This does not count as a week, but just wanted to upload 2 video's.
This is just my walking line of Have you met miss Jones. I saw down with the chord charts for about half an hour to work out my own line that would fit. So I am confident that I got the right notes, all that needs working on next is the 'swing' feel.
The real purpose of this bass walking exercise is to be able to play/transpose this to guitar as well, whilst playing the chords. Like I've been talking the last couple of weeks. I have actually tried playing it on guitar with chords, and I am impressed by how successful its turning out to be. So hopefully soon I will post another video of me playing this standard but with guitar next time.
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This kid, if I can even call him that, is 12 years old and plays some of the best jazz I have ever heard. Just thought this would inspire you all, and maybe make you feel a little sad ha ha, I know I did!
It was my last week of class for the year, so that brings good news and bad news. The good news is that I am finished, and will soon be able to spend more time to my jazz studies, the bad news is that its exam time for the next 3 weeks, so I will not be learning any new jazz, as I must concentrate on my studies. I intend to graduate this year!
Academics aside, this was a good week of learning. I went back to the books again, namely the Jody Fischer ones, as well as some other pdf's I had around my computer. I had neglected the books, and was kinda doing my own thing for the last couple weeks. But its good to come back to material that specifically teaches you something. The Jody Fisher one was quite helpful, it allowed me to explore the Melodic Minor scale, The diminished scale and the Whole tone scale, and how they can really make my solo's pop out. More noticeably, I read else where that I can try using some of these scales, more specifically the whole tone scale, on plain dominant chords. It will give it an interesting edge to it. For those of you who do not know anything of what I am talking about, all you need to know is that these three scales are very weird and somewhat dark sounding. You can't just play them here and there, they have a very unique sound and special application. This week I was experimenting with their application. Experimenting with new idea's is essentially jazz is it not? I want my solo's to sound fresh and not so 'unoriginal'. -- Just listen to John Coltrane for weird stuff. He went into all this type of avant-garde jazz, whilst being heavily influenced by eastern spirituality/music. I can't say I am the biggest fan of his stuff, but I do respect him as a Great. He did after all, compose the song that to this day is still the song that Jazz musicians use as a benchmark of their skill, compared to others. i.e. "Giant Steps".
Another thing I learnt was to superimpose one arpeggio onto another, its a straight-forward concept, but I never really thought about it. If I play an Em7 arpeggio over a CMaj7, that is going to make the Cmaj7 sound more like a Cmaj9. If we take it one step further, and play an Emaj arpeggio over a dominant G7, its going to make the G7 sound like a G13b9! Now teats 'out the box'. Oh, I also learnt about playing Out-In the box, that's more to do with Tritone-substitution. It has the same principle of playing another chords scale/arpeggio over a different chord, but as long as its A TRITONE AWAY. For those of you studying jazz, don't overlook this concept, it seems daunting at first, but it sounds really awesome.
I did some transcribing too, but not jazz stuff, its actually a funk number by the Average White Band, song is called 'Pick up the Pieces'. I am confident that all of you have heard this song.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnH_zwVmiuE] <--- Link to song
I worked out both the chords and the melody. Was not that difficult, but just goes to show how this jazz study is helping me in non-jazz fields. I also learnt 2 standards. "Have you met miss Jones" and "Tune Up". Both are relatively easy to play, especially tune up, and they give you enough time to think of the chords and what solo to use over it.
Lastly, something that has interested me for a long while is walking bass on guitar. Namely, to play the chords of the song alongside a constant walking bass line. I've been dabbling here and there on my guitar with some lines, but nothing solid. On Friday and Saturday I looked up loads of video's on YouTube on some idea's and I got some great information. One video especially, which I will post up just now. So, I'm still a far way away form groovn' bass on the guitar, but I am definitely going in the right direction. I thought it would come in handy for the shows I do with Otis. Would be good to keep the rhythm as well as to outline each chord I play. Jazz bass is super fun.
