What kind of music goes well with "Degenerate Art"?
Why, "Degenerate Music", of course!
Danke.
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Why, "Degenerate Music", of course!
Danke.
Tom, just make sure that whatever you play sounds like music and not vocabulary. I recommend transcribing entire solos. By learning entire solos you're broadening your focus from the smaller idea of vocabulary to the larger one of phrasing, and phrasing is where the real music is, and the key to unlocking your own creativity. By getting the overall picture you're getting not only literal melodic/harmonic/rhythmic information, you're getting a look into that persons thought process, which manifests as phrasing. The flow and pacing of the ideas one into another, the way the diffferent ideas come together to make phrases and how the phrases come together to create the architecture of the entire solo, that's where a large part of a particular players identity lies. Once you get enough looks you'll begin to get a sense for the possibilities and that'll start you thinking about and working on your phrasing with the tools to do the work, and that's the whole point of transcription. It's never a destination in and of itself, it's always the long game of informing and sparking your own creativity by observing, assimilating and analyzing others. And I'm definitely not saying you should stop with the 12 key work, because if anything the two practices go hand in hand, you won't be able to deal with the larger picture if you don't understand and have some command of the smaller details. Just don't miss the forest for the trees
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I feel like I'm only now figuring out a few things, and it's mostly from studying Paul Chambers. I'm becoming convinced he's the "Charlie Parker" of the double bass. I still haven't encountered a more consistent jazz bass player, always playing interesting chromatic walking lines and solos up and down the instrument with incredible time and intonation. I'd transcribe some of his stuff with Miles, with Coltrane, with Red Garland in particular.
The head to "Whims of Chambers" contains a lot of material that opens up understanding.
Chambers
Maybe the greatest groove master ever
Guts strings
Mile Davis said he made my band swing their asses off
What a sound!
Maybe the greatest groove master ever
Guts strings
Mile Davis said he made my band swing their asses off
What a sound!
Basically what everybody else said. This is what I have done and has worked for me through the years of playing:
- Scales/Arpeggios in Cycle of 4ths
- Transcriptions
- Listening
The technical stuff like arpeggios and scales are obviously important so you know how to get around your instrument without thinking about it.
Transcriptions: You can start by doing short 2bar/4bar transcriptions if your ears are not that developed. That's what I did when I first started out. But the long term goal is to do full transcriptions (1/2 chorus). Doing so, you really get into the whole music. That's when you learn how the music feels/breathes. And this is how you learn phrasing. You can go ahead and play them in other keys after you know the solo really well. But to be honest, once you know the solo so well that you can sing it, you don't even need to think about keys. You just get to hear it in your head and play it.
When I first started out, I had really bad ears (I guess like most people). It took me forever to do a 2 bar transcription. After many years of working on it, I can finally just hear things and play them. And transcriptions really helped with this.
And finally, listening to a lot of music. I believe this is the most important part. Now I spend most of my time listening to music, and I just learn everything from there.
For transcriptions, I mostly worked on Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, Gigi Gryce, Bud Powell, Barry Harris. From bass players I mostly spent time with Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown and Israel Crosby. Now that I think of it, I should go back and work on more stuff from bass players!
It's a wonderful journey, good luck!
P.S. Don't forget to play with others every day!
- Scales/Arpeggios in Cycle of 4ths
- Transcriptions
- Listening
The technical stuff like arpeggios and scales are obviously important so you know how to get around your instrument without thinking about it.
Transcriptions: You can start by doing short 2bar/4bar transcriptions if your ears are not that developed. That's what I did when I first started out. But the long term goal is to do full transcriptions (1/2 chorus). Doing so, you really get into the whole music. That's when you learn how the music feels/breathes. And this is how you learn phrasing. You can go ahead and play them in other keys after you know the solo really well. But to be honest, once you know the solo so well that you can sing it, you don't even need to think about keys. You just get to hear it in your head and play it.
When I first started out, I had really bad ears (I guess like most people). It took me forever to do a 2 bar transcription. After many years of working on it, I can finally just hear things and play them. And transcriptions really helped with this.
And finally, listening to a lot of music. I believe this is the most important part. Now I spend most of my time listening to music, and I just learn everything from there.
For transcriptions, I mostly worked on Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Don Byas, Gigi Gryce, Bud Powell, Barry Harris. From bass players I mostly spent time with Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown and Israel Crosby. Now that I think of it, I should go back and work on more stuff from bass players!
It's a wonderful journey, good luck!
P.S. Don't forget to play with others every day!
In bop, you've got to think about joy and very tonal music. But there is a thing that is very interesting is building a kind of "bridge" between parts but not in a common way, a lot of classic solos or heads are made like this, 4 bars, 4 bars...
To play a solo you can play 2 bars, don't play on 3rd bar, a new phrase at the 4th to the 5th, don't play on 6th, etc.
About joy you can think about bi-tonality, think about the dominant of the dominant, substitutions and turnarounds that don't appear in the chord progression.
But also simplification, all a modal phrase but that has got its logic and resolves well at the end, like a surprise, drama to joy.
I have forgotten something : including blues licks.
