The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
Reply to Thread Bookmark Thread
Page 28 of 37 FirstFirst ... 182627282930 ... LastLast
Posts 676 to 700 of 907
  1. #676

    User Info Menu

    Week 13 Day 1 Breaking the ice.
    Well coming out of what turned out to be an hour and a quarter of working with project 6-B, I'd say it's feeling really solid. Solid like my fingers are doing things I don't expect them to be able to do.
    But if I have to be honest, I have to say that over 35 minutes of that time were spent feeling like I'd never played the guitar before: Not being able to find my stride, not hearing what I was doing, feeling that everything I played was awkwardly contrived, knowing that my time sense was full of stops, hesitation, stupid things I've done too many times before.
    Something in me though, something that I've gotten good at in these 13 weeks kept saying "Melt the ice. You know there's something you've done that is nothing like this."
    I took a break. Put aside my expectations, listened to a Villa Lobos prelude recording, and returned. Big difference.
    My guitar felt like it had "warmed up" while I was away. It resonated. I listened to the sound and resonance of the guitar. I heard the air between the notes and the sustain of the strings. And I felt my self think rhythmically. And it all fell together. I could envision the line as a whole. I could repeat it. I could vary it melodically and rhythmic emphasis.

    I can't describe how I got there, the key that unlocked the "zone" or even anything that quieted my doubts. But it's a faith I now have everytime I pick up the guitar; the faith that the music will emerge.

    If I'm away from the guitar for more than a day, it takes a long time. If I'm tired, it takes a long time. If I'm distracted, it takes a really long time. And if I doubt myself, give in to frustration, I might not even get there. But somehow the living part of the music lover in me does find my hands, my ear and the map I have of the fingerboard. And when they talk, it feels like the ice has broken.

    Gotta say, the regular routine of this 50 minute session is doing some very unexpected things and showing me things I wouldn't have believed otherwise.

    Maybe I'll play a little more.

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #677

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 1. Very inspiring post from JBN. My experience tonight wasn't as enlightening, but I did enjoy the process more this evening. I let go more. I was more exploratory across the fretboard. I was trying to get more rhythmic. I was playing at 95 bpm, so not blisteringly fast, but I kept the groove going well. That "blues" section is the oddest part of the exercise to me. Especially that plain C major chord. G minor pentatonic always sounds better to my ears than C minor pentatonic or C blues. Anyway, it was a productive night. I was speaking to a musician friend I respect and admire tonight. He really encouraged me to keep going. I certainly intend to!

  4. #678

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 2. I steadily bumped up the bpm to 100 by the third time through. Felt like a lot of more of the same. I was trying to capture more arpeggios, harmonizing Bb major in the first section, grabbing Eb melodic minor over the Ab7b5, etc. That "blues" section still sounds weird to me.

    I searched the internet hoping to find audio or video of someone playing steady 8th note triplets for some inspiration. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything. I feel like it would be helpful to hear how someone else is mixing up the accents to provide some syncopation and different phrasing while locked into a steady barrage of 8th note triplets.

  5. #679

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan

    I searched the internet hoping to find audio or video of someone playing steady 8th note triplets for some inspiration. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything. I feel like it would be helpful to hear how someone else is mixing up the accents to provide some syncopation and different phrasing while locked into a steady barrage of 8th note triplets.
    By removing the melodic content, or at least overtly, we can get some ideas. Sometimes working harder at the foundation level, you can feel where you can't think...if you know what I mean.
    Drummers might give some ideas. I had the great honor of knowing the drummer Alan Dawson (who taught Tony Williams). He was also a vibes player and piano player. His drumming actually sang, and people who played with him were always playing better cuz they heard the melody he was playing through the drums.
    Anyway, see if these feels translate to things you can melodicize.


    Hope this gives you a nice handshake into the challenging world of melodic rhythm.

