key enters a D note, the B key enters a B note etc. Use 'ctrl up arrow' to move a note up an octave, 'ctrl down arrow' to move a note down an octave, use the up arrow or down arrow to move a note a semi-tone. Select a note and use 'ctrl 3' to convert to triplets. Select a note and use 'Shift 3' to add a harmony note a third below, 'Shift 4' for a harmony note a 4th below, 'alt 3' for a harmony note a 3rd above, etc.

The more you can get away from the mouse and use the keyboard for selecting functions, the faster you will be able to input music. This also will make the software seem better and more enjoyable.

For example to apply a slur you can 1) mouse click the two notes you want to have the slur on and then drag the slur symbol from Lines Pallet or 2) You can shift right arrow to select the notes for the slur and hit the letter 's' on the keyboard. The second way is much faster.

To enter a chord symbol, select the note over which you want to enter the chord symbol, use 'ctrl k' and then type in the chord. It will accept any chord symbol but if you want to use the automatic transpose score function you have to enter chord symbols in the way the software will recognize. Right click your chord symbol and select harmony properties and select the chord there and note how the chord symbol is spelled. Try to memorize these spellings.

For instance, I spelled Bmi7b5 as you can see in my above post. It accepted it but won't transpose it if I try to transpose the score to another key. I should have used Bm7b5, that is the spelling the software understands.

I bet in a week Frank will be better at MuseScore than I am.

[Frank67]

Many thanks again to fep for educating us in MuseScore and for continued support!

Sorry to bother you again with this - I had done a bit more on the second 16 measures of that tune and the result is attached in video and as a score. I know that it is not really what Elliot asks us to do (he wants licks written in just eigths notes). It nevertheless was good fun and good practice to write something down rather than to noodle. In the future practice i'll stick to the book.

Here is the video (again with a few hickups; there was very little time this morning).

Here are my thoughts on what it was supposed to be - please feel free to comment or criticize.

My thoughts on the first half are in the first thread. The second half starts with a pickup lick in measure 17 that is constructed from the loc#2 scale and the E7b9 arpeggio.

Then it repeats the initial lick over Bm7b5 and E7b9 (measure 18) with a minor variation and resolves to the C-note (over Am) an octave higher (measure 20).

The following triplet run over Bm7b5 and E7b9 (measure 21) is from the D-Dorian scale and resolves into the Em7b5 arpeggio (measure 22).

The somewhat gypsy'esque lick over A7b9 (measure 23) is from the arpeggio and resolves into the D-7 arpeggio (measure 24).

The second bar of D-7 is the Fmaj7 arp (a standard substitution, measure 25) that resolves into the D-7 arpeggio again (measure 26).

The following lick (measure 27 over Bm7b5 and E7b9) is a bit quirky and I don't know it really fits. It is meant to be derived from the loc#2 and altered scales and resolves into Aminor (measure 28).

Then there are two trivial bars that resolve into chord tones from chromatic approach notes.

The final triplet run in measure 31 is from the E7b9 arpeggio again with a chromatic approach note.

that's it. it was fun to do and hope it is not too far off. I will return now to the connecting game studies and try to get the substations under my fingers.

Enjoy practicing!

[stevebellinger]

hi,
I,m still working on m ii V7 I using the alt scale on V7 in all keys, one position. but i do tend to look at the next chapters. Any chance of a bit more info on 13/14/15
what Mr Eliot requires of us!
Cheers steve.

[Frank67]

Hi Steve,

apologies - that should have been made clear at the beginning of the thread. I kind of messed it up by rushing it.

Chapter 13 tells us to write licks of the first 4 situations. The rules for these licks are:

1) only regular eigth notes starting from the first beat of the II chord. No complicated rhythms, no offbeats, syncopations, triplets or other things.
2) resolve on the first beat of the I chord and stop there

To me the goal of this chapter is to come up with a couple of licks (maybe 3-5?) for each of the first situations and learn them by heart. In order to be able to meet the goal of being able to apply them to real tunes we have to be able to play them in various keys. At the point of this study this would also mean shifting the position upon changing key. Once we have all arpeggios in all five positions this can certainly be refined and relaxed.

Chapter 14 asks us to select a song that has lots of 2-5-1's in them. Then we are supposed to take our licks and play them at the appropriate place. But only our licks - nothing else. We are also asked to stick to the rules and not play other rhythms and really stop the lick after beat 1 of the I chord.

Chapter 15 talks to us about disguising licks. By that Elliot means that we are learning how to hide that the licks we play were "premade". This is achieved by enclosing the licks in a few "pickup" notes before entering the II chord and playing some "trailing notes" after beat 1 of the I chord. So, we are "beautifying" our licks a bit in the context of the song. As good songs to practice this, "blue bossa" (for minor situations) and "tune up" (for major situations) are mentioned.

I was a lousy student earlier in this thread as I wasn't sticking to the rules in terms of rhythm and not sticking to the situation playing and also jumped to the end of chapter 15 rather than doing it step by step. I am presently going back to the earlier chapters to study the material in more depth and then plan to revisit these three chapter strictly following Elliot's advice and work on "tune up" and "blue bossa" (both of which I had worked on to some extent before).

