-
Week 16 Day 3 Wednesday
Diatonic and dominant. Blues for Alice in C
-
03-23-2021 09:45 PM
-
Week 16 Day 4 Thursday
Diatonic and dominant study
Gee! Blues for Alice in G
-
Week 16. Day 4. Blues For Alice in G. I love these changes. It's refreshing to encounter an exercise that I have more internalized in the Super Chops program. That's how I feel about ATTYA as well, despite some of Howard's creative harmony. Anyway because I know and feel the form so well, I tried to push the bpm tonight. That's too often frustrating and slightly demoralizing. 8th notes at my pedestrian speed are not a problem. But throwing in triplets, especially for an extended run often means my time breaks down. I literally feel my right hand/arm getting stiff. I'm honestly not obsessing on speed, even though I comment on my tortoise like pace often throughout this thread.
I may go back and tackle 5B a bit more tonight. Tomorrow it's back to Modal Madness!
-
Week 16. Day 5. Modal Madness in Eb. I double-dipped this evening. I did 5B per my earlier post. Then I played through 5B a couple more times. After that I decided to take a run at 6A. It's ironic. I dreaded the modal exercises when we first encountered them playing only 8th note triplets. But tonight I really enjoyed the modal workout. I felt free and very musical because I wasn't boxed in by the barrage of constant triplets. I was really able to let loose and allow the music to come out. Very enjoyable!
-
I've been thinking about the relationship between practicing and "real" playing. How different the expectations are and must be, and how one informs the other.
There are some things that any improvising guitarist needs to know of course...the layout of the notes on the fingerboard, note combinations that make harmony, etc. but once we get to the level of navigating real landscapes of tunes, and developing the tools that become one's own style, then practicing becomes a very personal thing.
Classical players may have a practice routine that changes completely and is dependent on the program of an upcoming concert piece. Jazz players need a broader skill set based on certain demands of common song forms. Both benefit from the level of practice and musical commitment in the practice room, both rely on the challenges wrestled, sometimes painfully, in the practice room to bring ease and enjoyment to the performance area.
The Super Chops program is practice. It's very thoughtfully laid out for a very broad diversity (like any good workout) and it can be a dense compendium of song form and harmonic and functional tools. It's not always going to be fun, or even satisfying, but acquisition of mastery must have an element of fun and play to it, especially as an improvising (composing) player.
So practice like you're playing and embrace the stumbling, the frustration and the disconnect that comes from not being there yet. It's the only way to achieve that level of ease where you feel like you're flying. You'll know it when you reach it; and so will anyone listening.
-
Week 16. Day 6. Modal Madness in Bb. I tried to take JBN's post about practicing to heart this evening. So true that we all need time in the woodshed. It can't be all fun and games!
Although adding a dash of fun makes practice more enjoyable. It was a good session this evening. It continues to be fascinating how much more I'm enjoying the modal exercises this time around. It's only Thursday and I'm finished with week 16. I need to figure out what I'm going to do the next couple days. I don't want to get too far out of synch.
-
I might suggest that you can take these pieces, either in project form or in their original (or you can even put them into another key completely, and create a simplified lead sheet), and play them as if you were performing. Pick an appropriate "real" tempo, make or use a contrafact if you want, but really play them with all the musical imagination you have. Don't play anything you don't mean. Use longer notes, rhythmic phrases, rests...and use the harmony you've earned the right to play on, but focus on larger musical concepts like "Let's think of this system as a textural rather than a linear passage" or "How far can I get just playing the way I WANT to play, and what does my new facility allow me to do?" or "OK I made it through two choruses before I genuinely ran out of ideas even WITH the freedom to do anything... what happened?"
Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
Have fun and see if you can find new ways to use what you've become as a player.
I always found it fun to take out a new piece and mentally apply the HR treatment. Not just play it "pretty" but really dig in and force myself into uncomfortable situations. Somehow I manage to break through to new grounds where my ear just says "Here's how it's done". Love that feeling.
