Jazz Smugglers Master Workshop

Jazz Smugglers Master Workshop
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Thursday 20 December 2012

A chat about playing jazz with Paul Whitten



Paul Whitten, double bass.  


Rhythmn is by far the most important element in jazz, it has got to be on the button. When you play patterns, they each have a rhythmic content. Yes I carry the tune in my head while I'm improvising, and harmony is important but it is easy to get carried away with too much theory.
Most of the time you just feel it as you play, though if it is material you are not familiar with and it is demanding then you have to think as well. I'll always play better solos over material I know well.
You need to develop a jazz vocabulary, but you are always trying to improve.


"Paul Whitten is the best jazz bassist in the South of England" Swanage jazz festival

"Paul Whitten played very sensitively. His tone is sweet and woody - not too much bass or treble. I really like Paul's solo style. His lines are more like those you would want to sing." Music critic

Yes, this for me is very true. His solos are sweet and very clean, melodic. He reminds me of the pianist John Lewis, of MJQ fame. His solos were very melodic and clear. John

"He lives for jazz" says his partner Maroca.



Sunday 16 December 2012

GET YOUR JAZZ PLAYING TO PHASE 2 IN 3 WEEKS


THOUGHTS FROM A JAZZ AMATEUR

How to get from playing jazz in Phase 1 to playing jazz in Phase 2 in just three weeks at 20mins a day.

In Phase 1 you know all the modes of the most frequently used keys, you can play major/minor 11 v 1's in those keys without thinking.

In the Phase 2 you know the same things but for all the other lesser used keys. Yes, all of them. Without exception. Now you are cooking.

If you do it, then your confidence will improve enormously, you'll be less worried about key changes, you won't slip back into playing by ear so often. Your timing will improve (through improved confidence)

Practically every song you play will start in a popular key but the wicked swine who wrote it will slip in a few bars of a Gb, or a B, or E. That's when you may feel your world is falling apart.

These are the most popular keys, used most frequently in standard songs in concert pitch (piano/guitar etc): Major keys C F G Ab Bb Eb

For tenor and Bb instruments move each of them up a tone to find your most used keys, for alto and other Eb instruments move each of them down a minor third. (Ok this is a bit more difficult to work out. Don't say I never help you. For Eb instruments, C goes to A, F goes to D, G goes to E, Ab goes to F, Bb goes to G, Eb goes to C)

Look I have a file for this you can use in Band in A Box as a backing tape. Email me and I'll send it to you. Just change it to the key you want to practise.
Load it in, arpeggio up and scale down, do it slowly. 60 beats a minute to start, after three weeks you'll get to 180 bpm Do it in your familiar keys first then use it in the others you don't know. Slow I said, and I meant it.

Even slower than that.

20 minutes a day and you'll have it cracked in three weeks.

This arpeggio and scale exercise was given to us in the Jazz Smugglers workshop kindly by Steve Turner and copied into BIAB by Geoff Valenti. Thanks lads. Very useful.



John
leader, phase 1 and a half. (Owing to height restrictions)


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In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.







Thursday 13 December 2012

LOCKING IN THE RHYTHM SECTION. MUST SEE



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Locking in the bass/drums  the guitar/drums the piano drums/ soloist drums  up tempo


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.








Sunday 9 December 2012

All jazz musicians use this simple musical trick. Easy, peasy.



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semi-tones above and below chord tones

A short lesson on the importance of upper and lower neighbors when improvising. Visit my site for more info! https://sites.google.com/site/saxophoneeducation/home


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.


Thursday 6 December 2012

BASIC JAZZ. THE CIRCLE OF 5THS

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Everyone teaches the cycle of 5ths. But no one, in my experience, has taught the implications. For example, C is the 5th up from F. There is only one note different in the scale. Bb becomes B. And that is true of all the modes in both of those scales. (You can use B in the F major scale because that is the Lydian major note). So if you see a change of this kind don't worry too much about the change note although for musicality purposes the chord tones are different.

