I do think that you should transcribe and answer questions
for yourself about what people are doing.
The big problem I have with chord scales is that I see no evidence
whatsoever that the great players were doing that. This makes we wonder
where it came from.
When I was a kid I assumed that my teachers were teaching me things that
they learned from their teachers (presumably great players). I didnt realize
that I was being taught things developed by educators.
My basic insights regarding what people are doing are worth
considerring.
>>It's not a matter of being able to prove things or "disect" things.
>>
>>It's a matter of producing something that sounds beautiful.
>>
>Actually, it IS "dissect". My spelling is better than my jazz. All I
>meant was, if I'm going to solo in a few keys rather than chord by chord,
>I need to know what they are. Maybe My Romance never leaves Bb, even with
>interesting chord substitutions.
>
>>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.
>>
>Thank you for acknowledging that. It often seems that the people who are
>most gung-ho about transcribing are horn players. One thing I think I've
>learned from your reply is that even though
>1) I'm playing solo piano most of the time
>2) I'm reasonably content just embellishing a good melody, and
>harmonizing it nicely.
>3) I'm reasonably good at writing melodies for my own compositions
>4) I feel like I have a long way to go in learning voicings,
>substitutions and supporting left-hand styles
>5) The solo piano or trio recordings I listen to seem to have a lot more
>going on in terms of pianistic devices than just single note melodic
>lines over left-hand comping.
>6) Transcribing is time consuming
>
>it would still be a good idea in your opinion to devote a significant
>proportion of my limited time to transcribing other people's melodic
>lines. Is that correct?
>
Sure. Soloing a basic melodic line is important to do.
Of course as a piano player, you have other things to learn .
It depends on what you want to be able to do.
If you want to just play basic solo piano, then maybe you don't
care.
If you want to play like Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Kenny Baron, ....
then you definitely need to spend alot of time studying how their
lines work.
>Thanks
>
>Richard
>
>
>
>
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com