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Transcribing Changes

Hey Guys,

I thought I'd start a little discussion/lesson on how to transcribe changes to tunes. As a drummer(or a drumming vibist..haha) I have been(and still am) always struggling with learning and transcribing changes and I thought I'd start out here with some tips on how to break it down. As Tony's shrink would say: if you have a big problem, brake it down into smaller problems and the big problem will go away.

Quick Donna Lee Etude Video

I'm at school right now and I had a few minutes with the camera on. So I thought I'd play a very rough and quick version of Donna Lee, the etude I have posted here.

I think if anything the etude will lead to you thinking about using double stops in your lines to get the chords happening.

I also have a version over Bud Powell's Celia that I'll post soon.

I do spend a lot of time playing solos 'in slow motion' and seeing where I can add things in. That's what is fun about this instrument, it can be sort of like a puzzle.

Donna Lee Etude

I've been working on some bebop heads and just using them to work on my left hand. My thought is, if that gets comfortable with smackin' down double stops, that that will help my four mallet playing and enable me to do some fun things over lines.

It's not a big deal, but it's something I think about and have fun with. It's as if you're playing a line that is primarily a single line and with your left hand you're slipping in double stops. I thought it would make me more fluid.

Scales Part 1

Part 1 of 4 with some ideas for scales.
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Chinese translation for Chinese students
練習音階很重要
第一個,可以加強雙手的技巧,
第二,你要了解每一個音階中的每一個組成音,這樣當你看到一個和弦的時候,你就知道用什麼音階套用在上面。

Good Ear Training Exercise

Ok, so download this file below. Burn all the tracks to a CD or put them on your ipod. Then set to shuffle. Listen and play the note back. Use the pause button if you need to. This should be a daily thing for a bout 5 or 10 minutes most days of the week!

This will help you get to know your instrument and work on your ears.

Try it and let me know what you think of it.

Invitation Lesson Plan

Here's a lesson plan for Invitation.

A great way to study this tune in pieces. Each lesson in the beginning will focus on one part of the tune. Later we put it all together and focus on the tune as a whole and work on improvising on it.

What's great about Invitation to study is the A section is sort of a modal section and the B section are changes. The same changes in lots of other tunes like, Cherokee, Laura, and others that mention in the lessons.

What instruments does this pertain to?

Difficulty

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