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Practicing lesson 1-a. The most difficult was to keep the triplets straight throughout the chord changes. Specially over too slow tempos. The solution was play little faster (100bpm) and keep the notes straight as possible. It is a wonderfull exercise to practice the scales approach on fingerboard and listen to the sound of its degrees within tonal centers. For those who want to use it, I shared de IReal chart on the video description.
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03-10-2021 05:54 PM
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Thursday. Diatonic Blues for Alice Plus in G
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Really nice! Your time is good, and you've got the form down; nailed it.
Originally Posted by mauriciopcsouza
I'm curious, are you playing off book on this?
I know it's difficult playing creatively, especially at slower speeds. I think you're getting a lot of solid harmonic lines by sticking to scale steps, and it keeps you centred by playing scale phrasing, but it's also a great time to add lexicon, or vocabulary to your playing. At a slower speed, you have a greater chance to get to know the weight of chord tones vs scale notes. Too many steps in a row doesn't allow the highlighting of chord tones you can get by either changing direction, or using non scale steps to "frame" a note in the spotlight, where it can start a new idea.
If you can control wider leaps, embellishments and direction changes at a slow speed, those textures and vocabulary becomes very impressive at higher speeds. That's the great thing about this workout, there's time to address all sorts of line building elements while the speed is slow enough to process, assimilate and internalize them. Once it gets fast, it's often where we fall into safer ideas out of survival.
Hand habits often go hand in hand with reflex playing, and the speed re-enforces those paths.
Yes, take that great sense of time and by introducing or practicing a new idea each time, you can find unexpected choices, and take them into faster speeds. Even something like using pickup notes to start your idea really changes things profoundly.
I was working on taking a motif, and inverting and changing the rhythmic weight around, and it's been knocking me for a loop. I can't wait until I can actually use this.
Can't wait to hear more! Are you working your way through from projects in order using triplets?
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Week 14 Day 5 Friday's session
Recap and review week 1
Project 6-A. Modal Madness a little faster.
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Thanks for the time and phrasing tips! Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
If I understand your question, I am playing the chords of lesson 1-A through IReal playback, also with guitar comping (you can hear it on the left channel). I did not play the fingering of the book for the chords, which are quite complex.
I am working on triplets in parts of the changes separately, trying to keep it more straightforward. I intend to make a video for each class, probably not one week, because I am also playing the Cannonball play along. I wish I could do everything in this book, even if not exactly in 20 weeks.
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Well starting with next week, we are going to be doing all the tunes in the book, one tune a day, with eighth notes and triplets combined, so look forward to that!
At this point, HR has introduced important song forms, important dominant chord options and given us a week at slower speeds to build up those ideas and integrate our own take on it.
Now will come the part where we bring it all up to speed and mix it up with our own creative personalities.
Once we start from here on in, I think we'll see our strengths, which will only get stronger with daily trial by playing. And we'll see our not-so-strengths, which we can address in a tune context.
I'm looking forward to this process, and maybe it'd be a good time to look at specifics.
I haven't really addressed the use of symmetrical scales in dominant chord situations or modal interchanges.
Anybody who may be lurking or having fun along with us here, please chime in, and let's expand this 20 week program into something that is real and useful for us all.
Remember those top speeds are just suggestions. Set your target speed at the speed you can hold it together AND NOT MORE. And remember, speed and chops is EAR, FINGERBOARD MAPPING, FINGER KINESTHETICS, and IMAGINATION of WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. If your speed is being hung up by any one of these, everything will suffer.
I'm happy to give some suggestions of what I or some player friends of mine can suggest to address any questions you might have.
Note of the day: When you practice, imagine you're performing. Always. Always practice actual playing. That means make it sound good. Be aware of your attacks. Be aware of your sound. Be aware of your dynamics. Be aware of your time. Be aware of whether what you play is pleasing to you, or your imaginary audience.
This attitude takes work but it bridges the time you spend with your stored ideas that come out of the chops workshop and the things you play when you're "doing the real thing". Trying out an idea? Play it in a form that's musical. Playing a lot of scales? Would you do that on a gig? How would you add "performance quality" to what you practice.
Make everything you play, any time you play, a musical act. You'll be amazed at how much joy you can get from getting better.
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Week 14. Day 6. Saturday.
