I love Brad Mehldau and I’ve played the piano for a while now mostly classical Liszt and Chopin etudes. It’s hard for me to find my own character in my improvs. I always feel as if i am imitating someone while playing. Has anybody struggled with this and/or knows how to find it? Thank you.
One of the things I've learned since I started my jazz piano journey as an adult learner several years ago is that it's far better to be able to learn something simple fluently and then add layers of complexity to it, than to learn something complex and find out afterwards that it didn't improve my fluency at all. This mostly only occurred to me in the context of learning standards and techniques ("Why would I think I can play Misty with rootless voicings when I can't even play it with shell voicings?").
But after reading many comments about how transcription is essential to developing my jazz skills, and subsequently beating my head against the desk attempting to transcribe relatively easy solos (with the playback speed set to 0.75x and painstakingly rewinding small sections over and over again), I took a step back and realized the same thing applies here. Why would I think I can transcribe a Wynton Kelly or Hank Jones solo when I haven't proven I can transcribe anything far simpler?
Since then I started with some extremely easy sounding pop songs, xmas tunes, and even nursery rhymes, and set out to figuring out how to play them by ear. I found that I can actually do this, and what's more it is even rather enjoyable when I've dumbed down my target sufficiently. I did that for several months and then came back to a jazz solo I was failing to transcribe and suddenly it was much easier.
This probably seems obvious to many but I am putting it out there in case someone is stuck like I was. Transcription is its own separate skill and it's not necessary to transcribe jazz as a starting point. It might even be a waste of time, relatively speaking. You might find, like I did, that it is far easier to transcribe jazz once you have transcribed easier non-jazz tunes. In the thousands of comments I've seen telling beginners that transcription is essential, I don't know that I ever saw anyone suggest that they start with non-jazz tunes if transcribing jazz is proving too difficult. So I am here to offer that as a possible option to my fellow beginners who may read this.
I'm listening to east of the Sun west of the Moon live in Paris and her solo on that tune. I really want to be on a solo like that. I know a lot of people say I just need to transcribe it and figure it out and maybe that's the answer, but that just seems like it's going to take such a long time to figure that out.
I'm just wondering if there is any way for me to not learn it exactly no for no but sort of figure out the style and be able to play that way. Like maybe I figure out a couple of rules or tricks that I can apply to my playing.
Right now I'm really good at comping. I'm really good at playing chords in my left hand, And either spreading them across my right hand or noodling around on my right hand between the melody.
Then on my right hand I might just add a note or two like a d and a maybe and I kind of noodle around And empty spots between the melody.
But I can't solo like she does. My solos are much slower and don't have that kind of energy spark to it.
I don't want to overcomplicate this question and it is probably not that deep but, I am learning this tune where the lead sheet is in D Major. I have done the harmonic function analysis and written the roman numerals above each chord. I have not learned the tune yet. I want to learn it in G because I want to sing over it and it fits my range better.
Should I keep the marked up lead sheet in D and mentally transpose everything to G while learning the tune? Or should I just handwrite my own lead sheet on G on a staff of paper?
Obviously the second option would be the least hassle for me and the easiest way to learn it in G but I don't want to be "cheating" and miss out on the benefits of transposing mentally if there are any.
The same question could be formulated for learning a tune in 12 keys after knowing it by heart in one key. Do you guys transpose it mentally at your instrument or do you create a new lead sheet with the transposed changes and melody?
Today is my father’s birthday.
Rev. George I. Jones, Sr. passed away in 1981 when I was only three years old. Five days before he died, he prayed over me, anointed my hands, and spoke over my future as a musician.
I was far too young to understand what that moment meant.
Today, while playing “Good Good Father,” I found myself thinking about both my Heavenly Father and my earthly father.
My dad never got the opportunity to hear these hands play, but he prayed over them before they ever became what he believed they could become.
More than four decades later, I can look back and see how God has honored that prayer and guided my life in ways I could never have planned.
So today I’m grateful.
Grateful to God for being faithful through every season, and grateful for a father whose prayer reached further into my future than his life was able to.
If you have a Cm7- F7sus4 - Bb maj, wouldn't the rootless voicings be the same for the Cm7- F7sus4 ? I am seeing that in most cases you would handle these not with rootless but with quartal voicings. Do either cases work?
What about rootless voicings with slash chords?
And if so, how?
Hello, I have a question about the comping exercise in Jeremy Siskind's book. The instructional video that comes with the book doesn’t show how to do this exercise, and I want to make sure I’m doing it right. If I understand correctly, since the melody has to be played at the same time as the left hand, I shouldn’t swing it, and I should land on the “and” of beat 2 for the hi-hat rhythm, for example. Is that right? Thanks.