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Can anyone play Donna Lee?
- Thread starter Tronictq
- Start date
- Apr 1, 2000
- 17,406
- 9,859
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Roscoe Guitars, DR Strings, Aguilar Amplification
When I was studying with Dave LaRue, he made me learn it....
IN ALL 12 KEYS!!!!!!!
...I did it though.
IN ALL 12 KEYS!!!!!!!
...I did it though.
Originally posted by Gard
When I was studying with Dave LaRue, he made me learn it....
IN ALL 12 KEYS!!!!!!!
...I did it though.
Wow. *give congrates to Gard*
I can play the melody to the original 
LoL
Oh...you guys must mean the jazzed up Jaco version...well.....um...
*Runs away*
LoL
Oh...you guys must mean the jazzed up Jaco version...well.....um...
*Runs away*
The entire head, plus the changes in all keys. LaRue is a slavedriver!
To be honest though, I've not done it in years. I just dug my real book back out (after I moved back to FL it got stuck in a box buried in a storage shed, couldn't find it
), gonna start running through a few things again to get my schiznit together on the jazz stuff.I had to learn all of Jaco's version for my lessons one quarter at school. I've since forgotten most of Jaco's actual solo, but I can still play the head at break-neck speed.
Right now I'm working on Chromatic Fantasy. It makes Donna Lee look like 'Louie Louie'. I believe that this song will eventually lead to my undoing.
Right now I'm working on Chromatic Fantasy. It makes Donna Lee look like 'Louie Louie'. I believe that this song will eventually lead to my undoing.
I think from reading this thread that some people are under a severe misconception about what Jaco is doing and about what "Donna Lee" is. This is a fairly standard 32 bar bebop head, which was played by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis in the 1950s. The idea is you play the head (or "tune") - improvise solos over a few choruses each and then play the head and out!
So Jaco plays the head, does a few choruses and finsihes off. Now I have played Donna Lee many times in Jazz workshops, but nobody would copy exactly what Jaco played - the idea of Jazz is to improvise over the changes and come up with your own lines. So people might take some licks or study solos by Charlie Parker for example, but no Jazz players reproduce solos note for note in their own performances.
As the bass player - normally it would be a case of playing a walking line for most of the time and then (if you're lucky) getting a solo over the chord changes - Jaco's innovation is to keep the whole thing going more or less on his own, but he wouldn't have played the same thing every time and I think it's bizarre really that people expend a lot of effort trying to play it through note for note - I can see that transcribing it would be a good exercise - but if you were playing at a Jazz gig there is no way you would just repeat what somebody else did - the idea is always to creat something that is "yours" and not just a carbon copy.
But there is nothing that hard in this - it's virtually all 8th notes and basically any professional Jazz soloist should be able to do this sort of thing - so I go to my local Jazz club every week and any of the players can play a solo over similar or more complex sequences on their own - any Sax player , Trumpeter or whatever - and actually they would probably be more melodic than Jaco - although that's arguable. Jaco was just the first person to apply this to electric bass.
So Jaco plays the head, does a few choruses and finsihes off. Now I have played Donna Lee many times in Jazz workshops, but nobody would copy exactly what Jaco played - the idea of Jazz is to improvise over the changes and come up with your own lines. So people might take some licks or study solos by Charlie Parker for example, but no Jazz players reproduce solos note for note in their own performances.
As the bass player - normally it would be a case of playing a walking line for most of the time and then (if you're lucky) getting a solo over the chord changes - Jaco's innovation is to keep the whole thing going more or less on his own, but he wouldn't have played the same thing every time and I think it's bizarre really that people expend a lot of effort trying to play it through note for note - I can see that transcribing it would be a good exercise - but if you were playing at a Jazz gig there is no way you would just repeat what somebody else did - the idea is always to creat something that is "yours" and not just a carbon copy.
But there is nothing that hard in this - it's virtually all 8th notes and basically any professional Jazz soloist should be able to do this sort of thing - so I go to my local Jazz club every week and any of the players can play a solo over similar or more complex sequences on their own - any Sax player , Trumpeter or whatever - and actually they would probably be more melodic than Jaco - although that's arguable. Jaco was just the first person to apply this to electric bass.
Originally posted by Chopper
Indeed he is. He truly cares about music and the state of musicianship of bassists. I now work in the shop he is part owner of, and sadly never get to see him. He only teaches every other week (Saturday), and due to his first-rate instruction I've been lucky enough to score a pretty decent gig and seem to always be out of town when he's in the store! I've been makin' jokes with him about it lately, "Hey Dave, are you looking at my schedule and intentionally scheduling your teaching days when I've got an out-of-town gig?"
For the record - incase anyone wants to know: I cannot play the "Jaco version" of Donna Lee, never even tried to. I can play the head and (POORLY) walk through the changes in all 12 keys (or could, and will again eventually). Like Bruce pointed out, it would kind of defeat the purpose to learn it and be able to perfectly mimic it, although transcribing it by ear would be a good musical exercise.
I thought the ability to play "Donna Lee" was a prerequisite when signing up for Talkbass membership. When did Paul change that? (Or is that just for 'Supporting Members'?)
I remember when I was working on my Talkbass audition tape for Paul. He said that "Donna Lee" was a requirement, but when I told him that that song was too easy, Jaco's version or not, he asked me what might challenge me. I hadn't come across any piece of music yet, after just completing the Rachmaninoff Concertos on solo 2 string, I needed a challenge.
I finally wound up going with SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT. Obviously, Paul was impressed.
Thanks Ed - I agree that a slow ballad exposes or highlights "limitations" in technique far more readily than something where all the space is filled with notes!
Can anyone play Portrait of Tracy? Different style, and I couldn't play it in a million years, heck, I suck.
But what about you guys who actually have talent?
But what about you guys who actually have talent?
i can play almost all of the victor wooten/steve bailey version of it. both parts too just not at the same time...yet.