But if you go up or down a minor third then the game changes a lot. Go up to Eb from C and you have 3 notes different. Go down a minor third to A and you have 4 notes different. That's a tricky change - one to worry about.

For example, if you want to practise playing "outside" the key it is no good moving just  from C to F. Better to try A. (Or the tritone substitute Gb. Yeah right.)





In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

CONVERSATION WITH ALAN BARNES AT THE SNOWDROP


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I

This video is of Alan Barnes leading a local group of youngsters.

Last night Alan Barnes played with Terry Seabrook organ, and Alex Eberhardt kit, at the Snowdrop in l.ewes. How it is that we can hear the country's leading alto player for free in a small out of the way pub on a Monday I shall never understand. It really was a lesson in beautiful, clear, accessible jazz playing  from all three of them.

He played Lazybones, the Hoagy Carmichael song, with a languid feel which never strayed far from the feeling of a hot Summer's day by the river. Then he played "Have you Met Miss Jones?" the lovely up tempo song to which they gave a happy feel. It is that kind of song. He seemed to me always to find the mood or the style of a song and capture it. He very occasionally touched on the melody, but often seemed to follow the shape of the song. So in the interval I asked him about what he felt when he was playing.

He said that for him the melody and the rhythm were the most important factors. "Harmony is a poor third" he added. I asked him about the patterns he played. He said he prefers to think of them as "shapes". He teaches players to use them, and to repeat them inside and outside. He said he is not against the use of riffs, although they seem to have gone out of fashion.

For me personally the song is the thing, and I fully accept that this view is not shared by others. Players I like are always those who feel their way through the song. I don't want all of them to be songs that I know and recognise, but some of them should be otherwise I lose interest. When I know a song, I can feel involved when the soloist takes it away and brings it back.

It may be old fashioned, but if you ran a musical concert advertising that all the songs are original compositions then you'll get a lot of people there who are are musicians. But if you ran a programme of brilliant jazz musicians playing songs we know, then you'll get a much much bigger crowd.

I'm with them.
John
ps.But I do want to hear some originals as well.....

n this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.







Thursday 29 November 2012

THIS BILL EVANS VIDEO HAS HAD 180,000 VIEWERS. IT IS THAT GOOD


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This is one of the most important lessons on this blog.
Bill Evans wants us to play simply, take it in small steps, a bit at a time.


He warns us against overplaying, too many notes, getting a shapeless effect.
Better do something simple which is real he says.


Extracted from the movie "The Universal Mind of Bill Evans - Creative Process and Self-Teaching".
In this part, Bill talks about how to deal with obstacles, and how to build one's vocabulary step-by-step.
Take a look at this other youtube page at www.youtube.com/miscvanguard for other videos.



In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.









USING LYDIAN AND +9 .A RIFF



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Visit mattotto.org to download the free sheet music to this exercise. Using unusual modes from scales can help produce some interesting melodies. This major #9 #11 melody comes from the 3rd mode of harmonic minor. This mode is a wonderful substitution for Lydian or Ionian. Lydian gives you a Major 7 with #11 where as the 3rd mode of harmonic minor gives you a Major 7 with #9, #11, and natural 9; it's a very beautiful sound. Here's a simple melody from this harmonic minor mode that starts with an ascending Major triad in 2nd inversion fallowed by a descending triad a half step below and ending with a diatonic enclosure of the 5th. You'll see that although the melody is constructed of triads, all the notes are diatonic to the 3rd mode of harmonic minor.

The melody is played 3 times in triplets. Once starting on the first triplet of beat 1, next starting on the 2nd triplet of beat 1 and lastly starting on the 3rd triplet of beat 1. Remember, you can start the melody on any beat.



In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Monday 19 November 2012

ANOTHER VERY GOOD VIDEO. PART TWO. PLEASE SHARE IT


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This is using the altered scale and other refinements. Really good stuff. He only published it last month and has had over 2,000 views already.

