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October 2013 IOTM - Georgia (on my mind).

@Di i France - I like how you ornament the melody with some nice semi tone stepping then take it up an octave briefly.
At the start of your solo i noticed a slight bluesy feel with some flat 3rd's then it is fine to restate the melody again in the improvisation. One thing i did notice was the rhythmical variation was lacking a little, as mentioned to others before, at first it is hard to take yourself out of the 'swing' feel and people tend to just fumble their way through a solo til it ends, that is normal, i did a lot of it myself before so try to think of your solo as a story that makes sense. Maybe throw in some add repeated rhythm patterns to maybe develop a solo story, try some more syncopation, you lay back nice off the beat so try pushing the beat, also triplets are overlooked by a lot of people in soloing so maybe add some as it is different, space and starting and stopping your musical sentences is also a thing that is good to think about, treat a solo a bit like a musical story, start-middle-end.
Ian
 
Thanks Ian, yes, I feel that the improv is a bit samey, I'm trying to change it up a little, not easy once you're in the middle of it! It's funny, but I thought that I was playing mainly triplets in the improv. Shows that I don't really know what's going to come out.........:D
 
Just enough time to get this one in B4 end of month.
Don't know how to explain what I was doing with this.
Stuck around the Blues scale for the most part and embellished the melody for the rest.
I went for the less is more scenario.
More or less.
Probably a bit monotonous for your ears, but welcome your thoughts all the same.
Nick.
https://app.box.com/s/5v1aolhh9ewug09jkke6
 
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@ B Flat - not monotonous in any way at all, very smooth, relaxed feel, that is GOOD sir!!
so stop with the self doubting :)
I like how you you pull the melody around, stretching notes, laying back off the beat, that is a good start as it shows you are prepared to try and make the melody your 'own' which is a good step in improvisation.
I could hear your were basically sticking to a blues scale vibe, and that is fine, good to hear you mixing it up with some longer notes and double time kind of flurries, mixing it up through the range is a good thing to do too as i heard you do, also some nice subtone and repeating patterns. nice to hear your 'pet mouse' was involved, singing along, haha just joking, we ALL get squeaky reeds, i had that happen at crazy times, you might need to look at how it is on the mouthpiece as 1 or 2 squeaks can happen but this was a little more, maybe reed , reed position or you may have too much mouthpiece in your mouth, hope that helps sir!
Overall you sound pretty confident, as what i hear, when approaching a melody and improvisation, good to see you are trying to articulate the melody and make it your own.
Ian
 
Thanks Ian.
Not sure about where my mouse came from.
It might be the very old reed that I can't put to bed, or as you say I may have had the piece in a little far.
I hate to play on the tip.
I prefer the lower end of the horn and feel more comfortably down there in general, but am trying to get more comfortable up the top where the mouse lives.;}
Apart from using the blues scale and playing with the melody I am at a bit of a loss as to what notes to play that will work.
But on a whole am feeling slightly more confident.
Nick.
 
Hi Nick,
I thought that was a pretty good go!
Sauntered along really sweetly.... The mouse wasn't that noticeable.... In fact I'd say work more of them in and make a feature of em!
After all this is improv.... Anything goes
Cheers


Cheers & Ciao
Jimu
 
Hello,

here is my contribution.
The playback is BiaB 2013.
I have kept improvisation very simple, as this is practice for me not to think about certain notes at all. Whether they fit or not or the like...
What a wonderful tune BTW.

I hope you like my version.

https://soundcloud.com/guenne-1/georgia-wav

Cheers,
Guenne
 
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Hello,

here is my contribution.
The playback is BiaB 2013.
I have kept improvisation very simple, as this is practice for me not to think about certain notes at all. Whether they fit or not or the like...
What a wonderful tune BTW.

I hope you like my version.

https://soundcloud.com/guenne-1/georgia-wav

Cheers,
Guenne


That was lovely. Enjoyed muchly. Nice recording.

If you like this one, check out Hoagy Carmichael. He wrote lots of good'uns. Some lemons too but not many :)
 
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@Guenne

Lovely smooth version. Your tone and playing perfect for the backing which was suitably sophisticated.

I really hope you continue to post on this thread and also hope that you join the Ballad of the Month thread. I definitely want to hear more.:welldone:mrcool
 
Here's my backing track version.

Having Way Way Way too much fun on my new CE Winds Legend I

https://soundcloud.com/seanwintersax/georgia-cs-iotm
 
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Hi Guenne,

Wow that rocked along so sweetly, for not thinking much it was great, perhaps that is the key...not to think much.

End of the month fast approaching & not posted anything myself!

Still I have enjoyed other versions and have been bashing away at getting some more Jazz langauge.
 
@Guenne - a smooth take and you have a smooth tenor sound that fit's great in this style of the tune you have chosen to do, and you kept the improvisation nice and in keeping with the style, good use of 'musical sentences' with well placed spaces, the point of the exercise here in this months improvisation is to play around with and show use of dynamics and rhythmical variation, i feel you were fine with the rhythmical side but dynamics were were mostly 1 level, that is not a bad thing, just a point to note for future if you wish to add a touch more in your recordings then looking into dynamics can be very useful.
Overall a really nice mellow take.

@Littlewailer - I can hear you are having fun with the new mouthpiece, nice feeling when you get something that just suits you.
As for Georgia, i can here your own style all over it, Blues-fest, attacking dynamics, harmonics and playing around with the melody. As this is a section geared at those wanting to develop i think it will be nice if you shared what your thinking and melodic ideas in your improvisation are so others here can benefit from it, i know what your musical ideas and playing style is but i think it best coming from you as the improviser on the tune to share a little with people, maybe a small break down of certain passages you played.
thanks for posting!
Ian
 
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Gee wizz Littlewailer...after that I think you need to change your name to Bigwailer.

Great variety of Rythms and heaps of ideas, all of which really worked well, a sense of fun with the high range stuff.

Your enjoyment really came through!

Sweet as Mate......and no bikes seen anywhere
 
Just to underline the point of this month IOTM is to work on incorporating the use of rhythmical and dynamic variation to show an understanding of them both and to make a change from the regular and popular 'swing quavers', nothing wrong with swing quavers at all but it is good to take yourself out of a comfort zone and try more syncopation, using softer and louder dynamics along with your regular swing quavers to develop a more unique personality and this will help expand your jazz language to draw upon as an improviser.
thanks
Ian
 
Thanks Ian.
Not sure about where my mouse came from.
It might be the very old reed that I can't put to bed, or as you say I may have had the piece in a little far.
I hate to play on the tip.
I prefer the lower end of the horn and feel more comfortably down there in general, but am trying to get more comfortable up the top where the mouse lives.;}
Apart from using the blues scale and playing with the melody I am at a bit of a loss as to what notes to play that will work.
But on a whole am feeling slightly more confident.
Nick.

Here is a quick cheat sheet I found recently with suggestions for what scales work with different jazz chords. Could be useful when there is a section of a song where you have hard time to find what notes work. Don't limit yourself to scales, but they can be used as anchors:
http://www.apassion4jazz.net/jazz-chords-scales.html
 
Hello,

here is my contribution.
The playback is BiaB 2013.
I have kept improvisation very simple, as this is practice for me not to think about certain notes at all. Whether they fit or not or the like...
What a wonderful tune BTW.

I hope you like my version.

https://soundcloud.com/guenne-1/georgia-wav

Cheers,
Guenne

Great recording! I love your tone, phrasing and how you surf smoothly from one note to another. Your solo is great, mixing different styles and developing an interesting story.
 
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@Littlewailer - I can hear you are having fun with the new mouthpiece, nice feeling when you get something that just suits you.
As for Georgia, i can here your own style all over it, Blues-fest, attacking dynamics, harmonics and playing around with the melody. As this is a section geared at those wanting to develop i think it will be nice if you shared what your thinking and melodic ideas in your improvisation are so others here can benefit from it, i know what your musical ideas and playing style is but i think it best coming from you as the improviser on the tune to share a little with people, maybe a small break down of certain passages you played.
thanks for posting!
Ian

Thanks Ian and Visionari1 -

My motivation on improvising on this tune is always to have the Melody present in my head but to pick up on the cadences of the song and use them to propel myself into different Ideas. The Beginning of my solo starts out with some trills and works through to the next phrase by playing most the melody and then a descending line back to the melody. Hard articulation and some repetition of this very guitaresque blues phrase (it's a little turn almost off of the 4-#4-4-b3). Some Smears and a descending line from the altissimo to get to the bridge. In the bridge I try and keep the melody present but there's more smears into those melody notes with some altissimo right before the #4 change in the bridge (I like to catch the changes by stoping right before them and then either playing right on them, Just before or just after them). More hard articulation coming out of the bridge and then a second octave and then high Altissimo B and D (the same notes of the melody). Screech into more of the melody. Going through to the next chorus I kind of play over the changes doing a ascending line with notes in groups of 2 the first note is always the root but it basically goes root, 3rd, root, 4th, root, #4, Root, 5. After that is the madness. The Beginning of the second chorus is anyone's time to let loose. I play a trill again (a shout out to how I started the solo) but I take the nasty up by really laying into it and dropping my centre of pitch to get a guitar type bend down. Thick repeated blues Line and then plunging all the way down to low Bb. The next 8 bars are the last of the solo but I try and keep the melody present but just adding some roughness and altissimo in between I also get up into the teeth range I think that note is like Bb5 or D5 or something like that. When the Bridge comes the second time I basically stop thinking about soloing and embellishing because after the bridge is the lead out to the end of the song. In the lead out 8 bars before the last bridge you'll hear me do this chromatic descending triad phrase. It's the only time that I play out of key in the tune.

Hope that helps a little.
 
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@ Littlewailer - that was a great insight into your improvisation thought process, EXACTLY what is needed by the more advanced improvisers and i hope the others follow your example to help along those who are wanting to learn more, thanks Sean, any help is really appreciated...

Ian
 
Been some great takes this month, next month will be more about playing "outside" the changes to add a little more musical colour..
 

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