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Week 8. Monday. Weekly goal 96 played with TRIPLETS.
Here we are at the second phase of our journey. The piece this project 4-A is based upon is that all iconic All The Things You Are.
Do keep in mind that our goal is not to play All The Things You Are, but to use the form of the changes to execute lines that will challenge our facilities and teach us something about ourselves and our limitations, and then to overcome them. Read the instruction set. Detailed study notes will follow.
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01-24-2021 02:39 PM
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Study notes for Project 4-A. These are some points based upon questions and observations you've provided in the past weeks.
I'd suggest that you look at the changes, and internalize them to the best of your abilities. The goal is to make the piece as 3 dimensional as you can before you start negotiating the landscape. Know the map and internalize it. Get OFF MAP ASAP.
This post focuses on the BIG picture. Tonal areas.
SO. The piece follows 5 distinct tonal areas. When you open up a piece, determine the tonal areas so you know when you're approaching a key change, and never show surprise at the bar line where you're notes take on different identities.
Here I've drawn out a map. Somewhere in your mind you might want to visualize your own version; this is my view.
First 5 bars (in blue) are in Ab.
Next 3 bars (in green) are in the key of C.
Third system begins the key of Eb -starting with the relative minor of that key- and that's 5 bars I've put in purple. (notice this is a parallel to the first two systems)
Bar 13 starts a section in the key of G. That's in orange.
Yes that section marked with the letter B is the bridge. It stays in G, and is blocked in orange still.
Last system of the bridge is in the key of E ,blocked in red, with a dramatic warning sign (turnaround) that says..
Section C is back in the original key of Ab, three systems in blue with some good devices that create one really big turnaround back to Ab and home.
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The source piece All The Things You Are with harmonic analysis.
If you are not absolutely fluent with knowing your diatonic scale in modal form, and have some chord scale fluency, I highly recommend it. Each of these changes is accompanied by a roman numeral that corresponds to the colour of the tonal area. You can see for example that those changes outline a VI- II- V7 IMaj IV Maj in the key of Ab written in blue with the tonal centre circled. I've given the whole piece this analysis.
This is a conceptualization that is the way I see the piece.
NOTE: This, of course is only one way to see the piece. If you see things in arpeggios and phrases taken from transcriptions and ornaments you've internalized, by all means. Improvisation is totally unique. This is the way I map a landscape.
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And finally, here's Project 4-A with the same harmonic analysis.
There are additional Tritone subs, harmonic substitutions based on inversions, secondary dominant chords and turnarounds, all appropriately marked and labelled.
If these are not internalized, work on that and develop facility at this point. You'll use this knowledge from now on in everything you play and it's the stuff that marks you as a savvy player.
These 3 posts address form and conceptualizing the landscape; creating the map to freedom.
Look at these and starting Monday, I can talk about ways to use triplet note groupings (our new challenge) to create lines.
Hope this helps. Take it or leave it. Just keep moving and keep the music coming!
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
Cool, eh?
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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I just took a pass at this latest exercise. Mainly I was curious about the steady 8th note triplets. Wow, that can sound corny fast! After a few minutes I tried to keep the triplets going, but with some accents to make it less like the Lawrence Welk show. I hope/assume I'm doing the triplets correctly.
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Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
Hint: Start with quarter notes working with chord tones a lot, and not just straight root based arpeggios. Then use the triplets to form embellishments, approach notes, repeat notes, but always going to the next chord tone you have in mind.
It's not easy. But see if it doesn't make you work harder, then eventually smoother in creating good ideas.
More when we actually start tomorrow~
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
You see, once you begin to speed up, the temptation is go on instinct, to just fill space. It's a more difficult and ultimately fruitful one to create complex lines that show motif, or show a relationship with other notes, that form arcs of shape that make substance within a key area. For that, you'll want to be able to decisively embrace strong ideas, and keep the flow of them using connective notes. NOT get lost in notes that sound like noodling. This takes practice, but hey, that's what we're here for.