I'm quoting here the questions and answers in the commentary. It gets to how many angels can you get on the head of a pin in the end.....


I haven't tried this, but it seems like for the major chord problem one solution would be to switch to the relative minor and then go down your half step to pick up your dominant chord.
dbrook2007 5 days ago
   Reply 
Right... I think everybody comes up with mini-solutions to parts of the problem. For a more holistic solution, I'd suggest ignoring the original Dominant7 chord and just noodle a bit in that minor key 1/2 step above. Sometimes, if you only have a cuppla beats to work with, your idea can quickly get to a single chord to briefly work with though.
radiokid2 in reply to dbrook2007 3 days ago
I just came back to this video after seeing the third part in quest of an answer but didn't. So here it is :
After practicing II V I using alt scales (G minor on F# 7, C minor on B7, landing on E-) it seems a lot harder to me to find something good when I is major. I minor seems lot easier.
Is it "normal" harmonically or is it just because i've been practicing on E- for too long ? (because of your fantastic video).
BenBen2351 1 month ago
You are so right...major can sound bland after all the cool stuff going on in the II and V chords...so here's a vid I did on escaping Major seventh hell. (the answer is: play blues licks on the minor chord that is contained IN a major seventh chord. ie: a C maj7 is actually an E minor triad with a diff root under it...spelled: C E G B. (EGB spells E minor!) Voila- problem solved!  Enter the following URL into the You Tube menu strip for the Major Seventh post. Good luck!
watch?v=hNW5KdWjlsQ
radiokid2 in reply to BenBen2351 1 month ago
I just practiced a bit again, and it seems like the problem comes the fact that introducing G minor and C minor gives a strong new note : G (natural) (in the root and dominant), which really sounds well when the root chord is E- , but really goes against E major...
BenBen2351 in reply to radiokid2 1 month ago
Right...the minor-ish notes are working against and coloring (with blues notes) the relatively sunny key E major. It's a "relief" sound against the constant major tonality...and, as such. is an effect. The alternative is never do it...and that's a drag after awhile too...ha! One solution: instead of going right to E major, hit E diminished for a couple of beats first. ..(or an Eb triad)...then quickly resolve to E. (See my posts on dim. scales.)
radiokid2 in reply to BenBen2351 4 weeks ago







FOOTNOTE

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

VERY GOOD INDEED. ADVANCED PLAYERS ONLY



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This is brilliant, but you'll need to play it a couple of times to get what he is doing. He is using substitute chords - front line players just work it out for yourselves, it is not restricted to pianists. We had a go at something like this last night at the Workshop. I'll find part 2 and put it up.
This is what he says about it and he overclaims. It is not easy and it will take more than a couple of minutes.  For all levels, this shows a very easy, genius level method to avoid years of scales and practice. Play over your head in minutes!





In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Sunday 18 November 2012

USING DIMINSHED SCALES. MORE ADVANCED JAZZ



.
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I will accept that in the hands of real pros then the diminished played as a substitute scale can sound really nice. But then I'm a fan of melodic lines, and if it is not used properly it can be a mess (to me, anyway, but to others it can be lovely)


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Saturday 17 November 2012

BEGIINERS JAZZ. PLAYING TRIPLETS




TOP NOTE

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He writes "Playing triplets on the saxophone can be thought of as three sounds per beat. Easily play triplets on the saxophone with tips from a professional jazz musician in this free video on saxophone techniques."


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

FOR BEGINNER ALTO PLAYERS. OCTAVES



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When playing octaves on an alto saxophone, remember that an octave is an interval of an eighth. Work on playing octaves on an alto saxophone with guidance from a professional jazz musician in this free video on saxophone basics.


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.