I will go more into walking bass lines on guitar, but for now I must study. So time for a bit of a jazz break.
Wow wow wow. So I have now officially made it halfway through my Jazz program. Now to tell you how I feel... EXCITED. It has not been a walk in the park. Jazz is most certainly the rocket science of music, fortunately however, it is not as hard as rocket science. I am slowly getting a name for myself as a jazz guitarist around Stellenbosch, as well as Hout Bay I guess seeming as Otis, my mentor, has asked me to perform alongside him for some jazz shows in and about Hout Bay. That alone makes me ecstatic. I'm honored to be playing with Otis who was one of the top Jazz guitarists in Johannesburg some years ago. He has not played jazz shows in a long while, and now for his debut, he asks me to play. Yes. I am happy! I have made new jazz friends, mostly from the jazz jams. I have been jamming so often at the conserve that even they are beginning to recognize me (Josh and I have started a trend there). We actually jammed yesterday with a bassist (Josh's student), and that was great. Awesome to have bass. We just solo'd over two songs, but we did not get bored. Jazz improvisation is never boring. Even though I'm still a novice at it, I could feel with every improvisation, I was getting more confident and experimental. I would make the 'bad' notes sound as if they are meant to be there.
So after 3 months, I have learned quite a bit: Arpeggio's, Melodic Minor Scale, Chords, STANDARDS, Theory, Blues, History, Aural training, transcriptions, licks, Swing feel, latin feel, chromatism, sheet reading, trading of fours, band leading etc. Most importantly, I have learned, and am still learning how to use all these elements TOGETHER. As Parker Said, you got to learn it all, and then forget it. So when I play at the jams, I'm not constantly thinking; - Db7alt, melodic minor 7, swing, Pass lick, add chromatics, No. none of that. Instead I just do!
More impressively, when I started, I knew about 1 standard. Autumn Leaves. Now I know 21 standards!! And I still got way more to go. I have found pics all over the net that relate to the songs I have, and also to celebrate my halfway mark. So try guess if you can see what song correlates with what picture. The songs are (including both chords and head):
Autumn Leaves
Take the A Train
Blue Bossa
Beautiful Love
Four *new
Watermelon Man
Green Dolphin Street
Cantaloupe island
Harold's Bossa
In a Mellow Tone
Footprints
Sookie, Sookie
Satin Doll
All the things you are
Days of Wine and Roses
Yardbird Suite *new
Night in Tunisia
Witchcraft
Summertime
Fly me to the moon
My Funny Valentine
What makes me more excited is that this is only the halfway mark, and I have already got so much under my belt. What can another 3 months do for me? That really is what excited me! In terms of my goals from the beginning, I have not been keeping strict with them. 5 hours a day, is difficult mainly because I have other commitments. There are certainly a few days when I play for 5 hours or over, but mostly its between 2 to 4 hours a day that I practice and learn. BUT - I do pick up my guitar EVERYDAY. My sheet reading skills have increased, therefore that reduces my practice time I guess. It used to take me like an hour and a half just to read a melody, now it takes me about half an hour. Progress? I think so. My ears are being developed. Once again, it used to take me a while to transcribe music, but now it just happens so much easier. Oh, and whilst on topic. I finished the transcription for Wes Montgomery on Satin Doll, and I definitely will be using some of his licks and techniques. In the Jam yesterday I used licks from Pass and Gillespie that I transcribed, so transcribing has a three-fold effect. It develops your aural skills, it gives you the feel for how the greats improvise, and it gives you some killer cool jazz licks.
So yea, I'm really getting this whole jazz thing. My improvisations are still 'weak' as I mostly rely on arpeggio's, the major scale, and I too often start each lick or whatever you want to call it on the root of the chord I am playing on, which is alright, but its too easy. I have to, and want to learn how to solo over the changes, i.e. to be a semi-tone away from the next chord tone I have to play at. That sounds really jazzy!