-
Week 16. Day 6 Saturday
Modal madness in C dorian G minor and C blues
One thing about modal exercises, especially at brisker tempos, the notes blend together and they have a different effect as a grouping than they do as individual linear ideas we may be used to creating. It takes a shift in the way you hear and think to really use this, to be creative, and to build with it. (Think Coltrane's lines on looser harmonies and what the sonic impact is, and how his thinking process is different from his earlier recordings with Miles). Once you can appreciate how different this approach is, sonically, you will start to think in larger units, and that actually makes faster tempi easier to deal with.
But it's something that has to come when you're ready. All of this Super Chops work should be addressing where you are as a player. Although HR intends this as a speed building course, with focus on the right hand, I've found that there's a lot that goes into mastery of the instrument at faster speeds.
Take it at the level of proficiency that speaks to you. I found that a year or two after I jumped into this program, I looked at the instrument, the music, my hands and ears so differently that I thought "What if I knew back then all I know now?". There's the beauty of it. You don't have to learn everything NOW, but everything becomes deeper with time. Learn the attitude, and you'll never stop growing.
-
What can you do with one major scale? Modal possibilities that are NOT dorian.
This is a lovely example of a piece that has a modal vamp (a small pattern of repeating chords or even just a bass line that describes a tonal area; you don't play on the changes but over the tonality created).
It's Josh Redman (son of the great Dewey Redman) playing with Sam Yahel on B3.
The solos are structured on a rolling major tonality modal stretch. You can hear how Josh begins with major ideas, but then introduces tension and release, melodic and harmonic interest using tensions (notes that don't "belong" where your ear expects them) and creating small melodies in unstated chords (like our tritone subs) and finding larger intervals (which we've always had access to) and using non diatonic scales as tension punctuations (which we can learn to use if you're interested.)
See if this hits you in a way I suggested in the post 758, where he's creating larger harmonic "impressions or colours" through quickly articulated passages.
-
How about when a blues form can become a modal tune?
This is a tune based on a New Orleans blues form but is treated as a blues/modal form in the solos
Ben Monder is the guitarists. Dan Willis the tenor player
-
Week 17 The 21 day review part 2.
This is a crucial time wherein we review past projects in a three week span and because we don't need to concentrate so much on learning new projects and forms, we can focus on the variety of songforms we have available and solidify the modulations, key areas, dominant chord approaches, and most importantly explore and really assimilate our melodic ideas.
We'll use a brisk tempo in the role of the ever onward Coach that keeps us on our toes.
Don't set the speed above your ability to think clearly, but don't set it low enough that you can allow yourself to overthink or second guess yourself. Aim for a top speed that you will aim to make comfortable, keep time solid with and be imaginative with.
The Projects we'll work with this week are:
Use a combination of eighth notes (swing) and triplets. Steady enough so you have no rests to make up for a lapse in ideas. That's the challenge: Quick access to all you know and a coordination of Ear, Map, Fingers and Ideas.
Monday: Project 1-A Cherokee in Bb
Tuesday: Project 4-A ATTYA in Ab
Wednesday: Project 2-A Baubles in D
Thursday: Project 5-A Blues for Alice in C
Friday: Project 3-A Angel Eyes in D minor
Saturday: Project 6-A Modal Madness in F dorian and F blues
Now these are only SUGGESTIONS of a mix. At this point, we're going to mix and match so feel free to change it up to anything you're in the mood for that day if you want, but put your effort into applying all the ideas you know into the project you choose for that day.
Here's HR's suggestion for Week 17, day 1
-
Week 17, my personal take on this week.
A little while ago a friend took a small distanced gig with a singer. For one of the songs her range was best in the key of A, so a song he usually did in Eb, he had to transpose to A. This proved to be a challenge because it turns out, A is one of those keys that for one reason or another, doesn't get a lot of play in.
So this week I'm going to do all of these exercises as HR suggests, but I'm going to do every one of them in the key of A. This will give me a good chance to get to know the fretboard territories of A and also give me a workout on playing by ear in a key that my fingers don't get a lot of time playing in.
