-
Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
-
02-19-2017 05:14 PM
-
Originally Posted by TOMMO
-
Originally Posted by pants
Thanks for your insight but is there really such a huge difference in tone when you hit that open string for the duration of an eighth note? I'm constantly muting strings with my right hand palm. Anyway: I have been practicing those wide stretches and getting more comfortable with them.
Originally Posted by rlrhett
-
Originally Posted by TOMMO
VintageArchtop.com
-
Catching up to y'all. After a couple of busy I finally got the chance to record Basics 2 and 3
Basics #2
I play through this one 3 times.
The first chorus is as written (almost)
The second chorus is a sort of Chord etude. I use Frank's "melody" as the lead note in my chord's voicings.
The third chorus is a combination of Frank's melody an octave higher and octaves.
Frank Vignola's Basic #2
Basics #3
Nothing Fancy. Just Catching up.
Frank Vignola's Basic #3Last edited by Doublea A; 03-04-2017 at 06:28 PM.
-
We are making progress with the etudes. Yay! Thought we might also want to talk a bit about Frank's approach to rhythm changes and what we're learning from it.
I like the way he phrases things and never "noodles". Melodic playing.
-
Nothing special about the "Longhorn" shape. The minor is the "Sombrero" in my mind.
If you start with the on any string (except three) with index on root pinkie on third half way below on the next sting is your fifth. Directly below that is the root. That reminds me of the shape of a Texas Longhorn. (The major 7th is a nose ring).
A minor triad is the sombrero. Start with the root using your middle finger. On the next string index on minor third and pinkie on fifth. Tada! A sombrero.
Nice thing about a ii-V-I is that above the sombrero is a longhorn resolving to a longhorn below.
Dumb, I know. But we use what we can to simplify our thinking.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Ok, it's official. I'm done with Etude #2. I've gone through it 8 bars at a time and I just can't find anything musical about it. I don't like it, I don't remember it, and I just can't get into it. I played the audio track at 2x and could hear some "bebop" lines I recognized, but I just couldn't play something I could not get into my ear.
It may be cheating on my homework, but I'm moving on to Etude #3. Listened to that once and it was like night and day.
-
Originally Posted by rlrhett
-
Originally Posted by TOMMO
I don't just mean when I try to play it. I listen to Frank play it and it sounds dull and uninspired. It's hard for me to put time in learning to play something I would never choose to listen to. I don't have to love it, but all the earlier six pieces I would get stuck in my head or hum. This one was just flat and mechanical to me.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Originally Posted by rlrhett
-
Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
-
Originally Posted by TOMMO
-
Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
Speaking of #18 - since I have concentrated on one key (Bb) so far to make the connection between the phrases easier to understand I transposed #18 to Bb. It has a great bridge!
-
I've also been a little muddled in approaching etude 2. It seems much more Bach than bebop to me (though the 2 certainly aren't exclusive). I was playing with a straight 8ths more classical phrasing feel the other day which I found more interesting than trying to make it swing. I will try and make a recording when I have a chance.
-
Hmmm... interesting viewpoint. Each to his own, I guess. I found #2 to be very musical and I really enjoyed playing it, especially on steel guitar.
In any case, I'm thinking that, rather than just moving on to tackling #3, perhaps I should take bits and pieces of Etudes 1&2 (and maybe even the prior 5 exercises) and integrate them with the rest of my ideas and approaches, i.e., start weaving them into the fabric of how I play. Otherwise, I fear the work may get wasted, if not incorporated into my bag. I guess I could just keep moving through the exercises and 'have faith' that it will all start to affect my playing automatically sooner or later and that I don't have to 'push the wheel'.
What do y'all think?
-
Originally Posted by jasaco
Great idea to start mixing up phrases from different choruses and combining them with your own ideas. Don't wait until "sooner or later". Having concentrated on the key of Bb so far and having learned about a dozen choruses I started to come up with lines of my own (certainly inspired and influenced by what I had learned), but that was "later". I can improvise through RC in Bb but it is still quite slow - doesn't come as natural to me yet as improvising over blues changes.
-
Originally Posted by rlrhett
-
Hello all. I would like to make a suggestion.
I know that we are all working on the etudes at different paces. However, I think that we will get more value out of our practice sessions if we incorporate a little bit of discussion surrounding the pieces.
I would like to suggest that we devote 2 weeks to each "tune", not so much as in learning the tune but discussing the tune. I do not want to make this feel like school or work. I want this to feel like we can all contribute as much or as little as we want to discussions around what we are discovering in Frank's book. How we are applying it to our music. How it is shaping our thoughts about improvisation.
You can post your music and/or video or not.
You can contribute to the discussion or not.
I am not trying to give us all a make work project. I am trying to help us get the most out of practice time. After all the key to all of this is to put our practice in to practice.
Members do not need to feel like they need to contribute to every discussion. When life gets busy and you can not contribute, fine. If there is a particular piece that does not appeal to you, do not feel that you need to comment or record every single piece. Focus on the ones you like.
Once again, I want to reiterate that my goals are:
1. For us to work as a community and assist in each others learning
2. For us to enjoy this process and not feel burdened by it.
3. For the community members to walk away from this book feeling like they have learned valuable lessons that will shape their musicianship
Your thoughts ?
-
Originally Posted by Doublea A
By the way, some folks have said that they are incorporating Frank's lines with their own lines, or alternating choruses with comping, etc. I think it would be great if they would post additional videos showing how they are doing this. It would be helpful for all of us to see, I think, certainly for me.
In the interest of fair balance, I just thought of a benefit of having everyone do the same exercise for the same 2 weeks: it prevents one from running ahead and forces us to squeeze more out of each etude rather than "check the box" and move on to the next one without having really integrated the learnings from the current one. It might force more of us to do the integrate-the-learnings thing mentioned in the paragraph above. Fair point.
Other views?
-
Originally Posted by Doublea A
-
I'm still having trouble to get #1 memorized and under my fingers so I can play it withoutclams and I don't know why - it's not difficult really...
I'll probably have #2 ready before #1...LOL!
Hope you'll hear from me re those at the weekend!
-
I guess that I am just trying to structure what we are doing a bit more.
Work smarter not harder.
For example, if I decide not to do Rhythm Changes #6 for any reason. I can still get something out of it by reading what others have taken away from it. Maybe focus in on key features instead of the entire tune.
By contrast, I may really get into Rhythm Changes #8 and feel that I want to share all the great things that I learned from it and maybe even include how I am going to apply to songs or standards in my repertoire.
It will also give an endpoint. So that we can all move on with what we have learned.
I like when you said "I think the only real benefit of having everyone do the same etude during the same 2 weeks is that one wouldn't have to search through the whole thread to find comments about a given etude that may be dispersed throughout the thread".
It is not the inconvenience that I am concerned with, once again it is the structure.
I doubt that we will all be working on the same piece for 2 weeks. I am envisioning everyone delving in on pieces that appeal them more passionately and perhaps grazing over others but still gaining something through the efforts of other members.
What do we all think ?
-
I have not been memorizing the pieces.
-
Originally Posted by Doublea A
I think that's all very good suggestions and ideas and they have my support!
What is this Thing Called Love?
Today, 01:53 PM in The Songs