The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51

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    Yea...nice posts and playing. John.. thanks for comments. I would say that the version I posted was just what I liked at that moment, If I was on a gig and playing different version or feel... I would play in that style, do my best to help the ensemble play the tune and entertain the audience in that Moment.

    I'll post the comping video I made just before the improv vid.... I believe one should be able to also improv while comping... It's loose and because of the rhythm style... not in the pocket, and I was mentally just making a Head arrangement for the Moment. And also trying to enjoy that moment...anyway I'll post it. And sure I'll start playing again... post new examples.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #52

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    Here's one more. Usual meandering thing but... no bass. Jeff will love it


  4. #53

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    Kris, beautiful lines and tone. Really like the "straight" feel too.

  5. #54

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    Kris, beautiful lines and tone. Really like the "straight" feel too.
    Thank you Jeff
    This piece is not easy to improvise.
    I mean the form of the piece.
    I mean building long phrases - you have to be under control all the time.

  6. #55

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    Of course it bloody does! So would an interface and a real bass guitar. Unfortunately I haven't got them. Why do you think I have to submit this crap?

    Sorry, it's a thing, as Christian would say. I live with it. And have to impose it on you lot, for which I am daily sorry. Don't ask me why, I could tell you.

    Definition of a bore: someone you ask 'How are you?' and they start telling you :-)
    Rags, I didn't realize you were stuck recording in such a bare-bones way. Thanks for trying to get it to sound better to (some of) our tastes, but it does seem a bit futile, so apologies for shoving you down this rabbit hole.

    John

  7. #56

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    Ronstuff: another good one. I like the motivic development. It feels like "melody" not "making the changes".

    Kris: another good one, and a similar observation to what I say about Ron's. Very enjoyable, and the strat sounds great.

    John

  8. #57

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    Of course it bloody does! So would an interface and a real bass guitar. Unfortunately I haven't got them. Why do you think I have to submit this crap?

    Sorry, it's a thing, as Christian would say. I live with it. And have to impose it on you lot, for which I am daily sorry. Don't ask me why, I could tell you.

    Definition of a bore: someone you ask 'How are you?' and they start telling you :-)
    Sorry I bothered to ask.

  9. #58

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    Any more gear talk and I'm calling "Countdown" next week.


  10. #59

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    Any more gear talk and I'm calling "Countdown" next week.

    Attachment 80045Dolphin Dance is great.

  11. #60

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    Any more gear talk and I'm calling "Countdown" next week.

    Should I use chorus non that? Which OD pedal do you think would work best? ;-)

    John

  12. #61

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    Quote Originally Posted by John A.
    Rags, I didn't realize you were stuck recording in such a bare-bones way. Thanks for trying to get it to sound better to (some of) our tastes, but it does seem a bit futile, so apologies for shoving you down this rabbit hole.

    John
    It's okay, I thought that. No, I'm just stuck in a room with a computer and an acoustic. It doesn't matter, I quite enjoy it, it's peaceful :-)

  13. #62

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    Sorry I bothered to ask.
    Don't take offence, I was just blowing off steam. Nothing poisonal

    No, naturally it would be better with good equipment but it's expensive, requires space, and can still go horribly wrong. And, since my gigging days are pretty well over, the whole thing's rather academic.

    I think we just carry on now. The tunes are coming thick and fast. Countdown next. And it's only Saturday!

  14. #63

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    Rag, I don't think your sound is crap.

    Like I said before, it sounds vintage--like a time capsule--and yet still earthy and of this time. I don't sound like that. No one else on this thread has that sound--though there's been really impressive playing all around. That sound is your fingerprint:



    Truer words couldn't be spoken any better. I won't call him McBreezy because I don't know him like that... wish I did ... but McBride says it best.

    Listen to what Julian Lage pulls out of a dreadnaught guitar. No amp, no reverb... nothing to hide behind. That's challenging.

