Aebersold vs. Hal Leonard Play Alongs?

[ctcruiser]

As a newbie, I picked up a few Aebersold play along books that were geared for beginners such as Maiden Voyage. But, I found the tempo to be fast and it has been frustrating trying to keep the pace while still trying to figure out what to play with my walking lines.

How are the Hal Leonard Jazz Play Along books in comparison?

I am mainly interested in straight ahead jazz and standards. I know the best thing is for me to try to find musicians to play with, but my job requires a lot of travel.

[TGP]

You may already know this, but what I do is slow the tempo down with a software program called Amazing Slow Downer. There are other programs out there as well that do the same thing. You can also change the pitch so you can play the tracks in any key. I'm not familiar with the Hal Leonard books, but I have used Aebersold discs for years for myself and students.

[drurb]

...or for a portable version that you can plug into your stereo, your amp, or whatever, look at this.

Edit: Here's a free software version. It is not of the same quality as Amazing Slow Downer but it's hard to beat the cost.

[JazzDude]

I use both, and I prefer the Hal Leonards because of the melody track. However, the tempos are generally at performance level.

The beginner Aebersolds have plenty of slow tempos. You should just keep at it - it really does get easier with practice.

Pick a slow number like Autumn Leaves, Satin Doll, or the slower blues number. Play simply, and just keep it moving and grooving. The progressions repeat a lot, so work out a line for each different 4-bar phrase and memorize them. Work it every day, and after a week move on to a different tune.

Don't worry about playing theoretically wrong notes - they'll always be there. Eventually you learn to make them sound good. Above all, have fun!

Originally Posted by ctcruiser

As a newbie, I picked up a few Aebersold play along books that were geared for beginners such as Maiden Voyage. But, I found the tempo to be fast and it has been frustrating trying to keep the pace while still trying to figure out what to play with my walking lines.

How are the Hal Leonard Jazz Play Along books in comparison?

I am mainly interested in straight ahead jazz and standards. I know the best thing is for me to try to find musicians to play with, but my job requires a lot of travel.

[Ric Vice]

Originally Posted by ctcruiser

As a newbie, I picked up a few Aebersold play along books that were geared for beginners such as Maiden Voyage. But, I found the tempo to be fast and it has been frustrating trying to keep the pace while still trying to figure out what to play with my walking lines.

How are the Hal Leonard Jazz Play Along books in comparison?

I am mainly interested in straight ahead jazz and standards. I know the best thing is for me to try to find musicians to play with, but my job requires a lot of travel.

CtCruiser:
Unfortunately the Hal Leonard Play-a-longs use a different format than Jamey Abersold's do. They give you two passes at the tune, but the second extended pass doesn't allow you to track out the bass part with the balance control, so you're stuck with a shorter split track version that only gives you 2 or three passes at the tune. Not ideal IMHO. Most of Jamey's stuff is at a slower tempo than the original versions, not always though. Perhaps you should tackle the tunes with a metronome first and build you're bass lines
on paper for a while.
Rob Gourlay's Walkin' in the Steps of series is very nice for learning standards. He has transcribed the first two or three choruses of tunes that Paul Chambers, Sam Jones, and Doug Watkins payed on. It's a great tool.
Another thing to try is just hittin' the first and third beats with the root and the five for a while and then adding other critical chord tones like the 3d. I know it sounds hokey but the guys on the CD don't care. The were paid for the session and have already gone home.

Ric

[jsbarber]

Of the ones that I tried, about a dozen of each, I much prefered the Hal Leonard books. It seemed like the groove/playing was much better. (It's also nice to have the head being played as well.) I know there are all kinds of players on the JA CDs, as well as the HL ones, but it seemed to me that the HL ones were much better. That's my opinion, FWIW,

Jim

[JazzDude]

The two passes on HL are two versions of each tune - one with the melody played on the first and last choruses, and a second with no melody track. The first track is split bass/piano like Aebersold's, and the second is just the backing tracks, with no split.

Just put the player on repeat if you want to play one version multiple times.

Most of the HL's have many repeats after the head. Check out Vols 3 and 4 - some tunes go through 10 times.

Aebersold Vols. 1 and 24 are also good starting points.

[Johnny L]

Personally, I love the Abersold material. I read music o.k. as long as it isn't in the key of C# or something, but I prefer hearing it and learning at least in part from someone else's performance.