Sunday 11 November 2012

HOW BILL EVANS GAVE HIS SOLOS A STRUCTURE. USING A GOAL NOTE



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He says" Many musicians know how to play a lot of notes, but they struggle with the concept of "Musicality". This video shows you how to be more musical.

A good friend of mine was friends with Bill Evans, and he told me about how Bill talked about this one technique that he used a lot to make his solos musical. He would pick one note, and make that the goal note for his solos. You can hear that if you listen to it."

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Thursday 8 November 2012

PLAYING RUNS ON THE JAZZ SAXOPHONE



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He says,
"to play runs on the saxophone, the first thing to do is listen to your favourite jazz pieces over and over. Begin to play runs on the saxophone"




In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

PLAYING JAZZ SAX. SWING EXERCISES




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This chap says: "Swing exercises for advanced saxophone players will actually help you to play advanced notes such as ghost notes. Practice this swing exercise for advanced saxophone players"





In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

BASIC SAX PLAYING. THE REED.


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This chap says.
When using the saxophone mouthpiece, you have to bite just hard enough to engage the reed into the airstream that you are blowing. Properly use the saxophone mouthpiece with tips from a professional jazz musician in this free video on saxophone parts.


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

BASIC JAZZ SAXOPHONE. TYPES OF JAZZ





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There are hundreds of improvisation types for the saxophone, with blues being the root. Tips from a professional jazz musician'





In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Sunday 4 November 2012

NEXT JAZZ SMUGGLERS GIG. MARIA SINGS SINATRA SONGS


Lovely people at Burpham. It is that little tiny village off to the North of the main road just by Arundel station.
They are so keen, and they work so hard. 
Phone Heather Birch at 01903 882839. £15 but supper is optional. A reduced price is available.
The band is looking forward to it.
John Winkler


Wednesday 31 October 2012

PLAY THE WRONG NOTES AND SOUND BRILLIANT



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This guy is brilliant. Best to do this over the dominant scale to start with.
he key to it is to start on a chord tone, play some notes outside, then end on a chord tone.Then it doesn't sound as if you just missed a key change.
Like playing the blues scale, a little goes a long way.


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

All jazz pros do this. Simple.



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This can make a BIG difference to everyone;s sound. Simple.





In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Monday 29 October 2012

Add 1 note to make the Bebop scale. Easy


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The Bebop Dominant Scale is basically a Mixolydian mode with an extra note : a natural 7th.
For F7 chord we've got the following bebop scale :

F G A Bb C D Eb E
1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 7


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.




Thursday 25 October 2012

THE JAZZ DOMINANT SCALE. ALL INSTRUMENTS



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The Jazz DOMINANT scale and the chord going with it, surely must be the most important chord tone.
First it emphasises one of the two harmony notes the b7. Second it indicates with certainty which key you are in - you can't say that about any Minor chord symbol, nor even for certainty about a Major chord symbol (it might be the 4th of another major)
But, most importantly it can be substituted most easily with the Tritone and the Alt.
This chap is nice and simple. You can get a riff from it.




In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.





Monday 22 October 2012

Brilliant last night. Why didn't I take a photo?


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Thank you to all the musicians who came to our re-opening of the Jazz Smugglers workshop last night.
Steve, Geoff, 2 Mikes, 2 Davis, Ian and Bob you sounded great. We are going to have a good time.
see you next Sunday 7.30
John


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Thursday 18 October 2012

Sonny Rollins, playing Alfie's Theme



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We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.


Tuesday 16 October 2012

Saxophone lesson. "I got rhythm" changes.1 V1 11 V



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We all know about handling 11 V 1, but what happens when you make it 1 V1 11 V. This guy is good and neat explanation.

In this blog we will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

PIANO LESSON FROM OSCAR PETERSEN



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This is a really interesting TV interview with Oscar Petersen showing different styles of piano playing from George Shearing, to Stride piano. Some things I never knew until now.


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

IF YOU ARE STARTING JAZZ, SEE THIS. Please "Share" it. All instruments.