This use of triplets also sets up a rhythmic inertia that really swings when done right. Find the swing in the triplet and find the way to think of three notes as one.
Respect the changes, think of them as a partner when you solo and bring out the best in what they offer.
Just more for you to balance on your plate
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Here you've got changes and notes. You can also see one way to employ some of the options I've been outlining. Look at what you make, your choices, and see why and why they don't work. See if there are things here that you can use, and how they impress you on a gut level. Digest them and then feel free to try to incorporate them in your own way.
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Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
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Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
ONLY a suggestion. HR says try different locations.
Suggestion: print it out, circle or highlight the chord tones based on the chord lead sheet and observe the relationship of the notes based on that. It's a reverse engineering of your actual thought process. THEN try to find the place to play it. You'll learn a lot more and it's good ear training.
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Hi All:
Still here. I'm a bit behind everyone; I just finished Week 5 at 108. I'm keeping up the steady 8th notes and beginning to find melodic and interesting ways to negotiate the changes. For me, the trick seems to be to focus on common tones between tonal centers so that I can repeat or develop a motif across the bar lines of a shifting tonal center.
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Week 8. Day 1 of "ATTYA" at 71 bpm. Wow, this is challenging! I'm not even focusing on the triplets too much. Like JBN suggested, I'm trying to outline the chords first then use triplets for various embellishments. Often that's over the changes that haven't been altered by Howard. But there are so many potential traps of tritone subs, etc. I'm trying to make sense of all of this. I realize I should recognize the tritone chords, hear them and see the notes on the fretboard. I must confess I'm not there yet. But I'm also trying to figure out the subs real purpose. It seems to me they're here to create tension and act as an altered V leading to the next chord. Often they are V7#5 chords leading to the next chord. For example, Db7#11 in bar 6 could be seen as a G7#5 leading to Cmaj7, right? I know that I could also play Ab melodic minor over the Db7#11. Maybe I'm way overthinking this. But I'm actually trying to simply it like I said by seeing these subs as tension to be released in the ensuing chord. But I don't want to simplify to the extent that I miss the point of the exercise. But often for me I feel that chasing the particular sub chord too much leads me too far astray from the underlying harmony and intent of the tune. Not sure if this makes sense. There's no doubt this course is getting more challenging!
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Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
I do want to address that part of the learning curve at this point. As the music became more popular during the swing era, jazz has been driven by an entire community of very sophisticated innovators at each step of the way. With each era and innovator, the skillset and the ability to hear, appreciate and ultimately create, became more demanding.
I like the Howard Roberts approach because it doesn't shy away from the modern language that made up bop, post bop and it's still gotta have swing.
All this took decades to assimilate as a music; here we're trying to do it in 20 weeks?
Yeah, there are sharp grades in the learning curve, then plateaus where we assimilate. That's reflected in a way by a piece, then that piece in a parallel key each two weeks.
I think each couple of weeks, I may try to include a more simplified version of the assigned project, or if the project is based on a standard, yes, feel free to work on that, without the HR graduate course :-)
The point is, there is an arc we're on and for me, I revisit this every few years, even to the point that the template of a tune a week became something I regularly do now. I think it's not the goal here to learn, assimilate and master everything offered here in this 20 week course, it's to use the format to find your own level and bring you to the next level. The goal is to stick with it because the world of jazz guitar is full of dreamers who have guitars and no software and acquired ability to realize the sounds they need. THAT comes from time on the instrument and exposure to the unique approaches out of which come the "jazz thought" which is one of applied ideas and the ability to hear, think and play at a high level. That's why jazz is different. THat's why we're doing this course. That's why I'm trying to offer tips on literally reading between the lines here.
Yeah, big challenge this week. But there's something to be learned for everyone. If you can take a piece like All The Things You Are, and see it in a way where you can ride the changes through the different keys, really hear it and embrace the twists and turns of the piece, then you hear it. That's IT! You've got it.
The tritone subs ARE a way of creating more hills in the roller coaster ride, maybe a corkscrew, maybe an inverted loop, but it's gravity that ties it all together no matter what ride you're on. That's the ear.