    I don't have a Gibson or Guild (I wish I had an artist award like Reg, James Chirillo has a beauty of a Guild as well). Maybe one day I'll own one. I'd get there faster if I didn't have an addiction to buying more music... For now, I make what I got sound as great as it can sound. Then when I get a new guitar... I gotta put that work in all over again But you can't buy a new fingerprint. I mean... unless we wanna go all SciFi. I'll talk Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick any day of the week. Throw in some Arthur C. Clarke and we've got ourselves a PAR-TAHHH

    Keep posting Rags. Keep pushing.

    And I'll get back to getting this tune into my ears and under me fingers. Almost. By the end of the Weekend PST, I will post no matter what I gotta keep on keeping on with the jazz learning. Keeps me moving forward. And... unlike all the paperwork I do at work, I can actually see progress and evidence of my efforts. See? That work song lyric wasn't all fun and games. Maybe it was a plea?
    Last edited by PickingMyEars; 03-13-2021 at 03:50 PM.

  15. #64

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    Lol, we're not doing Countdown.

  16. #65

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    Countdown - great tune.


  17. #66

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    Comins GCS-1, ME80 (adding reverb only), Little Jazz. Irealpro backing track through a KB150. Recorded into the phone. Second take.

    The challenge of this tune, for me, is to transcend the tendency to think of the harmony as strung together sections.




  18. #67

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    Not gonna lie—this tune intimidates the hell out of me. That's all for now.

  19. #68

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    Here's the take:



    Here's the "inspiration":

    Bluto : [discussing a "dolphin centric" SAT test] Humans rule! Dolphins can suck it!
    Woman : Those tests should be burned, and then banned, and then burned again!
    Alderman : Hear hear!
    Leo : [a Jimmy Stewart parody] What, what, are we back in Nazi Germany? We should befriend the dolphins! Instead you're acting like a bunch of Hitlers! A lot of you even look like Hitler! Joe smells like Hitler. Barney Riggly, the postmaster colonal himself, he sneezes like Hitler!
    Postmaster : [German voice] I do not!
    [sneezes like Hitler]
    Alderman : How is it you know so much about Hitler?
    Leo : Well, I'm a big fan!


  20. #69

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    This was a CHALLENGE to learn. Still learning it. Bringing me back to the work I had to put into Stablemates... almost a year's worth to scratch the surface.

    I agree with RP, the challenge was to hear the harmony as a complete tune and not as a series of key changes and progressions. I do have to brag a bit here. My goal was to be able to sing a C note at the end of the tune. I wanted to see if I kept the home key in mind cause this tune travels from C to shining C... oh that would have worked better verbally.

    I went to the piano and played the melody. I sang the melody against root motion. Heck, I sang the melody in the shower.

    Another HUGE error. Okay, Mr. B even talked about those first 4 measures of the tune. I thought that was an intro or interlude... Not the start of the melody

    Still working at this tune, but at least I still have my dad humor The quote is from Upright Citizen's Brigade. Who here is a fan?

  21. #70

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    Lol, we're not doing Countdown.
    I know :-)

  22. #71

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    Okay gonna post again cause I just gave RP's take another listen

    Holy SHYTE, that sounded great. No joke. I heard melodic development, dynamics, blues, groove, chordal stuff...

    You were able to do all that on THIS tune?!? This isn't So What. This isn't even Night Dreamer. This is a tune where you have to have to your shite together to sound believable. However you practice and prepped, hats off. Actually, how did you practice the tune? Just curious about a little of your process.

    Might be one of your strongest takes since we started this ol' jam session.

    Okay, I gotta get back to the shed with a take like that. No more Spinal Tap and UCB jokes

  23. #72

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    Quote Originally Posted by PickingMyEars
    Okay gonna post again cause I just gave RP's take another listen

    Holy SHYTE, that sounded great. No joke. I heard melodic development, dynamics, blues, groove, chordal stuff...

    You were able to do all that on THIS tune?!? This isn't So What. This isn't even Night Dreamer. This is a tune where you have to have to your shite together to sound believable. However you practice and prepped, hats off. Actually, how did you practice the tune? Just curious about a little of your process.

    Might be one of your strongest takes since we started this ol' jam session.

    Okay, I gotta get back to the shed with a take like that. No more Spinal Tap and UCB jokes
    Thanks for the kind words.

