JGBE Virtual Jam (Round 30) - Sister Sadie

**TOMMO** · 08-10-2021, 05:23 AM

Originally Posted by ragman1

I had great trouble not launching into a lot of bluegrass stuff as it's in G.

Why not? Would be an interesting twist....

**ragman1** · 08-10-2021, 05:56 AM

Different planet :-)

**Peterson** · 08-10-2021, 07:25 AM

This is way too fast for me. I need two towels, one to hide under and one to and throw in

**TOMMO** · 08-10-2021, 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by Peterson

This is way too fast for me. I need two towels, one to hide under and one to and throw in

Thanks for posting nonetheless - takes some guts to expose one's weaknesses. If something is to fast for me (and I'm not fast myself) I slow down the backing in audacity to where I'm halfway comfortable. and go from there.

**ragman1** · 08-10-2021, 08:30 AM

Peterson -

I don't think the head's too fast for you. You played the first bit perfectly, twiddles included. The rest of it died because, I suspect, you simply didn't know them properly.

Soloing, of course, is a different ball game.

**Triple_Jazz** · 08-10-2021, 11:15 AM

Nice takes so far! I’ve been ill and finally found a moment to try this one out. I like the “out” theme as discussed earlier and some of you put into your take. I made the mistake of trying to play out intentionally and it doesn’t sound very good “you’ll hear it”! I used to play this one on double bass years ago and loved playing it, I found it easy and fun creating fresh lines but guitar it’s a different animal. I tried to make it interesting for two chorus however my phone ran out of storage and it cuts out abruptly at the end.

**ragman1** · 08-10-2021, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by Triple_Jazz

my phone ran out of storage

Yeah, yeah, now I've heard it all. Nice out sounds :-)

**ragman1** · 08-10-2021, 06:37 PM

I think we'll forget bad videos (mine, not yours). Up to speed, nothing fancy.

**TOMMO** · 08-11-2021, 02:22 AM

Originally Posted by ragman1

I think we'll forget bad videos (mine, not yours). Up to speed, nothing fancy.

Now that was fast for you! Swinging!

**ragman1** · 08-11-2021, 03:25 AM

Actually it's deceptive. If the backing is one strum per beat it seems faster. This one's only marginally faster than the first one I did but that backing rhythm was different.

This one is the same speed as the Horace Silver version on You Tube. That seems to chase along but it's not that fast.

**Peterson** · 08-11-2021, 08:32 AM

It’s hard to make the A sections interesting. Even more so at a lower tempo

**John A.** · 08-11-2021, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Peterson

It’s hard to make the A sections interesting. Even more so at a lower tempo

I think we all kind of have to chalk this tune up as a lesson learned for dealing with long sections of one chord and AABA's and that don't have a whole lot of harmonic cues, and not beat ourselves up over not having sounded our best (certainly the case with me; compliments notwithstanding, what I played seems pretty lame to me). It's very hard to play these, especially outside of a band context where players can pick up on elements other than the changes to navigate a form, and use dynamics and interaction to create interest. What we're doing on these threads certainly has a lot of value in terms of exposing each other to tunes we might not otherwise play and breaking out of the some of the ruts we can fall into with GASB tunes, but it has it's limitations, which this kind of tune brings front and center.

**TOMMO** · 08-11-2021, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Another pretty easy form.

Originally Posted by TOMMO

Easy form - yes but it's not that easy to not slip into noodling mode when playing over 16 bars of a static dominant 7 chord....

Don't say I didn't warn you....

**wzpgsr** · 08-11-2021, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by Peterson

It’s hard to make the A sections interesting. Even more so at a lower tempo

That sounded good. I’m in no position to criticize Horace Silver, but I think he probably broke some ancient law about too many uninterrupted bars of G7.

**TOMMO** · 08-11-2021, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by wzpgsr

That sounded good. I’m in no position to criticize Horace Silver, but I think he probably broke some ancient law about too many uninterrupted bars of G7.

Breaking ancient laws - isn't that part of what made jazz become jazz?

**ragman1** · 08-11-2021, 11:43 AM

playing over 16 bars

Except each chorus has two sets of 16. And if there's more than one chorus there's 32 every time a new one starts. Except when you play the melody again.

The interesting thing is the melody itself doesn't sound repetitive. Clever, that.

**Reg** · 08-11-2021, 12:51 PM

Just a few possibilities... when soloing, Don't just noodle on G7... at least think of each 8 bars as 4 x 2 bar sections...

ll G13 / D7#9 / l / G713 / D7#9 Ab7#11 ll G13 / D7#9 / l G13 / Ab13 / ll
(use rhythmic accent on last Ab13 to set up repeat of next 4 bars.

