Bebop Heads (#4) - Moose the Mooche

[AllanAllen]

Thinking about last night a little more I don't think it was 16th notes at 160bpm... that seems too fast. I must've reset the metronome to practice something else after I did speed mechanics.

Anyway, whatever tempo I did work at, cutting it in half helped. LOL I'm also only up to exercise 8. Tonight I'll review 1-8 and then move on.

[CliffR]

Thinking about last night a little more I don't think it was 16th notes at 160bpm... that seems too fast. I must've reset the metronome to practice something else after I did speed mechanics.

Anyway, whatever tempo I did work at, cutting it in half helped. LOL I'm also only up to exercise 8. Tonight I'll review 1-8 and then move on.

I got a lot out of that book but, in the end, I think I devoted too much time to speed and not enough to music. I'm much happier with my playing now that I'm working on jazz. I spent most of my time on the alternate picking part, which I think comes a little later, around exercise 20 or so if I remember rightly. There's a tremolo picking exercise where he states you shouldn't advance beyond until you can do it at 160bpm with 16ths. Here I am butchering it:

[MoMan]

Here is my attempt at approximately 60% tempo of the original:

Happy to live at this tempo for some time as an experiment to see if I absorb some Parker goodness!

I experimented with hybrid picking for the triplet in bar 2 as it came more naturally (was reading a most excellent Brett Garsed book on Hybrid Picking - felt it would work very well adapted to bebop stuff as there is a lot of intervallic skips and such). Interestingly when I play it up an octave I prefer sweep picking down. It has to do with the shapes and as pamosmusic mentioned it can be tricky getting back to the Bb after the sweep down in the lower register. Happy to keep this hybrid picking compromise for now. Let us see if I can get it up to tempo.

Feedback/comments/style suggestions welcome! I am relatively hard to offend.

As I went to the effort of transcribing this in 2 registers I can share that also if it may be of use to anyone here learning this head?

[James W]

I got a lot out of that book but, in the end, I think I devoted too much time to speed and not enough to music. I'm much happier with my playing now that I'm working on jazz. I spent most of my time on the alternate picking part, which I think comes a little later, around exercise 20 or so if I remember rightly. There's a tremolo picking exercise where he states you shouldn't advance beyond until you can do it at 160bpm with 16ths. Here I am butchering it:

I don't think it's an either/or regarding speed and jazz.

[CliffR]

I don't think it's an either/or regarding speed and jazz.

Sure. But each of us has to choose where we spend our limited practice time.

[charlieparker]

@Charlieparker

Although it is a worthy technical challenge to learn it at full tempo, you will probably learn many more important things about articulation, phrasing, time, and building good lines by slowing it down and trying to match your phrasing exactly with the original recording at this slower tempo.

The original recording is an octave higher than what I am playing, and you might try playing it in the higher octave, which I suspect will make it easier.

Hope that helps!

I find it harder playing without the original track aka with a metronome or a backing track especially. To that end, I am isolating individual phrases.

Here is me playing the entire head at 55% with the original track.

[AllanAllen]

I’m using it more for the mechanics than speed. Sometimes my hands don’t move the way I want them too.

I’m not looking for shred technique. But those 6 beat bursts Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel do would be nice.

[charlieparker]

Here is my attempt at approximately 60% tempo of the original:

Happy to live at this tempo for some time as an experiment to see if I absorb some Parker goodness!

I experimented with hybrid picking for the triplet in bar 2 as it came more naturally (was reading a most excellent Brett Garsed book on Hybrid Picking - felt it would work very well adapted to bebop stuff as there is a lot of intervallic skips and such). Interestingly when I play it up an octave I prefer sweep picking down. It has to do with the shapes and as pamosmusic mentioned it can be tricky getting back to the Bb after the sweep down in the lower register. Happy to keep this hybrid picking compromise for now. Let us see if I can get it up to tempo.

Feedback/comments/style suggestions welcome! I am relatively hard to offend.

As I went to the effort of transcribing this in 2 registers I can share that also if it may be of use to anyone here learning this head?

Time feel was great!

