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  1. #501

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    Welcome to week 6. Our end of week objective is 120 and the form is similar to Angel Eyes with some HR twists to give us experience with substitute harmonies and secondary dominants and tritone substitutions.
    These are all commonly encountered devices if you're working with jazz improvisations but I'll spend some time this week looking at these separately. If you want to learn to play faster and with melodic confidence, practice these things A LOT. This expands your vocabulary and it will provide fluency so when you identify these things in a chart, you can treat them as familiar territory and sounds.
    This week's guidelines and chart from Howard Roberts:
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-10-6-06-34-pm-pngHoward Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-10-6-07-23-pm-png
    I will post a working chart of the form of the piece as I see it. This approximates the way I look at this project and it's what's in my head when I'm soloing on it. This follows shortly.

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  3. #502

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    These are two work sheets that indicate how I get the changes "off the page" and into an understanding I can work with by ear.
    The first chart is just the changes (some minor editing) in a form that makes it easier for me to glance at and scan. It's got arrows that indicate when a measure or series of measures directly sets up some point in the piece. They're circled and point to a point where it leads.
    Where possible, I give some indication of important key changes and the functions of the chords within that key area. I tried to keep the colour coding consistent with this.
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-10-6-20-20-pm-png
    The second chart shows the big picture. You'll notice there's a LOT of space in there. That's because in soloing, I'm trying to see larger key areas and the form of the piece. The individual measures are things that my ear knows so I don't sweat the changes, I'm playing ideas that lead to the next important idea, and using my familiarity with turnaround forms to help me make meaningful note choices.
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-10-6-20-45-pm-png
    I'll talk more about this in detail once we actually get into the week's playing.

  4. #503

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    Week 6 Day 1. 80BPM "official" ireal pro backing in A. A is a decidedly weird key for me on this. I feel spread out all over the length of the neck. I did a first pass at 60 to try to dig in and find some more melodic phrasing but that just felt really weird so I bumped it up to 80 for 4 passes through the form. Not that what I came up with was all that melodic, but at least it flowed a bit better. Hmmm...

  5. #504

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    Week 6. Day 1 of "Angel Eyes" at 95 bpm. I must confess this isn't actually day one. I spent some time with the new key last night. I've been practicing my bebop scales, so I tried to incorporate some of that this evening. The first pass was a bit rough and uninspiring. But each ensuing pass got better and more musical. Those final 8 bars still evade me. I'd love it if someone could offer some insights on how to make those measures musical. I play over each chord and it's okay but nothing special. Like in the prior key, I find when I treat each of those final 8 measures as climbing up the fretboard and building tension that works best. Is there some functional, more complex harmony going on that I'm not grasping? Should I not be playing over each chord? Are those chords really serving another harmonic purpose that's escaping me? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

  6. #505

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    Quote Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
    Those final 8 bars still evade me. I'd love it if someone could offer some insights on how to make those measures musical. I play over each chord and it's okay but nothing special. Like in the prior key, I find when I treat each of those final 8 measures as climbing up the fretboard and building tension that works best. Is there some functional, more complex harmony going on that I'm not grasping? Should I not be playing over each chord? Are those chords really serving another harmonic purpose that's escaping me? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!
    Are you talking about the last two systems, the ones I've marked F maj and E maj? Think of them in a broader way. If you look at the changes, yes they indicate a diatonic movement up the chords in F, but think about it, are they really descriptive of a line that offers melodic possibilities? They don't to me.
    Sometimes a purposeful, or statement with impact in a phrase is, like you say, climbing to a point. But the real point is to make a statement when you've gotten there. The first two bars are the culmination of the entire B section, and those diatonic chords are a kind of placeholder, innocuous passive chords which you can play a melodic idea in F. Go on, take a tasty blues line in F and play it there. Guarantee it's going to add a spicy sense of purpose and identity.
    That C-7 F9 is what's known as a tritone substitution. It belongs to the key of E which is approaching in the next system. It might as well be F#-7 B7 for all intents and purposes. Use them interchangeably and get to know the sound, feel and ways to play the tritone sub (or as I think of it, the dominant chord from a half step above).

