-
I can improvise over Real Book standards. I can play the chords in all inversions, in many rhythms - and I know most of the changes by heart. I can read and play the melodies, no problem.
But when I have to play the melody of All the Things, GD Street, etc., by ear, without looking at a chart, I fumble, I bumble, I trainwreck bigtime!
This is the new project for me: learn the melodies so I can play them from my head, without looking at a f__in' chart! This is a lot harder than I thought it was.
How many of you can play the fifty top jazz standards' MELODIES, all of them, without looking at a chart? I sure can't!
I think many sessions of blindfold practice are in my future.
-
12-09-2016 01:04 PM
-
Learn it by ear in the first place. Then your ear is the only reference you have. Learn a melody so good it's hard to unlearn it. Try "I should care" simple melody with repetition. And if you try to learn to improvise based on the melody the melody will be even easier to remember
-
Originally Posted by yaclaus
Unless one must learn something for an impending gig, my sense is that it is best to learn tunes one really likes. Better, tunes you can sing. If you like a song enough to learn the lyric and can (roughly) carry the tune along with a recording by a singer you like, learning the rest of it will be much easier. And you will enjoy it. It becomes something you want to learn rather than something you feel you have to work. ("Ugh, homework.")
When I started learning songs by ear (--and this was tough for me) I started with Christmas songs. In one of his instructional videos, Barney Kessel advised starting with folk songs. They work too. Simple, memorable. I think this is why so many people learn "Summertime." It's a great tune that's easy to remember and most anyone can sing it.
"Green Dolphin Street" gives me a hard time because I just don't care for it. (Maybe once I learn it well, I'll come to love it. We shall see...)
-
Chord melody helps a lot.
ATTYA--almost all chord tones.
"All of Me"--C triad, and some more C major, followed by the G sharp in the 2nd phrase from the e7th.
"Green Dolphin St." ---Cmajor followed by C minor (the B flat), etc.
-
Imo the OP should be the first puzzle but almost never is.. Especially when people start from music schools. Usually only sheet music and even solf ain't gonna be connected to their main instrument really.. unless its piano. At least its like that here in eastern Europe as far as I know.
-
it's sad that younger players don't have the training we older players had, because there were so many instrumental gigs back in the 60s,70s and 80s like weddings, dances, etc... where we mainly played standards.
You HAD to play the melody on those gigs, or you wouldn't get called back.
Even Lennie Tristano emphasized the importance of learning the melody. He would force students to play the melody perfectly before going into improvisation with them.
Sometimes a student would spend two years just playing melodies for Lennie, until they played them perfectly.
Even with chord melodies, it seems pretty meaningless if you can't give the listener a clear idea of what melody you're playing on the first chorus.
If you don't know the melody, your solos are going to sound like the same thing on each song, rather than the variation technique used by improvisers like Sonny Rollins, Clark terry, Bill Evans, etc...
-
Learning to play melodies by ear is a prerequisite to improvising. This is really how you find your way around the neck in a practical way.
-
Maybe learn the lyrics.
-
Russell Malone is big into the lyrics, he told stories in one concert: Originally Posted by A. Kingstone
....Malone also pays attention to the lyrics. “I’m always aware of the story, especially when I play a ballad,” he says. He learned that from Freddy Cole, who gave Malone one of his first gigs, some 30 years ago. “He drilled it into me to learn the lyrics, because it would help you play better.”He illustrates the point with a story told to him by the great bassist Ray Brown, whose final trio Malone played in along with pianist Monty Alexander. One night when Brown was working with Oscar Peterson and Herb Ellis, saxophone icon Ben Webster was in the audience. “And you know Ben was a stickler for melody and lyrics,” Malone says. “They played a ballad, and I guess they played it well enough. But after they finished their set, Webster walked up to them and asked them if they knew the lyrics to that song. They didn’t. And he could tell. He told them that if they learned the lyrics they would play it better.”
Jazz Articles: Catching Up With Russell Malone - By Allen Morrison — Jazz Articles
Lessons from Russell Malone: Montreal Jazz Fest 2009 Workshop – Jazz Guitar Life Gig Review : Jazz Guitar Lives at Jazz Guitar Life
-
Thanks for the great replies.
For some reason I can remember and play the changes to a lotta songs. Probably because I've accompanied sax soloists and singers my whole life.
I can generate solos on 1-6-2-5 and other progressions with some ease, but remembering the melodies to the songs whose changes I know, is another can of worms!