Modal Madness C minor, G minor and C blues
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I always felt a little bit of pressure to be increasing the speed, but I think next time around, or if I incorporate this general approach into a less demanding regular practice routine I will keep the tempos absolutely within my comfort zone. I think that increasing tempo too soon actually leads to boredom because I have to start sticking to more familiar ideas to avoid the “no mistakes” suggestion. Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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It also doesn't lend itself to exploring/resolving the issues the program shines a spotlight on. The moving walkway is always moving, got to get to the next days project. Originally Posted by wzpgsr
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Yes although think the net effect is positive. This time around I was unable to balance the demanding nature of the program with the stuff I have been working on with a teacher, but I need to start incorporating this method into the usual stuff I do when learning new tunes. This time around, the big takeaway for me was sticking with shell voicings as a way to more quickly internalize the changes before getting carried with more sophisticated voicings. Originally Posted by guido5
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Week 14. Day 4/5. After two days away due to travel, I tackled 6A tonight. Now I know why Howard recommends not skipping days. I definitely felt rusty. Physically and mentally. Probably didn't help matters that I had to jump back in on the modal madness material. It's still my least favorite of the exercises. I didn't push the bpm too much. I agree with wzpgsr about the pressure to increase speed. I'm trying to push myself, but not so much that I create tension and stress in my body while playing nothing of any musical consequence!
It's good to be back. I'm glad to see the thread is alive and active!
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Great post, JBN! I must admit I've struggled with the onslaught of unrelenting triplets while attempting to play something I find musically satisfying, or something I would play on a gig or jamming with a friend. Of course, one would never play triplets or steady 8th notes for 10 minutes. Perhaps that's why earlier in the course I often strayed from the steady 8th notes or steady 8th note triplets in order to explore more musical ideas. But then I felt like I wasn't being true to the spirit of Howard's course, so I've adhered to the constant triplets. But it seems to me every time we pick up our instrument we should be trying to make music. Such a simple, elegant idea that oftentimes isn't so simple and elegant in its execution! Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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Originally Posted by wzpgsr
Originally Posted by wzpgsr
Originally Posted by guido5
Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
I have mentioned before that this is the third time I've run this course through, and each time I learned so much, and each time it's changed the way I learn, and each time I was a totally different player pushed to a much higher plateau. Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
It's like Guy pointed out, a moving walkway, but with a definite incline to it. But then again, like an escalator, if you find a way not to jump off, you're going to get something vital out of the process; you'll have earned the title: Guitar Player.
There are many levels of ability achievable in any player, and there is a threshold level of proficiency necessary to really solo. I think Howard Roberts makes an assumption that every player who begins can:
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Find the basic scales or melodic areas, key areas if you will, needed for each project. All the better if you can find them in at least two places on the fingerboard and to really reap the benefits, find the key centres referred to (the tonics of the chords mentioned) ALL OVER the fingerboard. This is a tall order but it's knowledge that empowers you to truly compose fearlessly as opposed to learning finger movements as is the process for so many genres of guitar.
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Know your intervals, in your ear and on the guitar. Melody is song. Creating melody on the guitar is singing through an instrument in your hands. You don't sing in scales, and you don't sing just in arpeggios. Internalizing the intervals, or being able to go from any note to any other note is the permission you give to your hands to sing. It's really important, it deserves focused learning and practicing, and without this knowledge/ability, you're relegated to playing scales and arpeggios without necessarily even hearing what you're doing. THIS ear training can be done, in a fun way and in a really practical way...but it's always frustratingly glossed over with the vast majority of instructors teaching improvisation. I will go so far as to say you cannot find the limits of your soloing abilities if you can not hear and find ideas with your ear/fingers.
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Play diatonically with an ease that comes from, and only from finger practice. That means those neural pathways that your hands know are not going to magically appear, and they're not going to stay with you if you don't work that furrow in the ground, plant your seeds and tend to them daily. There are too many competing forces that will take you back to flat earth if you are not a constant gardener. Flip side of the coin: practice without hearing will also take you to a wall; you'll have built something alright, but it will prevent you from composing the imagination.
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Learn enough about how it goes together so you can exercise options. Composing on the guitar is an exercise in options. These options are infinite but there is definitely a spectrum of what sounds good. This is your ear. There is a way you keep to what sounds acceptable. This is theory. There is a way you own the music. This is breaking the rules, or more accurately, rewriting the rulebook from your ear.
Now of course Howard Roberts had these things, but he may not have been able to address the vast spectrum of knowledge in the players he was writing to. How could he? It's a book. That's why I started this thread and ran it as a pandemic project, so I could find the things that trip us up, things you guys found through daily work, and suggest ways to address, remove or get around those obstacles.
But either way, and any way, there's more you can get from the sheer brute force of these 20 weeks than one can carry. So drop what you need to and don't feel bad. It's yours to drop. Just keep moving, with your own feet at your pace and your own arms to carry what you can. You'll be a better player for it and I guarantee you'll learn more than you ever would in any book.
Your guitar and your ear are your teachers. It's all yours to put at your command.
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From here on out to the end, it's really a solidification of all the material we've met up to this point.
This is a great point to renew your vows, so to speak.
If you want to work on speed, then use the program speed suggestions and let that provide the coaching you need.
If you want to work on soloing content, then I dare say, set the speed at your own REAL limit and always strive to push that, as much as you can honestly do.
If you want to work on finding strategies for increasing your own lexicon, or bag of useful phrases, in a harmonic context, then this is an ideal platform. Keep it real and keep moving.
As for what I'm working on and how I'm using this material personally. Yeah, I've got my own take on it too.
I spend about 10 minutes on the changes, just comping, chords, dyads, bassline, voice leading passages (that's my other thread on this forum) and I DON'T record any of this. But it gets my ear so I can really hear the changes. Then for each iteration of the hour, I set the metronome for 2 and 4 and I solo using just the click and my ear...off book. This is my personal challenge. It's amazing how quickly I can inadvertently turn the beat around to 1 and 3, but there are strategies I develop for flipping it back quickly. USEFUL skill!
Thinking and practicing this way, my ear gets really strong and my playing becomes very intolerant of "habitual playing". It really gives me the context for expanding each go through.
But then again, that's what's important for ME, NOW. I don't recommend this, but for an example of what can be done by using the HR method and personalizing it at this point.
What I learn here, I can apply to any tune I want to own. I learned how to learn by using this program.
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Week 14. Day 6 of Modal Madness. I'm happy to be through the modal portion of the exercise once again. I just can't seem to get too inspired by this section. At least not while playing steady 8th note triplets. Unfortunately the modal section has always felt like a chore. Something I need to get through. It's interesting that playing the constant triplets appears to be fatiguing my left forearm, not my picking hand or arm.
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I just finished Week 12, at 116 bpm. I made it up to 120 by the end of last week, but my playing was a hot mess at that speed - slipping pick, flubbed notes, playing with a panicked feeling, etc, etc. So I decided to back the tempo back a bit this week, starting at 106 last Monday. Things went a lot better this time around, and I'm feeling confident for next week. I'd like to get to the point where playing triplets at 120 for 10 minutes straight is easy and effortless.
I'm really enjoying the strict format of this program and I can see improvements in my picking and articulation, and speed. I've already decided that I'm going to re-do the whole program again starting from Week 1 after I finish week 20, and that time around I'll focus more on harmonic and melodic development and outlining the chords with arpeggios. It's pretty clear that Super Chops is the type of program where you get out of it exactly what you put into it. There are no shortcuts offered - just slow and steady progress.
-Travis
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Ha, I knew you were going to be away about the time we were covering this project and I thought "Good timing. You hated this one anyway". Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
Yeah it goes by pretty fast playing triplets on the quarter. I know I felt a lot of tension just trying to stay on top of the time, not even thinking about the notes. That was a mistake for me. The closer I'm playing to the "edge", the more tense I got and the more notes I'd drop, the more I'd lapse into eighth note playing and the more I'd fight the instrument. End result, REALLY tensing up trying to catch up.
For me personally anyway, if I segmented my anticipation of the next triplet if I had some solid idea of what was coming up, I'd play much smoother, the time would be more solid, no hesitation and it sounded more relaxed.
Another thing I'd do is limit myself to either a scale passage, a two note enclosure to a note or an arpeggio. Just 3 vocabulary elements I could execute as a single gesture and anticipate the next, hearing the effect ahead of time, went a long way towards creating the character of the contour and meeting the beat with confidence.
I also began playing lines a half step up for a bar, then answering back the next measure in the intended key. This allows linear playing but introduces tension in the whole line. As I started to internalize this sound, I began hearing things in a Coltrane, Brecker, Scofield and Garrett manner. Very cool.
This made the exercise a LOT of fun.
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Yes! I'm always a lot more solid at the given speed by the end of the practice session. The guitar just feels good in my hands. I'm ready to take it up a notch the next day. Then the next day... two steps back it seems. I confess that about 3/4 of the time I'll start slower than target, and by the 3rd iteration, I'm above my anticipated target. That I can do because I'm not working with a backing track. Originally Posted by Socraticaster
Second time through the program is a real eye opener. It's SOOOOO much easier and lets you focus on things you may not have even thought about 20 weeks before.
After the last time I did this, a number of years ago, wow! April 2017, I put together a list of tunes, standards, and went on a roughly one year program of a tune a week. Like this but starting each week at ballad speed, no matter what the tune was, and ending the week at fast tempo, even if it was a ballad I was doing that week. I learned a lot and my ear got really good at playing off book. It also allowed me the freedom to take liberties with harmonies on the fly (secondary and tritone dominants are the precursors of where one can go) and that was a real trip.
My model has always been the roots of this music, when Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Don Byas and the real foundation players. This music had its origins in traveling circuses and shows where they'd play every night, adding their stylish flourishes and developing the language of the big bands by playing and having fun in musical immersion on a regular basis.
If I had a music school, I'd teach this way. Get better by doing. Learn by hearing. Be supported by supportive friendly commentary. Love what you do.
This is the closest modern day version of that way of learning. Play it your way. You're gonna get better. It's a given.
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Week 15
From this point until the end of the 20 week program we'll be bringing it all together, reviewing every single project we've done since week 1.
Find the upper limit of controlled playing, where ever that is. Keep it challenging but don't overshoot.
Beginning at the beginning Cherokee and progressing through ALL the projects, we're now freed to use eighth AND triplet notes. Hooray! Still steady notes though, no rests or ties at this point, but hint: repeated notes are good static devices.
If you are up for the full workout, then record your own chordal track (voice any way you want but avoid voicings that will lead you into a limited way of soloing), but use the chord types provided by HR. This will give you a "super diet" of various diatonic, dominant and modulation/sequence passages that, if internalized, will prepare you for just about any situation.
If that's too rich, work to your own speed and work with backing chords you are prepared to negotiate.
And NOW is a great time to share questions and observations. A lot of rough spots will come to us together, and a lot of solutions can be found together.
On to week 15!
Cherokee "plus" in Bb for Monday
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Week 15. Day 1. I just realized I "messed up." Last night I got a jump on week 15 and played through 1A. I just now finished playing through 1B for my first official day of week 15. Oh, well.
I have to admit it took a couple times through to solidify the form and harmonic shifts starting in Db. One thing that was throwing me off is the Gbm7-Cb13 in bars 7 and 8. If it was written as F#m7-B13 it would be much easier to see that as a ii-v into E major on the fly. There's also something weird in the arrangement where it goes back to the top without executing a first or second ending. Not sure if that's an iReal Pro hiccup or inherent in Howard's chart.
I'm really trying to find a balance between playing steady 8th notes/8th note triplets, keeping the tempos a bit challenging while also playing something musical that I would want to do on a gig. Towards the end of week 14 I was starting to burn out on the calisthenic grind of unrelenting triplets. Part of me feels if I'm not making music I'm wasting an opportunity. I'm going to attempt to find that balance in these remaining weeks. In the beginning of the program I was inspired and motivated. I looked forward to turning to Super Chops. The last couple weeks it has felt more like a chore. With my limited time to play guitar, I don't want it to be a chore. I want to be inspired and motivated again.
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Week 15 Day 2 Tuesday's project review: 1-B with triplets and eighths.
Cherokee form in Db
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I was listening to early swing music today, Fletcher Henderson's big band with Coleman Hawkins. A little later I was listening to a John McLaughlin Shakti record Natural Elements. Both of these recordings were so infused with sheer joy that it dances. It's infectious. I remember when my goal in playing shifted from being able to play without stumbling to being able to play with joy. It came when I started to find control and command in what I was playing, being able to negotiate changes without hesitation, and then at that plateau saying "Wait. Why did I want to get up here?" Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
I think it's natural to have goals constantly shifting, changing and staying out of reach. But I also think no matter where we are, it's an elusive predicament to approach a point only to realize that wasn't what was what I wanted so desperately.
For me, finding joy became the light that drew me on.
Fletcher Henderson. Shakti. Separated by decades, world wars, a changing planet and the very musics we took for granted unrecognizable to one another, but there's undeniable joy.