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These are his notes. Very simple, neat, if you are starting to play jazz, then start here.

If you'd like a shortcut to learn some cool jazz chords, head to www.quaverbox.com and check out my Jazz Standard Voicings lesson. Now THAT video will really teach you something! Meanwhile, enjoy this short video about tweaking the melody of Fly Me To The Moon.


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Saturday 6 October 2012

000's FREE JAZZ SONG CHARTS ON THIS WEBSITE

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Band in a Box thousands of free jazz songs in this Yahoo Group It has over 13,000 musician members around the world. Arranged in sections. A-Z If you just add up the songs in the A section alone, there is over 300 including dots, not just chords. I think there must be 6,000 songs there, all for free.

How they manage to do this without infringing copyrights I do not know. Nominally they are for educational purposes. Yeah, right.

Once you have Band in a Box software installed, then you can get thousands of jazz songs, pop songs, blues, country songs installed for free from this Group. New songs are being added all the time.
Mostly the  dots are ok, but the chords can be terrible if they've been laid down by a know-nothing. You may have to tidy them up.

With the software, it is then easy to transcribe them to another key so concert, Bb and Eb players can each have them.

You can put your own songs and chords down in the software - with difficulty it must be said. I've put down half a dozen practise chord progressions, 11 V1 V 1, up 5ths, down 5ths, up/down minor thirds, whole tones, and the same with 1 V1 11 V and so on. I can play them at 180 or 90. Perfect for practise, and transcribing riffs etc. Chords-are child easy to do it is the dots which are difficult.

The software is not the most user friendly but grit your teeth and stop saying "Surely they can do this better"
Band in a Box is old, before navigation was made easy.

You can get Band in a Box $120 for Windows or Mac from this site. PG music

John



Tuesday 2 October 2012

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC. JAZZ GUITAR CHORDS, VOICINGS AND COMPING



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Berklee College of Music. The most prestigious college in Jazz.

It will cost you $17000  for a Diploma there, plus, $2,000 health insurance, plus $8000 for meals and residence.

At £50 a gig it will take you only 400 gigs to get the money back from pubs. That's without your living costs for about 4 years, plus the sales cost of getting those gigs, travel and accommodation.

By the way the Berklee fees are just for the Autumn.


Sunday 30 September 2012

KEITH JARRETT. Autumn Leaves. Classic.



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Totally brilliant. We are going to be doing this one at the first Jazz Smugglers workshop on October 21st.
Ten of us. It might not sound quite like this, but not far off I'm sure.

John

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Wednesday 26 September 2012

BRUBECK, DESMOND AND MULLIGAN. IT WILL MAKE YOU CRY




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The beauty of this made me cry. These are three of the greatest musicians of all time. The ideas, the understatement, the melodic twists and turns. Breathtaking.

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Kenny Barron's "Voyage". Improv analysed



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WE NEED A JAZZ GUITARIST FOR OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21. Chichester area. KNOW ANYONE?




From the artist.
A MIDI file of my solo, PDF notation file of my solo, and MIDI and MP3 backing tracks for this song are available The artists website.

"Voyage", written by the great pianist Kenny Barron is a beautiful (and difficult) song. Loving the key of F Minor like I do, I just had to take a stab at it. I take it at a decent pace of 205 bpm.

The key for me during my improvisation is to have an idea of where I want to go and what I want to say. This is sometimes referred to as "intent". To quote Paul E. Rinzler in his book The Contradictions of Jazz, "Technique in jazz is defined not through a universal standard, but in terms of intent. That is, good technique is that which expresses and makes manifest an improviser's intent, as a matter of positive freedom. The stark dissonances of Thelonius Monk may sound like mistakes to jazz neophytes just like Miles Davis's unfocused tone, but those dissonances are actually the consistent result of clear intent from a great musical mind that saw creative possibilities in harmony and dissonance that no one else in jazz had before."