-
This is a weak area for many jazz musicians, myself very much included. Knowing the melody changes it from a chord progression- basically a technical exercise- into a song.
-
That's exactly right! Music schools have nothing to do with disability to play by ear btw, unless we are talking classical music only. For classical teachers it's not the most important thing, because you only learn stuff from scores, and no need to improvise. Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
Any jazz school I've been at emphasize the ear training a lot! When they say play what you hear in your head, I think the melodies would be the starting point, right?
Can you sing those tunes? If you have no problem with intonating the melodies with your voice, should be easy to apply to the instrument if you got the basic technique.
I only can speak for myself, but figuring out stuff by ear came long before I could read a note. Till this day I rather play a tune by ear then look at the scores. Faster too.
-
Playing the tune by ear on the spot... and playing melody musically are different things.
I mean one can learn by ear (not from th score)... but then he really knows it.
Usually I can play tunes by ear on teh spot... but still you can hear that I picking it up right now...
When I had a mastercalass the teacher stopped me immediately.. he said very good thing: you think you make your imterpretation of the melody with these approach notes or slides? No, you just do not know the melody...
I like having melody secure... it gives better feel of harmony... especially if you can understand it this way (like in Stella it is basically suspended or anticipated whole notes and the other notes are approaching notes...
Lyrics is important for me too... especially for standarsds.. it's not only about feel... but about phrasing....
Jazz tunes often have cliches in harmony and motives... and if we play it with no lyrics we often tend to reduce original melody to more standardized line in these typical turnarounds (like cadences etc)...
and text phrasing can help to bring in common turnarounds fresh special accents... to show that b9 in cadential dom7 chord is not only embelishment that can be dropped out... but makes more sense in relation with text..
-
I am a good reader with a terrible memory. As a result I rely on the dots to get me through all sessions. Two years ago I had a stroke and have had to learn a lot of new skills to cope with life. For a while I had a lot of problems reading, the dots didn't mean anything and I had to re-learn what they represented. This problem did not persist and after a few months the old skills returned.......except that my memory has improved remarkably! Since I couldn't read fluently I had to remember and now most of my favourites are committed to memory.
Deigh
-
I plead guilty. Originally Posted by Jonah
-
It's kinda true, but there are acceptable deviations. I bet your teacher wouldn't approve Django, who often doesn't even finish heads all the way thorugh and plunges into improv whenever he feels like it. I don't mind though. Sometimes if you dont play a melody exact it adds a certain rude charm. Originally Posted by Jonah
-
Yes and no. It's jazz.
Listen to those cuts of Jimmy Raney in Paris...he hardly ever plays the whole B section, he starts blowing...does he not know the melody? Who cares!
-
It's not quite about playing or not playing the melody... it's more about being able to play...
One can hear you try to and still you are not quite confident about it
It was more about teaching process...It's kinda true, but there are acceptable deviations. I bet your teacher wouldn't approve Django, who often doesn't even finish heads all the way thorugh and plunges into improv whenever he feels like it. I don't mind though. Sometimes if you dont play a melody exact it adds a certain rude charm.
He also added: 'you can become a good melody player.. you know there player that play the head so well that you think: wow!... and then he starts blowing and.. oops.. just kidding it's not about you'
-
In my lessons with Coryell, he has stressed being able to sing the melodies, with the lyrics...and if it was a tune from a movie or play, know the storyline as well as well....
-
Me too Originally Posted by KirkP
I plead guilty.
-
Well said! And that variation includes rhythms as well as notes. Originally Posted by sgcim
Check out Louis Armstrong on this duet with Ella Fitzgerald. (The way Louis sang a melody is remarkable in its own right, but his solo (starting around the 3:00 mark) is a splendid thing
-
I thought the melody was the first thing you learn when working on a new song. Have I been doing it wrong?
-
Learning to play the melody on one string, different positions, different keys and finally playing it randomly the neck will hundredfold your ability to remember it
-
When I was a kid, my father used to teach me the melodies to standards by singing them to me, and I'd have to find the notes on the guitar. A kind of early ear training.
-
Many great replies on this thread!
Just yesterday I was working with a Chordpulse backing track I cooked up: Autumn Leaves changes in all keys, so I can practice the melody in all keys, with no chart, just by ear. Variations: low on the neck, high on the neck, top strings, bottom strings, etc. I've been playing guitar a long time, and I am embarrassed by how difficult I find this.
Reply With Quote
Knaggs Chena A
Today, 06:19 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos