IOTM Sept 2015 - 'Turn Down not Tuna App!'

[aldevis]

It's really hard to make nice sounding music when you are concentrating so hard on which notes to play 🙂

Notes are there, you just have to float on them.

 

[Bolding]

You just nailed the coffin! I'll have a go at it tomorrow, thanks aldevis...

I actually learned to read music today! I wrote down everything i was gonna play for the first excercise, on the chart....... in 30 different keys!

Thank you all.

 

[Jeanette]

Notes are there, you just have to float on them.

So will I be forgiven if I throw the odd non chord note in as it floats under my fingers 🙂

 

[Colin the Bear]

No need to think it before you play it. Play it then work out why it sounds like it does.

 

[BigMartin]

Vertical Teutonic structures vs horizontal Italian lust.

Surely Lust is a German word?

 

[BigMartin]

It's really hard to make nice sounding music when you are concentrating so hard on which notes to play 🙂

Just about impossible, I'd say. Which is why you need to learn the notes well enough that you don't have to think about them any more. At least, I think that's how it goes. It's been a slow process for me. I really hope it works!

 

[Rob Pealing]

If you use Android, Music Theory Helper from Okram has a chord builder part so you can check which notes make up a chord as well as aid memoirs regarding other theory. I find it quite useful.

 

[Jeanette]

If you use Android, Music Theory Helper from Okram has a chord builder part so you can check which notes make up a chord as well as aid memoirs regarding other theory. I find it quite useful.

Thank you, yes various options to find which notes are in a chord on line but I want to be able to figure them out for myself in the hope that things will make some kind of sense instead of just relying on memory and it is slowly going in, it's what comes out the sax that is worrying 🙂

Jx

 

[Jeanette]

Just about impossible, I'd say. Which is why you need to learn the notes well enough that you don't have to think about them any more. At least, I think that's how it goes. It's been a slow process for me. I really hope it works!

To be honest I think I would rather be able to listen to a chord and instinctively hear what I should I be playing but that is just a different approach and I can't yet do that either so am relying on a bit of both 🙂

Jx

 

[Colin the Bear]

It's all very simple.

Chords are built from major(larger) and minor(smaller) intervals.

Four semi tones is major. Three semitones is minor.

A major chord, is a major interval with a minor interval on top

A minor chord is minor with major on top

A minor with a minor on top is diminished.

Major major is augmented.

Look at them on the keyboard.



Including arpeggios in your practice regime is very helpful.

Start with C

CEGB(Cmaj7) DFAC(Dm7) EGBD(Em7) FACE(Fmaj7) GBDF(G7) ACEG(Am7) BDFA(Bm7b5 sometimes called Half diminished)

Play this exercise till you get 3 times without mistake and move onto next key. I add a sharp. So C, then G,then D, then A, then E, then B, then asprin. Then go the other way by adding a flat. C, then F, then Bb, then Eb, then Ab, etc.

I can't emphasise enough how helpful this exercise is in connecting ears, head and fingers. I was given it years ago and Pete includes it in Taming the saxophone.

Get C under your fingers and you'll start to hear the changes and sound shapes.

 

[aldevis]

Including arpeggios in your practice regime is very helpful.

Start with C

CEGB(Cmaj7) DFAC(Dm7) EGBD(Em7) FACE(Fmaj7) GBDF(G7) ACEG(Am7) BDFA(Bm7b5 sometimes called Half diminished)

Play this exercise till you get 3 times without mistake and move onto next key. I add a sharp. So C, then G,then D, then A, then E, then B, then asprin. Then go the other way by adding a flat. C, then F, then Bb, then Eb, then Ab, etc.

I can't emphasise enough how helpful this exercise is in connecting ears, head and fingers. I was given it years ago and Pete includes it in Taming the saxophone.

Get C under your fingers and you'll start to hear the changes and sound shapes.

Great tip.

It's all very simple.

Chords are built from major(larger) and minor(smaller) intervals.

Four semi tones is major. Three semitones is minor.

A major chord, is a major interval with a minor interval on top

A minor chord is minor with major on top

A minor with a minor on top is diminished.

Major major is augmented.

