Thanks to both for your thoughtful responses. I think I now get a better idea of your meaning. You are saying that there is a harmonic logic to a lot of jazz and a range of typical harmonic structures. Once you understand these, your ear has to decide between a more finite range of possibilities.
To be honest I knew this, but probably hadn't really appreciated how important it could be, (ok, a good teacher would have made that clear, - point taken. Now where is he?). I've not really worked much in this area, beyond thinking circle of fifths or II/V/I.
Jerry Coker's book "Improvising Jazz" has sections on functional harmony and typical tune structures and no doubt Mark Levine discusses this at length also. I have read the information but not really made the effort to master it. Looks like I need to do some work on this.
Ed I tried your "ActiveBass" method on blues and on Autumn Leaves. It was a big help although I've only scratched the surface of the possibilities. I can see how it would get the harmony deep into your brain if you spend the time. I definitely want to revisit this at some point. I think it would be particularly useful for learning to solo (though very helpful for walking too) but at the minute I'm not so interested in learning to solo as really getting my accompaniment together.
A month or two ago I printed off an arpeggio exercise which I believe you suggested in another thread here, but I confess I've not found time to really work on it. Practice time has been under pressure lately because I'm having to learn a lot of new tunes for projects I'm involved in (both jazz and non-jazz). My funk project is usually pretty low-maintenance but every so often we decide to replace around half the set, which means work. Once the new tunes are learned I will find more time for the jazz stuff which is really what interests me most.
The arpeggio method I have used involves taking a major scale and playing all the possible arpeggios (in C, Cmaj7, Dm7 etc) in five different positions on the neck. Then Fmaj scale and so on. Obviously this is only covering M7, m7, 7 and m7-5 chords. There is scope to extend the exercise to cover all the inversions and move on to other chords but I just haven't got that far yet. For the last couple of months I've mainly just been learning tunes, practising my walking and doing the ear-training exercises but I realise that's neglecting a lot (technique and reading as well as arpeggios and theory).
To be honest I knew this, but probably hadn't really appreciated how important it could be, (ok, a good teacher would have made that clear, - point taken. Now where is he?). I've not really worked much in this area, beyond thinking circle of fifths or II/V/I.
Jerry Coker's book "Improvising Jazz" has sections on functional harmony and typical tune structures and no doubt Mark Levine discusses this at length also. I have read the information but not really made the effort to master it. Looks like I need to do some work on this.
Ed I tried your "ActiveBass" method on blues and on Autumn Leaves. It was a big help although I've only scratched the surface of the possibilities. I can see how it would get the harmony deep into your brain if you spend the time. I definitely want to revisit this at some point. I think it would be particularly useful for learning to solo (though very helpful for walking too) but at the minute I'm not so interested in learning to solo as really getting my accompaniment together.
A month or two ago I printed off an arpeggio exercise which I believe you suggested in another thread here, but I confess I've not found time to really work on it. Practice time has been under pressure lately because I'm having to learn a lot of new tunes for projects I'm involved in (both jazz and non-jazz). My funk project is usually pretty low-maintenance but every so often we decide to replace around half the set, which means work. Once the new tunes are learned I will find more time for the jazz stuff which is really what interests me most.
The arpeggio method I have used involves taking a major scale and playing all the possible arpeggios (in C, Cmaj7, Dm7 etc) in five different positions on the neck. Then Fmaj scale and so on. Obviously this is only covering M7, m7, 7 and m7-5 chords. There is scope to extend the exercise to cover all the inversions and move on to other chords but I just haven't got that far yet. For the last couple of months I've mainly just been learning tunes, practising my walking and doing the ear-training exercises but I realise that's neglecting a lot (technique and reading as well as arpeggios and theory).
