The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #526

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    I'm excited about this week. You guys have been great in your dedication and follow through and it'll be great to see what's changed since the first time we looked at these projects and how we see them this week.

    A small aside. A little while ago I talked about how important the warm up routine can be, to warm up the hands, and too, to sharpen the focus and connection between the ears, head, fingers and eye.
    A while ago, Mick and I embarked in a weekly session of life drawing (drawing with a live model) and I learned so much from this time.
    We'd always begin with a series of what we called "gestures", throw away warm up drawings that were designed to limber up the arm, fingers, wrists, establish a sense of space on the page and proportions in movement. They were typically 30 seconds to a minute or two, not much longer; don't think it, don't edit, don't try to make something that's a keeper.

    There are ways to do this musically too. You can pick gestures like a long upward sweep to your notes, a series of sticcatto notes, an arc with a flourish, a short downward sweep from a note in a high register, a short melody in an area of the fingerboard you're not usually used to starting in, some variation of that melody somewhere completely different without thinking about interval accuracy...just to keep your hands moving, the line moving and not looking back.
    It's a minute that gets you away from overthinking.
    You might try this before you start your project work this week. See if you see any kind of difference.
    For kicks.

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  3. #527

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    Just to clarify this week's assignment. Every day will be something different? It won't be 6 days of Cherokee, but with a new brisker target tempo? If that's correct, what tempo should we begin with? Forgive me if all of this will be explained tomorrow. Thanks!

  4. #528

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    Quote Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
    Just to clarify this week's assignment. Every day will be something different? It won't be 6 days of Cherokee, but with a new brisker target tempo? If that's correct, what tempo should we begin with? Forgive me if all of this will be explained tomorrow. Thanks!
    Yup. Begin where you're comfortable. The end of week guideline is for a 132 target. But take it where you're comfortable and be careful not to overpace yourself, at least in the project time.
    Yes we'll use all 6 pieces we've worked on, one each day, applying what we know and what we've learned about these pieces and how we tackle them.
    The lead sheet is as posted. I'll put the new one up each day at the end of the day or you can just scroll back and get them as they were originally posted.
    Post your observations and questions, we'll share our own solutions and praises.

  5. #529

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    Yup. Begin where you're comfortable. The end of week guideline is for a 132 target. But take it where you're comfortable and be careful not to overpace yourself, at least in the project time.
    Yes we'll use all 6 pieces we've worked on, one each day, applying what we know and what we've learned about these pieces and how we tackle them.
    The lead sheet is as posted. I'll put the new one up each day at the end of the day or you can just scroll back and get them as they were originally posted.
    Post your observations and questions, we'll share our own solutions and praises.
    Thank you, JBN! I really appreciate all your invaluable help.

  6. #530

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    I don't know if this is verboten to discuss, but it is easy enough to find .pdf copies of Superchops online to download for free. Not sure what the copyright ramifications are for an out of print book, but I thought I would mention it.

  7. #531

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    Quote Originally Posted by Socraticaster
    I don't know if this is verboten to discuss, but it is easy enough to find .pdf copies of Superchops online to download for free. Not sure what the copyright ramifications are for an out of print book, but I thought I would mention it.
    I have a hard copy but the online one is easier to cut and paste for this thread so I use this resource all the time. I, for one, am grateful and do highly recommend anyone who has the time to read it. It's full of all sorts of tips and his very personal and insightful ideas about creating lines, how to practice, examples of all the projects and discussions about creating vocabulary to try out. Definitely, looking carefully at HR's material in the book can and will help you in the efforts to make you a more complete soloist.
    Howard Roberts - Superchops.pdf - [PDF Document]
    I believe the actual hard copy books are out of print. It's a shame, because becoming a soloist does require a multifaceted skillset that is different with everyone. Howard Roberts was a VERY exceptional player and an excellent teacher. This book offers so much besides the pages I post here.
    Thanks Socraticaster for the mention!

  8. #532

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    Week 7 Day 1. 90BPM. Using the "official" ireal pro backing track. Well that was certainly interesting. First time through this project I was using the standard changes/form for Cherokee. So I wasn't really prepared to tackle HB's take on this classic. The different approach to the chords and the interesting CODA really kept me from getting beyond a rather pedestrian set of choruses. But I got out the otherside in one piece so onward to Db tomorrow!

  9. #533

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    Week 7. Day 1. Cherokee in Bb at 110 bpm. Ah, it was nice to visit an old familiar friend. After struggling with "Angel Eyes" the last couple weeks this was easier to negotiate. Especially in Bb. Felt like some of the ideas I had uncovered weeks ago reappeared in a good way. I could've bumped up the bpm, but I didn't want to overdo it. So are we doing Cherokee in Db tomorrow? Sorry. I'm still a bit confused by this portion of the course.