  6. #680

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 3
    I wound up watching those drumming vids and it's like looking beneath the waves after having lived in a beach house; it's humbling and inspiring.
    I spent a good amount of time formulating a way to phrase lines like a drummer assigns different drums and cymbals to cover different registers. I tried this with dyads, even single lines with chordal accents.
    Wow! This opens up a lot of possibilities. Thinking like a drummer.
    So the first two 10 minute blocks were just getting in the groove with notes in different registers. I have no idea if it sounded like anything or if it was crap, so much was I concentrating on picking out rhythms and groupings.
    The third one through I was playing melodic lines and those rhythm groupings were starting to feel natural. I can feel a real growth in my playing by utilizing rhythmic thinking. There's definitely potential to follow this road a long way.
    ' never would have expected this.
    Thanks D'Aquisto for having so much trouble with this! Great incentive to mine deeper.

  7. #681

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 3. I'm glad my questions about steady 8th note triplets could inspire JBN. Thanks for the videos. I watched them. Definitely some good information there. Especially the second video. But since we aren't supposed to be dropping beats for this exercise some of those examples I'll have to work on outside of Super Chops.

    Tonight was enjoyable. Maybe my headspace was better, but everything flowed more easily. It's ironic, I often find the less I think about what I'm doing the better it is. Or so I believe. It's more interesting. More chances are being taken, etc. I continue to really try and work on rhythm and syncopation. But I must admit sometimes I get caught up in the sheer brute force of keeping the right hand going with those constant 8th note triplets. After a bit I realize I sound a bit like a machine gun and I try to back off and play with more dynamics. Not only is that a good idea, it allows me to rest a bit and avoid building up more tension in my body.

  8. #682

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
    But since we aren't supposed to be dropping beats for this exercise some of those examples I'll have to work on outside of Super Chops.
    I'll but a pedal or a note in the bass to mark the time, a kind of counterpoint with the voices in the higher or middle registers. So there's a note, it's still steady eighths, but the rhythmic patterns are still there. This same idea is what the clave is based on.
    Counterpoint concepts out of metric superimposition and rhythmic patterns. Who would've thought this would have come from working with SuperChops? Yet more unexpected and unanticipated grounds to break.

    These are more modern soloing ideas, but definitely something to explore. When I was doing a weekly duo with Mick, sometimes he'd do a solo with just rhythmic patterns, with muted notes, and I didn't understand what he was doing, it sounded like some kind of morse code to me. One time a drummer was listening and his jaw just dropped; it was like he got the code. But as he went on, he introduced pitches to these rhythms and by the end of the solo he was playing rhythmic, harmonic and melodic counterpoint. I should have recorded those little compositions he made.

  9. #683

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 4. Pretty good session this evening. I was feeling a bit drained from the day when I picked up my guitar. I backed down the bpm a hair to accommodate my slightly sluggish mood. Kept trying to experiment with rhythms. Although truthfully the vast majority of the 30 minutes is keeping those triplets going with an emphasis on the one. I found that when I would slip up for just a second it created some space that allowed me to swing my way back into the 8th note triplets more than I was doing before. So then I tried to find the swing in the groove as much as possible. I attempted to pull off some pedal notes like JBN suggested, especially in larger intervallic leaps. That exposed more of my right hand picking deficiencies. I also tried to think like a drummer as JBN noted. That would center me back to really focusing on the rhythm more than the specific notes.

  10. #684

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 5.
    This was a busy day. I was really tired. There's a lot of that going around. Honestly, I thought I'd rather sleep and skip the routine, but there's something powerful about the inertia of a routine, and that alone got me started.
    I loosened up my fingers on easy things, chromatic movements that didn't sound like music at all (left hand Index, Middle, Ring, Pinky alternating one finger to change string sets each time). When the hand warms up it feels good. That was the first 10 minutes, alternating the chromatic pattern with modal sounds that can be found within. This gave me chromatic modal and it warmed up my fingers.