    When you get to the last system, that G#-7 is the III chord of E Major. III chords are pretty much interchangeable with the I chord. Fool around with that. You can try to hear it as the scale beginning from the third degree, a nice sound that is a little less obvious than always starting on DO. That C#-7 is also a member of the chords known as tonic chords (I, III and VI chords have so much in common, they form an interchangeable family relationship) so since those chords are all tonic chords in E, take advantage of that and let loose with a pithy melodic (or blues) statement in the key of E.
    By the time you reach the Bb- chord and E7, you're preparing yourself and the ear of the listener for the upcoming A tonality again.

    So as far as playing is concerned, take these in tonal blocks, and in this case many of these are in 2 bar spaces, and treat them as one unit. Listen for WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. Create lines that are strong in of themselves or that are in obvious movement to somewhere else.
    If you have a measure, you don't have to be profound, or beautiful, or melodically memorable all the time. Create interest in what's to follow by preceeding it with figures that form a framework.
    Framework. Often a great painting will go hand in hand with a great frame. You go to a museum, and you see a painting, but the frame serves to bring out the best in the transition from wall space, or the space of the world, and draw you, the viewer, into the space of the painting. A frame is not what you notice but it defines the space of the painting by acting as the transitional intermediary to what you do notice.
    Same thing with melody. Sometimes you use notes to create a frame for something melodic.

    Take the note C. You can let it stand. Or you can make a small melody, how about we quote Mary Had a Little Lamb. The "Fleece was White as Snow" part. D D E D C.
    Now you can frame that statement with a pickup note, like a B before the barline, or a GABD, or CABE, or even a flourish of notes like E G F A G B A B C and Fleece was...
    All those other notes were not the melodic point of the phrase, they were the "Frame".

    Think about creating framing for your melodies. Don't strive to make each and everything you do the pith and the punch. Develop depth and purpose in your phrases.
    It takes listening...listen to other things, recordings, different genres. Go for a good fit to the changes but see what they're doing and find the spirit. Then play that your own way.

  7. #506

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Are you talking about the last two systems, the ones I've marked F maj and E maj? Think of them in a broader way. If you look at the changes, yes they indicate a diatonic movement up the chords in F, but think about it, are they really descriptive of a line that offers melodic possibilities? They don't to me.
    Sometimes a purposeful, or statement with impact in a phrase is, like you say, climbing to a point. But the real point is to make a statement when you've gotten there. The first two bars are the culmination of the entire B section, and those diatonic chords are a kind of placeholder, innocuous passive chords which you can play a melodic idea in F. Go on, take a tasty blues line in F and play it there. Guarantee it's going to add a spicy sense of purpose and identity.
    That C-7 F9 is what's known as a tritone substitution. It belongs to the key of E which is approaching in the next system. It might as well be F#-7 B7 for all intents and purposes. Use them interchangeably and get to know the sound, feel and ways to play the tritone sub (or as I think of it, the dominant chord from a half step above).

    When you get to the last system, that G#-7 is the III chord of E Major. III chords are pretty much interchangeable with the I chord. Fool around with that. You can try to hear it as the scale beginning from the third degree, a nice sound that is a little less obvious than always starting on DO. That C#-7 is also a member of the chords known as tonic chords (I, III and VI chords have so much in common, they form an interchangeable family relationship) so since those chords are all tonic chords in E, take advantage of that and let loose with a pithy melodic (or blues) statement in the key of E.
    By the time you reach the Bb- chord and E7, you're preparing yourself and the ear of the listener for the upcoming A tonality again.

    So as far as playing is concerned, take these in tonal blocks, and in this case many of these are in 2 bar spaces, and treat them as one unit. Listen for WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. Create lines that are strong in of themselves or that are in obvious movement to somewhere else.
    If you have a measure, you don't have to be profound, or beautiful, or melodically memorable all the time. Create interest in what's to follow by preceeding it with figures that form a framework.
    Framework. Often a great painting will go hand in hand with a great frame. You go to a museum, and you see a painting, but the frame serves to bring out the best in the transition from wall space, or the space of the world, and draw you, the viewer, into the space of the painting. A frame is not what you notice but it defines the space of the painting by acting as the transitional intermediary to what you do notice.
    Same thing with melody. Sometimes you use notes to create a frame for something melodic.

