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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
That makes perfect sense to me. If you can put the music in front of you just by whipping out a large-ish phone, why not? Seems some want to use how many songs you have memorized as a metric for where you're at in the progression of becoming a jazz guitar player. Might have been true at one time. However technology has transcended that requirement. IMHO, memorization is a natural process. If you play/practice a tune a lot, you memorize it. If not, just choose it on a menu and run with it. Allows practice time to be spent on more important things.
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01-11-2021 05:17 PM
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In the early ‘90s I would take a Mac Plus with a primordial version of Band-in-a-Box to a “solo” gig at a hotel bar every Friday night. I had entered a bunch of jazz and pop tunes with my own changes and substitutions and saved them in playlists. Big tips ensued. Previously I was just doing the strumming guy singer thing with an acoustic guitar - close to my least favorite musical context. It was more fun to play with my robot backing band. Now Band-in-a-Box sounds better than a lot of guys in your contact list.
iReal Pro is tolerable, but really, if you’re going to do a lot of practicing at home on your own, Band-in-a-Box is worth the money - less than you would spend on a group of good players to back you for one night.
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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The restaurant jam was run by Tony Peebles, a great player and gracious jam host.
Tony has, I believe, a Grammy with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra.
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Originally Posted by ronjazz
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Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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In I’ve posted this elsewhere but this is good advice on how to make iReal more of a helpful practice tool
The last year have been interesting in light of my previous comments. I’ve obviously had few gigs. Heres where I’m at:
1) I’ve forgotten loads of tunes
2) I’ve learned quite a few tunes and then forgotten them again
3) I now REALLY HATE backing tracks of any kind, human or machine. The idea of playing with another one makes me sort of depressed and like I’d rather not play. I don’t think I’m alone in this; after a year of basically no gigs, my friend (a great sax player) said ‘I want to murder Jamie Aebersold.’ I think this might be a little harsh, but I sympathise.
Drum Genius saves my life. It’s fun to play with.
4) I hate chord symbols even more than I did 2 years ago; but I do know how to read them.... that’s nothing to do with the Rona; just changing the way I view tunes and harmony.
Hmm, I sound a bit uncompromising above don’t I?
Well each to their own. While I think my points are correct, and represent general frustration with the way real books etc have come to dominate jazz teaching and practice, I think massive projection on my part obviously, these days I’m a bit more chilled out.
@ronjazz, yes, a good musician can swing on iReal. Is there value in practicing that? I would have to be convinced to make myself go through the torture haha.
For a pro on a gig, iReal is nice to use to try out an unfamiliar tune, with intention of learning it later. I don’t know what people use it for in terms of practice though. I use it for checking my work and comparing when learning a tune, and practicing reading charts.
For the less experienced I think I was somewhat concerned with the way people view jazz now; as the realisation of chord symbols. At least the old Real Book had the melodies....
Anyway I don’t think I said anything terribly controversial above, everyone I know who is a good straightahead player says pretty much the same thing, but I get it if people are annoyed by the tone lol.Last edited by christianm77; 01-16-2021 at 11:01 AM.
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Originally Posted by christianm77
I’m an older guy, in my late 50s, so I don’t want to go “get off my lawn” on these young players. But I think they are missing something important by using a source that doesn’t include the melody. I came up in the Real Book era, which has its own shortcomings, but at least when someone called a tune I could see the tune, and often I would make a note to really learn it later if it seemed intriguing or likely to come up again.
Probably the most educational gig I ever had was a weekly weekend restaurant duo gig with a pianist who - on this gig - played nothing but standards from memory, and never stopped during the set, we played continuously for 45-50 minutes - no time for flipping though Real Book pages. As we reached the final chord of a tune, he would ask something like “Do you know ‘Sometime Ago’?”. I often would answer “No.” He would reply with a wry smile “You will.” and launch into an introduction. I don’t think my attention has ever been that focused since and I learned a lot of great tunes.
That being said, I think iReal Pro and Band in a Box can be useful practice tools, but they are not reference works.Last edited by BickertRules; 01-16-2021 at 03:23 PM.
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I use Irealpro regularly for practice.
13 repeats, key change by a 4th every chorus.
Play the head. Solo and comp in every key. The idea is to get past having to think about the names of the chords. And, that works pretty well.
I use bossa and swing rhythms and I find them adequate for my purpose.
I use it with bass full up, drums clearly audible and a little bit of piano.
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Originally Posted by BickertRules
These days, I don’t know nearly as much repertoire as I would like, but what I know is more honest; based on the music not some second hand rendering of it into notation.
And the jazz musicians I look up to, young and old, all do it the honest way. Plus it just makes you a better, more listening musician. There’s no downside...
For myself I regret the wasted time, which is why I am a bit evangelical about all of this.
But honestly as with many things it depends on cohort and environment. I know many young student musicians who regard iReal with contempt. I think it’s that desire many young players have to connect with an actual musical tradition instead of symbols and numbers.
(OTOH jazz can end up being just historical recreation if you go too far with that... and people get dogmatic and culty about it.)Last edited by christianm77; 01-17-2021 at 07:36 AM.
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just to play devils advocate for a minute ....
I’ve learned a lot of how harmony ‘functions’ by looking at (good)chord symbols to tunes
you have all the alterations notatable F7b13 etc
and you also have slash chords C/Bb etc
it’s quite a powerful system ....
and with a bit of roman numeral analysis
it chimes in with how my mind works
I think , that’s just me
(I’m baffled by figured bass WTF ???)
of course it doesn’t show Rhythms
I’m a very slow music reader
but I do like standard notation for rhythms
even though it doesn’t show ‘feel’ or
‘swing’
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Originally Posted by chancho
I have been using it for years.
I use it learn songs, teach songs, and practice.
I have it as a backing track, a writing tool, an arranging tool, a rehearsal tool.
It is all that !!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I used iReal to make all the chord sheets for the theatre tour of an Amy Winehouse tribute band and everybody loved it (I made them for the drummer, bassist, pianist and myself). Very practical that you’ll find most songs on their forum, which can save you some work (but I always have to edit the sheets I find, either to correct them - lots of mistakes - or to make a more logical and useful layout).
Last edited by Little Jay; 07-28-2021 at 04:20 PM.
Transcriber wanted
Today, 04:35 PM in Improvisation