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Some keys are going to be harder than others to sing the intervals, depending on your vocal range. The idea is to be able to sing the intervals and match them as close as possible to the correct pitch. In certain keys, this will require that we sometimes sing in “falsetto”. If you’re slightly flat that’s ok, as long as it’s not an entire half step off.
Guys,
The more you do the better. However, each person knows how much they can handle according to their level of proficiency. I present the exercises in a slow, as needed fashion so you won’t get too overwhelmed. It takes a while to get comfortable with all the fingerings and understand where everything is in terms of the intervals. For the record, it took me at least a good 2 years back when I first started to work on them, before I could feel semi comfortable with them.I recommend taking a marker and crossing out the tab after you’ve examined it to make sure you are using the proper fingering, that is only if needed. This way when you learn it you will force yourself to think in the given intervals. The next step is to play it in different keys. I recommend learning and playing all the etudes in C (Pattern 1 in 8th position).
It is okay to memorize the etude. This is unavoidable if you have to repeat it several times.This is actually good as it will program new vocabulary in your subconscious. However, this is only practical if you understand what is going on in terms of the location of all the intervals and awareness of where and what approaches are taking place. This will enable you down the road to apply the concepts in different contexts when improvising. Remember, this will not happen overnight, but only after properly programming different variations of each concept through the calisthenics and etudes. How to achieve this is the final goal of this course.
Initially, I had the PDFs under the individual videos. I am in the process of eliminating that and just having the PDFs in each Module’s download section. Once I do that, their shouldn’t be any overlapping. I will leave up some pdfs under videos that are not included in the books.
Each Module and its videos are representative of each chapter in the books (eg. Module 1 corresponds to Lesson 1 in the Lesson Book).
If you wish to have all the PDFs from the books at once, send me an email with your request and I will send you a link. I just ask that students please focus and do the work for 1 module at a time in the order given, to avoid unnecessary confusion and overwhelm.
Thanks for the feedback!
Actually, they are not the same. The 1st one contains just the mixolydian mode. The 2nd one contains the same mixolydian mode and is followed by all the other relevant modes that we will use in the future with this same set of calisthenics. Either way I am going to eliminate those links to avoid confusion, as you should be viewing these same exercises in the workbook portion for module 2.
I recommend keeping the foot down for “1 and” / up for “a”. I will have an addendum at the end of the Rhythm Lab1 video uploaded no later than Monday, where you can watch me play swing 8ths and see how my pick mimics my foot on the downbeats and upbeats.
I will try to add an addendum of me playing them to the Rhythm Lab 1 video, in the near future. I honestly don’t know how much this will help, because you need to hear it to get the feel of it. All 8th notes in medium mainstream jazz have this feel, so if you listen to a lot of players you shouldn’t have a problem assimilating it. I will still make the video mainly to show my right hand and how to count it out as you pick.
Yes, you are supposed to play them as “swing” 8th notes. The video on Rhythm Lab 1 demonstrates how the whole exercise should sound and has a visual depiction of the downbeats and upbeats. In addition there is an MP3 that you can download to listen and play along with the exercise if needed. Downloads
Thanks Marc! In all honesty several of the solos you hear, I played on CDs in which I was a sideman. Most of the stuff is pretty old…between 1995 and 2005 and some not even representative of how I play these days. The CDs I did under my name were not mainstream jazz, but instead Latin Jazz and fusion, and I played a solid body on them. Three of the tracks you hear that I wrote are Cherokee Samba, Blue Whale Street and Tel Aviv Blue. The 1st 2 are based on Coltrane changes. They are all from an album I did in 1998 called Metal Caribe with David Leibman, Dave Samuels and others. You can find them on I Tunes or here at CD Baby:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/zellon7
I also recommend “Latitudes” , “Cumbiacao” and “Scrapple from the Apple” from my album “Cafe Con Leche” with Jerry Bergonzi, Paquito D’ Rivera, Danilo Perez and others. Also found on I Tunes or here at CD Baby:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/zellon2There is also the “Nazca Lines” with a Latin post-bop tribute to Jimi Hendrix (I recommend “Fire” and also the version of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”):
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/zellon5
Finally, if you like the Beatles, I did an Afro-Peruvian tribute (very interesting rhythms) a few years back:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/richiezellonAll these you can download for $0.99 per track, so it’s not bad.
Hopefully I’ll have something more current soon. I’ve been teaching almost full time for the last 10 years and have had very little time for recording and the road…which by the way can be more of a drain than what it’s worth these days…