    Take the note C. You can let it stand. Or you can make a small melody, how about we quote Mary Had a Little Lamb. The "Fleece was White as Snow" part. D D E D C.
    Now you can frame that statement with a pickup note, like a B before the barline, or a GABD, or CABE, or even a flourish of notes like E G F A G B A B C and Fleece was...
    All those other notes were not the melodic point of the phrase, they were the "Frame".

    Think about creating framing for your melodies. Don't strive to make each and everything you do the pith and the punch. Develop depth and purpose in your phrases.
    It takes listening...listen to other things, recordings, different genres. Go for a good fit to the changes but see what they're doing and find the spirit. Then play that your own way.
    Wow! That was great JBN! Thank you so much. I understand tritones subs and all the harmonic things you mentioned. Maybe I'm dense, but after your explanation I finally see how those chords "make sense." And I really like your analogy of the picture frame! I'm a writer by trade and your posts are not only always informative, but imaginatively written and inspiring! Thank you.

  8. #507

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    Sorry for yet another post this evening. After digesting JBN's great advice, I just went back and played through the exercise for 20 additional minutes. Oh, man! It was so much better! So much fun and inspiring. For the first time this version of "Angel Eyes" truly made sense to me and was a joy to play. Thank you, JBN!

  9. #508

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    I’m having such a hard time focusing on guitar since the events of last week. I can’t even make the simplest stuff work, can’t fret basic chords, and so on. Not really here to gripe, just feeling frustrated at the moment—high alert is not the best state of mind for a practice that requires relaxation and flow.

    My first night with these changes in A ended up with me basically throwing my comping track in the trash and going to bed. Given my lack of focus at the moment, I was unable to internalize the changes. It was clear to me that trying to solo over them would be a complete waste of time. If I can carve out some extra time tomorrow I need to re-center, break the song up into manageable chunks, and get back to shell voicings. Trying to adapt to HR’s larger voicings may have done me in today, so I will simplify tomorrow and try to digest Jimmy’s analysis above. It looks like it could really helpful in making sense of the B section.

  10. #509

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    Quote Originally Posted by wzpgsr
    I’m having such a hard time focusing on guitar since the events of last week.
    I hear you. You are capturing a zeitgeist of horror and shock, and I can certainly relate. It's kinda hard to capture the gravity of living Kafka for four years, conflicted solitary confinement without a plan to end it and the manifestation of a nation based on soul-less rhetoric. It's scary to think that everyone is hoping to "return to normal" when in truth, that normal was a fragile facade we will need to create the substance for.
    Yeah, don't feel bad, or guilty, or frustrated with letting the guitar speak for you, even when it's to sit in a case in shock. We'll be here and so will your guitar.
    I'll just offer my very personal take on what music is to me in these times.
    I don't know when it was that "playing music" stopped being something I made, but rather became a reflexion of something I live. It's a time machine, a microcosmos of a world in chaos, noise without order, the endless void of silence...that I can create order within. Learning the craft of making music has been an endless task of shaping the unseen. Learning the art of making music has been an infinite process of removing the boundries of perception. Learning how to solo has been informed by everything that is not music; and seeing life as the solo. I compose a story of completion every time I'm playing.
    Yeah it sounds weird and spacey but when I pick up the guitar, I'm not thinking notes at this point, but contemplating a finite amount of space where I can see myself coming out of time and taking away something real: The affirmation that the ability to create is what makes us human.
    I play guitar and I find beauty in the struggle and I see that what is ugly can be put in a context that is worth listening to.
    I hope you find your way to lift your spirits, wzpgsr. If we all find that, and we share it, we've got something really exciting to look forward to.

  11. #510

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    Here is a reference example of some devices organized by HR from the book.They give you some alternatives for your own playing when you're feeling stale.
    Identify the harmony that's being played over.
    Identify the notes, how does a line begin? What direction is it going in? Does it change direction? What ways does it break up the predictable line? How does the placement of notes coincide with chord tones and on what beats? How are these tones approached?
    Even one measure will give you ideas that can be applied to any point in your solo and you can take that as a jumping off point to something totally new.