To play a solo you can play 2 bars, don't play on 3rd bar, a new phrase at the 4th to the 5th, don't play on 6th, etc.
About joy you can think about bi-tonality, think about the dominant of the dominant, substitutions and turnarounds that don't appear in the chord progression.
But also simplification, all a modal phrase but that has got its logic and resolves well at the end, like a surprise, drama to joy.
I have forgotten something : including blues licks.
I like the lesson of Barry Harris teaching on Youtube. It's easy to understand to me.
Learning how to play bebop solos has a lot of elements, as evidenced by the many good answers already. Listening to and internalizing bebop and then being able to sing bebop solos is probably the most important part.
Transcriptions are also good, and I think it can be important to sometimes pick a little fragment and see how many ways one can analyze it. Here's the first chorus or so of a Yusef Lateef blues solo:
Let's focus on measures 7-11, which are nice and bebop-y. One important element of bebop is the prevalence of accents at the high notes in the phrases. If you connect the dots of the notes and find the peaks (local maxima in math speak), put an accent on those notes. I've notated those here with a red star.
This isn't always exactly where Lateef puts the accents, and figuring out where he differs is important, but it is a good rule of thumb.
So that's an important rhythmic element. How about melodic ideas? I find the concept of compound melody or melodic fission to be a common feature in bebop. If we look at this line again with this in mind we can separate out several melodic strands from the single line. Here's one way I have done it, although there are other options and I have ignored some of the notes for this example. I have distinguished 3 contrapuntal lines (blue, red, and green from bottom to top). You will notice that the tendency is for each line to resolve nicely downward by step.
Now we can look at these separate lines from a harmonic perspective. Here is the excerpt with "normal" blues changes in black and my idea of the changes Lateef is playing in red. Nothing too out of the ordinary in any case.
Looking at the red chords along with the melodic lines above, we can see the blue line goes (after a chromatic approach from below) |root-7|-3| in mm. 7-8, then |root-7-3|-7-6| in mm.10-11. The 3rds are hit on strong beats. The red line goes |3|-7|-3| in mm.7-9, then |6-#5|2-1| in mm.10-11. The green line goes |5-|b9-root|5| in mm.7-9 (I'm choosing to ignore some neighbor tones).
The point is the major chord tones all tend to resolve as expected, even if the resolutions are obscured by the stuff happening around them. I find the Bach cello suites to be a good way to study these kinds of compound melodies and resolutions in a format that is a little more obvious than most bebop solos.
We could probably find a ton more interesting stuff in just these few bars, but I wanted to focus on a few of the more bebop specific elements.
Transcriptions are also good, and I think it can be important to sometimes pick a little fragment and see how many ways one can analyze it. Here's the first chorus or so of a Yusef Lateef blues solo:
Let's focus on measures 7-11, which are nice and bebop-y. One important element of bebop is the prevalence of accents at the high notes in the phrases. If you connect the dots of the notes and find the peaks (local maxima in math speak), put an accent on those notes. I've notated those here with a red star.
This isn't always exactly where Lateef puts the accents, and figuring out where he differs is important, but it is a good rule of thumb.
So that's an important rhythmic element. How about melodic ideas? I find the concept of compound melody or melodic fission to be a common feature in bebop. If we look at this line again with this in mind we can separate out several melodic strands from the single line. Here's one way I have done it, although there are other options and I have ignored some of the notes for this example. I have distinguished 3 contrapuntal lines (blue, red, and green from bottom to top). You will notice that the tendency is for each line to resolve nicely downward by step.
Now we can look at these separate lines from a harmonic perspective. Here is the excerpt with "normal" blues changes in black and my idea of the changes Lateef is playing in red. Nothing too out of the ordinary in any case.
Looking at the red chords along with the melodic lines above, we can see the blue line goes (after a chromatic approach from below) |root-7|-3| in mm. 7-8, then |root-7-3|-7-6| in mm.10-11. The 3rds are hit on strong beats. The red line goes |3|-7|-3| in mm.7-9, then |6-#5|2-1| in mm.10-11. The green line goes |5-|b9-root|5| in mm.7-9 (I'm choosing to ignore some neighbor tones).
The point is the major chord tones all tend to resolve as expected, even if the resolutions are obscured by the stuff happening around them. I find the Bach cello suites to be a good way to study these kinds of compound melodies and resolutions in a format that is a little more obvious than most bebop solos.
We could probably find a ton more interesting stuff in just these few bars, but I wanted to focus on a few of the more bebop specific elements.
I realize this is a slightly older post, but this is a really great conversation. I too have been attempting to add more bebop language into my solos. I've transcribed & worked through a lot transcriptions. I also have a lot of bebop books (e.g. Parker's Omni book, D Baker's bebop). And I have been studying in a class w/ a horn player who has us insert specific licks over ii-Vs in a blues (that's where we are starting, lol). What I find challenging for double bass is that many of the common bebop lines were originally played on horns or piano. They are extremely difficult to play at reasonable tempos on upright bass. Many are just impractical.