Thanks to all who actually read this, you're the ones that keep my motivated and encouraged. I have been getting a lot of kind words from fellow musicians or music lovers alike. Thank you! Now, lets tackle these next 3 Months!
One more week to go and I would have made the half way point. I will tell you how I feel about that next week! So stay tuned :-/
No but seriously, this week has been a bad but good week. As I told you last week, I would not have any practice time because I had another big test coming up, and I did end up spending all my time studying for it. So no new scales or tunes really. Well, except for the tune "Four" by Miles Davis. I am like 92% done with learning that. Its a great tune. And I know my next tune to learn. A Parker classic "Yardbird Suite".
So what did I do this week? Well, aside from studying, I did get some guitar in, as a matter of fact... I jammed yet again at the Monday night Jazz Jams. All I can say is that it went GREAT. Much better than my first time. I was must more confident, and less nervous, despite the fact that there were more people and even some UCT Jazz cats in the midst (whom I got to play with). So how it worked was I went up after a set was done, tuned up and plugged in. Suggested to the band leader (Ramon Alexander - pianist) that we play Blue Bossa. And that we did. I messed up a few notes in the head, but nothing too bad. We did trading of 4's which was a first for me, and it was fun! I don't want to jump the gun, but I think Ramon was impressed with me. After that we played Amy Winehouse's Valerie. After that, Ramon had left, so we got in a new pianist and new drummer, both where from UCT. None of us could decide a tune, so I suggested we try Grant Green's Sookie Sookie. I taught the pianist the chords quickly, and off we went. It was thrilling because I was telling the people when to solo, and who should go first, I also suggested we do fours, and so we did. Then I said back to head. So I kinda took the role of band/jam leader for that session, and it was great. I think I did a great job. To quote my friend who was watching me, this is from his Facebook status update:
"Yeah, ladies and gentleman Adrian Rogowski is on his way to the top. This man has been blessed by the Almighty to do a great many works! Lastnight at the jazz jam he just commanded the jammers with amazing tenacity - and it was only his 2nd official jam! Wow, and it was pleasantly surprizing to say the least! Very proud of you bro!"
Needless to say... I was quite chuffed!
There are video's that where taken. As soon as I get my hands on them, I will link it up here. But, all is not lost, there are some other video's that I have provided for you. Josh and I have been spending some time this weekend at my house, so we set up a small studio with piano and guitar and played some Jazz. He is trying to play more piano, so both him and I are growing in both our instruments. We dressed up for the fun of it, to get the vibe of a formal jazz show. Be kind when you watch, there are a few mistakes:
I love this standard. The chords, the melody, its quite exotic sounding. Ive been wanting to learn this standard for ever. It was on my top 5 list, but I always put it off because I was under the impression it was too hard. To my suprise, its rather easy, well, lets say intermediate. It has some easy major descending chords in the beggining, then loads of 2-5-1's.
Ive been busy this week, I've only got 3 weeks of class left before exams, so everything at Uni is comming to a close and all assignments are due etc. so expect more delays in my learning, however, as long as I get something out each week, its still development. Also, I have one more big test before exams this comming Friday, as well as play rehearsals (I am a guitarist for a play at the drama department), so not that much learning. Maybe 1 standard. We will see.
I continued to practice my melodic minors, and Josh and I yet again had another Jam on Tuesday. The Monday night jams are back on (they have been gone for some while), so I may just jam there too. Also, I have been doing more transcriptions. So far I have only tabbed out 3 of my favourite guitarists i.e. Joe Pass, Grant Green, and now Wes Montgomery. I am transcriping his solo on "Satin Doll" from his Riverside recording collection. I have yet to finish the entire chorus worth of transcribing, but I will get there. I must be honest, I don't do nearly as much transcribing as I should. All the greats did loads of transcribing as they dont have all the material I do, so transcribing is the oldest and most reliable way to pick up that jazz language, so I am going to try my utmost best to transcribe a piece a week by various artists. Another problem I face is actually learning and being able to apply all that I transcripe. So I will try super hard to do that too.