    Look at the solo as a whole. See if there is any pacing evident. And remember that in your own solo, any themes that you return to will make the entire solo pull together.

    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-12-7-14-05-pm-pngHoward Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-12-7-14-55-pm-png

  12. #511

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    Week 6 Day 2. 80BPM "official" ireal pro backing in A. That last system and a half on the B section is still eluding me. I just can't seem to make lines that cohere to over it without getting into the rut of just passing a figure through the changes but that is getting really old. JBN's suggestion to treat it as a E^7 tonal center just does not work for my ears...

  13. #512

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    Week 6. Day 2 of "Angel Eyes" at 100 bpm. The first time through always seems to be a refresher course. The second and third passes were better. That B section is making more sense thanks to JBN's analysis. Sometimes I choose to play the tritone sub for example, sometimes not. Often I'll just take one or two notes from the "non-diatonic" chords. For example, hitting the F# on the D dominant chords in the fourth measure of the B section. It's like tiptoeing carefully through those changes to add the spice of Howard's harmony, but not going so far astray chasing the chords that I lose sight of the home key center. It's allowing me to make these changes more musical. At least, I hope so!

  14. #513

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    Week 6 Day 3. 80BPM "official" ireal pro backing in A. Another momentous day on the national stage, and a locally busy day made it rather nice to tune it all out and focus in on my nemesis in the B section. Slowly but surely it is making more sense to just employ the E^7 tonality amid the flow of chordal obstacles HB has thrown up for me. Maybe by the end of the week I can start to make it sound organic.

  15. #514

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    Week 6. Day 3 of "Angel Eyes" at 105 bpm. It took a while for me to get into the groove. I may do some additional passes this evening. I'm starting to fatigue a bit on this tune. I should look at some of Howard's lines over these changes. Although I must confess after a long work day my eyes are tired and I'm not the best reader, so trying to make sense of the music notation doesn't excite me.

  16. #515

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    Quote Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
    Week 6. Day 3 of "Angel Eyes" at 105 bpm. It took a while for me to get into the groove. I may do some additional passes this evening. I'm starting to fatigue a bit on this tune. I should look at some of Howard's lines over these changes. Although I must confess after a long work day my eyes are tired and I'm not the best reader, so trying to make sense of the music notation doesn't excite me.
    Maybe don't look at it as a reading exercise. Look at it as a small compendium of line shaping exercises. One or two bars at a go. Print it out and for each change, take a highlighter and highlight the chord tones. Look at how they're treated, are they enclosed in support notes? Does the line begin at a discernible point, end in some way? What direction is that group going? Is it based on an embellished arpeggio, or are there wide or narrow leaps?
    Just looking at one measure and putting the answers to these questions alone will give you a fresh take on what you might do when you're making your way through.
    And just a suggestion: Look at the phrase/measure/grouping of notes but look with your ear too. Internalize it so what you see is what you hear. This will expand your aural vocabulary too. When it's in your ear, and in your awareness, THEN try to use it. Even after a long day, this process will take you to a creatively exciting place. You may even find it invigourating and in a way, meditative.
    Try this one: Make some unlikely turn of notes, maybe a quote, maybe an unusual series of notes you normally wouldn't put together, and practice them going up and down the harmonized scale. I chord, II minor, III minor, IV maj#11...etc. Then start a chorus with that. Keep it in your ear and see if its DNA can inform what you play. At certain points, return to it intact. It's a good focusing exercise, and it's very musical. It's the basis of sonata form that has shaped all of Western music. It's fun.

  17. #516

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    Week 6 Day 4. 80BPM "official" ireal pro backing in A. I seem to be balancing on the line between boring myself and finding interesting new things to play on this thing. Definitely finding more stimulation going back to playing the B section much more literally than I had been doing. Perhaps not nailing every change but certainly more interesting ideas hiding in that curious sequence than superimposing a bog standard E^7 sequence over it... Two more days with it...

