all-levels

H1CH - Head 1 Chorus Head

Ahh - I posted this one. It's funny.

first I'm talking to my self in the beginning! I'm mad because I don't think I'm concentrating hard enough. Next the dryer is on. I practice once or twice a week with the dryer on.

So I thought I'd give you an audio glimpse into my world. In a different life I have a lot of money and I have built a music room which is sound proofed with no dryers.

Who can figure out what H1CH mean?

I did a few of these. My chord melodies are sometimes 'thin'. I don't like adding a lot of stuff and I like playing in time mostly.

Here's It Could Happen To You

Here's a chord melody followed by a challenging quarter note solo with chords. The first part is for everyone, the second part is for advanced students. It's a real work out on chords and voice leading.

@Tristan - Can you play it?

Sorry, but I had to do it.

I've talked about this many times, however since we're talking about chord melodies I thought another Dad speech was appropriate.

I made this for my student Dan Neville. We did out last lesson last month and we wanted to end it with a couple duos.

I did two duos, but I'm not happy with the other one. I'll post this one for now.

Also, I didn't post the second part. I always play both parts to see if I can play along with the track. If I can then I know the time is ok. This is ok. But I won't post the second part hear. This way to you it has no other part to influence you.

I've been working on this tune with different time feels since I've been preparing for a tour and CD with the wonderful Czech singer, Martina Bartova. I'm posting a very slow, kind of dreamy version with lots of space. I've recorded several versions so maybe in a couple of days I'll post a version containing fast arpeggio-like figures over the harmonies of the tune.

“Bluesette” by the great Toots Thielemans from Brussels who passed in 2016 at the age of 94. I’m a big fan of Toots and his beautiful harmonica playing. I’m improvising here on his most famous song with a focus on using the top three mallets along with a few improv concepts. I think it’s important when practicing to isolate the parameters and techniques/concepts. My students and I will work in the lessons this way with good results. Gary Burton did the same with me when I was studying with him.