Blues in All Keys?

[JazzTrumpet19]

As a novice jazz player wanting to improve my improv skills, I just purchased this book by Jamie Ambersold (sp.?). I'm sure other people on the board have this book, but I'm not sure if anyone has the same problem as me. You see, when I am playing along with the accomp. CD during the improvised choruses, I always lose my place. Like I'll start a solo, and it will sound decent, but then I will forget what measure I am even on and everything goes down hill from there. I am probably playing with the wrong chords after the first line. Now I know there are no "wrong" notes in jazz, but I would sound A TON better if I knew what chord I was in. Does anyone have techniques for keeping their place when improvising with books in this series? Also, I think my solos are kind of boring. What could I change/add to them to make them more exciting and interesting? any suggestions would be apprieciated. Thanks!
_________________
- Mike
"It's so important to listen to music, to listen again and again. Eat, sleep and drink music." -Arturo Sandoval

[tims9999]

I'm a novice to improv as well. Along the lines of making the solos interesting, my jazz teacher told the whole group one time to make sure we have a climax in the solo. The solo should be a mini song in itself, i guess. I hope more experienced players will reply, so i can get help too.

[musicmonkey]

Do pay attention to where you are: listen to the rhthym section, learn the changes, and play in time. Don't just lose yourself (although this is certainly the most fun!)

Also, I think that often playing with real, live people can be a great help, because it puts the pressure on you to do well (and for gazillions of other reasons).

Also, to make your solos more interesting: listen to the greats and try to tell a story when you play: learn the sound of each note to add color, and use dynamics, accents, and rests to add excitement.

Nate

[Larry Smithee]

Here is my suggestion for helping you to learn how to keep your place within the chord changes:
1) At first work without the Aebersold recording and walk through the chord changes using quarter values on each chord. For example, the C7 chord of measure one would be C, E, G, Bb. Do this routine for all the chords in your blues.
2) Once you become good at walking the chords from root - 7th, augment the practice routine by begining with the 3rd. Using the C7 chord again as an example might result in E, G, Bb, C.
3) Remember that blues tunes often envolves emphasis on b3rds and 5ths of dominant chords. A simple technique would be to use the flatted 3rds/5ths as passing tones to chord tones and might result in a pattern like - Eb E G Gb = C7 going to F, Ab, A, B = F7 going to the note C for the C7. Remember too that the 6th is a very useful note to apply to a dominant chord type as well.

Maybe you get the idea. Mix things up. Be creative with it. Become a bass player with a trumpet. Along the way you should begin to realize that you're able to better keep your place within the chord structures because of your walking bass pattern work. Hey, it's a start. And oh yeah, of course, listen to the great players.
Larry Smithee

p.s. hopefully Pat Harbenson, Eric Bolvin, and Jeff Helgesen will chime in soon. All are excellent pro players and I'm sure will have tons of suggestions.


[ This Message was edited by: Larry Smithee on 2003-07-08 20:50 ]

[BeboppinFool]

Hope it's okay if I chime in, too.

My best suggestion is to sit at a piano and see how a 12-bar blues is a form that can be analyzed all in one key.

Think of the I chord, the IV chord, the V7 chord, etc. It's really a simple piece in one key.

Another suggestion is to figure this out in one key first. Get to the point where that one key seems like a breeze. Then, take it in a key with either one more flat or one more sharp. If you go through the cycle of fourths (or the cycle of fifths, if you prefer), you will see how easy it is much sooner than if you try to go up chromatically.

Also, have you tried writing out simple melodies or choruses? Maybe you could do this in the first key you study, and do it several times so that you're really thinking in this key, and actually getting comfortable. (If you get yourself a crappy spiral manuscript notebook, you probably won't be immobilized by fear of ruining expensive manuscript paper.)

Hope this helps.

Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz

[boofredlay]

What helps me the most with the Abersold books and CD is to follow the book closely at first. Count your measures as you play and play something incredibly simple... I mean incredibly simple. Like one or two notes with the changes at first. Then expand everytime you start the changes again. This way you will learn the changes, get them in your head and next thing you know, you will "almost" never get lost.
It takes practice like everything else.