In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE. SOLO ANALYSED. GREAT IDEA.




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WE HAVE FOUND OUR GUITAR PLAYER FOR THE WORKSHOP STARTING ON OCT 21 NEAR CHICHESTER

PLEASE "SHARE" THIS WITH YOUR MUSICIAN PALS.



He has played a solo, than gone back over it and analysed what he did. He then shows this over the chart. Great idea. He is good isn't he?

John


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.








Friday 21 September 2012

LEARN A BE-BOP LICK. EASY


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WE NEED A JAZZ GUITARIST FOR OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21. Chichester area.
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BE BOP JAZZ LICK  
This is a short jazz piano lesson on how to play a minor ii - V- i lick. 2-5-1


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.




JIM HALL MASTERCLASS FOR JAZZ GUITARISTS. BRILLIANT



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Jim Hall is one of the all time greats of jazz guitar. He has played with Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, Lee Konitz, Ben Webster, Bill Evans all the tops. Absolutely brilliant. a lovely modest man, here he talks about jazz in his MasterClass film. It is a long one but you'll get a lot from it.


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.




Wednesday 19 September 2012

A CHARLIE PARKER RIFF ANALYSED




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.




Well, I don't know. Is it worth bothering to analyse this stuff? It is not even a particularly beautiful riff. Every jazz musician makes up their own. They just play it, and feel it, they hear it in their head. So did Charlie Parker. I bet he would have been highly amused at this kind of thing.


In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.




Tuesday 18 September 2012

USING mPENTATONIC OVER MAJOR CHORDS. VERY GOOD



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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21. We need a guitar player. Chichester area. Ask John jazzsmugglers@yahoo.co.uk



Don't know this chap's name.This is what he says:
Try out some of these embellished, pretty Major 7th piano chord voicings with a little lydian flavor. Learn them in all keys, run them through the circle of 5ths or build a solo off the extended triad. These keyboard chord voicings can work nice in everything from modal-post bop jazz to neo-soul to church service talk music.

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

YOUR COPY: ABERSOLDS CHORD SYMBOLS CHART

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thank you. 

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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21. We need a guitar. Know anyone?

Hope this helps. I find I still need to refer to it sometimes. Chord symbols are a beast when you start. Ugh! 
We have Jamey Abersolds permission to reproduce it. Take a copy

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.


Monday 17 September 2012

BEAUTIFUL VOICINGS. JUST PIANISTS



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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21. We need new players but slots are filling up fast. You need to be quick..

Terry Seabrook sent it to me and thought this would interest all the pianists. Absolutely. Thanks Terry.



Gorgeous upper structures for pianists, using quartals. Lovely song Darn that Dream. I sometimes use quartals in So What, (because they are easy) but no one in the band has noticed. As ever.

Here is what the authors say about voicings
Quartal voicings have become a standard in modern jazz. Their ambiguity in sound allows the jazz player to travel through unexpected paths, sometimes deceiving, sometimes surprising the listener with their unresolved quality. Although quartals are often used in improvisation and comping, it is not surprising that there is no standard chord notation for them due to its lack of harmonic direction (or function) and consequentially rarely used by composers as a source in their compositions.
IN THIS SITE THE AUTHORS GIVE YOU A FREE DOWNLOAD.

John

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.








Sunday 16 September 2012

TERRY SEABROOK, ALAN BARNES, LIVE AT THE BRUNSWICK

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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21. We need new players. On Facebook would you please Share this with other musicians you know?




Terry Seabrook created the Milestones Jazz event first launched at the Brunswick in Hove. It has been played by him and Alan Barnes all around the country, probably 40 gigs.
This is Boplicity by Miles Davis.. Live at the Brunswick in Brighton January 2010
Featuring Terry Seabrook (pno) Alan Barnes (bari) Ian Price (tenor) Graeme Flowers (trpt) Paul Whitten (bass) Spike Wells (dms)

In this blog We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.