Enjoy practicing!

[stevebellinger]

Hi Frank,

Cheers for that.

Steve

[Frank67]

Dear friends,

It seems that the study group has not been too active lately. I just wanted to touch base and say that I am still on board. The last weeks were more occupied with rehearsals for the rock band. Now I am back to the Elliot book and hope to be able to come up with some licks soon. So far it hasn't left the stage of noodling over the various situations though with too little that I found remarkable enough to write it down. I also find it quite hard to stick to just eigth notes. Let's see how it goes. I have upcoming travelling but will keep on practicing.

I really hope that we'll manage to keep the practice flowing now that the real fun starts and we're almost ready to exchange tunes!

Enjoy practicing and all the best,
Frank

[JazzReggie]

Dear friends,

It seems that the study group has not been too active lately. I just wanted to touch base and say that I am still on board. The last weeks were more occupied with rehearsals for the rock band. Now I am back to the Elliot book and hope to be able to come up with some licks soon. So far it hasn't left the stage of noodling over the various situations though with too little that I found remarkable enough to write it down. I also find it quite hard to stick to just eigth notes. Let's see how it goes. I have upcoming travelling but will keep on practicing.

I really hope that we'll manage to keep the practice flowing now that the real fun starts and we're almost ready to exchange tunes!

Enjoy practicing and all the best,
Frank

I'm still on board too, working on chapter 11 now. The material in the past few chapters on the jazz melodic minor and altered scale, along with the upcoming Locrian #2 are fairly new to me, so I'm taking it slow.

Recently I got to see some payoff from all the work I've put into this so far. Without prior practice on it, I was able to outline the changes for Fly Me To The Moon with arpeggios at a slow tempo. Not the most complicated tune, but it does modulate to its relative minor key and throw in an occasional non diatonic chord. Before working on this book, I would have had to learn some new arpeggio fingerings, practice all the arpeggios individually and spend a good deal of time working on connecting them, just to get to that point.

I'm really looking forward to chapters 13, 14 and 15! This looks to be where we start building a vocabulary and putting it to use over real tunes. When I start tackling this, I figure some of the basic outlines from "Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony" by Bert Ligon might be good inspiration for writing licks.

Regarding the eighth notes, I can see where Elliott is coming from on this, and his explanation on page 44 (just before the heading "The Moment of Truth") makes a lot of sense. It might seem tempting to start off with more polished and complex licks, but I think by keeping it simple now, you'll have an easier time playing them in different tunes, situations, keys and fretboard positions. As we continue playing these licks in real playing situations, I suspect we'll naturally start spicing them up on our own, and eventually our collection of licks will grow both in terms of quantity and sophistication.

[fep]

Hi Frank (FrankLearns),

Thanks for waking us up. I do find that when learning songs and doing other practice I am using what I've learned from this book. So in that way I have been practicing the book.

Now, in chapter 13 I feel we're getting the pay off for all the previous work and perhaps my submissions will 'sound more like music'.

Here is my first submission of writing licks:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[AlsoRan]

Bravo Fep!

I am still way back in Chapters 7 -9. I am not going to rush these studies, much as I would like to.

Your Band-In-A Box backing track was nice too.

[JazzReggie]

Hi Frank (FrankLearns),

Thanks for waking us up. I do find that when learning songs and doing other practice I am using what I've learned from this book. So in that way I have been practicing the book.

Now, in chapter 13 I feel we're getting the pay off for all the previous work and perhaps my submissions will 'sound more like music'.

Here is my first submission of writing licks:

[snip]

Very nice fep! Your licks sound good, you're definitely seeing some pay off there. I could hear the changes clearly in your playing, but the backing track was a bit subtle. I think I'd have a hard time playing over that - I'd have to rely on counting from the start rather than hearing the chord changes.

[Frank67]

Hi fep,

Great! Thanks for taking the lead once more. I really licked all of your licks. My favorite was that decending sequence in lick 3 - very well done! That gives all of us a nice start.

Thanks everbody else for chiming in and great to know that everybody is still on board. I think it would be really nice if at the end of the book we could go back to the beginning and record thecsongs that we put down initially.

I can also tell that working with the book has helped me a lot already.

Enjoy practicing and composing,
Frank

[stevebellinger]

Hi Guys,
I'm still here! and enjoying the study group. Heres my attempt a couple of

251 licks, together with a few boobies! no notation software so not as

professional as Feps! very well done by the way Fep

[Frank67]

Hi Steve,

very well done - cool!

You insert the videos by embracing the link to the video (actually only the mSvFHsoX7vU part) into braces Y o u T u b e braces statements (there is a little "YouTube" button on the upper right. Just select the link and press that button and that's it.


I also watched your "On the beach" version and loved it. Nice, relaxed song and nicely played!

[stevebellinger]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the comments, and help with the vids, there i am twice!

Cheers Steve

[Frank67]

ok, fixed :-)

[fep]

Hey Steve, Really cool.

The way you end the second lick, nice intervals that has a ton of character.

I like your chromatic connectors and the interval skips in these licks. Sweet.

BTW, if you are so inclined, there is some free notation software that I think is real good. It's called MuseScore. http://musescore.org/

Thanks for posting.