Cherokee in A starts me off tomorrow! I think I'll see how 150 feels for a tempo.
-
Week 17. Day 1. I figured I'd get a jump on things this week. I tackled 1A. Even though we've done these tunes before I usually need the first pass to familiarize myself with the changes again. I bumped up the bpm to 140. I can only execute triplets in little bursts at that tempo. But it was nice playing at a slightly swifter pace. I've been practicing running the chromatic scale in triplets with a metronome to try and get even more in the pocket with the triplet feel.
-
Week 17. Day 1.
Great idea using chromatics! I find working about 150 (75 on 2 and 4) I'm right on the edge of not being able to intelligently execute ideas. A lot of "reflexive" grab for triads or small interval runs. Nothing so melodic that I could build off of.
Then I took a few choruses at D'Aquisto's inspiration and ran chromatics into and around notes of the tonality. This did two things, it freed me up to play rhythmically with ACCENTS and it was good for my ear to be able to find and distinguish melody notes from the chromatics that they're surrounded by.
It wasn't until the second 10 minute stretch that I was able to play the changes by ear and identify melodic fragments that I could build on. Wider leaps, anticipating chord changes and shifting to new positions using single string slides were my areas of focus today.
This was all in the key of A.
The challenge: Every time I was about to change chords, the root or position that seemed natural to me, I didn't go to. If it felt easier to keep the root in the bass close to where I was, stop. Shift up and use the root on the second string.
Sounds SO much fresher shaking it up this way.
Now off to All The Things in A tomorrow.
-
Week 17 Day 2 Tuesday's project
ATTYA in Ab
Speed target at your discretion.
Remember:
Warm up before.
Get the sound of the changes in your ear, even if it means a chorus or two without playing; just listening really hard.
Get OFF BOOK ASAP.
Pick a goal or two that might be handy to apply, practice and integrate into the project time.
If you can't hit your speed objective and keep your wits and time about you, take it down. Re-enforce your area and tempo where you're strong, then use your confident strengths to push the speed up slightly.
-
Week 17. Day 2. 4A. ATTYA. I continue to try and balance bumping up the pace of the tempo without losing all sense of musicality. I started at 125 bpm and worked my way up to 145 bpm the last time through. At 145 I couldn't keep steady 8th notes and or triplets going the whole time. I found myself playing an occasional quarter note or taking a rest to try and phrase something. Like I had mentioned last night, I can only do little bursts of triplets at these "faster" tempos. I admit sometimes I would resort to the more standard ATTYA changes to try and get my eyes off iReal Pro. Although there are a couple spots in Howard's version that I really like and always incorporate.
-
Week 17 Day 3 Wednesday
Project 3-A Baubles in 4
Concentration on changing key areas
Speed to your best abilities
-
Week 17, it's pretty seriously into this 20 week course and at this point in the "review and let it gel" period I'm really beginning to see some lasting effects. I'm also realizing that some things just take longer than this furious aggressive pace to sink in, but nonetheless, the things I have chosen to attack, solid time feel, approach notes, position shifts into previously uncomfortable positions...these things are becoming second nature to a surprising degree.
I like that when I wasn't doing the Super Chops program, I was playing more melodically, but those things I was hearing would not be there when I was playing at real tempos with other people. Doing this program is really making me solid in time, and though I hate and resent that tempo riding me while I'm trying to work out new ideas, I am getting there faster than I would have before.
I started reading The Artist's Way this week. It's a 12 week program on developing creative attitudes and getting rid of the impediments that keep ordinary people from becoming artists. It's cool to see just how much comes from making a commitment to sticking with something...and how many ways we can derail ourselves even with something we REALLY want to have.
A big takeaway at this point for me: Don't judge my lame playing until I pass that invisible line where it comes together. If feels like flying, and with this program, I can get airborne with shorter and shorter runways, but when I'm on that ground, it still feels impossible to fly.
I kinda assume the first 10 minute run through is going to be a throwaway. Then it comes.