    I should note here that anybody who works with Super Chops can make up their own "challenges" or "exercises" based on the notes and abilities they have at that point and IF you apply regular steady force with your will, your boundries WILL yield. The only thing between the you you were and the You you can be is the doing, especially when your body, your judgemental self, or your over critical instant gratification bystander self tells you to stop...tells you you CAN stop.

    Second set of 10, I was thinking of "intention" in my notes. Do I want to make a "strong" statement? Do I want to make a gently descriptive statement? Do I want to make a sharply angular statement? Is it time to complete a thought? Is it time to move onto a fresh idea? Intention was the exercise for the rest of the session. Each time I found myself playing something that wasn't intentional, I would go somewhere else unexpected.
    This turned out to be as challenging as breaking in a new dog sled team, but a thoroughly invigourating and satisfying key to a good session. I was tired going in, I felt alert and pumped at the end. And, I'll note, I was thinking rhythmically (even working with triplets).

  11. #685

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 5. Ah, the end of the Monday-Friday work week. I had an excellent session this evening. I felt inspired. I had purpose. I was trying to be as musical as possible and really make lines that I might actually want to play. Lines that swing. Not that I succeeded all the time, but it was inspiring. One thing I'm focusing on as well is releasing tension. That steady onslaught of 8th note triplets can get me to tighten up my shoulders and fatigue my forearms. I forget to breath sometimes, too. I'm really attempting to release that stress for all the obvious reasons. Last day tomorrow. I'm traveling for the first time in a year next week for a couple days, so I plan to get a jump on week 14 Sunday. No rest for the dedicated!

  12. #686

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
    One thing I'm focusing on as well is releasing tension. That steady onslaught of 8th note triplets can get me to tighten up my shoulders and fatigue my forearms. I forget to breath sometimes, too. I'm really attempting to release that stress for all the obvious reasons.
    SO glad to hear you say this. I think this is especially relevant in the context of building up speed and chops. During my time at Berklee, a few very important life lessons came to me from other students. One of them was developing the right physical muscles to enable your body to play better; not necessarily just faster, but better-smoother and with more balance that keeps you in control.
    A friend had the privilege of teaching some of the top jazz guitarists in the world who came to study with him. Almost monthly, he'd be frustrated and angered by some student who didn't heed the warnings about over practicing. It'd cost more in down time and in every case could have been avoided by stretching before playing, avoiding too much sheer repetitive playing, especially in wider stretches, avoiding brute strength "grips" in chording, sitting or standing in a relaxed position, taking breaks or most importantly, backing off at the first signs of pain or tension.
    He had one student who was an extremely adept, dedicated and talented who was obviously putting in the time, yet his playing was always fluid despite his most remarkable high level of proficiency. This was a kid who, as it turns out, was a sort of genius where he grew up in CA but was also very deep into Alexander technique body work, so much that he considered balancing or even giving up his performing to pursue body work. I think in the end, serious awareness of one's body and serious awareness of one's instrument are integral to serious expression with him. It was always an experience to play with Jules, his playing radiated that sheer joy that comes from somewhere much deeper than the hands. This was a great lesson through example.
    As natural as breathing. Great lesson.

  13. #687

    User Info Menu

    Week 13. Day 6. I must say I am very happy to be through the modal phase. Today was good. Last night was better. I continued to focus on my feel and rhythm. I also tried to bring as much awareness as possible to my posture, relaxing muscle tension, etc. To that end, I didn't push the bpm too much. I plan to jump on week 14 tomorrow to make up for a hole in the upcoming week.

  14. #688
    Hello, I would like to join this group. It was with great surprise that I realized studying Super Chops in 20 weeks that on altered chords the scale indicated is simply the diatonic of the tonal center. Many times I come across chords with sharp 9 and 13 and get lost thinking "I have to play the altered scales to stay in tune". This is not true, the tonal center is the key to staying within the chord changes. I intend to follow the lessons and share the experiences in this group.

