Learning the Head to Donna Lee in One Week

[ba55i5t]

Check the end of the 1st bar and the downbeat of the 2nd one. It should be Bb and A. Also check the end of the first section with the accidentals on the G string ;-)

Whoops - thanks for this.

Day 5 report - much less mistakes now at 120 bpm. Hoping to have it around 150 by the end of the week (Saturday). Have tried ratcheting down the speed and I am fine playing at slow speeds, just need to maintain focus when it starts coming to 105bpm and 5 bpms upward.

 

[Bob_Ross]

How slowly can you play it?

^^^dis guy knows what's happening.

When I first learned the head to "Donna Lee" -- I was an undergrad at Berklee in the late 70s, so it was practically mandatory for every bassist there at that time to be able to play that tune at 7,000,000 bpm...and by "mandatory" I don't mean by the faculty/curriculum, I mean by the Cool Bass Players Club® -- I got it committed to muscle memory in a reasonably short period of time. And for the next several years any time I needed (?) to play the head to "Donna Lee" I could pretty much do it on autopilot.

And then one day I tried playing it really slowly.

...and I discovered that I had been thinking about the melody as these chunks of fairly large gestures, but to the detriment of the minutiae of its intervallic construction. My brain would just spazz out and I'd forget what the next note was. It took a very long time for me to be able to play the head at slow tempos; I essentially had to re-learn the entire piece!

 

[ba55i5t]

^^^dis guy knows what's happening.

When I first learned the head to "Donna Lee" -- I was an undergrad at Berklee in the late 70s, so it was practically mandatory for every bassist there at that time to be able to play that tune at 7,000,000 bpm...and by "mandatory" I don't mean by the faculty/curriculum, I mean by the Cool Bass Players Club® -- I got it committed to muscle memory in a reasonably short period of time. And for the next several years any time I needed (?) to play the head to "Donna Lee" I could pretty much do it on autopilot.

And then one day I tried playing it really slowly.

...and I discovered that I had been thinking about the melody as these chunks of fairly large gestures, but to the detriment of the minutiae of its intervallic construction. My brain would just spazz out and I'd forget what the next note was. It took a very long time for me to be able to play the head at slow tempos; I essentially had to re-learn the entire piece!

Will give a run-through today of a few times at 40 bpm to see how it goes, and will report back.

 

[Bob_Ross]

btw, I'll recount an important lesson I got from one of my undergrad professors almost 40 years ago:

He says to the class "Sing me the head to 'Donna Lee' "
Everyone in the class proceeds to sing "Doobie-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo..."
Prof stops us. "No" he says, "Sing me the head to 'Donna Lee' "
Everyone in the class once again starts singing "Doobie-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo..."
Prof stops us again. "No, wrong" he says, "Now sing me the head to 'Donna Lee' "
About half the class just shuts up, but a few obstinate ones continue, singing "Doobie-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo..."
Prof stops everyone again. Looks at us like we're a bunch of yokels.

He yells "IT STARTS WITH A REST!"

And then he sings "(rest, rest) doobie-doo doo-doo Doo-doo doo-doo doo..."

Everyone first learning that tune gets so hung up on the notes that they often forget about the phrasing. The tune makes so much more sense if you can learn it with accompaniment, so you hear how those phrases fit with the harmonic rhythm.

 

[Rev J]

I have this on my to do list. But I plan on doing it as a vocabulary evolution exercise. First learning the version in the Miles Davis Omnibook with his solo, follow that with the version in the Charlie Parker Omnibook with his solo, follow that with the version in the John Coltrane Omnibook with his solo, follow that with the Jaco version, and finish with the Bass Extremes version to get a big picture of how the vocabulary of this song varies from player to player.

C/S,
rev J

 

[ba55i5t]

Day 8 (or week later). I can now play it at 152 after following the suggestions of playing it slow over and over. I will post another recording tomorrow.

 

[ba55i5t]

Can you sing the head? Even if you're not American Idol material pitch wise, internalizing the phrasing will take you a long way towards reaching your goal.

One phrase at the time.

Also start very slowly and work out your fingerings. Then make some changes if needed while increasing the tempo because the first fingerings you came up with will probably not be suitable at at faster tempo. Work on your phrasing also, ties resolving on the downbeats not the upbeats! Tap your foot and metronome on 2&4 when you feel confident with your performance.

btw, I'll recount an important lesson I got from one of my undergrad professors almost 40 years ago:

He says to the class "Sing me the head to 'Donna Lee' "
Everyone in the class proceeds to sing "Doobie-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo..."
Prof stops us. "No" he says, "Sing me the head to 'Donna Lee' "
Everyone in the class once again starts singing "Doobie-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo..."
Prof stops us again. "No, wrong" he says, "Now sing me the head to 'Donna Lee' "
About half the class just shuts up, but a few obstinate ones continue, singing "Doobie-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo doo..."
Prof stops everyone again. Looks at us like we're a bunch of yokels.

He yells "IT STARTS WITH A REST!"

And then he sings "(rest, rest) doobie-doo doo-doo Doo-doo doo-doo doo..."

Everyone first learning that tune gets so hung up on the notes that they often forget about the phrasing. The tune makes so much more sense if you can learn it with accompaniment, so you hear how those phrases fit with the harmonic rhythm.

I have this on my to do list. But I plan on doing it as a vocabulary evolution exercise. First learning the version in the Miles Davis Omnibook with his solo, follow that with the version in the Charlie Parker Omnibook with his solo, follow that with the version in the John Coltrane Omnibook with his solo, follow that with the Jaco version, and finish with the Bass Extremes version to get a big picture of how the vocabulary of this song varies from player to player.

C/S,
rev J

Here is the track for your consideration using the Donna Lee backing track I posted before.

Next is going to be a chorus of walking bass line then a chorus of solo (hopefully before end of this week).

All comments welcome - also, what do you think of tone - it's direct from my Cort Curbow 5.

Thanks again for all of your support folks.

 

[Groove Master]

Here is the track for your consideration using the Donna Lee backing track I posted before.

Next is going to be a chorus of walking bass line then a chorus of solo (hopefully before end of this week).

All comments welcome - also, what do you think of tone - it's direct from my Cort Curbow 5.

Thanks again for all of your support folks.

Getting there. Check the last phrase I think you missed an A natural towards the end. You have the notes but it ain't swinging yet and this is the hardest part. Go about half the speed and make sure your time is right. It isn't right now. Also like I said before it's time to learn how to phrase. This is where the swing and the music come alive. Practice your ties and pull-offs, grace notes and slides. Sing with it. Good work and keep on practicing ;-)

 

[MrLenny1]

Good luck.

 

[devnulljp]

There's a whole book of Charlie Parker transcriptions for bass. It's a lot of work though.
as for Donna Lee, there are loads of transcriptions of Jaco's version. I'd get a good script and then use something like Audacity to slow down and loop bits to work on.