Vision Music

[Larry_DC]

[nylenny]

Odel said:

[odel]

I'm on the Swing Blues LBM course -- just started it last night! So, if you know this course, you'll realize I am spending my time working through those short chord voicings. Playing the 'jazz blues' progression is not a problem with the chords in front of me, the issue is trying to remember the names and shapes so that I can name and play in real time without looking. Figure I need to put the time in on these as they provide the foundation.

thanks for the encouragement, I'll report my progress if it will be of interest to others.

Odel

[nylenny]

Odel, The short chords are great. I use them all the time. Later in the lessons, Mark will show you how to put a walking bass line under the top two notes, which is really cool. They're great for chord "punches" too. If I remember correctly, the first lesson has "C Jam Blues" in it, which is a fun tune and has some great punches.

[odel]

Well, 2 months later, here I sit, probably making progress but feeling a little overwhelmed. The short chords seem to have stuck but by lesson 5 I really feel that I am struggling to get those various II-V lines down and feeling like a novice again when I watch my fingers go anywhere but smoothly towards to chord fingerings I am aiming towards Blues Chord Solo from Lesson 3 is great but wow, this has taken me weeks just to get to the point where I can play is slowly without the music, naming the chords as I go (a real challenge at first!). The lessons come a little too fast for me but I am doing my best.

As a long time blues player (I am 47 and have played for 20 years) I find that I have internalized the scale and chord patterns from blues so deeply that breaking out of those familiar licks and forms is really difficult. I am learning the board anew -- playing combos of notes that before I'd never string together, and I tell you it makes my head spin!!!

On top of this, I cannot seem to hear jazz yet the way I hear blues. In a regular 12 bar, I am rarely, if ever, lost, and can feel where the chords are as I solo -- with jazz, even when it's a 12 bar, I seem to get lost, and once we move beyond this form into 16 and 32 bar sequences, then I am not even confident I am hearing the structure at all.....this really unnerves me!

So, my tactic is to go really slow, try to learn the lessons bit by bit, even to the point of holding repeating the 3rd and 4th finger changes between the G7 and G+7 on the last bar of the Blues Chord Solo to try to get these old fingers to shift smoothly....it feels like I am a beginner again...wonderful but awful at the same time

[nylenny]

Odel,

Hang in there! I did it too. It comes with time.

On the jazz blues, I found that the most important thing vis-a-vis th standard 12 bar form is to remember the VI7 chord comes at bar 8, and there is a two-five at measures 9 and 10. So, if you get lost, try to hear those. Make sure you can hear the VI7 arpeggio in bar 8, and the ii-V in measure 9 and 10. I had a breaktrhrough when I figured that out. All the other alterations to the standard form are more pedestrian (you can even use a blues scale for all of those, but bars 8 through 10 need to be more harmonic).

When I started transcribing solos, I found that a lot of players do similar things to what I said. (Check out Pass, Grant Green and Kenny Burrell for example; the language is strong in measures 8 through 10; often there's a cool turnaround in measures 11 and 12. They often get strong IV7 language in measure 5, as well).

[nylenny]

Another thing I find helpful for keeping my place in a swing blues is to sing bass lines (starting with just roots) when I am away from the guitar -- like when I am walking. I started out doing this with simple blues, then I added the substitute changes one at a time. It's tougher than it sounds, and it is amazing ear training. After doing this for a while, I found that I was able to find my place easily when I played with others.
';

[Larry_DC]

[odel]

thanks both for the positive notes -- sometimes it really is the obvious that one never sees! Lenny - you just steered me to a real landmark with that observation of the VI7 chord and it's occurrence in bar 8. I went back to various progressions I've learned or played and even when it was not obviously present, I generally found it lurking somewhere in there in some form. Why had I never noticed? How many more of these must be out there for me to find! Am sure others are rolling their eyes thinking how did I not know this but there you go.....

I agree on the time away being important - I am trying to discipline myself to think through progressions and to name chords in my mind when not near a guitar. I have always avoided making this effort but I realize I was short-changing myself by not trying to make good use of such time. So, I am trying to develop patience more than anything here -- one little step at a time, and trying to learn from every encounter and opportunity. A 13 chord is not such a mystery once you stop to unpack it!

Best

O.

[Mark]

[nylenny]

[Mark]

[nylenny]

Mark, that's great news about the CC essays being included in Just Jazz Guitar. I've learned a lot from them.