  10. #534

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    Day 2. Tune a day week. Db Cherokee
    No time to obsess on the piece for more than a day, you should be utilizing a vocabulary that you're building up, mixing it up to make fresh and interesting contrasts and playing with the guidance of your ear.
    Are you noticing a confidence in your ideas, an increasing complexity in the things that you can do? How is it feeling? Are you hungry for new ideas to try out as far as linear vocabulary or are you satisfied with where you are? Read HR's section on the learning curve and plateaus. When you feel a confidence in scales and arpeggios as sound and technique, and develop an ease of moving from one position on the fingerboard to another (don't forget single string playing, up and down the neck), one option will be to use the essential elements of movement and develop a good working proficiency with ornamentation of notes. Let me know if you'd ever want to embark in a discussion of line ornamentation.
    But before we go there, your ear and your fingers, your eye to where you are on the neck and the melodies within each position should be pretty comfortable, even a little boring in their familiarity. Look for places to move on to when you're restless with where you are. This is how it works.
    Here's Tuesday's project. Cherokee based form with harmonic workouts in Db. Have fun!
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-19-2-35-08-am-png

  11. #535

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    JBN, I'd love to hear your take on ornamentation!

  12. #536

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    Quote Originally Posted by guido5
    JBN, I'd love to hear your take on ornamentation!
    I agree with, guido5!

  13. #537

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    Hey, it's Baubles and More today!
    Before you begin on the tune, break the tune into separate landmarks; break up the landscape. Either tonality, section, key areas, "letter" sections... Take a run through without worrying, thinking or trying to find the "correct" notes. They can be total non musical notes, (scratching, tapping, muted notes, chord segments-whatever) and "eaer" your way through a chorus or two paying attention only to where the segments are. Make this an exercise for colouring each distinct section with some kind of free playing. Just a minute's worth or so. Use this to get a feel for the form. Then go back and start your regular project work.
    THis will get your awareness of the form, your movement and accordingly your readiness to make sound in place. Have fun.
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-19-7-53-44-pm-png

  14. #538

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    Is BB&B for day 2 or day 3? I thought were were on day 2 Cherokee in Db...

  15. #539

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    Quote Originally Posted by guido5
    Is BB&B for day 2 or day 3? I thought were were on day 2 Cherokee in Db...
    Me, too!

  16. #540

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    Week 7 Day 1. 90BPM. Cherokee Db. Using the "official" ireal pro backing track. Actually I like where this falls better than the Bb version. Generally felt looser, but still felt somewhat like I was in unfamiliar territory. But I could stay with the changes, even in a somewhat uninspiring fashion. I'd certainly play more interesting lines at a slower tempo but that doesn't seem to be the point... I again feel like I have a vocabulary at my fingertips shortage...

    On to BB&B tomorrow...

  17. #541

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    I was posting for tomorrow (thinking I'd put tomorrow's news out there early). Yeah Tuesday it's Cherokee II and Wednesday is BB. Hey. Frankly, I lost all track of normal time somewhere around early December (is it Christmas yet?) but yes Wednesday new tune.
    I'll also discuss ornamentation and embellished essential tones. I'm putting something together and it'll change the way you look at what you can do!

  18. #542

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    Looking forward to that!

    (Try retirement during a pandemic if you want to loose all sense of time and space...)
    Last edited by guido5; 01-20-2021 at 07:19 AM.

  19. #543

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    Week 7. Day 2 of Cherokee this time in Db at 115 bpm. The first time through took a little adjustment to Db, but then it all started coming back to me. Especially how to approach the 7#11 chords. This has been fascinating to revisit these exercises that we spent so much time on and see that some of that work actually stuck!

  20. #544

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    Week 7 Day 3. 90 BPM. Highly modified BB&B ireal pro backing. Yet another one that I had been playing with a modified version of the actual tune not HR's altered version. I slogged through about 6 choruses of the "official" HR version but then threw in the towel and went to my modified version. I'm sure I'm missing all the value from the lesson but the simpler cleaner version is so much more enjoyable to play over. Instead of struggle it felt like dancing. Interesting ideas and really fun. Best time I have had with the instrument in quite some time...

  21. #545

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    Quote Originally Posted by guido5
    Week 7 Day 3. 90 BPM. Highly modified BB&B ireal pro backing. Yet another one that I had been playing with a modified version of the actual tune not HR's altered version. I slogged through about 6 choruses of the "official" HR version but then threw in the towel and went to my modified version. I'm sure I'm missing all the value from the lesson but the simpler cleaner version is so much more enjoyable to play over. Instead of struggle it felt like dancing. Interesting ideas and really fun. Best time I have had with the instrument in quite some time...
    I'd been considering presenting "graded" versions of these projects, or at least identifying the devices that make up the challenging measures so they can be studied for their detail as well as the joy of the overall form.
    HR does take standard forms, and plant some very hip "land mines" throughout and within them. I'm thinking it'd be good to learn to defuse those mines so they don't detract from the lesson aspect. For instance the projects are filled with tritone substitutions, and reharmonizations of those substitutions. This really opens up one's ears, and challenges one to hear your way through an otherwise straightforward set of original turnarounds. But if your ear can't appreciate the flow of the original, and then hear the same flow re-imagined in a hip sub, then it's not productive, at least to the degree that it could be.
    It's most important that you hear the song form in a way that you can apply yourself and really play with.
    I'd definitely recommend finding the essence of the piece and work towards complexity. That's a good way to use a week's time on a project. This will be really evident in the pieces we will meet next week.
    If you have fun, if you hear it and engage deeply, you're getting it!