[MoMan]

Many thanks charlieparker!
Appreciate the compliment. I'll re-post when I can play this a bit more uptempo.

[PickingMyEars]

Away at sea, but I would love to do a backwards transcription of one of these Parker heads. Curious to see how learning from the last phrase to the first is different than transcribing consecutively from the beginning. Been a lot of people talking about that on YouTube.

I’m posting over on this thread because you all engaged in a brief conversation about rhythm. Didn’t want that to get snuffed out by the usual 2 and 4 response. That JIMMY RANEY BOOK is all about rhythm and melody. Jon Raney is helping us out on that study group Rob started. The way Charlie Parker used accents was a huge part of his rhythmic genius. Check out Jon’s book and the book study.

Jazz is all about the accents, and we don’t wanna settle for some flat footed floogie. Accents aren’t random because true rhythm is intentional. The metronome keeps time, it is not a magical device of swing. Accents swing a phrase, forget about the secret lives of two consecutive eighth notes. Charlie Parker revolutionized the use of accents to create odd groupings and Jimmy Raney was one of the first jazz guitarists to realize that.

[Mick-7]

Are we done with this tune? I got it up to about 200 bpm but haven't had much time to practice lately so have probably lost some rpm's.

[charlieparker]

Are we done with this tune? I got it up to about 200 bpm but haven't had much time to practice lately so have probably lost some rpm's.

I got it about as fast as I was going to get it. I was more interested in taking bits of apart and making vocab with it, but kind of moved on elsewhere.

[ragman1]

Jesus, can no one play this tune yet? What is the point?

[James W]

Jesus, can no one play this tune yet? What is the point?

What's the point in you posting here if you're going to make moronic posts like this? Check out Question's rendition.

[ragman1]

Ah, but Question is an excellent player. Different kettle of fish.

[GuyBoden]

I posted this video back on page five of this thread playing along to the original Parker recording.

Someone commented that they could not clearly hear the articulation in the guitar, so I isolated it as best as I could.

I am playing along with the recording coming from my speakers (without headphones) so there is a bit of mic bleed from the original track.

Maybe someone can learn something from my fingering choices/articulation.

Here is the same video with the original Parker recording panned left and the guitar panned right.

Ah, but Question is an excellent player. Different kettle of fish.

Yes, Question's is a very good rendition. It's got that Bebop rhythm in the phrasing. It bounces along.

Well done Question.

[AllanAllen]

Jesus, can no one play this tune yet? What is the point?

To work on something difficult and to reach for artistic growth.

[James W]

To work on something difficult and to reach for artistic growth.

These are totally foreign concepts to poor ragman. The idea that you or anyone else is answerable to him on anything to do with jazz guitar is incredibly risible.

[Question]

Ok, since my name has been invoked, I will (hesitantly) say something regarding phrasing that I think is often overlooked.

I think there is too much emphasis on getting these Parker heads up to their original tempo.

If your goal is to play these heads live with other musicians at these fast tempos then that will of course be necessary.

If you are trying to improve your phrasing and swing feel, then playing these Parker heads well at around 60% is more than sufficient to be useful.

The main weakness that I hear in the videos posted is the length and accenting of the notes. Not just long or short, but also where do you rhythmically end a long note and also how short is short. Also, which notes are accented.

As I have stated before, I am not an overly analytical player; and there is no secret as to how I do it. I just play along with the original recording and try to match the phrasing, feel, note-length, and accents.

To get wind instrument music to phrase well on the guitar it helps to understand if the Sax/trumpet etc. is tonguing each note or not. As I understand it, If you are picking every note, then this is like tonguing on a wind instrument and non-tongued notes are like slurs.This greatly influences the phrasing.

I don't play Sax or Trumpet so someone who actually also plays a wind instrument is welcome to correct me, or explain tonguing/legato on a horn in more detail.

Hope that helps!

[charlieparker]

Jesus, can no one play this tune yet? What is the point?

I personally think I learned the head to a decent level myself. The recording is there for people to offer suggestions to work on.

But if you can't really show us how it's done yourself these are empty words.