Before you listen to a Top Performer tell you how to learn, theyre not teachers, read this: EDUCATION. Music functions chordally for modern music - its OK to know 1-2 cursory note-scales to know some of your notes, and for a few passing or traveling notes, but to study note-scales as a way of creating music is NOT advised. Just doing note-scales can and will wreck your ear and get your fingers used to only one thing: playing scales (exercises). And this later-invented in-total system, currently taught by many, is an ignorant way of learning how to play modern music. Good for classical music playing, but wrong for modern music which functions chordally. You need to know chordal notes to use in patterns for any kind of creative playing. You go by the chords, and learn/know how they move and how you can move them around too, you never play over a chord - you play the chord. Music is not formed by playing note scales over chords...you play the chords - and learn your chordal notes the way all fine musicians did before licks of rock and roll took over. Its critical to learn the notes of the chords in order to know how to create good bass lines. You learn how to alter chords and move chords around as preferred learning for Standards and Jazz, time-honored methods that work easily and well. In the rock-funk-pop-blues-gospel world, usually the Root 5th and 6th notes are used to form the familiar necessary statement-answer lines and in the 8th bar of any tune, you use the pentatonic notes for fills (R 6 5 3 2 R). For Minor fill notes its R 5th and b7th same as for 7th chords, with using blues notes for fills: R b7 5 b5 5 b3 as well as in major chords, the common fill of R 3 4 #4 and 5th. See Bass DVD course, and books with CDs to them (for easier grasping of notes if you cant read yet) to find out how this functions. Theory is slightly different for Jazz. While its not necessary to learn Jazz theory no, to play well in simpler styles of rock, blues, and simple pop and soul music, for the prevailing creative pop and for all Standards, it is necessary to learn your complete Theory. This is what Jazz Theory is, its complete Theory, and dont let the word Jazz fool you, its not hard to be adept at being a musician who can play all styles, this is what you have to learn....to be a well-rounded good musician, capable of working all kinds of good gigs in all styles of music. And this works for ALL INSTRUMENTS: Be sure to work on your chordal tones, your substitute chordal notes in order to learn to solo in real jazz. No-one in the 1950s improvised from note-scales like the proliferation of them commonly taught today. Everyone started with basic notes of the chords, chordal progressions etal., how chords can be moved around, and the cycle etc. to know how to play the Standards, what real jazz improv is from. Most of your chordal movements in Standards are with the Cycle. Only the major and minor scales were sometimes used a tiny bit in forming patterns but you only use them to get from chordal pattern to another -- if that, but mostly only the chromatic scale is used for traveling notes and really, the only scale commonly used in jazz (for traveling) is the 1/2 tone chromatic scale, to get from one chordal point to another. As mentioned above, you never play over the chord, you play the chord, but you also need to learn how chord progressions work and how to move chords around for your soloing in Jazz. This cant be stated enough as so many are indoctrinated in todays common but ignorant mantra of playing this and that exercise over the chord, a totally wrong and later-invented concept by ineptness. The bulk of real jazz improv came from chordal note patterns, moving the chords around, using the minor chord arpeggios for the 7ths, the dims for the dominants (C7 C9 C11 C13 all doms...Dbo has the same notes as C7b9 - you can always put a b9th in any dom chord - C7, C9, C11, C13 - see how the chords are stacked by every other note of the scale, why knowing note scales doesnt work), the back cycles for the minors (E+ for Am etc.), repeating a chordal pattern every 3 frets, major to minor = play the same pattern up 3 frets, using the chordal scale ii iii IV V7 for the 7th chord or minors, etc.... This is how you play real jazz improv, not the nonsense non-musical note-scales& so-called modes todays teachers try to teach which is totally wrong but will often turn someone off of ever really learning to play, thinking its them who cant learn. You cant learn to play if the material is bad. Its the material, not the student. None of todays teachers are from the 1950s jazz world. Sometimes you do get lucky to find someone who knows about chordal notes, and real sub-chords and how to teach that system which was so common in the 1950s...you have to look for them. Most of todays teachers are originally from the rock world which doesnt use chords like in jazz& standards at all. See more at end of this about treble clef (guitar) at bottom. As for reading music, Ive always found as a long-time teacher and author of many tutorials, that once a person is shown the studio musicians way of sightreading which is easy, fun, interesting and logical so easy a child can learn how to read music. You dont need to know how to read to play music, true, much like you dont need to know how to read and write to speak words in language either. The early jazz icons usually were not music readers. For guitar (and its the same on bass), if you see notes in a row going up on lines of the music, those are usually always triads, major or minor, same thing with notes on the spaces...Root 3rd 5th, or minor chord its Root b3rd and 5th. About the rhythm reading, once you get past the old unworkable 1-e-an-a and trick passe ways of learning how to read music, youll find its fun if you draw in the lines on the downbeats to direct your eye to downbeats. Studio musicians all did this quite a bit on parts they had to sightread perfectly and still do in some of the extremely difficult cues (cues are