In both cases, there's something in the music, the form, the initial motivation that they must've loved enough to play off of. There's a reason why early jazz chose popular tunes of the day to play on: They were tunes everyone, including the players, loved. It's too bad that SO many people play ATTYA without a speck of joy for the piece that Charlie Parker must've had. He wasn't improvising to be a bad ass, he was DANCING with a tune that infused his life. That tune meant something to him and he wanted to pour his total love and talents into PLAYING with it. Every ornament and line is the sound of love: for his instrument, for the tune, for his ability to express something that had never been done before.
When you play, even if it's a project in a 20 week boot camp, there's something you have to find that you can build a little expression of joy off of. Do you know that huge amounts of water vapor can float across oceans and it isn't until they find a "seed" of some sort to form a drop, and that becomes rain, and a hurricane that can destroy landscapes? There needs to be a seed of condensation. The same goes for playing music. You need to find the seeds of joy.
This can be in a figure that jumps for joy? It can be a melodic fragment from the tune Cherokee that you take into your ear and produce a joyous response or variation of. You need to hear something to play OFF of, and it's not an arpeggio assignment. Look to the melody of Cherokee, or listen to KoKo by Parker. Listen for his joy. Listen to what the seed of his lines are. Find expression, a repeated figure that comes from your own feeling, and play that in all the variations you know of. This is an attitude. It's a reason. It's a seed from which a solo emerges as the expression of joy.
Try this one. Listen to the melody of Cherokee. Sing it in your mind (DON'T give me the excuse I'm not a singer. This is in your mind. Hum. Grunt. ) and with that song in your mind, find a joyous rephrasing of something of the song. If you have awareness of what you've done, take that and bring that "seed" into the next phrase. Engage your ear. Please your ear. Play your ear. Go on, it'll bring you joy.
Good luck. Make something. If you find the tiniest bit of originality, then you've OWNED it. You have a goal to practice towards.
Cherokee is there for you.
Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
On measures 7 and 8, yeah that's weird arranging practice. But that mess is not a lead sheet, it's a guideline for sounds, with hints of where those sounds are derived from. Get it in your ear and the chord symbols, and all those scribblings WON'T make any difference, because you'll be playing the SOUND. If you can get off book, who cares if an F is written as an E#? Hear it and play sound.
Truly, that's where the value of this Super Chops is: To create your sound and play it as if you were singing. EnJoy!
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Great post, JBN! Thank you! I agree with everything you said. I'm always trying to find joy in the music. I actually went back and did 1B a few more times this evening. I was able to get off book and hear the changes in my head, which made playing so much more enjoyable. That was one of the good things about devoting a week to a tune early in the course. It enabled you to really internalize the changes and hear the tune in your head. I confess that I didn't strictly play constant 8th notes or 8th note triplets for each ten minute segment. Although most of those ten minutes I was sticking to Howard's mandate. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much! Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
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I might go so far as to suggest that you take a 5 minute segment either within or outside of the regular "work time" and play with the forms without restrictions, and with rhythmic, space and as you would. Like deep listening, and make a note of things that feel good, noting the contours of the piece, noting your constructive propensities and noting places where you're running up against your own limitations of imagination or fingerings. THEN you've got motivation, incentive and guidelines for using the HR time fruitfully. Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
On the gig, in the practice time, any time you're taking the guitar off the stand or out of the case, it's essential that you do it with a sense of purpose. With such a regular and regimented discipline like Super Chops it's especially urgent in this respect. When you see places to exercise your creative imagination, call upon your resources in real time, convey a sense of order and progression and embody musical sense within such an unfriendly framework as the hour of project practicing, then you'll surely have a further reaching experience playing without restrictions.
These points are among the reasons I practice without a backing track with only the metronome on 2 and 4. The drive and swing comes from me and I'm accountable for every note and nuance; like on a gig. AND if I get sloppy, or lose focus, it kicks my butt immediately. On the other hand, when I make the connection, I feel it immediately and clearly-I want to keep it going.
Frustration and boredom are your friends. They make it imperative that you can find your way to fresh ideas.Last edited by Jimmy blue note; 03-16-2021 at 05:39 AM.
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Week 15 Day 3 Wednesday's project
Baubles Bangles Beads in 4 and morphed out of recognition.
If you take this as Baubles (in 3, without the harmony workout) you'll still get a lot out of it. But if you go for the full HR treatment (as discussed in post 375) you'll find there are many different sounds that are the meat and potatoes of modern jazz. If you're up for it, strive to hear what these passages mean and how you can find the notes within them to make them yours. Either way, have fun -second time around.
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