Bebop heads: Donna Lee

[Bobby Timmons]

^ I'm a fan of that spiky bluez.

The vibes are quite "believeable!" That's cool.

I thought so! My lil $600 Yamaha CP-125 digital piano is a good instrument apparently. Better watch it or I'm gonna buy a vibraphone. I think I would do a good job on focusing on playing melody only. I don't want to play a wind instrument tho. Vibes have a nice tone, it's good for single note, and you get to whack the thing and get into it rhythmically.

[AllanAllen]

You should find plenty of work with piano, organ and vibes under your belt. Good trio gigs.

[Bobby Timmons]

^ Thx. There's a flute player's posting I'm going to reply to.

[AllanAllen]

Go for it!

[Bobby Timmons]

[AllanAllen]

Tomorrow’s the big day. Bars ~5-8

[pamosmusic]

Here’s m5-8 … the lick over the Bbm/Eb7 is maybe my favorite in the whole tune. I love it.

[mr. beaumont]

Where I think I like it, right now. We'll see.

[AllanAllen]

Where I think I like it, right now. We'll see.

Do you figure stuff out in different spots too? Or just find one and stick to it?

[mr. beaumont]

Do you figure stuff out in different spots too? Or just find one and stick to it?

Messed with it in a few different spots. This was the only one that was playable for me really, so I recorded it. Maybe next lick I'll post a longer video of my whole process of figuring out where to play it...but I'm not sure how much people want to hear me say 1,2,3,4 fuck. Ok. 1,2,3,4...

I like what you're doing with the upper octave, though I don't think my brain could retain two possibilities yet.

[AllanAllen]

Messed with it in a few different spots. This was the only one that was playable for me really, so I recorded it. Maybe next lick I'll post a longer video of my whole process of figuring out where to play it...but I'm not sure how much people want to hear me say 1,2,3,4 fuck. Ok. 1,2,3,4...

I like what you're doing with the upper octave, though I don't think my brain could retain two possibilities yet.

I learned 5 positions, might as well use them. It keeps the 4 bars interesting over the week trying to get a few places. I moved Billies Bounce down an octave last night with relative ease, one thing helps the other.

[bluenote61]

Great study group. I appreciate all the discussions here around DL. Cool.

The fingering on m5 makes me always thinking about how to move on after the Bb (beat2) on the e-string.
Move to the right side, i.e. position 6 or to the left, position 3.

Position 6 has some closer fingerings.


Position 3 has the Bbm9 arpeggio on the (smarter sounding) strings 5-4-3.

[lawson-stone]

Here's my take on mm 5-8

[AllanAllen]

Nothing idiotic about that!

[PMB]

A few observations on m5-8:

I meant to say that the positions I chose rather than the fingerings are close to Jeff's. I'll often play in three-finger mode, especially on a blues but bop heads tend to be the exception.

[Bobby Timmons]

Here’s m5-8 … the lick over the Bbm/Eb7 is maybe my favorite in the whole tune. I love it.

I love it too. I like the enclosure emphasizing the extension and then further crap in the extensions. Lotta good vocab in DL.

[AllanAllen]

Learned it by reading bar 8, then 7…. It was pretty pleasant that way.

[pamosmusic]

Learned it by reading bar 8, then 7…. It was pretty pleasant that way.

Reverse! Reverse!

Is anyone else here the right age to be hearing the Cha Cha Slide voice saying that every time someone mentions learning the tune in reverse order now?

No?

Anyone?

…..

[AllanAllen]

So many wedding dances to that song.

Everybody clap your hands

[Christian Miller]

Great study group. I appreciate all the discussions here around DL. Cool.

The fingering on m5 makes me always thinking about how to move on after the Bb (beat2) on the e-string.
Move to the right side, i.e. position 6 or to the left, position 3.

Position 6 has some closer fingerings.


Position 3 has the Bbm9 arpeggio on the (smarter sounding) strings 5-4-3.

I’ve not learned much in my life, but one thing I’ve learned is that bop heads don’t work in position.


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[bluenote61]

I’ve not learned much in my life, but one thing I’ve learned is that bop heads don’t work in position.

Because they have been written mostly by sax or trumpet players? Or am I missing something in your post?

[pamosmusic]

I’ve not learned much in my life, but one thing I’ve learned is that bop heads don’t work in position.


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Be gone!

Out with ye!

[Christian Miller]

Because they have been written mostly by sax or trumpet players? Or am I missing something in your post?

Maybe? I don't know if I could give you a single concrete reason, but I know that as soon as I stopped reading them in position and started learning them by ear it suddenly got much easier from a playing perspective. Less positional fingering emerged intuitively and just seemed to flow better.

Things like slurring and harmonic context are super important. In bop phrasing rhythm and harmony go hand in hand. which all sounds more abstract than it is. I'm starting to think of it as 'harmonic fingering'

ill try an demonstrate what i mean more concretely when i get a chance. but a good one is enclosures of chord tones


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[Christian Miller]

I mean a lot of guitar music doesn’t work in position either…


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[lawson-stone]

Learned it by reading bar 8, then 7…. It was pretty pleasant that way.

In the measure with the Bb-7 chord, 4th note, you're playing a D natural and it needs to be a Db. You got me thinking about playing it an octave higher than what I've been doing.