September 2015 - Joy Spring

**AndrewPat** · 09-30-2015, 01:19 PM

Hi okay so relatively new as an active member, first practical standard contribution. Just saw it a few days ago and thought I'm running out of time - it's just blowing over chorus with my loop pedal. Apologies for less than perfect sound !

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eqoo63xv3l...0loop.mp3?dl=0

**Irez87** · 09-30-2015, 05:13 PM

I love it, Andrew. Let's use Andrew's post as an example. The way I hear his stuff, is in phrases. It's not chord, chord, chord. I'm not saying everyone else's submissions weren't great. I learned something from every post on this thread. I am just saying that Andrew's post illustrates what Reg was talking about as developing phrases.

And Andrew, shut the bleep up about not having a good sound. I love that treble sing song tone you got, it really cuts and you GROOOOVE like a mf'er if I'd ever did hear one

**Pocket Player** · 10-01-2015, 01:01 AM

Love everyone's take

some great stuff here. I've got a long ways to go..... to play like you guys

great job ! i'm all ears.

**christianm77** · 10-01-2015, 03:45 PM

It's a little after the September deadline, but here's one I did with my trio a few years back.

This song has special significance for me as my best man played it as we signed the register at our wedding. Before you say - it was my wife's idea haha.

The intro isn't 100% right :-)

**wizard3739** · 10-01-2015, 04:28 PM

Christiann77: I like your very nice trio sound. Your lines and tone was really nice and the trio had a good groove. I look forward to hearing more of your good sounds.

wiz

**christianm77** · 10-01-2015, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by wizard3739

Christiann77: I like your very nice trio sound. Your lines and tone was really nice and the trio had a good groove. I look forward to hearing more of your good sounds.

wiz

Thanks for the kind words :-)

**Jonah** · 10-02-2015, 04:04 AM

Hi guys,

I really enjoyed all your records... it'real pleasure and fun... espicially when you can recognize in playing personal features you already know through forum communication...

And I really learned something from all of it.. and besides to be true I did not like the tune much... but now thanks to you (and this great thread in general, Howie) I am in it...

I do no feel myself granted the right to say any critics since I did not post any record of myself... so consider it just a litner's impression.. or a boring critics specualtions.. if do not mention all that is only becuase I am not probably ready to say anything fair enough so far...

Graham,

you really sound so mature and confident about sound production and sound control, you really know and control your hands, guitar, gear... I wish I had it...
But you know whenver you encounter the player with such a quality of sound you maybe begin to be too demanding for playing...
The tune you played perfectly (maybe even too perfectly))) - backing track is great too (considering it's not played simultaneously with solist)..

As per solo - with all these great qualities I mentioned above - I felt it was too stationary, maybe to comfortable within a harmony, sometimes I had a feeling that your choice more about whta's going on in teh harmnony right now than what was before and will be after... some feeling that things go on a bit occasionally..

It's n o surprise: Even Wes used to say that his biggest problem has always been how to get the feel of integrity in spontaneous performance...

Whatever I say your playing it really moved me..

ggjay, I really like this qulity of true improvization, spontaneousness in your playing... sounds fun and inspiring... but strabge enough though you sound different - more or less the same feeling as with Graham's solo... as you want to stay in secure zone - it's not proble actually I am sure anyone should do what he feels safe... but in your playing I feel that you like want to say moree but restrict yourself because youre not too sure if you can go out a bit... and this gives also this stationatry feeling as you if you tried to follow changes..
As I say... to secure the changes...
Excuse me if I am wrorng. Thanks for great playing and sharing...

Andrew,

Though it was short and here and there not the best quality maybe, I really heard you telling me something.. and for it covers all the probable faults... I will look forward to hear something else

Christian,

it's always great to hear you and I really loved live feel and rythm section grrove... soloing was fun and pleasure though sometimes you seemed to be locked on some ideas changes... was it on purpose?

I also noticed on all your group records I heard you play pretty much laid back... behind the rythm... you're doing it on purpose? I am sying it because for ay natural feel it's a bit too behind... I kind of always want to run a bit ahead)))
It does not mean I am right of coures or good for music...

