Theory & Impro Some tips I've picked up

[old git]

Sorry Brian Joe Sandy,
Very rarely use smileys as life is funny anyway.
The only real snag I see with your ideas is that middle C has nowt to do with piano keyboard, just its position on the great clef.
Introduce yourself in the Doorbell and you will get a warm reception and definitely not in the Maid of Orleans sense. 🙂 Damn! I've used one.

 

[Moz]

Is this just another way of saying, "If it sounds right, it is right"?

Oh yes!!! The circle of filth goes round and round until it disappears up...

 

[BrianJoeSandy]

Dunno if this is a well known trick. You can play all 12 major scales using only 48 notes rather than 96. Saves practice time! Start CDEF then GABC then DEF#G then ABC#D
etc. Get it? Round the circle of fifths filling in the missing 3 notes between each station. Think tone tone semitone repeated and separated by tone. The point is that scales overlap. After playing the above 16 notes you have covered 2 scales already C, G and D.
It beats counting sheep when you can't sleep at night too.

 

[AndyB]

Hi Ian, I have another one regarding intonation.

6. If you have an instrument with one note much flatter than the others, C# on my alto, push the mouthpiece in to tune that note and then relax the embouchure to bring everything else down to get good intonation over the whole range of the instrument.

 

[Rogerb]

Aaaargh

This sort of thread makes me want to put my pretty BW alto up FS and take up origami.

I have been struggling along for about 3 years and the only thing I understood here was OG's reference to Windolene!! I do knowthe notes on the clef and h which keys they represent! That's progress I guess!!

I feel I am throwing good money after bad by having more lessons.....the advice I get is "join a band" or "get another teacher".....the first is ludicrous and the second impractical.

Sorry to vent, but I am feeling very dispirited 🙁

 

[dooce]

Dunno if this is a well known trick. You can play all 12 major scales using only 48 notes rather than 96. Saves practice time! Start CDEF then GABC then DEF#G then ABC#D
etc. Get it? Round the circle of fifths filling in the missing 3 notes between each station. Think tone tone semitone repeated and separated by tone. The point is that scales overlap. After playing the above 16 notes you have covered 2 scales already C, G and D.
It beats counting sheep when you can't sleep at night too.

Even better, just do chromatic scales. Cover the whole lot in only 12 notes. 😀

Isn't this defeating the object of scales? i thought the whole point was that you did an exercise, scale, whatever concentrating on one given key to become familiar with it and so it just becomes instinctive when playing. That's how it's always worked for me, anyway.

 

[half diminished]

Even better, just do chromatic scales. Cover the whole lot in only 12 notes. 😀

Isn't this defeating the object of scales? i thought the whole point was that you did an exercise, scale, whatever concentrating on one given key to become familiar with it and so it just becomes instinctive when playing. That's how it's always worked for me, anyway.

I think it depends on what you are trying to do/working on.

For example Karen has had me working on two scales at a time playing II, V, Is, arpeggios up scales down and visa versa and stuff like that so that I can get the feel of the sounds as well as learn the scales/chord progressions.

Just now though I am working on two scales varying the articulation, repetition up and down, varying of tempo. Whatever I am playing must be faultless or I stop and start again so that my 'brain' gets used to the right things. This is for improving my technique and increasing my speed. It is having an effect but it takes time. I am under strict instructions not to play any other scales - just G & F major.

 

[old git]

Rog, old son,
Remember that this thread was started by a mathematician. I have heard that pure maths, next to philosophy, Birtspeak and cognitive psychiatry, is the most abstruse subject known to mankind. It is described as beautiful and elegant, all adjectives normally reserved for art subjects.
You are having a moment of doubt but aren't we all? Just remember they are treating and thinking of music as a science, where as the rest of us think of it as an artform, much more feel than an algorithm.
I still think of the blues as tonic, subdominant and dominant, if that is a set of Roman numerals, then both sides are talking about the same thing. What amuses me is the conception that we must go scientific with music but not with other subjects, like my oft suggested driving and machine sewing. 😀 Guess it must be old age.
Summed up Roger, don't worry your pretty little head about it; ;} just enjoy it.

 

[Rogerb]

"just enjoy it".....I'm trying, OG ... I'm trying 🙂

 

[losaavedra]

Hey Roger, as we're pretty much neighbours we should get together again ... nothing like a bit of mutual confusion to cheer one up! Unfortunately we have solid visitors stream between tomorrow and some unspecified date in October, one of the 'perks' of living in Spain!!! As I'm supposed to take some notice of them being here I'll be in touch when they've all finally gone home. I've been on a bit of a break from sax for a while due to other stuff that needed doing but now edging back in again now. Hasta luego!

 

[Rogerb]

Cheers, Mike...I'll be away early Oct, it appears, but just let me know when you are 'clear'!

 

[Martin]

Well my teacher told me this only recently.

If you move anti-clockwise around the cycle of 5ths, you descend a fifth at a time, so C moves to F moves to Bb and so on. It so happens that in that order, C is the second (C-) or II, F is the V7 (F7) and Bb the I - hence II-V7-I in the key of Bb.

Move on around to F Bb Eb and the same applies. F (F-) is the II, Bb (Bb7) the V7 and Eb the I.

So now I can see that C-, F7 and Bb all have the same notes and form a II-V7-I progression in the key of Bb. Similarly F-, Bb7 and Eb all have the same notes and form a II-V7-I progression in the key of Eb.

I hope I have explained this properly.

Ian, I didn't know this way of spotting a II, V, I...very interesting and useful.

Although I've been playing for years, I never did the theory thing. I'm putting a lot of effort into it now. At first glance, jazz theory is quite baffling, until little patterns, such as this one, appear to help us make sense of it.

I'm fairly profficient at improvising without theory, simply by listenning to the music and going with it. Recently though, I found myself wishing I had the chords for a piece that I was jamming...I guess that means that the theoretical approach is just starting to get through to me.

Please continue to share these little gems of information with us.

Cheers, Martin

 

[half diminished]

Please continue to share these little gems of information with us.

Cheers, Martin

Sorry, don't have any others at the moment. ;}