Examples of the tools I've acquired over the year

At the start of the year, my soloing was mostly me hitting chord tones and other notes in between without much thought, while hoping it made sense.  It didn't, though.

However, after working all year, by listening to and playing other tracks, and receiving guidance from Steve, my teacher.   I've found myself faced with a bunch of licks and riffs that I now use almost constantly.  I will list a handful of examples, along with accompanying videos.
Blues Licks
These are all in the video - I play them in the order seen here.

I call them blues licks because if I was to use them all in my jazz solos all the time, I'd be spat on by jazz critics. These are mostly used in any blues/rock and roll solos I do.

VIDEO - 1) Triplet run.  Very quick m7-6-5  m3-2-1 descending run that can be used in a wide variety of places. This one can work very well in jazz pieces if you play it in a different key of the tune you are playing, working especially well if played in the subdominant of said key.  Also works if mixed with other chords, eg. when I performed "Peace Piece" by Bill Evans, I played this run in C along with an F#9 chord and ran down 4 octaves during my improvisation at the end.  It seemed to work well.

VIDEO - 2) Descending tritone/blues note based run.

VIDEO -3) m7 - 1 - m3 triplet run.  Basic blues riff.  Can work well in jazz solos if followed by a chromatic run.

VIDEO - 4) b5 - 5 - 8 triplet run.  Another basic blues riff.  Works well in jazz solos if emphasis is placed on the b5.  

Riffs I have under my belt for Jazz
Here are some of the things I've picked up this year that I use in my solos.  They are basic ideas and will often be embellished or altered whilst playing.

VIDEO - 6)  2-m3-5-m7 run.  Picked this up whilst listening to some modern jazz performances on youtube.  It's played slow in the video, but if played very quickly and over several octaves it can sound very, very jazz, even though it's simple.

VIDEO - 6) Tonic triad, Tritone triad.  Two major (or minor) triads straight after one another.  If in the key of C, would be C-E-G  F#-A#-C# or vice versa.  Picked this up from listening to Evans and Oscar Peterson.  I'm not sure if it's exactly what they played, but with the timing I play in the video, it's a well used riff that opens up space for a fast, continuous onslaught of notes.  I like to play a blues scale just after this.

VIDEO - 7) Chromatic run.  If I feel I need to do something quickly, make my solo more jazzy, transition to the next chord or even forget where I am, I use this.  I couldn't for the life of me understand how so many jazz pianists made their solos sound so discordant but in key at the same time.  I thought this was a particular lick that I just wasn't getting, but then I discovered it was just a chromatic run.  I use this a lot.

VIDEO - 8) Suspended 4th run.  Heard at the end of the "Belief" solo, this is one of my favourites to play.

Solo Analysis- "Belief", by Bob Reynolds

What follows is my first "aural transcription" for the piano solo in Belief, by Bob Reynolds.  I played this as part of Andy McDowell's degree show.  Rather than transcribing something literally, I will instead play it to the camera.  This resembles almost exactly the solo heard in the actual track.

Where the left hand stops, there is a bar of 3/4, then it goes back into 4/4.  So if the timing seems a little fuzzy there, sorry!

Note the broken suspended fourth run at the end - I didn't play it very clearly there, but it's something that has cropped up in several pieces/solos I've been listening to/playing over the year.  I plan to use it when soloing over "Footprints" (Wayne Shorter) which we are performing this Friday - listen out for it!  I find it to be a very effective run that works over many chord sequences.  Another tool for the belt.

The first part of the solo is played over two chords or modes - essentially C ionian and A ionian.  The chords change ever bar, and the melody changes with it.  The most obvious effect this has on the solo is whether a C or C# is played.   In almost all cases, if the chord played in the left hand is the A, then the right hand will play a C#.  An exception is made in bar 5 of the solo, when a C natural is played over the A chord.  Though this is a very subtle movement, it changes the whole tonality of the entire line.  It's absolutely fascinating how much one little note can change a melodic run.

When playing down the octaves, notes that stick out a lot are E, B, A, D and C# - the first five notes of A major.  If played over the C chord, the notes are mostly E, B, A and D, with the G occasionally added in.
An important part of this solo is the rhythm and emphasis placed on the notes; a lot of the time, the same notes are being played, but what keeps the solo interesting is the different emphasis placed on each individual note.

