I've been looking at another tune that seems very familiar, but that has a couple of corners in it that up until now I've never untwisted, Like Someone In Love. It was written by Jimmy Van Heusen for a 1944 movie called Belle Of The Yukon (which I probably don't ever want to see), and … Continue reading The First 8 Bars Of “Like Someone In Love”
Category: Music
The pitfalls of Fake Books
Here's another post in a series on simplifying chords for soloing. This is not rocket science, so advanced players don't need to read it. Lockdown has been a good time for revisiting standards that I learned in my jazz infancy and haven't reconsidered since. Tunes for which I worked out an approach based on my … Continue reading The pitfalls of Fake Books
A Simplified Approach To Soloing On 7b9
In my last post (You Can Constructively Ignore Harmony) I talked about simplifying harmony by removing unnecessary chords. Often people use pentatonic scales to reduce the complexity of a scale. The removal of notes from a scale makes a stronger, more defined sound. In this post I'll talk about simplifying approaches to dominant chords by thinking … Continue reading A Simplified Approach To Soloing On 7b9
Too Much Harmony?
When I was at best an improver at jazz, a tutor who I very much respected told me that he was hearing too much harmony in my solo playing. My first reaction was surprise – how could you possibly have too much harmony? Wasn't that what we'd been taught to do? Play through the changes … Continue reading Too Much Harmony?
How I learn material for the guitar, or No Pain, Good.
Here are some things that I aspire to do when learning / practising specific melodies or solos for guitar. I wish I could remember to do these things all the time. Some of them apply to other instruments (particularly piano) and other activities (like drawing, handwriting). This is not advice for other people because everyone … Continue reading How I learn material for the guitar, or No Pain, Good.
The first four bars of Triste
The first four bars of Triste I've been revisiting the first four bars of Triste by AC Jobim. What is going on there? The original (on the album Wave, 1967) is in A, and not Bb as it is usually played by the people I play with. Fair enough, A is an atrocious key for … Continue reading The first four bars of Triste
