I want you start listening to records a little differently than you're used to.
most of us we listen to records to enjoy them and we're kind of grooving on the
time feel, and the mood of the piece. And we're going to go along with the flow
of the solo. You may notice some moments that you
know, sound especially good to us and we kind of just enjoy them as they come
along. But I want you to try to analyze a little
more about what goes into an improvisation.
Imagine for instance, that you have a student, who doesn't know anything about
improvising, but he's interested in finding out.
And one of the things you decide to do, is play him a solo and then break it down
for him. Explain, here are the different kinds of
things that are going on in this solo. things like what style is it?
What you know, time feel is it? how do, what are the sections of the
solo? Is it eight bar sections?
Or is it four bar sections? How does the tune break down?
what kind of intervals are being featured, what kind of rhythm figures are
being featured? This sort of thing.
So, this is where we come to part one of the assignment for this week.
I've recorded a solo on piano and you're going to hear the audio portion of this.
After I played it I wrote out the notes that I played and listen to it a few
times, look at the written notes. And then go to your computer keyboard and
write a description of what my solo is made up of.
Again, like I say, what kind of intervals am I using, what is the breakdown of the
song? What's the tempo and time feel?
Things like that don't get carried away and write a ten-page dissertation on this
32 bars of music. it seems like every time I assign
something like this, somebody goes crazy and, and it's down to analyzing every
single note, somehow. all this should fit on one page it's an
overview of the kind of things that I used when I was soloing to make up this
particular improvisation. So, once you've got your description
done, upload it to the site, that's part one.
Part two is a continuation of this song. Download the play along tract.
there are two versions, one is piano, base and drums, that's for most of you
And one version is just for piano players, that is, just base and drums
because you don't want to have two pianos competing on the, on the recording.
So, I want you to play along, with the recorded track, and see how you do with
this particular set of chord changes. If you're a, an, an experienced
improviser, this will be real easy for you to do and you'll knock it off in no
time. If you're new at this, it may be more of
a challenge. And but do, try the best that you can try
to find notes that work on the harmonies and see if you can keep up with the flow
of the harmonies. It's a place to start.
And next week we will look at the vocabulary of the improviser.
That is the chord scales and the chords that we use for playing.
in the meantime good luck with this assignment.
For part two, when you have your MP3 created, upload it to the site.
And and then you'll be complete for this week.
Good luck with it, and I'll see you here next week.