Tunes I Claim I Know

[pamosmusic]

Going to consolidate all of them here, but I’ve been posting videos of tunes I’ve been working on.

I have a lot of tunes on my list and try to keep them sorted into tunes I really know, tunes I mostly know, and tunes I keep forgetting. I’ve been working mostly on tunes I keep forgetting; taking a break from new tunes and trying to dig on ones that have given me trouble.

The improvisations are a bit hit or miss, but that’s alright.

[pamosmusic]

The most recent:

[mr. beaumont]

This is something I should do.

To quote Jim Hall-- "I've forgotten more tunes than I know."

[pamosmusic]

To quote Jim Hall-- "I've forgotten more tunes than I know."

Not 100% sure I believe it coming from him, but sounds about right for us mortals.

[pamosmusic]

Here are the others, also floating around on their own threads:

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[jazznylon]

Very cool! I've been trying to learn melodies/heads by ear for a couple hours a day as its good ear training. Consulting the ireal app there's like 1300 jazz tunes there so I'm going through them all in alphabetical order as I want to keep track of things from where I last left off. First tune to learn by ear... 26-2 (yikes!) but yeah for now I'm going to be doing tunes with the titles starting with the letter 'B'. By now I already forgotten most of the tune titles starting with the letter 'A' (its a lot of tunes!) but I'm sure if I listen to them again I can probably play it more easily. My favorite tune of the bunch I went through so far is A Child is Born... good stuff

[pamosmusic]

Very cool! I've been trying to learn melodies/heads by ear for a couple hours a day as it’s good ear training. Consulting the ireal app there's like 1300 jazz tunes there so I'm going through them all in alphabetical order as I want to keep track of things from where I last left off. First tune to learn by ear... 26-2 (yikes!) but yeah for now I'm going to be doing tunes with the titles starting with the letter 'B'. By now I already forgotten most of the tune titles starting with the letter 'A' (its a lot of tunes!) but I'm sure if I listen to them again I can probably play it more easily. My favorite tune of the bunch I went through so far is A Child is Born... good stuff

Interesting. I find I have a much easier time memorizing tunes I have a connection to. They stick with me when they’re already stuck with me, so to speak.

[pamosmusic]

This is Irving Berlin’s “Remember” ….

Things I find difficult about the tune: the way it keeps cycling back to the IV chord makes it feel a little cyclical and tough to memorize/keep my place. The changes are interesting but it can be tough to venture too far outside of them so I run out of vocabulary over the vanilla changes pretty quickly and find it hard to push them anywhere else. Better now than it was.

I love the Hank Mobley recording but was listening to some others recently and played it without Hank Mobley’s line-cliche bassline. I also tried it a little more down tempo. This is like … maybe kind of the Ella Fitzgerald tempo? I don’t know. This tempo range is always a bit awkward for me.

Love the tune though.

Next on the docket: Monk’s Dream.

[Bop Head]

Two questions for PAmos: If you are working on a tune what is your source for the changes? Do you learn the lyrics as well?

[pamosmusic]

Two questions for PAmos: If you are working on a tune what is your source for the changes? Do you learn the lyrics as well?

Answer number one: versions I like. In this case a few different ones, simplified a bit and then transposed to Ab because that’s where the Mobley one is. Wanted to transcribe a bit of that solo but haven’t gotten around to it. And again — I like his version a lot but it does some different stuff on the A sections to make that descending bassline happen. Most others versions don’t, so I didn’t do that.

(His is this Fm - C7/E - Ab6/Eb - Dm7b5 - Db6 thing in the first 5 bars which amounts to the same thing with a cooler bass figure .)

Answer number two: I used to but not so much anymore. Though I usually at least listen to a few vocal versions.

[pamosmusic]

I’ll check the changes against lead sheets too if they seem good. For the Monk one I’m doing next, I have the Monk fakebook transcribed by Steve Cardenas and I think I’m just going to trust him and roll with that.

[pamosmusic]

Here’s Monk’s Dream. It’s a bit messy still, so I’ll definitely be back.

Whats difficult about this one: it’s Monk.

[Christian Miller]

Tunes? The best I can say is either I forgot them all or never learned them right to start off with…

[Christian Miller]

Look, I tried OK???

[James W]

Here’s Monk’s Mood. It’s a bit messy still, so I’ll definitely be back.

Whats difficult about this one: it’s Monk.

Monk's Dream, you mean? Ace playing...

edit - oh yeah I see the video is titled correctly...

[pamosmusic]

Monk's Dream, you mean? Ace playing...

edit - oh yeah I see the video is titled correctly...

Crap. Corrected. It's embarrassing how often I do that.

(Also thank you!)

[pamosmusic]

Here’s the next one: Let’s Cool One. Also Monk.

Nothing too wild about this one, which is unusual for Monk. But the tempo can be a bit awkward sometimes.

[Liarspoker]

Well done Peter.

I respect those that post their playing no matter how good or bad. We are all on the ladder somewhere.

[Christian Miller]

Oh what a coinkydink, I literally learned let’s cool one yesterday. Although I say learned, I do need to dig a bit deeper into the monk versions.

[grahambop]

I’ll check the changes against lead sheets too if they seem good. For the Monk one I’m doing next, I have the Monk fakebook transcribed by Steve Cardenas and I think I’m just going to trust him and roll with that.

I’ve got that Monk fakebook and it seems very good to me, I like the way he’s included Monk’s voicings, counter-melodies etc. and he details the specific recordings used.

When we did Monk’s Dream and Let’s Cool One in the ‘tune of the week’ thread I learned the tunes from that book and tried to incorporate all that stuff, it was really interesting to see how Monk structured those tunes.

[pamosmusic]

I’ve got that Monk fakebook and it seems very good to me, I like the way he’s included Monk’s voicings, counter-melodies etc. and he details the specific recordings used.

When we did Monk’s Dream and Let’s Cool One in the ‘tune of the week’ thread I learned the tunes from that book and tried to incorporate all that stuff, it was really interesting to see how Monk structured those tunes.

Yeah they’re cool! Steve Cardenas is kind of a Monk guru so it seems like he nailed them. We See is next on the list, and that’s definitely the trickiest one I’ve done with all the counter melodies and stuff.

(Let’s Cool One is pretty simple, and I still flubbed it the first time through.)

[Peter C]

I like this raw, honest unedited approach with some interesting evolving lines showing up, some of which are a fair way up "the ladder" if you listen beyond the first minute or so

[pamosmusic]

I like this raw, honest unedited approach with some interesting evolving lines showing up, some of which are a fair way up "the ladder" if you listen beyond the first minute or so

What do you mean “up the ladder?”

[Peter C]

We are all on the ladder somewhere.

^^

[pamosmusic]

^^

Ahhhhh right I’m there now.

Up the ladder, maybe. But it does get a bit wobbly up there.