Video of Blues for Alice

[HaVIC5]

Here's a video of me messing around with Blues For Alice...done Latin-ish. I was taking a break from "serious" practice here in the Berklee practice rooms, and figured I might as well ruin a perfectly good bop tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaVesL1LXdk

Enjoy.

[geoffkhan]

Pretty good... occasionally you lag a little in rhythm, but that's just about relaxing a little more. There's a good book you might want to look into, if not already, entitled "A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody", by David Liebman. Keep up the good work, you'll go far.

[HaVIC5]

Originally Posted by geoffkhan

Pretty good... occasionally you lag a little in rhythm, but that's just about relaxing a little more. There's a good book you might want to look into, if not already, entitled "A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody", by David Liebman. Keep up the good work, you'll go far.

Yeah, that book is really cool, although a bit over my head at this point in my education. When I first stumbled upon it I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on the finer points of theory, boy was I in for a surprise. A few years on down the line I'll pick it up for study, but for now, I'm just going to keep on shedding the basics.

[geoffkhan]

A few more tips:

When soloing try to think of the overall dynamic direction of your phrases. If you shape your phrases in this manner it will add a whole new dimension to your playing (in a good way).

Another book for you: Forward Motion: From Bach to Bebop (by Hal Galper, another Berkelee graduate, I believe).

Also, try playing 10% of what you hear. You'll have more space, and your melodic phrases will probably be more interesting--after all, it is the space (among other things) between the notes that give the notes value and context. Actually, silence can be more attention-grabbing than playing, sometimes.

Think of the expressive context you give your phrases as related to a gesture--Jazz gestures. How can you talk through your soloing?

In your solo transcribing work, try transcribing the rhythm of the solo only, no notes. Rhythm can be very distinctive in defining a player's style, I think you'll find.

Anyway, just throwing out a few ideas.

[Norwegianwood]

Good work, bro...

Got some nice chops there...personally I´d like to hear a couple of bop licks in there, to get some horn vibe, you know...

But I wouldn´t be able to pull too many off my self, so better go practise instead of telling you to do it

[HaVIC5]

Also, try playing 10% of what you hear. You'll have more space, and your melodic phrases will probably be more interesting--after all, it is the space (among other things) between the notes that give the notes value and context. Actually, silence can be more attention-grabbing than playing, sometimes.

Yeah, I tend to do that more when I'm actually playing with people. When its just me and a drum loop, I always get the urge to fill up the vacuum. But I totally agree. Thanks for your critique.

[geoffkhan]

And it's not necessarily a critique, keep that in mind, since improvisation can be so subjective. Just seeing if a few ideas resonate or whatnot--stuff that have helped me in the past, working on Jazz and stuff.