Bb Eb | Dm7 Dbdim7 | Cm7 F7 | Bb D7 | Gm D7 | Gm G7 | Cm7 F7 | Bb Bb7| ...
>Reed wrote:
>>All the great jazz players when playing over standard tunes are
>>essentially playing in one key (or at least in large key centers).
>
>In experimenting with different slow melodic lines, I took this to heart
>and started noodling away on the Bb major scale, until I got to the Dm7.
>On the Dm7, the notes Bb and Eb are the ones that differ from D Dorian. I
>was certainly able to generate some reasonable melodic lines that
>included these, but I found one that I liked that centered around A
>Bnatural C, reintroducing the Bb on the Dbdim chord, and another that
>featured C D Enatural, reintroducing the Eb on the Dbdim chord.
>
>So what am I to make of this? What thoughts went through my head? What
>would help me learn to do this in closer-to-real-time with fewer duds?
>Though I certainly wasn't thinking "Cm7 Dorian" in the second half of the
>first measure, it did seem helpful in the second measure that I knew that
>one pool of notes for the Dm7 was the notes of the D Dorian scale. Maybe
>I should have been, but I wasn't thinking "Oh I'll just sharpen the Bb",
>or "I'll approach the C from a half tone below". With hindsight,
>admittedly, it felt more like, "Oh let's add some tension by leaving the
>key centre briefly for one chord. On the other hand, I also wasn't
>thinking "Let's switch to the key of C for one chord".
>
>So I don't feel that the time I've invested in practicing different
>scales and learning about chord/scale associations has been wasted. I
>think I've always known intuitively that I wasn't going to be improvising
>by switching mental gears from scale to scale on every chord. But perhaps
>it would be helpful if jazz education did place more emphasis on
>analysing the harmony of tunes. Could we do some more of that here? Any
>experts willing to dissect My Romance step by step?
>
It's not a matter of being able to prove things or "disect" things.
It's a matter of producing something that sounds beautiful.
If you find particular notes work, thats up to you. Just because
some player may be essentially playing in Bb, doesnt mean that he
never strays from Bb.
The thing to do is:
1) Write a solo for yourself in Bb. See what notes you choose given
lots of time to think about each note. Play your solo afterwards, without
any chord accompaniment and see if it holds up as a piece.
2) Transcribe some solos of "My Romance" (or other tunes). I know Bill
Evans recorded that tune alot though I don't think I've transcribed any of
his solos on that tune. I think Miles recorded it. There are so solos many
for this tune.
Alot of the things you are interested in cannot be learned without
at least doing #2 though #1 is pretty essential too. Both #1 and #2
help each other.
#1 is limited to how much time you will put into making a beautiful
solo. #1 is also very difficult to do until you have done alot of
transcribing.
If you write a beautiful solo as in #1, it's most likely to be essentially
like I've described as it will be if you transcribe a beautiful solo.
If your solo is casual noodling a chord at a time, then other things
(including chord scales) may seem ok.
The point is that if you write something as in #1 that isnt something
of the quality that you would hear on a great record, then it doesnt have
to obey the same rules.
SImilarly if you play something that isnt the quality of something
on a great record, then it doesnt have to follow the same rules.
If you can't write things of that quality yet, then transcribing is the
only way to get things from which to do theory analysis.
Transcibe the solo and then think about what the player was doing.
You have to realize that I may actually know what I'm talking about because
I'm claiming things and not demanding that some particular solo that I
know in advance will prove my point has to be used.
If I'm wrong, you should start transcribing things and immediately
see that Charlie Parker is thinking about things like dorian mode
and diminished scales instead of other more basic considerations as
I've outlined.
They all will prove my point given that they are in the genre of the
people that I have studied, which is not a bad list (Bill Evans,
Wes MOntgomery, Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker,
Cannonball Adderly, Kenny Baron, Stan Getz, .....)
People are often trying to learn to "speak" jazz from something the
equivalent of a bad grammer book (theory books).
Think about that. If you wanted to learn to speak/write French and you
just sat at home with a grammar book and dictionary and started
writing books or thinking of things you could say, it would most
certainly not end up being anything that a native speaker would
recognize.
Instead you have to spend alot of time listening to the real thing.
However, the listening has to be slowed down so that you hear everything
(much they way we hear every word of a language).
>Also, does anyone know of a nice solo piano performance of this tune that
>a novice transcriber may be able to tackle?
>
Solo piano is the most difficult thing to transcribe (the only thing more
difficult is a big band or orchestra).
There is no solo piano for the novice to transcribe.
In fact I've never met anyone that could do a good job transcribing
solo piano accurately that didnt have perfect pitch.
If you are a novice, start with medium tempo chet baker.
If you have a good device for slowing things down, you could go
to Bill Evans or ... pretty soon.
Consider transcribing some of the things I've posted.
When you are done you have something to check against (though I wouldnt
recommend doing COnfirmation since that has some difficult problems due to
the recording and other things).
The big problem is people want to skip so many essential steps and somehow
just arrive at the final product.
I tell students that if you arent going to transcribe solos, you are
most likely wasting your time.
Of course anything is possible and I know top players that didnt transcribe
solos.
However, they had other things available to them in the form of
talents and playing opportunities that are almost cerainly not available
for most people. I.e. some people can hear "really well" and can
essentially transcribe on the bandstand in real time.
In any case, I personally know of no examples of people that can play
good bebop lines that havent transcribed.
reed
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com