One of my favourite parts is when the right hand simply plays a B over and over again, while the left hand fills in the gaps with a D, C and B, changing to a D, C# and B when the chord changes.  The part where the right hand climbs features many accidentals - it's all sequence, but moves up a tone, then a semi tone, then a tone, then a semi tone, until we get back into the same note pool we were in before - A, B, C#, D and E.  70% of the solo consists of these five notes.

The right hand drops down the octaves in a similar way it did before, then there's a quick break bar of 3/4 where the chords change.  This part sounds much more modal, with more accidentals and passing notes in it than previously, though the solo is still heavily based on the notes surrounding A and B.  To finish it off, the pianist plays the broken suspended fourth run that I talked about earlier - E, A, B and E.  The same notes as earlier.

This is a modern jazz piece, and is a modern jazz solo.  While it's by no means simple or easy, it isn't as complicated as that of Evans or Davis, who I'm yet to analyse; they tend to use lots of accidentals, chord tones and passing notes, while the pianist in Belief has managed to create a fantastic sounding, modern solo from a small note pool, a repeating 2 chord pattern, and clever use of rhythm and note emphasis.

Bill Evans Licks slowed down

I've began recording videos of licks I've started transcribing.  The main difficulty is finding chord progressions which allow me to use the longer ones in them.  Most of my blogs will be posted at once, but I will date them back to when the video was recorded as proof of my ongoing work throughout the year.

Most of the licks are from a very old Bill Evans recording that I got free with a magazine - I don't know the track name so I can't link it!

I'm getting surprised at how 'simple' some of what I thought to be complicated licks are.  For example, a lick I thought was full of notes outside of the chord turned out just to be a straight broken C minor 2nd inversion chord going up and down, but when it comes down an Ab is played in front of every G.

The third one is basically just a Cm7 chord with chromatic run downs dotted at certain points to piece it together - this is something I've started using A LOT in my solos (probably because playing down a chromatic scale is the simplest thing to do when you feel like you need to put a fast run in somewhere, tee hee).

Since I don't know what the track is, I can't find chord charts for it, meaning I'm unsure what chords exactly he's playing these over - Evans tended to change the chords completely when he solo'd, so what I hear in the track may be completely different to what he's actually playing.

Anyways, here is a video of me playing the licks very slowly - the thing I always find interesting is how when slowed down, most of these licks sound ridiculous and just like random notes, but when played at tempo and with the right rhythm, they sound beautiful, complex, and well thought out.

HND2 Improv

From this post onwards, anything posted until the end of the year is for my HND2 improv class - hopefully we'll be able to see an improvement from my soloing last year.

At the time of editing (5/6/2013) we're nearing the end of the semester, and I feel that my my improvising has come on leaps and bounds, through very helpful feedback from Robin our tutor, in depth lessons from Steve my teacher, and from LISTENING to jazz that I enjoy, and copying elements of solos from that.

Transcribed solo - Blue Rondo A La Turk

Below is one of the lines played by Dave Brubeck in the swing section of "Blue Rondo a La Turk".

The solo itself goes on for over three minutes, most of which are chords moving in a way related to the main melody.  The part of the solo I have transcribed and played is one of the only parts that has a noticeable and catchy jazz-like melody.

Final Assignment - Home Cookin'

For our final assignment I was to write a tune and a solo of my own.  We had the opportunity to use chord sheets that already exist if we wanted to, or do everything ourselves from scratch.  I chose the latter.

After recording a very basic blues chord sequence (I-IV-V over and over) I sat down and played my tune.   I then spent time composing a basic solo over it.   I have uploaded two videos; the first is of the tune, named 'Home Cookin'' and the second is of the solo.

For the solo, I used a Bb blues scale for the Bb and Eb chords, switching briefly to Eb mixolydian when I play the line heard in the melody.  For the F chord I played an arpeggio of F7 (or F mixolydian) into the Bb Blues scale.  This solo is very basic but covers the requirements met by the assignment.

At 29 seconds I go back into the head of the piece, demonstrating the solo in the context of the tune.