  18. #517

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    Quote Originally Posted by guido5
    Week 6 Day 4. 80BPM "official" ireal pro backing in A. I seem to be balancing on the line between boring myself and finding interesting new things to play on this thing. Definitely finding more stimulation going back to playing the B section much more literally than I had been doing. Perhaps not nailing every change but certainly more interesting ideas hiding in that curious sequence than superimposing a bog standard E^7 sequence over it... Two more days with it...
    Maybe try not to make any sense out of it but use the changes or even just the bars to create a lead in to the A minor that it eventually takes you to. In other words, set up an entry into the next section and don't overplay or over-try but rather keep the sequence simple enough to show movement, then have the last A section (back to the top) be the point of those measures.
    Let the statement at the top of the form provide the meaning to those last bars. Sometimes a passage is an off ramp. You don't need to make it into a scenic rest stop.

  19. #518

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    Week 6. Day 4 of "Angel Eyes" at 110 bpm. As is often the case, things got more interesting with each pass. But the real work was spent after going through the exercises. I took JBN's advice and spent a couple hours studying Howard's suggested lines for the problematic B section. As expected, Howard typically emphasizes chord tones on the strong beats. His approach to some of the changes is vastly different than the more pedestrian way I've been approaching them. He outlines every single chord. I didn't really get to a place where I was playing the changes in time to hear how musical they might be. But it reminded me a bit of learning solos by the masters. Their approach over a tune is often something I would never think of or hear. Humbling to say the least.

  20. #519

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    Week 6. Day 5 of "Angel Eyes" at 115 bpm. Analyzing some of Howard's lines kind of messed me up. Perhaps in a good way. I went back to trying to outline some of the "out" changes a bit more than I had been doing recently. I still feel like a little dash of that adds some nice spice, but too much leads me astray. Anyway, I must confess I'm looking forward to tackling this exercise tomorrow one last time then finally moving on!

  21. #520

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    Week 6 Day 5. 90BPM "official" ireal pro backing in A. Long strange day today but I still wanted to take another effort at speed over these changes. For the first few 3 chorus laps around the form things were moving right along but then the sharpness faded and I was just playing catch-up again. Still worth the effort though.

  22. #521

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    As we complete this week, we'll be doing something of a recap in the week to come. One thing to keep in mind as we wind up here and move on:
    Speed and accuracy are dependent on coordination and training of the hands for executing ideas and the speed of thought.
    Learn to develop both your ideas and options, and your technical abilities.
    Recognize which one needs work and which one is strong and always work and practice to achieve a balance.
    You can't play what your hands don't know, and you can only play as fast as you can think.
    Learn to balance these two and there's no limit to how fast and interestingly you can play.
    Last edited by Jimmy blue note; 01-15-2021 at 11:28 PM.

  23. #522

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    Week 6. Day 6 of "Angel Eyes" at 120 bpm. The first couple times through today I was really looking forward to moving on from this exercise. The last time I made a concerted effort to really enjoy and appreciate these changes. I let go more and had more fun. Needless to say, it was not only more enjoyable, but more musical, too. Thanks, JBN for all your great help with this exercise!

  24. #523

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    Week 6 Day 6. 110BPM "official" ireal pro backing in A. Had a really great day and was quite satisfied and happy when I sat dawn to play. I started at 90 and that seemed to drag, a bump tp 100 and finally 110 kept me on my toes but still feeling pretty much in control. I have the B section generally together saying something interesting and setting up final resolution in the last A section. Definitely felt a good bump in the playing this week.

    It will be fascinating to see how much remains from the earlier projects this coming week. But first a day wondering in different fields...

  25. #524

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    The week ahead will be our period of review and reflexion. No new pieces this week but a fresh take on old friends. Every day I'll post a repeat of the original week's project music.
    Day of rest and deep breath. Monday starts the getting it all together!
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-16-10-00-49-pm-pngHoward Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-16-10-08-05-pm-pngHoward Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-16-10-09-37-pm-png

  26. #525

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    Nothing new or interesting to report. I'm just popping my head up to let everyone know I'm still here and participating.