  15. #689

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by mauriciopcsouza
    Hello, I would like to join this group. It was with great surprise that I realized studying Super Chops in 20 weeks that on altered chords the scale indicated is simply the diatonic of the tonal center. Many times I come across chords with sharp 9 and 13 and get lost thinking "I have to play the altered scales to stay in tune". This is not true, the tonal center is the key to staying within the chord changes. I intend to follow the lessons and share the experiences in this group.
    Welcome! Nice to have someone else jump on board. Look forward to your insights and experiences!

  16. #690

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by mauriciopcsouza
    Hello, I would like to join this group. .
    How exciting! Welcome. I look forward to your being a part of our little family.
    All along I've been hoping there were others following in these 20 weeks. Good to hear from you mauriciopcsouza!
    You've come just in time for the really fun part of the program! We've done the harmony work, fasten your seat belts!

  17. #691

    User Info Menu

    Week 14. Now that we have the layout of the track, time to throw it into the next gear:
    A week of projects we've covered, at a higher speed. Something old, something new
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-03-07-4-27-26-am-pngHoward Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-03-07-4-28-14-am-pngHoward Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-03-07-4-29-24-am-png
    I'll try to include a more in-depth look at each of these daily projects on each day. Each day, evaluate your top speed at this point in your development. Set this threshold not only for how fast you can play, but also for how fast you can think, how accurately you can visualize the entire fingerboard as you shift and how fast you can hear. Know what part of this equation you're weaknesses reside and keep your focus on providing a balance. That's when you will play at your best.

  18. #692

    User Info Menu

    Weekly thought to consider: Play everything by ear.
    Soloing, improvising, composing in real time, no matter what you call it, the moment you form a partnership with the piece you're working on, you're in a dance with the harmonic and melodic character of the song.
    To really engage with the song, you need to know your instrument, have your fingers so comfortable they can move in time without hesitation, establish an intimate awareness of the topography of the piece and MOST IMPORTANTLY, be able to hear content before you move. Yes, it's the ability to play by ear that all the practicing is preparing you for.
    You can practice patterns, or arpeggios, or scales, or licks, or someone else's ideas (inspired by transcription) but none of these things will cut your way through a solo, allow you the freedom to express, make choices that flow, and build, construct and craft a coherent solo if you don't hear the music.

    If you can sing it, you're hearing it. If you can groove with rhythmic integrity and swing, you're hearing it. If you can make a choice among the options available to you, you're hearing it. And HEARING is the way you tame your hand, achieve speed, strength of sound and a solid line in time. This doesn't come from your hand, it doesn't come from just listening to other people playing amazing stuff, and it doesn't come from knowing tons of theory. It comes when a piece reveals something to YOU, something you hear.

    If you can't hear it, you can't play it; well, maybe you can but it'll stop there. Hearing lets you compose in the world of sound.
    Practice so your ear can expand what you know, and when you know it and your fingerboard, your chops will be as limitless as your ability to hear.
    If you really play your instrument, you'll feel this. If you practice mindfully, you'll get it.

  19. #693

    User Info Menu

    Week 14. Day 1. Since I'll be away a couple days in the middle of the week I got a jump on week 14. First, great post from JBN earlier. So true about hearing what we're playing so we can make music with intention rather than allowing our hands to make all the decisions. I wish I could say I was hearing everything I was playing tonight, but that would be untrue. A couple things. I didn't do steady 8th note triplets the first couple weeks they were thrown at us. Probably my mistake. I think I committed to the steady triplets beginning with exercise 5A. So I hadn't played constant triplets over these expanded "ATTYA" changes before. The odd harmonic curveballs that Howard throws our way made things even more challenging. The third time through this evening my memory banks seemed to kick in and I was able to recall some of the ideas I played over the various tritone subs, etc. But Howard's changes remain challenging. Regarding tempos, I'm just not sure how much I'll be able to get beyond what I'm doing. I started off at 90 bpm to refresh myself with the exercise. Then I bumped it up to 100 bpm, but at times I felt sloppy and out of control. Muscle tension started creeping in as well. So the last time through I went down to 98 bpm and that felt better. I don't mean to put a ceiling on myself, but I can't imagine getting anywhere near the target tempo of 144 while playing continuous 8th note triplets. Especially over these changes. Lastly, I really enjoyed having an entire week to devote myself to the exercise at hand. With each passing day I was able to crawl deeper inside the changes. Obviously that won't be the case this week. I realize this is review, but with an exercise as harmonically complex as Howard's version of "ATTYA" more time would always be appreciated!