parts of music scores for films, either movies or TV-show film). You never take chances on anything for your career is always on the line in studio work if you make a mistake - they dont roll that expensive film back for anyone. Usually there was one rehearsal before recording the cues, and many times you just recorded it with no rehearsal. If you messed up, they wouldnt call you anymore, thats how critical instant reading was on the scoring stages. Downbeat markings made it easy to sightread and thats how smart educators teach, but this is not widely known. You can learn easily that way also then you dont have to mark in the downbeats - much like training wheels, used for awhile only tho its always good to carry a pencil on gigs, you never know where a few downbeat markings may come in handy. With a good system of sightreading, you have another skill you can use for a lifetime in bettering yourself (able to pick up anything and read it for pleasure, for learning, or for gigs), to say nothing of the benefit if you ever have to read a chart in a band, on better gigs, etc. I have been noting also the lack of better rhythmic patterns for elec. bass in colleges, universities (am very amazed its not better there in teaching rhythms!) - its not rocket science to teach rhythmic reading. When I taught at the Mancini-UCLA School of Music, a specialized great summer school each year for many years, you would get the finest of the finest from all the universities but it was amazing that they couldnt read rhythms well unfortunately. One lesson with me and they got it instantly tho which greatly improved their chances for work. Another subject, there is a huge unfair bias against elec. bass players out there in the Jazz world. Its unfortunately about the evident prejudice of many jazz musicians today towards the elec. bass in real Jazz playing, but theres a reason for that. The prejudiced musicians seem to equate elec. bassists as being all rockers in their sounds and approaches. The elec. bass started out being played by fine jazz musicians such as Monk Montgomery (early 1950s) and later jazzmen with Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Swallow, Jon Lee, Bob Cranshaw etc....but I think with the advent of slapping styles stopped the use of dedicated musicians who played fine notes. Also, the real sounds of jazz started to spiral downhill in the late 1970s as well as the copy-cat 5-string and 6-string bassists who prided themselves in learned transcriptions of the Jaco solos, mistakenly thinking that made them jazz musicians - they had no clue about all the prep work they needed for real jazz musicianship, nor knew that Jaco fusion sounds were not the sounds for real jazz groups - great for fusion but fusion is not real jazz, nor did they know that the lower B string on a 5-string interfered with the sounds of the bass drum sounds (same register) in jazz and usually over-powered the important group sounds. Being in total demand as a jazz walking and jazz improv teacher on elec. bass, I can attest to this huge bias, mostly from the past but some current bias going on because they quote about the rockers who try to sit in with their unusable rock sounds, and the rockers have no idea of the fine walking notes, the style - need for long notes and often with bad time sense too. IMO, there were a lot of would-be musicians around who killed the use of the elec. bass for real jazz back then, tho its coming alive more and more with the right sounds, and the good jazz theory of some of the players today. Some Jazz musicians are disdainful about elec. bassists also as they say they dont know the standards either as a rule - Ive seen many a 5-tune hotshot would-be jazz musician, completely fail on an easy Standard they never played but should have been able to play. Many learning-musicians mistakenly think they have to learn them one by one which isnt true. You just need the chordal progression theory in back of all that, how to think in chordal movements, get the ears to learning to hear those kinds of chords, the movements, and cycle chordal movements, etc. You cant learn this from copying solo transcriptions - they teach you how to copy, not how to play and create. I find that many (if not most) of the baby-boomers who were rockers early on, are now enjoying getting their chordal-sense together for being able to play standards. Out here in LA, there are multitudes of these groups enjoying playing live jazz, even on elec. bass and enjoying doing some good gigs, being accepted with the elec. bass tho some do have to play string bass too sometimes. But big bands of aware leaders do feature elec. bass on both coasts, just some regional areas havent caught on yet. That seems to be the future now am happy to report and possibly (as they gain knowledge and good sounds together, you need a deeper bottom on the bass, good approaches, right instrument (5-string basses are fine for church and fusion but not for real jazz, they get in the way of the bass-drum) maybe in the future, this bias will be diminished a lot. Ive always felt that elec. bass does have an important place in fine jazz (both walking and soloing). I am now playing a lot more guitar jazz for the reason that was my first instrument, not for lack of jazz gigs on bass, been there done that (with Hampton Hawes and Joe Pass) got the tee-shirt... The sound of the elec. bass can be a great sound for fine jazz like it once was in the 1950s, 60s and early 1970s and in the music cities is more accepted in jazz groups now too. Elec. bass playing has its advantages but also its disadvantages for the player... youll hear all the notes, even your mistakes, on the elec. bass. With string bass you can sometimes get by with mistakes because some of the notes are muffled anyway and not heard well. But not so on elec. bass with its well-defined notes. String bassists can then fake it on their instrument occasionally but elec. bassists have to learn how to really play...and the elec. bass can sound the best with a good musician playing it.... plus its easier to carry.... (Smile). --------------------------------------------------------- Recap: Remember, to practice your chordal note arpeggios, as shown in Bass DVD Course, and in Jazz Bass CD& Guide (and for lead instruments, like guitar in Jazz Guitar CD& Guide) as well as the Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course (see Catalog)...you need this basic chordal note approach before getting on to the real jazz training. Jazz was created on chordal notes of the chords of the Standards, and sub-chords written in the big-band arrangements of the very bands the boppers got the ideas from in the 1940s....and patterns are really from classical music too, and the chordal approach is how they did it. No-one did much creating from the traveling note-scales (too corny, exercise playing never did work), but yes did use the chromatic note-scale for traveling notes a lot, from one chordal pattern to another.......you never play over the chord, you play the chord! For Jazz notes and sounds, be sure to get the Pros Jazz Phrases Bass, book and CD, full of the right chordal patterns that all the finest jazz musicians use for creating solos. Also, the Jazz Improv For Bass book and CD (and Elec. Bass Lines #3 for interval training, ear training for chordal tones, jazz patterns) and the Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course as well as the Standards I and II for overall fine jazz training on the Elec. Bass once youve worked through the Jazz Bass CD& Guide and Elec. Bass Lines No. 3 book). Dont dont waste time to analyze (no-one analyzed in the 1950s!) nor try to think in the ignorant terms you used to use when trying the wrong way. Its not hard to learn the right things for jazz study, rather than the later-invented note-scales taught by former rock players who never played real jazz in the 1950s with the VIP creators, the legends.........its a lot easier than people think. ------------------------------------------------------------ Another Tip: First of all, it is good that you know your note-names, especially for note reading in sightreading music...that is important. But when youre reading charts, and trying to figure out what a m7b5 or an augmented chord is and how to get it (its important to study your chordal notes to get this)....you have to know what is your 7th (b7th) and/or your 5th is etc....these are not note names but the numbers of the notes in any given chord, doesnt matter the chord. So its critical not to name the note-names in any chord, but the numbers. When reading chords, its in the numbers. If you dont know your numbers, the chordal note numbers, you need to learn them well. Its easy to do by saying them out-loud as you practice -- its important to say each chord note number out-loud as you go over your chordal note arpeggios. For instance, the G Chordal Scale in the Bass DVD Course G = Root, 3rd, 5th, root, 3rd and back down root, 5th, 3rd root. Am = Root, b3rd, 5th root, b3rd and back down root, 5th b3rd and root....keep saying them out-loud so your brain gets it...it goes faster plus you really do learn them rather than just practice where they are. 7th degree of the G Chordal Scale, the m7b5 is F#m7b5 and sometimes called the 1/2 diminished too.... a circle with a slash through it, invented by a college kid in the 1980s who I think probably just got tired of writing m7b5 all the time - say the chord name outloud: F#m7b5 = root, b3rd, b5th, b7th, b3rd and back down, b7th, b5th, b3rd and root. You soon know automatically where your chordal notes are, through the numbers. It makes no difference what chord youre playing, the numbers are all the same positions from the Root (Do) of the chord. This is so basic an idea I forget to write this, but did get a phone call from a guitar-player who *knew all the Joe Pass chords* but started naming the names of the notes rather than the numbers....he hasnt played out with anyone yet, so didnt know the correct process. Hence this post because I get these questions all the time from players who never had to read extensive chord charts (charts with more than 4-5 chords to them)...and if youre going to play standards, you need to know the numbers so you can read all those chords on those charts. Its not hard once you know the numbers, you merely forget them then and just read the chord name...its so automatic, but if youve never had this taught to you (and most blues, rockers, just pop players who have played the same tunes for years who never played standards dont ordinarily know them)....you can learn them very fast by saying the numbers out-loud as you practice the chordal-note arpeggios. Always for awhile, be sure to say the chord name out-loud while you play the arpeggios, the notes associated with that chord. You develop your automatic fingers-ear connections that way so you eventually never have to think when reading the chord changes, or just playing and hearing the chord changes. Remember to do a lot of Cycle exercises (saying the chord name out-loud) so you know your Cycle. Most chords of all Standards go in a Cycle for awhile, its the times-table of music to know your Cycle, learn it and then forget it. Youll automatically find the right chord changes and play good then. Having had many unique Awards, I value these the most, as no other musician has these together like this as a Musician-Educator: Pittsburgh Jazz Society Legends AWARD in PEDAGOGY, awarded to me along with the (2000) Duquesne Universitys Lifetime Achievement Award. I was given that Award as well as the great American Society of Music Arrangers and Composition Award (ASMAC) in Music Arranging, Orchestration, and Composition (for creating bass lines in recordings) in 2004...I feel very fortunate and grateful. Remember, there are many fine chordal teachers available to learn from, its important to look for them. ----
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:17:25 +0000
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