Reflective Blog Number 2

I have learned something about improvising.  About playing jazz in general.  Diving into the deep end and trying to implement transcribed solos into songs, without a proper grasp of the jazz style, is pointless.  Or not pointless; it's just more counter-productive than it is productive.

Until recently, I've been trying to transcribe snippets from artists such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Chick Corea.  While the listening did me good, and the transcribing certainly helped me get a feel of rhythm and phrasing, it was doing nothing to my playing.

I started studying jazz properly this year, with my teacher, Steve.  I had all these ideas and thoughts about improvising at first, but he wouldn't let me delve into it.  He constantly told me just to start my solos based on the chords I was playing; something I thought to be too simple.  So I ignored it.

It's only now, after studying and playing my pieces for my assessments next week and the various group tunes we've been doing over the months, that I've taken a step back and heeded his advice.

Rome wasn't built in a day.  And jazz cannot be learned in a matter of months.  It takes years to develop to the point where you can find yourself to be an amateur; it will take decades to master.  It took jazz pianist Mark Levine four years of playing and practice until he was able to play midly-effectively.  It took some of his advanced students 5 years, and others 10.   When Miles Davis used to play with session musicians he didn't know, musicians who had been playing jazz for fifteen years, he would say to them; 'That's cool.  You're not quite there, but it's cool.'

 Jazz isn't something you can just sit down and "play".  Improvising isn't something you just 'learn'.  It's more of a state of mind (apologies for the hippy talk) than anything else.

So when I've come to play my assessment pieces, rather than go over my head and try to play Bill Evans motifs, I've started to solo around the chords, and the notes in the chords early.  My knowledge of theory is progressing more than anything else, so I've started adding ninths, elevenths and thirteenths in where appropriate, but really, I'm focusing on playing with chords.  Little things like avoiding starting on root notes and avoiding playing straight arpeggios are things I've picked up with both help from Steve and Simon, our improv lecturer.  In class at the start of this semester, my solos consisted of me hammering away constant quavers of any note in the current mode I was playing in.  It didn't sound like jazz at all.  Just free form improvised drivel.  By sitting back and playing much simpler melodies around the chords, I've started making my pieces sound more jazzy than I ever thought I would at this point.

I'm still very much getting to grips with it.  I've started to touch upon altered chords and tritone substitutions, but I won't be fluent enough at playing around with them until summer/after summer. That's fine by me.  Steve has started teaching me things like replacing an F7 chord with a B7 in the left hand with a  C sharp triad in the right (I forget the name.  Maybe I just mentioned it).  By jumping from the notes in C-7 to the notes in that altered chord while soloing, heads turn.  People hear it and think 'wow, this guy knows his stuff'.  But I don't.  It just sounds like I do because I took time to think and play around chords.

So I will continue to transcribe solos, play things in different keys and read the many books I've acquired/bought from libraries and shops.  But I won't dive in and try to play like Bill Evans does any time soon.  If I did that, I'd go backwards rather than forwards.  I'll keep my playing based on my theory knowledge.  Now, I'm playing around with chords, passing notes and the occasional scale.  And Steve has told me that the solos I'm playing from doing that sound perfectly fine for my level.  When my knowledge and grasp of the jazz genre as a whole grows, THEN I will start adding more complicated things in.

Because really, when you start to learn piano, you don't start learning a Gb scale once you've just got to grips with a basic C scale, do you?  When you're not even used to playing one black note?  No.

Jazz is something I really want to be good at, and something I will strive to learn in a more focused manner once other things are done (like the four pieces I'm doing for next weeks assignment - if I have to practice them any more after next week I will tear my own ears off).

Autumn Leaves and Some Day my Prince will come.  Those are the tunes I'm doing that require a spot of improvisation.  In the pieces,  I switch genres; I go from playing 'classical, flowery jazz' to a fast paced waltz half way through My Prince.  In Autumn Leaves, I go from playing block chords to stride to funk; and I improvise over all of those genres, playing around the melody and chords.  When I come back to those tunes next year, in five years, whenever, I will no doubt be soloing more freely and openly.  But for now, I'm keeping things simple; because that seems to be working.   I only hope that in my end of year solo assessment for improvising, the simplicity in my playing proves to be as effective as I'm feeling it to be.