  20. #694

    User Info Menu

    As we go into the white waters of the last 7 weeks:
    From here to the end, we won't be encountering any new forms in the projects, but rather really working with the very wide variety of song types offered, and integrating them into our own playing with increasingly useful and by our own choice, increasingly challenging real time chops building.
    So I thought it's a great time to take an overall macro to micro look at the layers of playing a piece with some practice ideas.
    I see any piece of music as a journey. It can be as easy as a walk in the park if you've done it a million times, or it can be climb to the top of Everest if it's the first time OR if you look at it as composing something extraordinary for the first time. But either way seeing the plan is the key.
    It'll make soloing much easier, more sophisticated and this knowledge will make getting "off book" way easier.
    So I'll break my process into pieces and then take that process and apply it to our Project 4-A visit.

    A piece and ultimately a personalization of that piece into something new (solo) is always a respectful partnership with the harmonic DNA of the piece. That harmony is the geography, the topography, the lay of the land that we will landscape and remodel.
    The DIATONIC harmony is at the core. Identifying the key areas is my first step. It tells me where, when and how to prepare shifts in my ear, hands and conceptual arc. Within a key area, there are always options you have to reharmonize freely. Some common interchangeable chords are:
    I III- VI- are tonic chords. They share many of the triadic notes. That's why sometimes a standard will return to the I chord and the HR project will have a III chord written in.
    II- and IV chords are similarly known as subdominant chords and function in a sibling way.
    VII-7b5 and V7 chords are of a dominant quality. They are the crucial descriptor, adjective and compellingly moving chords that are at the core of Secondary Dominant movement and the all pervasive tritone substitution HR is so fond of.

    Study tips: learn your harmony in roman numerals. It puts you in touch with the harmony in a universal and personal perspective. It's also crucial to thinking of the landscape as something you can really solidly build on in real time.

    Diatonic chords can often be used as harmonic fills you can create harmonic melody from. This is really handy when you're providing complementary chordal material when comping. Soloists will love you if you can do this well.

    After I am on solid ground with the topography of the land, I take not of the features of the landscape and how they are brought to life by the flora and fauna that live on it. In music terms, these are the realm of DOMINANT FUNCTION CHORDS. Mauriciopcsouza, this is partly an answer to your question in post 688.
    Dominant or 7th chords are ways that you can make any diatonic chord more interesting. You partner a chord with a dominant chord a 4th below (G7 up to C) or a fifth above (G7 down to C) or a whole step below (Bb7 up to C) or our tritone sub progression (Db7 down a half step to C). These work with the diatonic harmony to make the journey three dimensional. These are the spices that make a good piece of food into a memorable dish. There are many scale choices that go into putting together a powerful dominant chord vocabulary, like there are many words that make an eloquent speaker.

    Lydian dominant often finds use as a tritone sub half step down chord.
    Mixolydian variations with b9 and/or b13 often finds use resolving to a minor.
    Mixolydian altered, or symmetrical scales like whole tone (Monkish sound) or diminished scale can go with anything with great effect IF YOU HEAR IT.

    Suggestion: Pick a dominant scale and a resolution point and practice it as a loop until you can really hear it musically. The danger of dominant chords is players use them without hearing them. I mean you can't just know the notes and plug them in; you have to work with them until you find the special notes that SAY something. That takes time and an open ear. Put in this time and you will play more effectively with fewer notes. You'll say volumes in one triplet. Make dominant chord understanding a priority and you'll sound like you're saying something.