Friday 14 September 2012

VERY VERY GOOD. Jazz progressions, turnarounds, substitutes



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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21




This ten minute films is directed at guitars, but don't you believe it. Soloists can use this, and obviously pianists as well. In ten minutes he shows how turnarounds work to get you to the next key. He shows how to embellish the standard 11 V 1s. He is very clear, a super teacher.

Apart from other stuff he is showing how to embellish dominant chords with +9 +11 b9. Worth watching.



John
Ps. The trouble is that you have to learn this stuff in all the keys. A year later......you'v got it.





Thursday 13 September 2012

The video shows which chords he is using as he improvises. No talking, just playing.


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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21



It think its value lies in showing how jazz musicians get a great variety of sounds into a standard set of chord progressions. It is fascinating to watch the chords on the screen, as he plays, don't you think?

John

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Now this is what I call a REAL BATTLE OF THE SAXES


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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21



I've had to listen to a lot of mediocre, unmelodic rubbish to find this. But this one is good.
Rusty Scott, the pianist, with his Boston quartet.



Tuesday 11 September 2012


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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21





This guy is nice and simple. Chord progression in Gmaj.

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.


Monday 10 September 2012

The brilliant Bill Evans live.


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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21




The wonderful, lyrical one and only Bill Evans. Lovely man, too. Heroin got him in the end.



We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.


SIMPLE JAZZ PROGRESSIONS. V1 11 V 1


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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21





This Australian is a very good, clear, understandable teacher. In a 4 minute clip he has covered a common progression, he has shown how to use rootless chords, Am9 Dm9 G13 and C6 and he has shown how to push the major. Not only that he has put the root notes into the left hand to show where we are.
Excellent. Some of these jazz tutors just want to show off, but not this chap. He wants to teach.
John

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Sunday 9 September 2012

Add the Lydian to your solos

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WE ARE GOING TO START OUR JAZZ WORKSHOPS AGAIN ON OCTOBER 21




Add a lovely note to your solos - raise the 4th on the major, minor and dominant modes.(called #4 or #11)
John

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Saturday 8 September 2012



Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, live. The iconic Hot House



We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.







Friday 7 September 2012

Stan Getz Astrud Gilberto, The original Girl from Ipanema


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When you say Latin to an audience, this is the one song they all want to hear and this is the one recording. Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto. She is so cool.


We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Wednesday 5 September 2012

MILES DAVIS - LIVE


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Listen to the brilliant exchanges between flute and trumpet. We'll be doing some of that at the workshop.


We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Tuesday 4 September 2012

The Famous Berklee Workshop


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There is no more renowned school of jazz than Berklee. This is the final concert of their five week workshop.


We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



Monday 3 September 2012

JAZZ CHORDS AND MELODY. Not for beginners


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We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Saturday 1 September 2012

FOR JAZZ HORN PLAYERS. USE A PIANO TO HELP


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This lady "Sweet Sue" is describing why horn players need to work with a piano or keyboard to understand harmonies, progressions and key changes.
At least on a piano you can see the notes you play.

This is"Sweet Sue" in action.




Good huh?

John

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.


Friday 31 August 2012

Basic Jazz Drumming

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I had to kiss a lot of Fundamentals of Jazz Drumming frogs before I found this Prince.
It is basc, ok, but you've got a truly good teacher here. Vic Firth.



Here is the man in action. Enjoy.
I always had respect for jazz drummers, but I've got a lot more now.
John


We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.









Thursday 30 August 2012

Sing jazz. Brilliant this is


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Yup, she is a good teacher.
John

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Time signatures, 4/4, 3/4, and the Jazz Waltz


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We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

John

Tuesday 28 August 2012

How often do you practise? Poll here


We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

This video is about practising jazz for all instruments. Please go to the POLL on the right hand side and enter your answer about how much practise you do. You'll be anonymous. You can check results in a couple of days' time. Playing at gigs doesn't count as practise, well it does, obviously, but not for the purpose of this poll.




