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Sounds like a good plan! Most Xmas songs lend themselves to a jazzy treatment too. Several are already jazzy…”chestnuts roasting on an open fire..”
I always remember my days playing corporate Xmas parties with a trio and swingin like mad on those tunes! Now they mostly hire DJs…and again on New Years…Definitely 2 & 4…these are the upbeats in 4/4 when counting in quarter notes. The swing element always takes place on the upbeats. When subdividing in 8th notes,it’s the same concept, the upbeats are on the 2nd 8th note of every beat.
You might also want to read my recent reply to Michael Richardson in this forum…”Question about Bebop Calisthenic 1″
The section with tabs and the summary exercises are not numbered the same. When you look at the summary you are looking at a new page. In other words, do not try to go back and forth between the 2. Do the tabs first and then the summaries as standalone…
Ok, now I know what you’re referring to. Not that I’m trying to evade the question, but this topic is as broad as everything covered in this course, so I can’t really get into it and do it justice here. We can probably talk about it more during your next lesson. What I can say is that I have a course as detailed as this one that I teach my private students. I am planning to get it online, however my task for now is to get everything related to this one finished…and it is soooo much work…
I truly hope that those that use BIAB will not follow the tab it may generate for the etudes as this can be counter-productive. I think it should be used for accompaniment and to help us hear if we are playing it correctly, while looking at the intervallic script. Kind of like when we play along with a solo on a record, while reading a transcription…
Ken,
If you look at the instructions on the summary, you just need to internalize them in your head to play them, and not memorize them. For example, if a particular exercise is “lower chromatic neighboring tone for 3 and 5″ you should be able to take any fingering pattern you’re working on and just descend and ascend using the arpeggio and apply those approaches to the prescribed chord tones. This is what the summary is intended for.Once you have gone over the entire summary and are comfortable playing it, you can then just sit with your guitar (without the summary) and from the top of your head pick any chord tone or chord tones and spontaneously assign approaches to them and try to play them. For example you might decide to mix them up and try: ” upper neighboring tone for 5 and unprepared chromatic approach from below to the 3″. You’ll come up with some interesting lines. Of course some will sound better than others and sometimes work better either descending or ascending.
You mean how to get the individual fingering patterns down (1,4 and 5) or master the bebop calisthenics? I assume you mean the calisthenics. If you can play them (without having to stop half way, and without hitting wrong notes) at a moderate tempo on the current fingerings used by just looking at the summary page, I would say move on. The important thing is to understand where everything is in each fingering pattern, apply the prescribed approaches to the chord tones, and program your fingers to be able to make those moves!
All the Bebop Calisthenics are based on their corresponding summary page in the workbook. In page 31, you’ll find the summary of everything I’m doing in that video. It is not in the same order. The reason for this is:
1: The summary in the workbook is meant to be used with all fingering patterns and just gives you the formula for the exercise so you can adapt it accordingly.2: In the video I played all the exercises first descending for the 3 current patterns being used, and later on ascending. In the workbook summary it says to play each exercise both descending and ascending. It amounts to the same thing.
After experimenting with doing all of them first descending and then ascending, I found it more productive, quicker and easier to do each exercise descending and immediately ascending. So if I had separate instructions for descending and ascending, I was able to consolidate all of them into one set of instructions. This means that if I had 20 exercises in the video, I now only have 10 in the summary. This was an afterthought after the video was done. I was only able to adopt this approach for calisthenics featured in later modules.
When you practice the calisthenics, the video is supposed to be used only initially to orient you and give you details as to proper fingering use and other issues which you may encounter when trying to do a specific exercise. Once you have watched the video, please practice from the corresponding summary in the workbook.
Let me know if this is clear or if you have any more questions…
Richie
Yes,it is pretty much correct. The way I look at it, for str. group 1234:
Chords w/ root on 1 are usually derived from pattern 1
Chords w/ root on 2 are usually derived from pattern 6 or 5 (when using the 9)
Chords w/ root on 3 are usually derived from pattern 3 if major or 4 if minor
Chords w/ root on 4 are usually derived from pattern 7However, when you start working with other string groups it all varies…remember that there are only 4 inversions per str group, yet 7 fingerings. This means that there may be 3 fingerings not available per str group…
Gee guys…from the title of this post, “This might be hard to answer” , I thought you were going to ask me “What is the meaning of life?” or “Where do babies come from?” lol
I believe that is a misunderstanding of the rhythmic value that corresponds to the downbeat in question, and the tempo it is being played at. If it is an 8th note or smaller played at a fast, medium or even slow-medium tempo, no problem for an approach note to fall on a downbeat, especially if it resolves immediately. Remember, jazz is all about tension and release! On a slow ballad however, it isn’t such a good idea…
If you analyze solos by many of the great bebop players, you’ll find that this is the case. By the way, at the end of Module 8 I will start a series called “Dissecting the Masters”, through which I will demonstrate the above principle, among many other things!
Honestly, I wouldn’t spend any time with it for now if you’re doing the BGIS. At the end of Module 8 I will introduce “Dissecting the Masters”. Here I will take a lot of the phrases form the JGSS as well as other non guitarists and with the foundation you will have received in the previous modules of this course, I teach you a procedure to analyze them and “reverse engineer” them. You will learn to cop the essential feel of the phrase and come up with several variations for your own vocabulary. I think it is at this point that the phrases from the JGSS will become very useful…as well as any transcriptions you can get your hands on!