_________________
Eric

[ This Message was edited by: boofredlay on 2003-07-09 07:59 ]

[jazz_trpt]

All good advice so far.

Try trading choruses (12's) with the recording. Don't get so wrapped up in counting bars or watching changes go by that you don't listen to the music.

The goal is to be able to HEAR when one chorus ends and another begins. Counting should be a distant background task in your head, if a task at all. Your ear can tell you where you are inside a chorus if you start in the middle, it's just a matter of getting familiar with the sound.

As was mentioned before, the changes aren't hard, they're simply unfamiliar.
_________________
Jeff Helgesen
Free jazz solo transcriptions!

[musiclifeline]

I used to do what Larry mentions, about walking a bassline on the trumpet through the changes... I still do it to learn new tunes. Someone told me a while back that Freddie Hubbard does that with quarter notes, then eighth notes, then triplets, then sixteenth notes...

Also, do what the swing cats did -- take a riff (simple, bluesy, easy to hear) of from one to four bars. Play it for the first four bars, then modify it to fit the change in harmony over the next four bars. Back to the original again for the last four *(or modify it to fit those changes, or play a variation that works). A good riff to start with is something like the head from any of the following tunes:
Bags Groove
Sonnymoon for Two
Cool Blues
Mr. PC
Tenor Madness

It's best to learn tunes like these in all 12 keys, since these melodies frequently appear in solos and provide excellent melodic and rhythmic material. Other good (and easy) blues heads to learn in all keys are:

Straight No Chaser
Blue Monk
Blue 7
Bessie's Blues

Or if you really want to challenge yourself:

Au Privave
Billie's Bounce
Blues for Alice

I've also noticed that the tempos vary widely on that Aebersold CD... you may want to get some software (like Roni Music's Amazing Slow Downer) that can alter the speed without changing the pitch...
Enjoy!

[trumpetdiva1]

I like to first sing one chorus and play the next chorus and keep with this pattern until there are no more choruses left. It has seemed to help me out.

Janell Carter

[engelbach]

First of all, there are "wrong" notes in jazz.

Traditionally, the object of jazz improvization is to tell a story by creating a melody. As a beginning improviser, you must practice creating melody, and the melody must stay on the chords. If you have any ear at all, you'll know when you've hit a "wrong" note.

Playing on the chord changes is one way of insuring that you'll always know where you are. Your soloing rhythm has to match the harmonic rhythm of the song. I suspect that you aren't always being strict with yourself about this.

At the risk of contradicting what many others have been saying ...

There's nothing wrong with counting to help you keep your place. There are few experienced jazz players who don't resort to foot-tapping and other aids.

I haven't used the Abersol materials, but it's almost universal for the rhythm section in a combo to do something special at the turnaround, to signal the return to the top of the tune. I can't imagine that the Abersol recordings are any different. Listen for the turnaround to help you get back in the groove.

Paradoxically, the blues is not the best thing to use when learning to improvise. The blues keeps the same chords for several measures. It's easier to play with tunes that have more frequent chord changes. Hearing those changes happen is what tells you just where you are.

I recommend any tunes that use the familiar I-vi-ii-V Rhythm changes -- anything from I Got Rhythm to Blue Moon. It's pretty hard to get lost playing these.

And keep your solos simple. Play phrases that fit into even numbers of measures: one, two, four.

One more thing: Keep the melody of the tune in front of you. Quoting the melody in your solo is another good place-finding trick.

[ This Message was edited by: engelbach on 2003-07-11 17:54 ]

[jhatpro]

It helps me on new tunes to listen for four bars, play for four, listen for four more, etc. The next time I alternate the listen/play bars. Eventually I can play all 32 or whatever the form is.

Also, to help get away from counting the bars, I try to play in two and four bar phrases.
_________________
Jim Hatfield

"The notes are there - find them.” Mingus

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