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Is anyone else getting as much as me from J. Gwizdala's book?

#61
SteveC said:
I wish I were in a situation where I was soloing more. Just no jazz gigs around here. Cover bands playing the same old stuff at the same old places.
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I was running into the same issue when I decided I wanted to play jazz. I live in the middle of nowhere Maryland and the usual bands were playing the usual stuff. I remember talking to my teacher about it and he said, "You have to create the scene that you want to be a part of." So that's what I did. Of course my friends were telling me that there's no market for jazz, blah blah... And I did it anyway.

As luck would have it, I found a couple of guys who had an interest and were really good. Anyway, were rehearsed once a week for three months and then went door to door to venues to find gigs.

That was 9 years ago this month and we are still going strong. Now, we play festivals, bistros, large hotels, small clubs, private parties etc. We turn down gigs all the time, because gigs begat gigs. We've gotten our most lucrative slots simply because someone heard us at some random event. Of course, when Covid hit, we lost a little business, but we generally only play in the summer and outside anyway. We take the winter off, but the guitar player does this for a living so he does session work and other stuff in the meantime.

So it's doable. You just have to decide to make it happen.
 
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#62
Is “From Practice To Performance: Jazz Vocabulary For Electric Bass” an updated “Jazz Vocabulary For Electric Bass: ii-V-I” or why would you choose the slightly older “Jazz Vocabulary For Electric Bass: ii-V-I” book instead?

Thanks.
 
#63
Spin Doctor said:
I was running into the same issue when I decided I wanted to play jazz. I live in the middle of nowhere Maryland and the usual bands were playing the usual stuff. I remember talking to my teacher about it and he said, "You have to create the scene that you want to be a part of." So that's what I did. Of course my friends were telling me that there's no market for jazz, blah blah... And I did it anyway.

As luck would have it, I found a couple of guys who had an interest and were really good. Anyway, were rehearsed once a week for three months and then went door to door to venues to find gigs.

That was 9 years ago this month and we are still going strong. Now, we play festivals, bistros, large hotels, small clubs, private parties etc. We turn down gigs all the time, because gigs begat gigs. We've gotten our most lucrative slots simply because someone heard us at some random event. Of course, when Covid hit, we lost a little business, but we generally only play in the summer and outside anyway. We take the winter off, but the guitar player does this for a living so he does session work and other stuff in the meantime.

So it's doable. You just have to decide to make it happen.
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Inspiring. Maybe I'll mention it to a couple people. The cover band keeps us busy - especially in the summer with weddings and private lake parties. Maybe with covid becoming less of a thing we can try to make something happen.
 
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#64
StayLow said:
Is “From Practice To Performance: Jazz Vocabulary For Electric Bass” an updated “Jazz Vocabulary For Electric Bass: ii-V-I” or why would you choose the slightly older “Jazz Vocabulary For Electric Bass: ii-V-I” book instead?

Thanks.
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The 2-5-1 book, and the practice to performance are two different topics. Just depends on what you want to work on.
 
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#65
SteveC said:
Inspiring. Maybe I'll mention it to a couple people. The cover band keeps us busy - especially in the summer with weddings and private lake parties. Maybe with covid becoming less of a thing we can try to make something happen.
Click to expand...

Can't hurt to try, if that's want you want to do. You can't learn to improvise without a band setting. It's easy to understand the concepts intellectually, but pulling it off in the heat of battle is the trick.
 
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#67
Swipter said:
So, if I have to work to get through the exercises in his good stuff books, not all of them of course, is the II V I book going to be worth it or should I wait?
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You're gonna have to work to get through any of it, and to me the object of the game is to be able to use this stuff in a song. That generally takes quite awhile. It's a lot of repetition and exploration. There's no rule that says you can't work on more than one thing at a time, but you have to spend enough time on whatever you're working on to make it useful. It's really up to you.
 
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#69
Spin Doctor said:
You're gonna have to work to get through any of it, and to me the object of the game is to be able to use this stuff in a song. That generally takes quite awhile. It's a lot of repetition and exploration. There's no rule that says you can't work on more than one thing at a time, but you have to spend enough time on whatever you're working on to make it useful. It's really up to you.
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Agreed, I think I'll hold off. I worked on minor to diminished from the other good stuff book for over an hour. It clicked.

I understood what I was doing, which wasn't the case the first time.
 
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#70
Swipter said:
Agreed, I think I'll hold off. I worked on minor to diminished from the other good stuff book for over an hour. It clicked.

I understood what I was doing, which wasn't the case the first time.
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I spent a lot of time with that one, and made some of my own exercises out of it. But the one I got the most mileage out of was the melodic minor triplet exercise.

Once you get that down, and then start getting into other stuff in melodic minor it just opens up a whole bunch of doors as far as playing that outside stuff. I'm getting to the point now where I can handle melodic minor about as easily as major scale stuff. Took about a year though.

The trick to melodic minor is knowing when you can use it, and knowing how it sounds in relation to the chords you play over and also the chords that come before and after. I'm no expert but it's coming along.
 
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#71
Spin Doctor said:
I spent a lot of time with that one, and made some of my own exercises out of it. But the one I got the most mileage out of was the melodic minor triplet exercise.

Once you get that down, and then start getting into other stuff in melodic minor it just opens up a whole bunch of doors as far as playing that outside stuff. I'm getting to the point now where I can handle melodic minor about as easily as major scale stuff. Took about a year though.

The trick to melodic minor is knowing when you can use it, and knowing how it sounds in relation to the chords you play over and also the chords that come before and after. I'm no expert but it's coming along.
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I’m excited about exploring the Melodic minor. I’ve had Janet’s book (good stuff) for like a week and It’s already transforming my laying.
 
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#72
Spin Doctor said:
I spent a lot of time with that one, and made some of my own exercises out of it. But the one I got the most mileage out of was the melodic minor triplet exercise.

Once you get that down, and then start getting into other stuff in melodic minor it just opens up a whole bunch of doors as far as playing that outside stuff. I'm getting to the point now where I can handle melodic minor about as easily as major scale stuff. Took about a year though.

The trick to melodic minor is knowing when you can use it, and knowing how it sounds in relation to the chords you play over and also the chords that come before and after. I'm no expert but it's coming along.
Click to expand...
Yes, Melodic Minor is all my attention right now, plus the diminished exercises. I want to get in to classical and these, I think, are helpful. I work on those plus random Jamerson songs. Unbelievably, this is helping my Jamerson playing but this may have to do more with finger placement and reading speed.

Thanks for the tips.

Edit: Hitting the melodic minor triplet over the next couple weeks. I need more keys.
 
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