  22. #546

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    Bauble-ing in a new location:
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-20-9-43-37-pm-png

  23. #547

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy blue note
    I'd been considering presenting "graded" versions of these projects, or at least identifying the devices that make up the challenging measures so they can be studied for their detail as well as the joy of the overall form.
    HR does take standard forms, and plant some very hip "land mines" throughout and within them. I'm thinking it'd be good to learn to defuse those mines so they don't detract from the lesson aspect. For instance the projects are filled with tritone substitutions, and reharmonizations of those substitutions. This really opens up one's ears, and challenges one to hear your way through an otherwise straightforward set of original turnarounds. But if your ear can't appreciate the flow of the original, and then hear the same flow re-imagined in a hip sub, then it's not productive, at least to the degree that it could be.
    It's most important that you hear the song form in a way that you can apply yourself and really play with.
    I'd definitely recommend finding the essence of the piece and work towards complexity. That's a good way to use a week's time on a project. This will be really evident in the pieces we will meet next week.
    If you have fun, if you hear it and engage deeply, you're getting it!
    For someone going through this path for the first time a slightly less complex take would definitely make the material more accessible. But for me the question boils down to "is the goal to get the harmonic complexity under control or to become more free playing over moving harmony?"
    It's funny, I actually prefer HR's take on Cherokee than the Ray Noble changes, the A sections are way more interesting to play on in the HR version. And given another week to get his BB&B take under my fingers I'd probably do ok with it too. Just dropping in on it cold without preparation is a bit harsh...

  24. #548

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    Some ideas from HR
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-20-9-46-39-pm-pngHoward Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-01-20-9-46-57-pm-png
    There's plenty to choose from here, but let me randomly pick out some ideas to chew on.
    He's in the high registers here. Do you ever avoid the high registers of the instrument?
    Do you tend to play your arpeggios from the root up? Measure 7 has an example of changing direction to shake things up. The effect creates interest and unpredictability. And it sounds good to break a line. It then changes direction and takes the line up again. Try these things with scale lines and arpeggios.
    Measure 11 has a sequence of thirds going up the scale. Great device for advancing a line and setting up a more lyrical passage.
    Measure 13 uses repeated notes to contrast with other notes that move.

    Now you can take these ideas and when you're feeling stale, explore these ideas, make them musical and transmute them into things that are your own.

    Someone told me a story about going to see Coltrane, while he had a week long residence at the Vanguard. He went early in the week. Trane was playing patterns, and it sounded like him practicing scales and scale fragments. It didn't sound inspired at all. Focused and fluid, yes, but inspired or musical, no. So my friend left feeling that he was missing something. On the way out, somebody at the door saw him looking dejected. He said "Come back Friday". That's all he said.
    Friday he came back and there it was, those same patterns had been worked and kneaded, stretched and spun into something that only bore a resemblance to what he'd played Monday. It was so powerful by then that my friend went back Saturday. And Sunday.

    Work it. Keep your ears open. Take one idea and really find out all it holds, and then make it your own.

  25. #549

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    Quote Originally Posted by guido5
    Just dropping in on it cold without preparation is a bit harsh...
    It gets easier. The more acute your ear gets, the more you can have the mental backing track running all the time. All this comes in pieces: Ear, Fingers, Harmonic awareness, Vocabulary. It's non linear. So if you find something that you can grab onto, use it to open up the other aspects.
    If you're playing, If you're moving, If you're coming out of each session having put something of yourself into it, you're doing the right thing.
    I can't overemphasize the importance of warm up and prep. Even in practice. Especially in practice. It carries through to the process you'll find integral to playing your best in performance.

  26. #550

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    Week 7. Day 3 of BBB at 120 bpm. This was definitely a bit challenging. Especially going at it cold. In other words, I didn't spend some time to try and plan out ways to approach the "land mines" as JBN aptly put it. It's always those 7#11 chords that I need to spend a moment with to see how I can best tackle them. I definitely hit some clunkers, but there were some surprisingly nice moments, too. Following Howard's embellished changes can create some wonderful surprises when all goes well. I'm trying to follow my ear more and more. Admittedly I am playing along with iReal Pro and looking at the changes as they go by, but I'm trying to let go of the patterns on the fretboard when possible and follow my ear. Especially over the land mines. Often this ends up being more musical, at least to me.