fibracell
Member
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Fishman’s Hip Licks – my review and 2 cents!
I’ve bought a few books over the years and some are just plain awful. Here is one of the better ones.
Right away I just want to say that this is a really excellent book and collection of same fantastic practise material. The book is aimed at players wanting to learn the jazz language, mainly straight ahead jazz and bop licks, and not so much blues riffs.
What makes this book worthwhile is the quality of the examples – in short these are some of the best licks you’ll find anywhere
There are 168 licks altogether, covering various chords and chord progressions. Most of the examples use various well known techniques such as enclosures (approach notes), bebop scales, diminished scales etc. There are 14 chord or chord progressions in each of the 12 keys – total of 168 unique licks. Each of the 12 keys has a lick in a good sax register, so they all sound good. So, for example the major 7th licks which starts at #25 is the key of C, and the last major 7th lick is #36 in the key of Db – each key between #25 to #36 has a unique lick. This is very cool because instead of slugging away at practising a phrase in every key, you get something that suits each key, and generally these fall under the fingers quite well.
There are 4 play along CDs. – 2 for alto and 2 for tenor. The play along’s are recorded at 2 different tempi – slow and fast. Greg also does not simply transpose the alto parts, but rather transposes the entire rhythm section, so that the alto plays the same notes as the tenor. It’s a shame that other excellent books (like Minzter) don’t do the same. If you’ve done a lot of transcribing you’ll recognise many of the phrases. If not, then this book has loads of really great tasty licks. As I played through them, I found myself going ‘yeah - that’s very cool!’ many times. (A couple of the 9b licks that use diminished scales are really minty).
Where the book falls short, is in the lack of any theory or explanation of how these are constructed. If you understand chords and the common techniques, you’ll have no problems. The other shortfall in my view is a lack of a systematic approach to getting the best out of the material. If you simply read and practise the phrases then ok, you’ll get them under you fingers, and get some ear training - but it won’t really come out in your improv. I think to get the best out of the book you need to break down the phrases into 4 note groups (words) that link the chord tones, and work to understand them and play them in different keys. You can then, over the weeks and months learn to link them together and construct your own phrases (sentences).
In short, if you don’t spend a lot of time transcribing, this book provides a short cut to
some great practise licks and phrases. One of the better books, and all for around £20!
I’ve bought a few books over the years and some are just plain awful. Here is one of the better ones.
Right away I just want to say that this is a really excellent book and collection of same fantastic practise material. The book is aimed at players wanting to learn the jazz language, mainly straight ahead jazz and bop licks, and not so much blues riffs.
What makes this book worthwhile is the quality of the examples – in short these are some of the best licks you’ll find anywhere
There are 168 licks altogether, covering various chords and chord progressions. Most of the examples use various well known techniques such as enclosures (approach notes), bebop scales, diminished scales etc. There are 14 chord or chord progressions in each of the 12 keys – total of 168 unique licks. Each of the 12 keys has a lick in a good sax register, so they all sound good. So, for example the major 7th licks which starts at #25 is the key of C, and the last major 7th lick is #36 in the key of Db – each key between #25 to #36 has a unique lick. This is very cool because instead of slugging away at practising a phrase in every key, you get something that suits each key, and generally these fall under the fingers quite well.
There are 4 play along CDs. – 2 for alto and 2 for tenor. The play along’s are recorded at 2 different tempi – slow and fast. Greg also does not simply transpose the alto parts, but rather transposes the entire rhythm section, so that the alto plays the same notes as the tenor. It’s a shame that other excellent books (like Minzter) don’t do the same. If you’ve done a lot of transcribing you’ll recognise many of the phrases. If not, then this book has loads of really great tasty licks. As I played through them, I found myself going ‘yeah - that’s very cool!’ many times. (A couple of the 9b licks that use diminished scales are really minty).
Where the book falls short, is in the lack of any theory or explanation of how these are constructed. If you understand chords and the common techniques, you’ll have no problems. The other shortfall in my view is a lack of a systematic approach to getting the best out of the material. If you simply read and practise the phrases then ok, you’ll get them under you fingers, and get some ear training - but it won’t really come out in your improv. I think to get the best out of the book you need to break down the phrases into 4 note groups (words) that link the chord tones, and work to understand them and play them in different keys. You can then, over the weeks and months learn to link them together and construct your own phrases (sentences).
In short, if you don’t spend a lot of time transcribing, this book provides a short cut to
some great practise licks and phrases. One of the better books, and all for around £20!