A colleague of mine is working on putting together a workshop for bass bebop vocabulary. I too am working on building more licks, or simplifying Parker's licks so that they are playable on bass. With that said, there just isn't a whole lot out there (pedagogically speaking) for bass bebop lines. One has to sift through a lot of licks that just don't really work well on the bass, esp DB. Maybe that's a good thing as there is more room for all of us to carve out more unique vocab for bass and to push the envelope of what can be done on the bass (esp. DB)?? Anyway, that's my two cents.
A colleague of mine is working on putting together a workshop for bass bebop vocabulary. I too am working on building more licks, or simplifying Parker's licks so that they are playable on bass. With that said, there just isn't a whole lot out there (pedagogically speaking) for bass bebop lines. One has to sift through a lot of licks that just don't really work well on the bass, esp DB. Maybe that's a good thing as there is more room for all of us to carve out more unique vocab for bass and to push the envelope of what can be done on the bass (esp. DB)?? Anyway, that's my two cents.
I've been transcribing on guitar recently and it has reminded me (in support of your position) how much easier it is to play those larger intervals than on DB.
Oscar Pettiford was one of this first to incorporate the bebop language into his bass solos. I've always gotten good ideas from studying his recordings.
- Steve
One thing that helped me a lot is: Start with a two-beat line. Beats 1 and 3, the most relaxed beats i a 4/4 bar, should consist of chord tones (preferably not too many roots if you think solo). Approach each of the beats with one 1/8-note, then with two, and then with three. Now you have a string of 1/8s , starting on upbeat 3and. On this line, you apply the rhythm of a bebop head you know. Where the head has a rest, you play a rest, where there's a note, you play the note your 1/8note-line tells you to play. Do this a lot on different tunes.
Now, I doubt anybody thinks like this when soloing. This is just a mind- and ear game (one of several) to teach you to always HEAR - and in advance - a two beat line that is dead-on, or right through, the changes (people call it "guide-tones", but "two beat" is a concept any bass player should know and arguably relates to better) on the strong beats, and then improvise the rest, by thinking "rhythm", not so much "notes". I know this Dizzy quote- answering a question what he thinks when he solos: "I fill my head with rhythm!" Once you hear this strong chord reference, you can leave it and re-visit whenever you want to, and since there's always going to be resolution on 1 and 3, chances are it'll all make sense.
An interesting by-effect is that suddenly, there are no hard chord changes anymore.
Don't take my word for it- this is basically one of the things I extracted from Hal Galper's videotaped lessons.
Another cat to check out is Barry Harris and his use of the major scale with an added b13 (well, Donna Lee, anyone?) .
A thing on tempo: Bass players have this thing with always being perfectly clear about the quarter note tempo of a tune, and that is of course great- but it can be a hindrance too. To play fast you have to think slow, is what the olden guys say. How to do that? I practice my uptempo walking lines played as 1/8 notes (still being 1/4s!)- which means that the 2 beat from above is your walking line. So the real 1/8 notes start to feel like 1/16 in ballad or medium tempo (and yes, so you end up with a ballad with a chord change on every beat). Easy, or at least to me, a lot easier than 1/8 notes somehow!
Best
Sidecar
Now, I doubt anybody thinks like this when soloing. This is just a mind- and ear game (one of several) to teach you to always HEAR - and in advance - a two beat line that is dead-on, or right through, the changes (people call it "guide-tones", but "two beat" is a concept any bass player should know and arguably relates to better) on the strong beats, and then improvise the rest, by thinking "rhythm", not so much "notes". I know this Dizzy quote- answering a question what he thinks when he solos: "I fill my head with rhythm!" Once you hear this strong chord reference, you can leave it and re-visit whenever you want to, and since there's always going to be resolution on 1 and 3, chances are it'll all make sense.
An interesting by-effect is that suddenly, there are no hard chord changes anymore.
Don't take my word for it- this is basically one of the things I extracted from Hal Galper's videotaped lessons.
Another cat to check out is Barry Harris and his use of the major scale with an added b13 (well, Donna Lee, anyone?) .
A thing on tempo: Bass players have this thing with always being perfectly clear about the quarter note tempo of a tune, and that is of course great- but it can be a hindrance too. To play fast you have to think slow, is what the olden guys say. How to do that? I practice my uptempo walking lines played as 1/8 notes (still being 1/4s!)- which means that the 2 beat from above is your walking line. So the real 1/8 notes start to feel like 1/16 in ballad or medium tempo (and yes, so you end up with a ballad with a chord change on every beat). Easy, or at least to me, a lot easier than 1/8 notes somehow!
Best
Sidecar
Yes! Coincidentally, I just happened to be listening to several Pettiford recordings before I checked this board. I'm listening now to Bohemia After Dark. Ron Carter takes a really great solo on his version--worth studying. Yes, Pettiford is a great source for study. I've worked on Tricotism, and I do need to go back to that and really start transcribing more of his solos and memorizing them.
IMO, bassists, esp. DB, take a different approach at soloing in the bebop style than other instruments. And a lot of stock licks that are available for study (David Baker's book, google jazz licks see what comes up) are just darn difficult to play at tempo. Some do work. I've been working on memorizing Parker's "Now's The Time" (no1) solo from the omni book and it's a bear on the DB. Good stuff in there, no doubt.