    I've played this tune occasionally over the years and, tbh, never felt that I understood it. I'm still not sure I do, but I've been through it enough times that it has started "sounding right". I reached the point where I can hear the melody in the back of my mind as I solo.

    As far as the technical details -- I know the chord tones of every chord in the tune, without having to think about them. So, that's the safety net. I can hear most of the changes and find the notes without thought, except for the Abmaj9#11 and Abm7, so for those I consciously thought about chord tones. My notion is that if you stick with chord tones it may not be music, but it won't be clam chowder either.

    I didn't practice it, other than having discarded my first take. I played the chords on the fly, mostly by ear. I remembered a chord I used before for Dmaj7/E ... which was, low to high, C E F# B, followed by C E G B. You could call it Cmaj7#11/E to Cmaj7/E, if the bassist is actually playing an E pedal. It puts a C note in where the chart says Dmaj7, but I think it sounds good.

    As I played it, mostly I was thinking about trying to make my time-feel as snappy (for want of a better word) as Reg's. Every note he plays has such a good time-feel. I can't do it, but I come closest when I keep it in the front of my mind.

  24. #73

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    Here's one more. Usual meandering thing but... no bass. Jeff will love it

    I like the relaxed feel, the sense of space, the acoustic quality of the tone, the ideas and the fact that you always sound like you. Somebody once said, you have a style when your mother can tell it's you on the radio. I think you've got that.

  25. #74

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    rp -

    You wouldn't be the first person to say they didn't understand this type of music. To the mind accustomed to the usual sort of tune it is indeed mystifying.

    Personally, if you don't mind my saying so, I don't think there's anything to understand in that sense. The composers have written a melody and put certain harmonies with it - or maybe the harmonies came first, who knows? But there it is. It only seems confusing because it doesn't follow the usual flow of traditional tunes. But, of course, if it's carefully done, there's no reason why it should. Probably the first abstract art was met with the same struggle to understand it by traditional artists.

    One has, I think, to absorb these sorts of tune as a sound experience, if that makes sense. Rather like watching a movie which is more centred on the visual experience of light, shade and colour rather than portraying a consecutive narrative of events.

    If one listens to the professional soloists they're not usually playing flowing scalar lines, such as we're used to, it's more a presentation of sounds, atmospheres, musical colours. A lot depends on the skill of the composer, of course. Some of these tunes are exquisite, some not so good.

    There are certain tricks one can use to produce this effect. For example, over a 7sus chord one might usually play from the ii of the chord - i.e. Dm over G7sus. But play the Am pentatonic over it and there's quite a different effect. Playing from the 5th of a minor chord - i.e. G minor over Cm - also has an effect, it makes for a floating m9 sound. And so on. These sounds aren't supposed to be melodic in the usual linear sense, rather they're a sort of colour picture of sound.

    There's also the temptation to try to find theoretical connections between disparate chords... but there may not be any. That particular sound may just have appealed to the composer because they liked or wanted it there and for no other reason. I don't know why, for example in Dolphin Dance, the chords go Gmaj7 - Abm/Db7 - Fm7. Don't ask me! Nor do I think it matters in the slightest. It is what it is. So one just has to play it. I don't know if you've heard Bill Evans' version of Dolphin Dance, his solo is really unconnected. He does it very well, of course, but even so.



    So I don't think there's any great mystery for the intellect to struggle with, it's simply a different kind of musical presentation - which one either likes or not, of course. But there's usually just enough of a recognisable form to satisfy our need for structure - a rhythm, a theme, some repetition, and so on. So, basically, when I approach one of these tunes I'm thinking of presenting an overall effect rather than a tune.

    Something like that anyway. Actually, in many ways it is more akin to many kinds of classical music than, say, songs, jazz or otherwise. Listening to a symphony or concerto is more that kind of experience, the music simply flows over the listener. The difference with this music is that it's much shorter, condensed, and involves immediate improvisation by the players.

  26. #75

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    Rp, id say you sound quite comfortable...really put together a nice set of choruses there.

    Picking, not a bad take at all. I hear you return to the melody when it gets to that Eb9#11, and I thought, what a perfect place to enforce it. I like how it never sounds like you're chasing changes.