PLEASE TAKE THE POLL ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE.


We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.



A question about YOUR jazz playing?


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Here are jazz forum sites for each instrument, jazz piano, jazz guitarjazz, jazz saxophone, jazz bass.
I tried to find a decent one for Jazz singlers but could not find any. 
Sign up, and if you have a question about playing jazz somone half decent will answer it for you. Be careful not to express any opinions about an ything otherwise you'll have hot coals thrust upon your head.

As Sonny Rollins says: "An hour on stage is worth a month in the woodshed"


piano questions answered by pros




We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar together with jazz saxophone. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation.

John Winkler
ps. Don't forget our workshops start again in mid October, near Chichester.



Monday 27 August 2012

Embellishing melodies in Jazz. Please "like"

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Simple, but tells you what you need to know.
John
Jazz smugglers band site.
We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation particularly for jazz saxophone.





Sunday 26 August 2012

Jazz saxophone, swing feel for all jazz musicians actually

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This is very simple and very basic, but it is necessary to get hold of early on in jazz. All instruments play this, not just saxophones.

John

We give tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation particularly for jazz saxophone.

Friday 24 August 2012

LEARN JAZZ PIANO IN 4 MINUTES. REALLY.


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Yup, you can. Easy.

John Winkler

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation particularly for jazz saxophone.




Thursday 23 August 2012

Jazz players must get Band in a Box software


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When you think the Duke Ellington had to write down all his parts for every instrument separately. Must have taken hours, and days. To-day, I can think of a song we haven't played, go to a Yahoo Group and download it free, words, dots and all put it into BIAB software, save and send it to the band and we can all be working on it in our homes, within an hour from the start. Wow!
Not that they do, of course.

We can even hear several jazz versions of it being played, all for free, all within seconds on Spotify.

Look, even the pros work on their jazz. For a start, you need to get chord progressions down into a software programme which will play them back to you in any key, any tempo. You can plug in and play with Band in a Box software. The chords are the easiest part of the programme to put down. Takes seconds to save, say, 11 V 1's in all keys. Then you can add in V1's and move between the keys up or down in m3rds, 5ths, whole tones etc.

Perfect for chords, improvising, practising riffs in all keys, perfect. You can work on your tritone subs in all keys.

You can also get thousands of songs downloaded and built into the progrmme from a special Band-in-a-Box Yahoo Group. In the jazz list under A you'll find no fewer than 200 songs! They've been running this Yahoo BIAB group for years with 13,000 members in it.

In our Jazz smugglers band or workshop if we want a new song, I just download it from the BIAB Group, and tidy up the chords. The dots are usually ok, but the chords have sometimes been laid down by prats. All the band members have got BIAB so the song is ready for working on..

This is the program most amateurs use, because it does nearly everything they want and it is substantially cheaper than other programs. It is not to easy to suss out to start with but chords are simple to do. Dots are harder.

Band in a Box website  About £100 for a first time buyer. See reviews on Amazon.

Yahoo Band in a Box Group with '000's of jazz standards for downloading free.

If you are on Facebook, would you do me a favour and click the badge please? We have a page there for the Workshop and it needs support. Thanks. If you want to share this specific page with any Friends then click the little Facebook link at the bottom of this post, rather than the sidebar.

Thanks,

John Winkler

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation particularly for jazz saxophone.


Tuesday 21 August 2012

Blues riff, sounds nice


If you have a facebook account please click on the tiny facebook icon at the foot of this post, then "Like" it. I'd be very grateful.




Great blues riff. Learn it for all the keys and you'll never worry about blues again.
John

We will produce tips for jazz piano, and jazz guitar. We will cover jazz chords, jazz guitar chords, and we will deal with jazz scales. We will cover jazz songs. This site is all about jazz improvisation particularly for jazz saxophone.