If I can't play it yet at the recorded speed, no big deal. I just practice it until I can later on.

[jfv]

I like Aebersold for when you are ready to play at that tempo,
but the BEST tool for working your way up there is Band in a Box.
I've had it for many years, used it for many different instruments
and its still the best at what it does. Back when I was getting
into it there were TONs of jazz standards available, not sure if
thats still true, but its easy to program it as well.

[Ric Vice]

Originally Posted by JazzDude

The two passes on HL are two versions of each tune - one with the melody played on the first and last choruses, and a second with no melody track. The first track is split bass/piano like Aebersold's, and the second is just the backing tracks, with no split.

Just put the player on repeat if you want to play one version multiple times.

Most of the HL's have many repeats after the head. Check out Vols 3 and 4 - some tunes go through 10 times.

Aebersold Vols. 1 and 24 are also good starting points.

Jazz Dude,
No complaint with the quality of the playing or the split track melody versions. I just can't understand why they didn't split the tracks on the backing tracks like Abersold's do? Then you would of had the best of both worlds. In some cases (Harold Arlen and Irving Berlin) they only give you 1/2 the tune to play without the melody. Granted, some one learning the tunes needs that, but IMHO it would be better to leave the melody line off the solo choruses on the B sections of ballads and split the tracks on the second pass of each tune.

Ric

[Jack Clark]

I have dozens of both Aebersold and Leonard play-alongs. The main difference between them is that Jamey Aebersold's are heavy into music education, while Hal Leonard's are tune books.

Aebersold has some that are pretty much just tune books, too, but most of his tune books come with some educational material that helps in working through the tunes. And a large number of Aebersold play-alongs are not tune books at all but education books geared to particular topics, like practice in playing in all Major or Minor keys, or ii-V-Is, or Dominant 7ths, or blues, or turnarounds & cycles, or a rhythm section workout, or improvisation.

As an example, both Aebersold and Leonard have a book dedicated to Rhythm Changes. Aebersold's comes with a lot of theory and useful information about practicing and playing RCs and it has a bunch of play-along tunes, while Leonard's has just play-along tunes.

As far as the CDs themselves, others have mentioned that one of the HL CD tracks does have a very vanilla melody head--which is nice if you really don't know the melody at all, but you generally get to solo only on two choruses, not on the bridge. Also, even with the "split" melody track, I seem to hear the bass coming through more than I want even when I turn down the left channel. And with the other HL track--the "stereo" track--the bass seems to be almost equal in both the left and right channels. The JA CDs have only one track of each tune, and it's rhythm section only--but you can effectively cut the bass out by turning off the left channel, and you have all the time you want to solo anywhere in the tune.

If I don't know the tune at all, I appreciate the Leonards, but once I know the tune and can hear the melody in my head, I prefer the Aebersold's because of the ability to cut out the bass more effectively. But if you already know the melody, you can move directly to the Aebersolds.

Neither of them comes with bass lines, just a one-finger melody line, even in the bass clef section of each book. (I think the bass clef section was really designed for trombone.) But that's okay by me, since I'm sure it's better practice to create your own bass lines anyway. And, if you want, you can try to transcribe the bass lines off of the CDs, which is good ear training, too. (Some of the Aebersold's have transcribed bass solos that you can buy in a separate book, usually for about $5-6.)

If you're a beginner like me it's necessary to have one of the many available tempo slow-down programs for use with any play-along. I'm a Mac person, and I use Audiolobe, which lets me play at mind-numbingly slow or stupifyingly fast tempos, or in all twelve sounding keys--or both at the same time. It lets you loop a specific section, too.

[jgbass]

I have put aside the HL books in favor of the Abersold. I did not like the lack of split tracks. Also, on the first tracks, why would I not want to play the head? I would not mind the way HL is set up it there were split tracks on the second versions. I also found the tempos too fast for learning with HL. Yes, they can be slowed down, but if one just wants to pop a CD in and play, then one has to pull up a slow down program, and take the time doing that.

I like the educational component of the Abersold books as well. Rhythm Changes is a gem. ii V7 I is very informative. I am sure there are many more. The HL recordings, in general, sound better to me, but, for learning purposes it is mostly Abersold.

I also complement my use of playalongs with real jazz records and really get inside what the players are doing and, ideally, run the tune in a live playing situation.