Again thank you gyus... and I really appreciate what you're doing... hope sooner or later I'll post something too and you will tear apart as I deserve)))

**grahambop** · 10-02-2015, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by Jonah

Graham,

you really sound so mature and confident about sound production and sound control, you really know and control your hands, guitar, gear... I wish I had it...
But you know whenver you encounter the player with such a quality of sound you maybe begin to be too demanding for playing...
The tune you played perfectly (maybe even too perfectly))) - backing track is great too (considering it's not played simultaneously with solist)..

As per solo - with all these great qualities I mentioned above - I felt it was too stationary, maybe to comfortable within a harmony, sometimes I had a feeling that your choice more about whta's going on in teh harmnony right now than what was before and will be after... some feeling that things go on a bit occasionally..

Hi Jonah

I agree with you - I am very self-critical actually. I don't think I played the melody perfectly - I mis-hit the lower string near the beginning - you can hear it if you listen closely! And I don't think the time was 100% right.

When I was practising this tune, I thought I was coming up with some nice ideas. But somehow when you record a take, some of the good stuff goes out of the window it seems. Or maybe it wasn't all there in the first place and the recording doesn't lie! Some of the solo sounds a bit 'vanilla' to me, especially where I was sitting on the F major chord. I guess the trick is to learn to play more of the 'good' ideas and reduce the amount of 'filler' or 'padding' that goes on.

You know each time I do one of these recordings, I actually feel really depressed when I listen to it immediately afterwards. Because it's never as good as what I was aiming for. But after a while, if I think there's enough good bits to make it an acceptable version for this exercise, I have to go with it, reluctantly to some extent. For some reason it's usually the second take which I use (the first one is worse most of the time!) But I cannot bring myself to keep doing takes of the same tune - I just get fed up with it and any spontaneity starts to get lost.

Really the benefit for me of this whole exercise is to listen back, hear what was good, what was not so good, get some feedback, then try and improve it for the next tune.

Soon it will be time to tackle the next one! Is there no rest for the wicked?

**christianm77** · 10-02-2015, 05:55 AM

Originally Posted by Jonah

Hi guys,
Christian,

it's always great to hear you and I really loved live feel and rythm section grrove... soloing was fun and pleasure though sometimes you seemed to be locked on some ideas changes... was it on purpose?

I also noticed on all your group records I heard you play pretty much laid back... behind the rythm... you're doing it on purpose? I am sying it because for ay natural feel it's a bit too behind... I kind of always want to run a bit ahead)))
It does not mean I am right of coures or good for music...

Again thank you gyus... and I really appreciate what you're doing... hope sooner or later I'll post something too and you will tear apart as I deserve)))

Hi Jonah,

It's been a while since I listened to this one. Listening to it now, if I had to criticise my time feel on it I would say that I play here with too big a dot. The swing is a bit jerky and OTT (exactly what I tell my students not to do). What I have been trying to do over the past few years is move towards a more natural, even swing.

As for the playing behind the beat - I'm not sure if can hear it, when I listen to my recent recordings, sounds closer to what I want. That said maybe my perceptions are out of whack and I can't hear it.

So if others here agree I'd be interested to know. In terms of my natural tendency my general thing is to rush always , certainly when working with a metronome for example - so it could well be that I'm over-compensating. In general practice I aim to play exactly on the beat - exactly synchronised - and not a shade on top. Not that on top is always wrong (or behind for that matter) and synchronising with a click or pulse is certainly not the be all and end all of jazz time feeling. But it is a good start.

I feel the important thing for me is to in fact be able to nail accurate rhythms that actually define their own space. A few months back I had a bit of an epiphany when I realised that I wasn't putting enough rhythmic energy into my playing and a feeling of how I might go about this. This might be related to what you are talking about.

Thanks for the feedback.

**AndrewPat** · 10-02-2015, 07:01 AM

Originally Posted by Jonah

Hi guys,

Andrew,

Though it was short and here and there not the best quality maybe, I really heard you telling me something.. and for it covers all the probable faults... I will look forward to hear something else)))

Not sure i really know what you mean man! It is short though, I thought I had run out of September! Will post longer next month... What is the tune for October?

Looking forward to hearing your playing!

**christianm77** · 10-02-2015, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by grahambop

Here's mine. It's taken quite a while to get the melody down with all those triplets - not easy! Tempo is 160 like the original Clifford Brown version.

I recorded 2 guitar tracks (comping + solo).

That's really nice playing man lovely stuff. Head is a tricky one, of course, really hard to play it in time.

I agree with what reg said - try playing it nice and slow 60-80 bpm with quavers, really get inside the changes. But I think that recording is nice document of a very promising work in progress.

I'm very much aware I should do the same thing. Joy Spring is a tricky set of changes (it shouldn't be that hard :-))

**grahambop** · 10-02-2015, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

That's really nice playing man lovely stuff. Head is a tricky one, of course, really hard to play it in time.

I agree with what reg said - try playing it nice and slow 60-80 bpm with quavers, really get inside the changes. But I think that recording is nice document of a very promising work in progress.

I'm very much aware I should do the same thing. Joy Spring is a tricky set of changes (it shouldn't be that hard :-))

Thanks Christian. I think I spent so much time working on the head this time, that I kind of rushed into the solo because I wanted to get it done quickly. I usually do play through the form quite slowly at first, this helps me to build up some ideas of the kind of lines that suit the tune. Anyway it's good to learn from this stuff and try and think about it on the next tune.

By the way I like your 'Yesterdays' clip on soundcloud. Very nice use of chords during the solo - that's a whole area I need to work on!

**boatheelmusic** · 10-02-2015, 08:16 AM

I've just worked on the complex head (for me!) for Joy spring, and hope to post my offering soon.....

Bill

**Jonah** · 10-02-2015, 08:30 AM

Joy Spring is a tricky set of changes (it shouldn't be that hard :-))

For me the tricky thing is about to find another way to connect smoothly when the section is repeted half-step higher - I always want to avoid the feeling that it just the same thing going half step up.. I do not like it...
trying to melt and weld it as if it is going on .. not repeated

**M-ster** · 10-02-2015, 08:06 PM

Here's mine:
http://www.noiseinthebasement.com/mp...pring%2001.mp3

**fep** · 10-02-2015, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by M-ster

Here's mine:
http://www.noiseinthebasement.com/mp...pring%2001.mp3

Cool arrangement, great tone, great lines and great rhythm, in the pocket. I really, really enjoyed that. Thanks for posting.

**Irez87** · 10-02-2015, 09:31 PM

Love that intro, and your lines really breath. Verree Kiiiillin as my college friends always said.

Yeah, I gotta get that melody down. Been humming it in my sleep to get the sound in my head. I am trying it with a lot of shifts to get a fuller sound than doing it positionally.

Great stuff

**grahambop** · 10-03-2015, 04:36 AM

Originally Posted by M-ster

Here's mine:
http://www.noiseinthebasement.com/mp...pring%2001.mp3

Great! Excellent as usual!

**grahambop** · 10-03-2015, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by grahambop

Great! Excellent as usual!

Nice quote too! (Let's Fall in Love).

**wizard3739** · 10-03-2015, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by M-ster

Here's mine:
http://www.noiseinthebasement.com/mp...pring%2001.mp3

Wow! Another really nice approach to cool song! Beautiful tone, beautiful lines, everything seems to fit in a comfortable groove. I really liked it and will be looking forward to your version of our next tune.

wiz (Howie)

destinytot · 10-03-2015, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by M-ster

Here's mine:
http://www.noiseinthebasement.com/mp...pring%2001.mp3

I really enjoyed that - and the quote was inspired (Lets Fall in Love).

**M-ster** · 10-03-2015, 06:23 PM

Thanks for the nice comments, gent's.

**matt.guitarteacher** · 10-03-2015, 06:35 PM

Great thread this month BTW! Sorry to lurk, but seriously good stuff here.

**christianm77** · 10-03-2015, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by M-ster

Here's mine:
http://www.noiseinthebasement.com/mp...pring%2001.mp3

Very nice. Great arrangement. I really like the feel and tone, and the fact that you resisted the temptation to bust out loads of double time.

I would like to hear you play without an iRealB backing track though - it's so square!! Could you double track yourself? I bet that would sound great...