Lot of unexpected lessons in this program.
-
Week 17. Day 3. Lesson 2A. I really enjoyed the honesty of JBN's last post. I certainly feel like I've made progress, but these "review" weeks are a bit humbling. Like JBN, the first ten minute pass is often a bit of a throwaway. I'm reacquainting myself with the exercise. I've never been a huge fan of these BBB changes. All those bizarre keys shifts, etc. I try very hard to outline each chord, or at least to come reasonably close. Throughout this program I've never just played the key center, except in the Modal Madness exercise. Howard has dropped some weird stuff on us. Some of it I like. Some I could do without. JBN talked about firming up his time feel. That's huge and perhaps the whole bedrock of what we're trying to do. Sometimes when I push the tempo that time feel suffers. Especially trying to play a constant stream of notes. Anyway, I'm kind of rambling this evening. Perhaps like my playing over BBB.
I'm glad tomorrow is a different tune!
-
So at this point I'm going to throw out a suggestion for a life changing practice tool. The Looper.
I've waited to this point to talk about the ways that chordal playing makes you a better soloist. There's not really a lot of chord talk in the Super Chops program, in fact I think it's considered something else to be studied separately even though it's a part of the everyday routine.
At this point though, we're starting to expand our line building skills at speeds that are designed to nudge us towards what I call "panic playing" or relying or muscle memory passages and licks that lead us to more less than thoughtful things.
Putting down your own chords is a really great way to get deep inside the sounds and feel of the changes. Using a looper makes you think chords in time, and I think it's a lot less scary than recording on a machine. It also lets you stomp on the box and do a chorus of bass line, combine that with chordal comping.
A looper also lets you concentrate on a 2 or 4 bar segment so you can get "Inside the changes" and hear and play some of those notes and passages that you skim over when you're getting by at speed.
Anybody out there using a looper or have in the past?
Something to think about anyway
-
Hey, JBN. I've used a looper in the past, but not recently. And not with Super Chops. I certainly understand the benefits of comping the changes. I admit the lazy part of myself likes using iReal Pro. It saves me time, which allows me to continue to commit to this program, and it also is flexible enough to change the tempo without having to re-record myself. I do comp the changes before I start the exercise to get it in my ear. I also don't use the piano in iReal Pro. Only bass and drums to force myself to outline the changes even more. But like I said, I completely understand the benefits of looping my comping. Perhaps I'll give it a shot at some point.
-
Week 17 Day 4 Thursday
The week of thoughtful "getting it together"
Project 5-A Diatonic and Dominant Blues for Alice in C
Tempo at the edge of your comfort zone
-
I do use a looper to work on small segments, but I like the idea of expanding to the full form of a song. I would want the loop of the entire form to be nearly perfect, so maybe a bit tricky for a full chorus! Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
(When I record the chords for Superchops, I do so in a DAW, which allows me to quickly correct minor errors via punch-in rather than try for a continuous, perfect chorus every night.) But yeah....this is a good idea.
-
Week 17. Day 4. Exercise 5A. I find Super Chops to be increasingly super frustrating. I definitely feel as if I'm plateauing. I'm trying to up my tempos, but it's a real struggle. I'm not sure my chops have improved one bit. I'm basically around the same marginal tempos I've been at for years. And the more I try to push the tempos the more my ideas and time feel fall apart. It's that constant barrage of picking. The unrelenting eighth notes and eighth note triplets that box me in. Admittedly I come up for air every once in a while and take a brief pause. Sometimes to lock back into the groove. Other times to try and create some semblance of an idea or a syncopated line. Even though we're not supposed to be using hammer-ons and pull-offs until next week, periodically they slip in, especially if I'm attempting to execute a burst of triplets. I'm always trying to balance the technique aspect of the program with making music. The more I focus on technique, or lack thereof, the more humbling and a bit demoralizing Super Chops can be. Forgive me for venting. Despite my frustrations, I'm definitely going to see this through
-
When I was in school, I found the constant pressure to learn a paradox. While I knew I was there to learn, I didn't feel there was the space to grow. Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
The lessons I learned turned out not to be the ones in the syllabus. The things I ultimately took away were not anything even dreamed of or even known to the instructors. That was the most powerful revelation: Learning is not linear, nor within our control, nor can it be the product of our expectations. Every class I took ended with promises of "I've REALLY got to check this... or that... or that... out!" The real value of any learning experience is the shortcomings and obstacles that are revealed to ourselves.