The supplemental notes I put in this week are out there as a guide. I'm not going to do this deep a treatment every week. It's just one way, my way that I look at a piece when I learn it. It's full of Take-It-Or-Leave-It luggage. Realize too, that those notes are a product of a lot of years I've been trying to figure it out myself. I'm a much different player now than I was when I began this thread years ago. I'm a much different player than I was at the start of the pandemic.
Go though the week, share your revelations and frustrations, I'll offer some things as I see them. I've been through the frustrations and I encounter the puzzle of how to make sense of this every day. We learn together here.
If there are any lurkers out there, anyone else following who can offer insights from your work in this material, either as we do it now, or from learning to achieve proficiency in the past, please do feel free to contribute. So glad we're doing this. Thank you all.
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Week 8. Day 2 of "ATTYA" at 75 bpm. The first 10 minutes was another blur. Somewhere in the second ten minutes it dawned on me to stop playing so many notes and really listen to the harmony. I know I should always be doing that! Instead of reading the harmony, listen to it. So the third 10 minutes was much more enjoyable. I was following my ear more on the HR twists and turns. It actually kind of reminded me of tunes on The Real Howard Roberts and Howard Roberts Is A Funky Guitar Player. Not my playing, of course. But the harmony. The intention behind it. The adventurous fun I hear on those fabulous recordings. I admit I wasn't too focused on triplets. I certainly threw them in when it seemed tasty. My playing actually got a bit more earthy and "bluesy" in a good way, I hope. Anyway, the obvious concept of listening more and playing less seemed to pay off in the end. I look forward to doing it again tomorrow.
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I was having the same experience. A kind of paradox, the more pressure I was under to make the notes, the more I looked ahead, always looking to find myself within a tonal area. As I was creating lines up, then down, I had this impression of being on a race course, 4 bars of twists, downshift for 3 bars and the line to that same course in Eb then G. It was kind of cool to force myself to not get tripped up in the moment, but to look ahead.
I had a lot of fun. As far as triplets, if I heard an idea ahead of time, (note repeated with a lower neighbor between, scale passage, upper neighbor/lower neighbor/chord tone, chromatic approach and repeated chord tone were a few ideas I was keeping in mind and trying out) I'd go much smoother. The trick is to see it ahead of time. Triplet ideas are nice to practice ideas on ahead of time. When I do the Project, I have things in mind, and pay attention to the road sign warnings and it's fun.
Every day it gets a little easier and a lot more comfortable.
See the change in key area. Shift and move. Create a shape and build it with 3 note groupings. Juggling act, but it sounds really nice when it falls in the right way.
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Week 8 day 3. 70 BPM using the straight ATTYA ireal pro backing. Continuing to bumble along in tripletish fashion. Slowly but surely the lines are getting more interesting, certainly as many triplet containing ideas as I can stuff in, but many are repetitive and others are still making the changes and no more.
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Week 8. Day 3 of ATTYA at 80 bpm. I tried to follow my lead from last night by really hearing Howard's altered harmony and making those twists and turns as musical as possible. It's beginning to sink in more. I'm hearing it better than I initially did. I'm not focusing on the triplets too much. I continue to try and incorporate them to embellish chord tones, often on the more standard ATTYA changes that I'm familiar with. I hope I'm not defeating the purpose of the exercise by not playing constant 8th note triplets. Maybe I'll take another run or two at it this evening and see if I can focus more on the triplets.
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The triplet provides a nice, pre-built structure for the enclosure of chord tones...
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Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
I DO think learning is non linear, and if you, for example, came out of this being able to navigate a song form, anticipate tonal areas with elegance and maybe look at tritone subs in a confident way, then that's amazing! It's the process that breaks you through.
I'll try to provide enough of a breakdown on each project so you can have a big picture and some guideline of devices or techniques within, but anything that comes of just playing every day is pure gold. It's the only way to make the breakthroughs that make you a fluid player.
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (Christian Scott)
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