Very Early 2025 with Video

[Question]

Here is a version of Bill Evans' "Very Early".

After practicing it with constant 8th notes and posting it in the "approaches to improvisations" thread, I wanted to play it like real music and not just an exercise.
I have heard Very Early referred to as Bill Evans' Giant Steps; I know what they mean!

[James W]

Very nice.

[Question]

Hi James,

thanks, I think the 8th note exercise actually made it a bit easier.

[frabarmus]

Question, your solo definitely sounds like real music, it actually makes melodic sense throughout all the unexpected changes. I find this tune as beautiful as it is tough to improvise on. I'm working on it now as I want to master it once and for all but I'm not yet "fluent" when it comes to improvise on it. What's your approach regarding your 8th note exercise? Do you just keep playing 8th notes while using your ears adjusting to the changes, do you also have a (scale related) "visual approach" on the fretboard? At the moment I'm just harmonising the melody with rootless chords (I've recorded the bass line on the looper), and working on comping but when it comes to soloing I find that I'm relying more on my ears and, still, I'm sometimes "cought off guard" (and crash!). It's a slow process for me, so I think I need to pause and work more on a chord-scale + fretboard-visual approach, for the time being... what do you think?

[frabarmus]

Ok, I guess this is the approach (quoting Tal 175 from the "approaches to improvisation" thread)

"

The exercise in its pure form is connecting chord-scales using continuous 8th notes. Connections are voice-led (half or full steps) and lines go step-wise. It's by no means an easy exercise. But then playing the changes in the jazz style is not easy. This exercise is in a way a simplification of playing the changes by eliminating the rhythm and phrasing aspects and letting you focus on the sounds of the chords and navigating your instrument as Joe Pass also explained in his book I believe.

I think breaking out of strict step-wise, scalar movement by using arpeggios and lines as long as they stay within the chord-in-the-moment is still in the spirit of the exercise. I think the exercises described in Joe Pass, and Howard Roberts books did not require only step-wise motion (though Mark Levine's exercises did). Chord connections still need to be voice-led with minimum movement I think."

[Christian Miller]

I like doing continuous quarter and half note exercises in chord tones. It makes it easier to put in connecting material for 8th note lines. For a set of changes like these it’s a particular brain teaser. Teaches you the harmony …


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Question]

@frabarmus

A lot of good questions that I will attempt to answer!

I am not an overly analytical player and I don't really have a "system", so I am relying very much on my ear to guide me through the changes.

You don't hear it in the recording, but I am actually singing along with my lines, which really helps my phrasing.

This isn't to say that I don't know what I am doing, just that I have spent so many years working to get the "sound" of each chord family in my lines that it is then only a matter of making logical and musical connections and following a melodic idea or shape to make it sound like music.

I have also played bass in equal or higher amounts since the beginning, and I think decades of playing bass lines through changes has really helped me to hear the harmony without actually playing it as a chord.

As Christian mentioned in his last post; playing the changes in quarter notes emphasizing guide tones helps, and that is similar to what a good bass player is doing when playing walking-bass.

In the continuous eighth exercise, you need to make adjustments to your line (chromatic, enclosure etc.) to get it to land on a strong tone without stopping. If you are just playing normally, you can vary the rhythm, double or hold a note, add a rest etc. to achieve the same goal.

I will give it some thought and see if I can explain it better in another post.
Maybe it is just the process of transforming mathematics into art.(?)

Hope that helps!

P.S. I have listened to a fair amount of Bill Evens over the years.

[Question]

Ciao frabarmus

one last thought:

In the eighth-note exercise on Very Early from the other thread, (re-posted below) I am definitely NOT strictly playing step-wise lines.

As in your quote from Tal-175; it might make for a challenging exercise to only use whole and half step lines, but it limits you as to what note you land on, as a stronger resolution is often not within a whole step range.

It might be technically "correct" to land on any note in the chord-scale, but as we all know, not every note in a chord-scale has the ability to define any given chord type.

I listened to some of your videos and in addition to being an excellent player, your video playing Bach on the tenor banjo illustrates perfectly how to make the Eighth-Note exercise work in a jazz tune.

You have the knowledge and ability to do this exercise on Very Early you just need to put in the time to learn it, you are on the right track.

Here is the video of the eighth- note exercise once again. You can slow it down and analyze it better than I can explain it in words.

[Question]

@Frabarmus

Regarding your question; I recently actually transcribed what I played in the "eighth note exercise" posted above, so let me know if you are interested and I will send it to you.

This way you can see what I improvised and hopefully make sense out of it in a way that I don't think that I can fully explain myself.

[frabarmus]

Thanks Question! Yes, I'm interested in your transcription of your improv. I appreciate that. It's also not hard to figure it out by ear by "isolating" each 8th note phrase in each 3/4 bar and analise it, they're all nice bebop phrases with enclosures etc. I've enabled the JGO private messaging feature which I didn't realize was switched off.

I've recently been pretty busy outside music but this weekend I'm working on Very Early again (I'm still working on a chordmelody version and on the comping side of things, using voiceleading in 4 areas of the fretboard) but, soon or later, I'll make a video of myself improvising on the changes (whether "exercising" or just plain improvising, or a mix of both), warts and all, and post it either in this thread or in the "What are you practising now?" thread.
Cheers, Francesco.

[frabarmus]

Hi Question, thanks a lot for the pdf transcriptions. I'll make good use of them, precious, helpful material!
I've replied to your PM but my replies are not shown under your PM, after my clicking on "submit message".
Just wondering if you've got them (I'm new to the PM facility on this forum).

[Mick-7]

A difficult tune, Kenny Werner said he practiced it for months:

[frabarmus]

A difficult tune, Kenny Werner said he practiced it for months:

I agree with Kenny Werner, I've been on it for about a month now and I see how much longer it needs to take... I reckon I might be at it all summer, too. I also agree that you need to stick with it until it's embedded in your muscle memory. I still like to have the occasional go at improvising on the changes exclusively using my ear, though, and see if I can "crash" less than the previous time (quite a challenge).

[Mick-7]

I also agree that you need to stick with it until it's embedded in your muscle memory.

Personally I need to play a tune enough to be able to internalize the chord changes, then I can usually improvise freely on it. I find this one much harder than, say, Giant Steps because the chord don't progress in a logical fashion - V7/I up a minor third, down a whole step, down a half step, etc.

[ragman1]

Here we are, had to try it. Nothing like Question's version which is the real McCoy but it is what it is. Had to go up to the 18th fret for that A# on my non-cutaway 20-fret acoustic guitar but we do our best.

I wonder if I should put this in... I read the other day that Bill Evans told someone that he'd written quite a lot of tunes but said he hoped to god they weren't published after he died because he thought they were a lot of nonsense. I suspect this is one of them :-)

[Mick-7]

Had to go up to the 18th fret for that A# on my non-cutaway 20-fret acoustic guitar but we do our best.

... In C major, I usually play the B section down an octave, starting in the second bar. That is, repeat the 2nd F note in bar 2 in the same register (rather than play it an octave higher) and go from there.

[ragman1]

... In C major, I usually play the B section down an octave.

First thing I thought of. But then I realised I was going to solo in that basic area and I didn't want to overdo it. In any case all those very high notes are momentary so it didn't really matter. My tendons survived:-)

In C major

Why, are you doing it in another key?