Here's another great lesson from Joe Locke! This is great! I'm stealing it as you read this!!!! - Tony
Pt. 2 Of Dan Gorlin's vidcasts on African Music. Check out pt. 1 if you haven't seen it yet.
Jazz improvisation lesson 1 playing scales
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnvVYGgeR9E
Jazz improvisation lesson 2 playing over changes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvYK_x7xMxI
Jazz improvisation lesson 3 improving time using a metronome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEhgdbnmM5Y
i have attached an mp3 of a trax that is basically a looped 8 bar idea. There is really no chord structure, but rather sound shapes. What i do alot in my home studio with REASON 4, is make short loops ideas to play over.. and then i work on the creative process
in the example its based around a C min tonality.. but can also be a Ab major tonality. like i mentioned previous there was no concept of chords.. just a groove....
with that in mind here is a list of step and ideas i mess around with ...
1. sing a line .. and play it. have a conversation with yourself and your instrument.
I decided to do a series of analysis of tunes.
I decided to call this series 'Pimp My Tune', and I think you could definitely call this 'Ghetto Analysis'. I did go to college, but I was interested in playing and learning off the street. What was great about that was I got a lot of interesting perspectives on tunes and harmony, from some great musicians. It was amazing that in school everything was made to seem difficult and on the street everything was made to seem easy. At least that's how I perceived it all.
So when I was in college I came up with this plan that really helped me. It's a little over the top, but it could be a good guide for some of us.
In school it helped me keep the music going. Even after I graduated I kept this going and it helped me, I think stay in the business.
Here it goes, first:
Ear Training: 1 hour equals 2
Practicing: 1 hour equals 1 hour
Listening: 1 hour equals 1.5 hours
Jamming and gigging: 1 hour equals 3
doing music business stuff: 1 hour equals, .5 hours
teaching: 1 hour equals 1 hour
Here's a prerequisite for the Shapes and Patterns of Music sight reading. My recommendation is to play these exercises as fast as you can but start at the beginning no matter how proficient you already are. If it's too easy, play it faster!
Joe's Performance and lesson on 'She's Always a Woman to Me'.
Thanks so much to Barryk. He posted this Band In A Box file for my tune, titled and dedicated to Vince Guaraldi.
Check it out!
Here's a tough mental challenge.