Then repeat but change last bar to set up the next "A" section. So now you have an rhythmically and harmonically organized use of the "A" section.... once you establish a pattern or Shape to what your going to solo on, your improve can also follow that organization, or at least you've now established a "REFERENCE" from which you can start working from and develop.

The point is ... your not going to just noddle or use melodic development for improv.... that approach just sucks generally for audiences unless your really good, which generally means.... you already have improv techniques, shape organization and the performance thing already together.

I'm using changes just for establishing the basic reference... how one might organize the space.

For the Bridge...
1st four bars are just Blues... IV and back to I

For next four bars...C7 can be straight... The approach B7 can be an approach to Maybe F-9 to Bb13, (instead of just Bb7) and generally the A7 is altered from Har. Min. ... anything but Mixo and obviously the Ab7#11 or D7#9 is from MM.
I'm not trying to push CST BS... but there are very standard used patterns of what extensions are used in common chord patterns for reasons...

Anyway... good luck
Reg

**Little Jay** · 08-11-2021, 04:28 PM

Wanted to compare my ES-125 to my DIY Cooper ES-330, so I thought I might play Sister Sadie as well then! I took the faster backing track (and I noticed it’s indeed faster than I am comfortable with…).

Recorded with an SM58 in front of the speaker of my Framus Strato 345 tube amp. Both the mic and the backing track playing on my laptop go into a little mixing console. Through the out of the mixer it goes via an iRig into my iPhone. I had to keep volumes low and the iPhone recordes all at once, so I can’t edit the audio anymore and have to balance the volumes by ear on the mixer.

Anyway, here’s two new takes on my part!

**TOMMO** · 08-12-2021, 03:29 AM

Originally Posted by Little Jay

Wanted to compare my ES-125 to my DIY Cooper ES-330, so I thought I might play Sister Sadie as well then! I took the faster backing track (and I noticed it’s indeed faster than I am comfortable with…).

Recorded with an SM58 in front of the speaker of my Framus Strato 345 tube amp. Both the mic and the backing track playing on my laptop go into a little mixing console. Through the out of the mixer it goes via an iRig into my iPhone. I had to keep volumes low and the iPhone recordes all at once, so I can’t edit the audio anymore and have to balance the volumes by ear on the mixer.

Anyway, here’s two new takes on my part!

Enjoyed both of them Jay! The ES 125 seems to have a little more "bite" to it to my ears.

**Little Jay** · 08-12-2021, 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by TOMMO

Enjoyed both of them Jay! The ES 125 seems to have a little more "bite" to it to my ears.

Thanks! Yes, the 125 has a bit more ‘ploc’ in the tone in this (hasty and technically imperfect) recording. But I recorded the 125 with a slightly higher input gain, could also be that and I played with the tone knobs on the guitars as well. When I play them, the 330 comes across as the brighter guitar.

**John A.** · 08-12-2021, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by Little Jay

Wanted to compare my ES-125 to my DIY Cooper ES-330, so I thought I might play Sister Sadie as well then! I took the faster backing track (and I noticed it’s indeed faster than I am comfortable with…).

Recorded with an SM58 in front of the speaker of my Framus Strato 345 tube amp. Both the mic and the backing track playing on my laptop go into a little mixing console. Through the out of the mixer it goes via an iRig into my iPhone. I had to keep volumes low and the iPhone recordes all at once, so I can’t edit the audio anymore and have to balance the volumes by ear on the mixer.

Anyway, here’s two new takes on my part!

You seem to be keeping up just fine and did a great job of bringing out the form and not falling into the endless-noodling-over-G7 trap. Both guitars sound really good, but to me the 125 sounded a little better. The blend between track and guitars sounded fine to me. If it were a more serious recording with a real band, I'd say the guitar levels were maybe a little high, but against a canned backing track it usually works better to have the backing track a little more in the background, as you have it here.

**Little Jay** · 08-12-2021, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by John A.

You seem to be keeping up just fine and did a great job of bringing out the form and not falling into the endless-noodling-over-G7 trap. Both guitars sound really good, but to me the 125 sounded a little better. The blend between track and guitars sounded fine to me. If it were a more serious recording with a real band, I'd say the guitar levels were maybe a little high, but against a canned backing track it usually works better to have the backing track a little more in the background, as you have it here.

Thanks! To me it felt a bit rushed in the timing sometimes, but when I hear it back it’s better than I thought, haha (usually it’s the other way around