Category Archives: Practicing

Practicing, The Ear

Thoughts on Hearing Chord Changes

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One student asked recently in studio class for suggestions/advice about hearing chords, in particular specific harmonies once the root is identified. At the time, I talked about the importance of hearing/singing the melody first, then the  fundamental bass line, and being able to sing one of those while playing the other, which I think is certainly right.

Beyond that, I think there are several kinds of things we can do to improve our perception of chords. There is the idea of inner voices, and it is good to think of these, in the typical mainstream jazz context, as somewhat hierarchical, so we might practice first hearing thirds and sevenths, either isolated (hearing/singing the 3rd, for example on each chord) or in context (voice leading 3rd to 7th and vice versa). After that, we could possibly also look briefly at 5th to root and root to 5th, but the next big step is adding the 9th, resulting in 9th to 5th voice leading and the inverse, and then the 13th, with 9th to 13th, though that is limited in many cases because we don’t really hear 13th on subdominant minor 7th chords (like A on a C min7 in a ii V I in Bb). So, in sum, working on the ability to hear a given chord tone in a given harmony will really help open up the ear.

The other approach, very important, is developing the ability to sing chords well from any note. This is what I like to call the fundamental exercise, by which I just mean working anything, scale, chord, etc., from every part of it. So, the fundament exercise on a C Major triad would look like this:

The first line is singing the C Major triad up through each note from each note. The second line is the same idea, but singing the three major triads which contain C. You should work this on minor, diminished and augmented triad. With augmented, of course, the last line is basically moot, due to the symmetry of the augmented triad.  Later, you can add the sus triad, CFG for example, and the major diminished triad, CEGb, or CEF#. These are very important when we add sevenths.

The same idea applied to 7th chords, here the Maj.7, would look like this:

Line one is C∆7 in all inversions, line 2 is all four ∆7 chords containing C.

Here’s a summary, road map of the whole concept. It’s a lot of work, so just do a little bit, and keep doing it, and your ear will improve.

Be sure to also think about how this would be done with scales. Tip: We really only need to know 4 scales to play most of jazz- the major scale, the melodic minor (so-called ascending form), the whole tone scale and the octatonic scale. Most of what we find are permutations  or subsets of those four. So, if you learn the major scale in this way, you also have learned aurally the structure of all the modes, for example, and you’ve learned it well.

Practicing, Students

Michael Carvin Meeting Your True Inner Self

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I found this podcast, fascinating, fun, and very inspiring. Master drummer and teacher Michael Carvin shares his vision of teaching and of studying. I highly recommend this program, there are many different kinds of highlights within, and I must say hearing this affected  my teaching!

Michael has taught a lot of great drummers and you can see/hear him all over  the internet, including some burning examples from the early 70s with Freddie Hubbard, but these words are really special. http://www.drummersresource.com/michael-carvin-interview/

Health and Ergonomics, Practicing

Healthy Guitar Playing

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I think it’s very important to recognize that playing the guitar is a physical activity, and therefore that developing an efficient, practical and healthy “operating system” is key to not only freedom and enjoyment in playing, but also health and longevity.

The first place where this occurs is in our core studies, by which I mean shifting, finger studies,  picking studies, including string crossings and accents,  and of course scales and arpeggios and so on.  By memorizing and practice the core studies on a daily basis, with keen attention to not only to output in terms of sound quality, but also the “feel” one has, you are building for the future, quite literally for your whole career.

Of course you know I am firstly a jazz bassist, but I think the comments I recently shared with my bass readers are equally applicable to the guitar:

Quote: I speak from experience- many know that I started playing the bass at 20-of course I was a very competent guitarist before that, but needless to say, a lot of work was done in my 20s. The operating system I developed, under the guidance of my main mentor, cellist Karl Fruh (yes cellist, and I mean on the bass, though I later went back to school to earn two degrees as a cellist, but that’s another story), who was very scientific in his teaching, and really broke things down into nuts and bolts. I was certainly nimble and had natural facility, but it was Karl who really enabled me to really get it together.