    Between diatonic harmony and dominant chord approaches, that pretty much gives me a solid take on any solo journey. I see and hear what's coming up and I can make the choices that make each solo a challenge and a satisfying and expressive composition.

  21. #695

    User Info Menu

    Project 4-A and ATTYA as seen through the analytical filter:
    Diatonic Key areas
    Ab bars 1-5
    C bars 6-8
    Eb bars 9-13
    G bars 14-20
    E bars 21-23
    A bar 24, though actually more like a chromatic passing chord
    Ab bars 25-36
    note that bars 7-8 contain a diatonic group of chords that creates movement but works in the key.

    Dominant Areas
    Tritone Dominants coming down from 1/2 step above:
    Measure 4
    Measure 6
    Measure 12
    Measure 14
    Measure 16
    (Measure 24)
    Measure 27
    Measure 32
    You'll notice there are a LOT of these. That's why you learn this tool intimately, so you can meet these passages creatively.

    I'll get into modal interchanging and some more tasty functional tools in future posts. This should give you some maybe helpful things to think about for today's project. These tools will serve you for all the things we do from here on out.
    Hope it's useful!

  22. #696

    User Info Menu

    Here's Tuesday's project. The form is familiar, the keys are different. Ready. Set...
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-03-08-9-04-37-pm-png

  23. #697

    User Info Menu

    Week 14. Day 2. I crammed in a double session this evening. I did 4B before dinner and 5A after dinner. My left forearm is exhausted. It feels weak and tingly. Probably not a good sign. Interestingly my right hand is holding up well from a physical standpoint, but my left forearm is suffering. I also spend a lot of time typing at the keyboard during the day, which doesn't help. Anyway, it was a good session. For me this is more of a physical exercise to some degree than a creative line constructing exercise. At least, if I'm going to keep the steady triplets going, which I'm doing. I pushed 5A up to 110, but I fell apart frequently, so I backed off a bit. I may try to tackle 5B and 6A tomorrow so I don't fall behind while I'm away later in the week.

  24. #698

    User Info Menu

    Week 14 Day 3 Wednesday
    Revisiting the diatonic and dominant relationship: Blues for Alice plus
    Howard Roberts Super Chops: study group for a tune based practice routine-screen-shot-2021-03-09-5-12-39-pm-png
    Take this at the speed you're in control with.
    Look the piece over before you jump in. Establish where you're working in the harmonized scale, take a look at where the dominant chords preceed those areas, put them in your mind and if possible, hear these and play by ear, off book.
    If that means a few run through with just the chords (comping) then yes, that's an excellent way to refamiliarize yourself.

    Here's a suggestion. Play the root of the diatonic chords on the guitar, also play a simple chord for the dominant sections...and sing a solo. This is the best way to gauge if you have the music in you. Don't worry, you're not Stevie Wonder or Eddie Jefferson, but just get your imagination and your ear working together. That's best done with a sung line, no guitar to save you. When you can hear your line, you play it.
    That's the goal to strive for.

  25. #699

    User Info Menu

    Week 14. Day 3. I turned to 5B tonight. I think these Blues For Alice changes are my favorite to work with in the program. It's easier for me to
    get off book and really internalize the changes. Especially since we don't have 6 days to play them. I felt the lines flowing nicely and creatively. I tried to follow my ear as much as possible as opposed to just letting my hands dictate everything.

    I'm out for the next couple days. I'll be back to finish 6A and 6B over the weekend.

  26. #700

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by D'Aquisto Fan
    Week 14. Day 3. I turned to 5B tonight. I think these Blues For Alice changes are my favorite to work with in the program. .
    Me too. One key. Secondary dominants and tritone subs all in one neat tune. Work on these these things individually, put them together in a tune like this and in a lot of ways, you've got it all in one ball of wax.
    I also like it because with the ostensibly simple form, I can hear what's coming up easier, and challenge myself NOT to do what I might be heading for.
    Practicing spontaneity