Now Super Chops is one very specialized focus: speed and right/left hand coordination. The first time I went through, it was frustrating. But after I had some facility in that regard, I came to see that the search for speed reveals inherent weaknesses in design and execution. The car can get a larger engine, but with that comes the need for better suspension, better roads and the ability to navigate and re-envision the driving experience.
Being able to play faster allowed me to hear faster. That led to me listening and appreciating a more varied spectrum of music. That led me to hearing horn players as the model for complex and fast playing and that led to developing what I think of as a "micro vocabulary" or a lexicon of phrases and not just notes. That all came from having faster fingers and realizing that's only one part of the picture.
20 weeks is NOT enough time to re-create the way you play. But it IS an effective way to realize all the things you COULD'VE done while the speed was really slow. For instance, a target speed of 160 forces me into a situation where I'm playing that scale and arpeggio combination AGAIN. Sheesh!
If only I can hear a 5 or 6 note flurry as an intentional statement leading to a specific lead in to the next chord. If only I was learning to think in Unit Structures way back when the speed was managable (or I thought, too slow), then right now every two bar change could be a challenging melodic variation of a set of personal "licks" with infinitely reordered possibilities.
[ Phrase beginning=from chord tone or from passing or approach note]
+
[Body of the phrase=linear or angular? Small or large leaps? Reacting to or requoting a melodic phrase from the head or previous idea? Going up, down or being twisty? Using unusual chromatic sequences to build to a very specific point?]
+
[phrase ending=the arrival of the resolution. Arrive at a chord tone for a feeling of affirmation? Go to the root for solidity? Approach by embellishment? Contrast angularity in the body with a smooth sigh of relief of diatonic arrival? Create a shape a half step above and restate it on target with a sense of design? Repeat a note for emphasis?]
This is all phrase design. And when I had the luxury of not needing to learn intricate phrases, when the speed was slow, it was easy not to see the urgency of hearing fast. But now we're at a speed where that knowledge and confidence is essential. Lesson learned: New things to master at slow speeds inform facility at higher speeds.
Super Chops can be a real litmus test for how to design a better suspension, make better lights, create a better windshield, craft an aerodynamic shape that keeps you on the ground...all things you had no idea you needed when you first started fitting that bigger engine in there.
Learning is circular, or more like a spiral. Every step is a lesson on what you can put into the next spiral. But just by going through this you'll get a long list of things that need to be addressed, and if you've got the focus, you can even address them now. In week 17.
Create a phrase that has a pleasing musicality to it. It can be directly from a tune or even a different tune completely. Danny Boy, or Chestnuts roasting on an Open Fire... You pick it, and run that snippet through ALL the changes, altering the scales and notes to make it fit. There's a challenge that will keep you engaged.
Or vary that snippet in some way, change one note, or recognize the notes converging on a specific point and use a different route. Mindfully create variations but don't ever lose track of what you started with.
Or watch for habitual phrasing traps and see how quickly you can turn to a fresh direction on a dime (improving your suspension) and then execute a phrase resolution from that spot. In other words become adept at pulling off the unexpected and making it sound good.
Listen to the quality of your playing: Is your attack clean? Is your timing fluid? Can you swing even when you hit a bad note? Can you create rhythmic interest within a steady stream of eighths and triplets? ALL of these things, when overlooked, will plunge you into the sameness wasteland.
If you come out of Super Chops with just a fraction of these content elements, you'll be a better player, and chops will be yours.
Reply With Quote
How is the Steve Howe 175?
Today, 05:54 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos