Practicing phrasing at home - Donna Lee, Cherokee

**Soco** · 02-24-2012, 02:19 PM

Nice playing!

**kolio_k** · 01-19-2015, 06:10 PM

Jamming on Stella by Starlight

Thanks a lot for listening!

**Takemitsu** · 01-19-2015, 06:44 PM

The day I post my playing on this website just got projected very far in the future. Great playing!!!

**princeplanet** · 01-26-2015, 01:17 AM

All that needs to be done from here in order to take on the world of modern Bop guitar is to play less here and there. But with those chops and clean technique you should be the envy of most players on this forum, yes even the advanced ones!

Not sure why you're not getting many comments here, but then again, I'm not sure why you'd even need to see any reactions on this forum. There's not much advice you need to hear from us! Maybe write some original tunes, put a band together and record / release something? Sounds like you're ready.

Best of luck to you.

**kolio_k** · 01-27-2015, 04:00 AM

Thank you both for the nice words! I do know, I play a lot on the videos, mainly because I record them in my rehearsal room, while practicing time feel and working on technical issues, so I am playing mostly eight notes :-) and don't think to much about the musical part of my playing. What I am trying to achieve is to play freely without to have to sacrifice time and articulation. I am trying to get there trough improving my technique of playing, so I can entirely concentrate on the music later. When I am trying to get 2 tasks done at once, I am performing them poorly

All comments and advices would be very welcome, for me, the best way to learn always was trough feedbacks and listening other people play

Thanks again!

btw, Sorry for my English :-)

**Dexma** · 02-02-2015, 04:05 PM

From the first recordings I was going to say, that remember to breath between the licks. Licks are good, amazing actually, but it sounded like you are rushing in those. Still you did have good timing. Its all about the feeling. Like if you listen modal jazz, there is always the "breathing" between lick to another. But in the new recordings that did go better. Maybe because you play faster, but anyway. JUST AWESOME.

**pushkar000** · 02-02-2015, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by Takemitsu

The day I post my playing on this website just got projected very far in the future. Great playing!!!

Yes you are not alone friend.

OP you play really well man, what else to say...we're all waiting for the album!

**Reg** · 02-03-2015, 11:19 AM

Hey kolio... yea sound great, thanks for posting

So yea you loose what swing you have... when ever you play your standard double time feel steady 8th or 16th note solo pattern. Come up with a few different patterns... and vary them. If you work on different accents and add different rhythmic patterns within your pattern, it will become less mechanical and you'll be able to feel more, which will help you create better swing feel.

Personally I think swinging at slow tempos is much easier than at fast tempos. To get more swing, change your feel to triplet breakdown of steady 8ths and then apply that same technique your to 8th or 16ths.

Most rock, blues and somewhat western players use the basic dotted 8th 16th phrasing for swing... it's a great feel, but usually tightens up at faster tempos and just doesn't cover all the feels and subdivisions.

Still you sound great, most guitarist are just impressed with your technique, which is good. You might start to vary harmonically your playing over changes, create harmonic patterns within your basic playing. Instead of just playing straight through the basic changes... add some different harmonic choices within your phrases... and make the added harmonic relationships non diatonic. This is a subject in it's self... but will help create harmonic feel within your playing, which usually results with better rhythmic feel.

To really get a good idea of your swing feel... record some first takes of fast swing tunes you don't know. Your natural feel will take over.

Again great playing, Thanks for posting.

**princeplanet** · 02-03-2015, 11:51 AM

Kolio, your postings are probably the best examples of bop playing we've heard from all forum members in the history of this forum! I don't think you need much advice from us. Get a lesson or 2 with Metheny, Benson, or Martino!

And yeah man, where's the album?

**kolio_k** · 02-03-2015, 12:57 PM

@princeplanet, Reg, pushkar000

Thanks a lot for your comments!

Reg, thank you for the feedback, I agree with most of the things you write and I am going to work on them

..Instead of just playing straight through the basic changes... add some different harmonic choices within your phrases..

I was doing it for quite some time and now I really would like to play the basic changes, until I feel satisfied with how I do it (of course just for practice) it proved (at least for me) to be much more difficult, especially when using mostly vertical approach

p.p. No album yet :-(, I do record quite a bit, but just like side guy and mostly pop, fusion or blues related

**kolio_k** · 01-11-2016, 06:02 PM

Playing around Dolphin Dance. Hope you like it and thanks in advance for your feedbacks

**jazzimprov** · 01-13-2016, 05:18 PM

Nice... mostly alternate with some economy picking?

**princeplanet** · 01-13-2016, 10:35 PM

Sounds pretty top level to me. Any advice from us would be only from our own personal tastes/biases, like personally, I'd like to hear you go outside a little more, and maybe throw in some angular "surprises" every once in a while. But you have your own thing down, you don't really need any advice....

**kolio_k** · 01-14-2016, 07:44 AM

Thanks a lot for your feedbacks. Yes, I play mostly alternate with some legato and economy picking here and there.
Its hard for me to play outside or more interesting in general when playing with IReal, its hard to get inspired enough :-). But I totally agree with you!

Thanks a lot!

**55bar** · 01-14-2016, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by kolio_k

Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate your comments!!

@Richb
I don't have a recording of really slow swing, I know is hard to make it groove though. I am going to try to record something like that this days. Check if you want this video of mine

Its not really slow, more middle tempo and there are some spots I am not happy with(groove). I would appreciate comments!

@paynow
Thanks a lot!!! Unfortunately, lately I don't have the opportunity to play this type of music with a live band, I am mostly playing pop/rock/rock-jazz connected stuff

So it's not just watches the Swiss make with great time.

Just frickin AWSOME.

**jordanklemons** · 01-15-2016, 09:57 PM

@kolio_k

Man, your playing is great. Killer chops. Honestly, if I heard you at a club somewhere and were chatting with you afterwards, I wouldn't have anything but positive things to say... but it seems like you're genuinely looking for feedback... so here goes.

Take all this with a grain of salt. A lot of this is just based on my personal aesthetic tastes about what I like to play and hear played in music. It may not line up with your aesthetic tastes... it's not a right or wrong thing.

So when I hear you play, it seems like you sort of have 2 gears. In your 1st gear, you tend to focus on shorter phrases, longer silence in between the phrases, and a slower melodic rhythm (not 16th notes). I actually really like your sound a lot here. It creates suspense and helps convey an attitude that pulls me in and makes me want to really pay attention to where you're going to take me.

But really quickly, you shift straight into your highest gear where it's really long 16th note phrases with little to no space in between. Your technique and ability to play changes in this gear are really impressive, but I honestly start to lose interest a little bit, as I'm not ultimately interested in technique unless it serves a higher purpose.

I got to study with Peter Bernstein for a while a few years ago and one of the first things he said to me rocked my to my core. During our first lesson, we started off by playing a tune. At the end of it he looked at me nodding his head 'yes' and said, "Yeah man... you're really good at playing all the right notes." He paused and let that sink in. Then he leaned in like he was going to tell me a secret and said, "You know, a computer can play all the right notes."

Oof. An incredible complement and a very painful slap of reality.

I really enjoy your 1st gear. And I would love to hear you utilize it to a greater degree. Don't be so quick to shift into your highest gear. Have the patience to let the ideas develop. And maybe spend some time learning to develop a few other gears in between your lowest and highest. So you can bring things up in a more organic escalation of energy. I think if you just used that highest gear and your killer technique sparingly throughout your improv to tease the listener, and took a little more time to really let things build and THEN jumped it into high gear, it would have more of an impact on me as a listener. It would sort of seduce me into giving you more and more of my attention until you owned me.

Again, that's just my opinion... we may have different aesthetic preferences. So in the end you've got to go with what feels right to you in your heart and in what you want the energy and emotion of your music to be when you externalize it into the world.

Either way... killin' man. You sound great.

**kolio_k** · 01-16-2016, 01:41 PM

Thanks a lot for your comment, I honestly agree with everything you say and I really appreciate it! Very often feel the same way, when listening to my self :-), not that Impressed with my first gear though :-).

@55bar
Thank you (bow), I am Bulgarian btw :-)

**jordanklemons** · 01-16-2016, 05:08 PM

No worries kolio.

I think it's really common for all of us to focus on finding 'the right notes' and getting the physical muscle memory thing going. It's really important and gives us something to focus on. And you're killin it. It sort of lets us turn off our brain and just let our fingers go on autopilot. Which is a great thing to be able to do.

But for me, at a certain point, I started to realize that I wanted my conscious thoughts to be part of the puzzle as well. I wanted it to join in on the conversation. Not all the time. But to be able to move in and out... so that I can play from ALL of me... not just my heart... not just my muscle memory... but my mind as well... with all of its intellect, humor, and creativity.

One thing I used to do early on when trying to re-engage my mind, was the moment I realized that I was just on auto-pilot and my fingers were in control and playing stuff I'd played countless times prior... the moment I realized that, I would simply force myself to stop. No matter what I was playing. I could be in the middle of a long run or in the middle of making a set of changes. I would just stop. And I would force myself to take my hand away from the fretboard and relax it by my side and listen.

That accomplished a few things for me.

-It broke up an idea that I had played many times before and was coming from a place of muscle memory and familiarity, rather than listening, spontaneity, and openness.
-It left me in a place of unknown. Not only did it end my previous idea in an unfamiliar place... but in doing so, it dropped me into a musical situation I had never been in. Usually I was used to ending an idea in a certain way, and doing so allowed me the comfort of starting the next one in a familiar way. This didn't allow for that.
-It forced me to actually listen to what was going on around me.
-putting my left hand by my side allowed for larger chunks of silence in my playing. The more I did that, the more I fell in love with the sound of silence in my playing. I started to crave getting to them. It got to the point where I would be playing a phrase and trying to find a creative way I could return to the silence. And the more I did that, the more I noticed the other musicians feeling more freedom to interplay with me.

Often times when I'm playing with a group and I don't feel any of them stepping up and adding their ideas to the mix and playing WITH me, I will leave long, extended periods of silence... and often times will even turn away from the audience and watch them (usually the drummer) while I'm doing all this. It usually causes them to step up and start having a conversation with me. Which can lead to some really wonderful moments.

**wesmont17** · 01-28-2016, 02:50 PM

Great playing, Kolio....Enjoyed hearing all your videos (posted here) and was happy to see your into various styles. Heard a lot of different influences in your playing and your phrasing and timing were excellent. May want to break up those longer lines with some accents (just my opinion)...but I get the whole Holdsworth/Henderson legato playing. Anyway, again I thought your playing was exceptional and hope to hear more from you in the future.

**55bar** · 01-31-2016, 04:11 PM

There was enough melody and great phrasing in there for me to enjoy it. Horses for courses I guess.

**princeplanet** · 01-31-2016, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by 55bar

There was enough melody and great phrasing in there for me to enjoy it. Horses for courses I guess.

Exactly, did anyone tell Coltrane upon hearing Giant Steps for the first time "Nice scales there John, but you should play it more melodic, like Stan Getz...."?

**sgcim** · 01-31-2016, 11:18 PM

Originally Posted by princeplanet

Exactly, did anyone tell Coltrane upon hearing Giant Steps for the first time "Nice scales there John, but you should play it more melodic, like Stan Getz...."?

Maybe they should have.
Even Trane himself admitted (in a book of his interviews, "Coltrane On Coltrane") that it wound up sounding more like an exercise than a piece of music.
He only performed it once in public, and never played it again.
He said he liked aspects of the Major third key relations, but thought that he overdid it on GS, and would use it more musically in the future.
Bob Brookmeyer couldn't stand GS.

**princeplanet** · 02-01-2016, 01:22 AM

Hehe, yeah, well, I've said it many times on these forums that I quite dislike GS personally, BUT, it's become a war horse precisely because there are thousands of people who love it.

**kolio_k** · 02-01-2016, 04:01 AM

Thanks for all your feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment! Cheers!

btw. Backing track is from Ireal Pro

**aleksandar** · 02-01-2016, 09:09 AM

Hey, Kolio, just wanted to let you know that this video of yours inspired me to change my way of picking and now I'm noticing quite of an improvement, which is of great importance for me, because I am left handed who learned to play with the wrong hand! I think that this video should be sub'd for our English speaking friends. Very helpful, and thank you very much for sharing.