I just finished 11 straight days of playing at the Jazz Showcase, first with Gary Bartz for four and then with Ira Sullivan for seven. Most nights were 2 sets, but one night with Ira, the infamous Chicago “Pub Crawl” is a six hour gig. I can tell that, at 63, I feel just wonderful playing, six hours being no problem (and Ira plays long, hard and, at times, very fast)  and this is not just a random occurrence but the benefit of years of practice. So my point is that core (I prefer this term to “technique” or “technic”) is the foundation of our playing. I frankly never get tired of scales and technical studies, because they define my OS, which is then put at the service of music.

In addition to your core work, I highly recommend pursuing other kinds of physical and mental activity. These might include, yoga, tai-chi, alexander technique, meditation, dance, running, cycling, weight training (I wouldn’t really recommend heavy lifting for musicians but light weights is certainly good).

This may seem obvious or pedantic, but diet and, especially hydration is very important. Most of the last week and half I was driving about 250 a day for the Showcase, and by avoiding the tendency to hit junk food at 1AM and instead drink a lot of water, my energy level was far better. In fact it got stronger as it went along. Part of it is, of course, the great blessing of playing music. I truly love what I do, and derive great joy and energy from playing with people. I used to go to Japan to play the Blue Note for 7-10 and come back and teach right away. The key to doing that was mega-hydration, I mean a ton of water. Your health is very important, so the more health conscious you can be the better. Try to find a system that works for you, we are not all the same.

In sum, I still believe the range, quality and force of our playing all comes out of the core and individual practice. With core, you really dial in to your major voice, the guitar, which is then balanced with listening, transcribing, work at the piano, solfeggio, whatever. For me, practicing is like meditation. Referring back to the previous article, when we are doing core, it’s good to introduce improv at times into the practice.

Practicing

Thoughts on Practicing

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Practicing is a personal kind of endeavor, and certainly evolves with each of us. I really, honestly, advise you to find your own specific methods, but, it’s good at times to take stock of what you’re doing and  evaluate our organization.  Lately, I’ve come to think about the many kinds of things which we do in musical practice/study to be grouped into three main areas: Core, Repertoire, Creative.  Let me try to explain and give some examples.

Core will include anything specific to the instrument, so for us it starts with foundational things like shifting, finger studies, open string studies, arco and pizz, but also scales, patterns, etc. It could also include etudes and much more.

Repertoire for us as improvising musicians has a wide range. It could include tunes of course, as well as anything “classical” you study, like pieces, suites, but it also needs to include so-called transcriptions, which I like to call imitative practice, which helps to develop what some like to call “vocabulary,” in other words an understanding or reference to a sound and style.  As musicians of the future, we need to be equally adept at reading and playing by ear, so both aspects are part of this.

Creative This of course means composition and it’s twin, improvisation. Not all will agree that they are exactly the same, but I’ll loosely paraphrase renowned saxophonist and composer Dave Liebman and say that composition can be though of as improvisation slowed down and vice versa. Of course there are advantages to each activity, and one should do both at least to some extent. The thing I observe with more than a few students is little or no activity that is actually creative. It’s understandable that we need to spend a lot of time with Core and Rep to become great musicians on any instrument, but don’t put off daily creative activity until later. In simple terms, express yourself! It might feel like what you want to do is not in line with what you think is expected of you, but that’s way too much thinking. The greats balance reference, expectancy with surprise. One of my favorite quotes from Benny Golson: “Ron Carter, you never know what that guy is going to do!” That to me means surprise. Work to really be in the moment when you play, and including this in your daily regimen will help you. Do something right now- improvise! It’s what you will be doing when you play with others, much of it anyway, so make it a habit as part of your practice and you will be more confident in your playing in groups.

Practicing, Students

Two kinds of Practice When Something is Too Fast

Imagine a situation where something you’re working on is simply too fast for you to play at the moment. How might you address that?

I would say that there are two main approaches to consider.

Approach One: “Pick a tempo that is slow enough where you can play all the notes comfortably. Then gradually work the tempo up.”  This is the way most students know and I would say it’s a good solid approach.  The main problems are:  (1) students may not always follow through all the way to the final tempo and, especially, (2) that the kinds of muscle memory and reflexes involved in playing fast are quite different, so you often have a”brick wall” phenomena, where you are stuck at a certain place in terms of speed.