Look at them on the keyboard.

Not for me. This is more or less how Jimmy Dorsey explains chords, but I eventually found it misleading, since all the notes relate more to the root than to each other.
Translated in a similar scheme: Chords have a 3rd, a 5th and a 7th (to start with, in this context)
Maj7 MPM
7 MPm
Min7 mPm
m7(b5) mdm

 

[Colin the Bear]

Yes. It's a basic, simple explanation to help open the door into harmony theory.

At the very beginning of the journey, simple, basic information helps.

I can remember feeling lost, overwhelmed and perplexed listening to musicians and even teachers trying to explain things. Flat this and that and 13th's and Dim sevens and add eleven. Some were talking nonsense as it turned out, which didn't help.

Sometimes the explanation assumes a level of knowledge not present and the explanation needs explaining.

 

[Chris]

Guys you really are making more out of this than you need.🙂

Take your blanks sheets and write in the chord tones for each chord.
Put the backing track on, just play one note per chord begin with the root.
Don't play it so it lasts for 4 or 2 beats make it an 1/8th or 1/4 note for example.
Play the note on different beats of the bar, rinse and repeat until happy.
Move on the the next chord tone, do as above. When you can use all the
tones move on. Use two of the chord tones per chord, let them swing.
Do as above, now once you can play around with two chord tones feel
free to use more and make short phrases on each chord.
Remember less is more.🙂 This is really just the beginning everything from
here gets more interesting

Chris..

 

[Jeanette]

Maj7 MPM
7 MPm
Min7 mPm
m7(b5) mdm

where
M = major
P = perfect
m =minor

??

 

[Jeanette]

Guys you really are making more out of this than you need.🙂



Chris..

Possibly but I have been doing some work on theory and want to test my understanding or lack of further 🙂

Jx

 

[aldevis]

where
M = major
P = perfect
m =minor

??

Yes

 

[kevgermany]

Surely Lust is a German word?

Yes.

 

[saxyjt]

I love this, but I could use a translator!

I'll give this a try, soon, but I will try to stay focused on tomorrow's Jazz Workshop first. I can't get too much going at the same time... We're currently working on "Love and Hate" (Gracham Moncur III) on "Destination Out" by Jackie Mc Lean, 1963.

So much to absorb, it's scary! 😱

 

[Jeanette]

When I have said I will do something I don't like to let people down and I said I would have a go at this month's IOTM. I so wish I had kept my fingers off the key board!

I have lost count of the number of recordings I made of this, most of which were deleted It sounded so easy, just play the chord notes. If you read the thread you will be aware that improvising is pretty new to me and I am starting to look at the theory around chords but I still had a few questions 🙂

Even the recordings I kept varied somewhat and certainly in the early ones tone and articulation suffered whilst I concentrated on what to play.

I am not convinced I have the talent to improvise and certainly the basics of good tone production and timing still need a lot of work as they do when I read the dots. As for producing any sort of melody......

Why am I posting then, well I want to encourage others to have a go and I want to progress my own learning. A member once commented that he was very nearly put off posting recordings because nearly all the recordings on the site were of a high standard. We are lucky to have many talented members who will share their work and long may they continue to do so. 🙂

But in the hope of encouraging our less advanced members here is my offering. The end of my playing is very sudden, there was a reason for this which I won't bore you with and yes I suppose I could have had another go but I think sometimes you have to move on.

https://soundcloud.com/jeanette-7%2Frotting-fish

Having got this far I will have a go at step 2, it will be interesting to see if I make it as far as step 4 what the difference is in what I produce.

As ever, any feedback or advice will be appreciated 🙂

Jx

 

[Chris]

@Jeanette top marks for putting yourself out there, it isn't easy to do. It's a great first version. Ideas for the next one might be playing different rhythms, give the line you play some contour, eg play each chord higher up the sax than the one before it, and then come back down again, let this build until 3/4 of the way through where you can hit the highest chord tone right at the top of your range. Then let the listener down. When you move from chord to chord move to the closest tone in the next chord, it doesn't have to be the root. 🙂
As for steps 3 and 4 of course you'll be able to give them a go🙂