Approach Two says: “Play a small chunk of the line, passage or piece but at or near the tempo, within reason and comfortable, but as fast as is easy for you. Pick a small enough unit that you can handle it. It might even be just two notes, the idea is you want be able to play those notes EFFORTLESSLY, in order to program SUCCESS in your daily practice, . This success is at the speed you will actually be playing so it makes more sense to your body.

I think without a doubt that both are very important and how much one shoud do of each will depend. I say all of this from my own experiences studying various instruments with excellent teachers, especially cello, piano and drums. I can tell you that I always did a lot of slow practice, both in reading music, at the piano and on my bass and cello, but also, and especially, in the creation of improvised lines, and it was later that I learned more about the second approach. 

So, the two ways I’m talking about are Slow Practice and Chunking/Impulse Practice.  Try both in your practice. Invert the order, that is don’t always start with the slow practice, though that’s never a bad idea.

In both situations, you’ve got to monitor yourself and make sure that you are really hearing what you are playing, both in scales, patterns and etudes, and in improvisation. In other words use your ear!

Practicing, Students

Improvisation

One thing which I think about a lot in my own playing and in my teaching is the importance  of balancing and  integrating structural work with creative work in my practice. Exactly what that balance looks like will vary from person to person and also in each individual at different points in their growth, but I think the general idea is an important one of which to be aware.

On the one hand, it’s very important to be successful in a given task, and structural competence, like technique or the ear,  gives the foundation to better enhance anything creative.  For example, playing a scale, or memorizing a tune, and cultivating the concentration and follow-through to do that is important. At the same time, I think it’s healthy for all musicians, and especially students of jazz and other kinds of improvised music, to spend significant amounts of time actively improvising from the beginning. I think this reminds us of some of what it was that drew us to the instrument in the first place-why we PLAY! I say this especially because research in music cognition is clearly showing that we use different parts of our brain in creative musical activity as opposed to interpretative. One’s not better that the other, they are just different. It would be like going to the gym and only working on your arms and shoulders, etc.

So, where does imitative practice, including transcription, fit into this thinking? On the one hand, I would say that it is another structural activity that is key to one’s development. Thus, jazz musicians need not only the instrumental control as would an interpreter, they also need the understanding of style, vocabulary, which includes gestures in different styles and also tunes as well as standard forms. At the same time, this idea of including improv will mean that we experiment with playing our own phrases,  in these styles and forms. That’s why I love, to this day, playing along with records in a creative way along with imitative. I do both in other words.

Ultimately, I would say that we follow our on heart in terms of these kinds of things, so each of us will be a little different. My point with this brief essay is to remind and encourage you to include improvisation in your daily work. There is a rather interesting prejudice against improvisation,  found not just with interpretative musicians, but also with many jazz musicians, and my feeling is that could be counterproductive.  This creative work might be anywhere from less to 10% to almost 100%. All I’m saying is that including some time for it will help with your growth. Start with “free improvisation” because nothing is free once you make a decision. For example, I could decide to use the whole tone scale and deal with that for a while. I could decide to be in time or not, etc. Some of this kind of play is a nice contrast to the more usual activities of keeping up with some kind of “play along track” or the like. Spend some time every day in touch with your own sound. Then do all the rest!

The next topic from this line would be: What is the relationship of improvisation with composition? There are different opinions out there. Is is the same basic kind of activity with just differences in terms of practice or expressivity or control, or is it something altogether different? There’s a range of thought out there on it, so I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Practicing, Students

Organizing/Personalizing Your Practice

For the guitarist, or any musician, sometimes the mere idea of how and what to practice can be daunting or perhaps even overwhelming. There are probably quite a few different kinds of practice and categories therein. Here are some examples. 1. Technical practice, including digital and shifting studies, right hand picking studies as well as scales, arpeggios and patterns of all kinds. 2. Creative practice, that is involving improvisation. 3. Imitative practice, including so-called transcriptions and rote imitation of heads and solos. 4. Learning tunes, and many others, including away from the instrument.  The number and relationship of the categories is going to change over time, so accept that as a fact and evolve an appropriate program for a given period of time in your development. I strongly feel that you should have some time for improvisation in your program, along with building a strong guitar technique.