William McKinley “Red” Garland, Jr was a jazz pianist known for best for his sophisticated sound and technique. His ‘trade mark’ block chord style has influenced us all, and should be a part of all jazz pianists vocabulary.
The earlier mentioned block chord style will be discussed in this thread, start with reading the style section on the biography above!
Exercises on this thread are built to give the students a deeper view on Red Garlands style, soloing, comping as well as an overall look into the tradition of jazz through his artistry.
Exercises are transcription-based, following with a closer look into certain details of his playing. This way we can combine ear-training with learning the language of jazz, as well as analyzing closely what is happening.
Chord Changes : transcribe the missing chord changes
The full transcription will be posted in 2 weeks with supporting material and an analysis of the solo as well as details about what we can learn from the solo, and how to practice with it.
If you have any questions with the exercise, post them in this thread.
Love the left hand chords on “In the Evening”, meaning the voice leading thru the changes and simple driving pulse. Any advice on what he’s doing? I’d love to work on this to try to work thru a transcription of the way he’s playing the changes.
If you can’t reach the tenths, just double the root in octave, or you can play 7ths instead of 10ths (this is what I do as I’m not able to reach tenths in most positions).
As you can see, the voice leading is mostly happening in walking up the scale, or using a tritone approach (for example bar 8-9: D → Ab → G → Db → C).
Let me know if you have any further questions, happy to help!
On the first track of above, “The Quota”. The piano solo starts at about 3 mins in. The block chords in his left hand are typically on the “and” of 4 and 2, correct? Same thing for Bye bye blackbird in his solo, where the block chords on the left hand is the pulse.
I’ve been told 2 and 4 in past studies, but I don’t hear it that way. At first listen, sounds almost like 1 and 3, but its clearer on bye bye blackbird to my ear, where the block chords are landing on the “and” of 2 and 4 . I believe I hear the block chord just before the beat of the bass.
This is just on his solos. Otherwise the comping rhythms vary.
Do I have this correct?
This is like one of those issues of not hearing the difference between a 2-3 and a 3-2 clave. Difficult for beginners like me.
The full transcription will be posted in 2 weeks with supporting material and an analysis of the solo as well as details about what we can learn from the solo, and how to practice with it.
If you have any questions with the exercise, post them in this thread.
Wish to ask - am I right to think that we need to first finish the ear training exercises for beginner, intermediate and advanced before we should tackle any of these Transcription exercises where you for example feature a certain jazz musician/ or an album etc.
Thanks so much. I really am very interested and these exercises you provide us I must say are truly useful to us all. Brilliant and Inspiring!
I would recommend to you to start with the transcriptions simultaneously while working on the ear training exercises.
We just had a conversation with Haden about making a list of the transcriptions, and categorize them according to the level of difficulty, this way you can find the ones that work for you the best.
For now, if you’re already getting better with the ear training exercises, here’s a list of easier transcription exercises you might want to start with:
Keith Jarrett - Transcription Exercise No. 1
Come Rain Or Come Shine - Album: Still Live
You can listen to these and pick the one you like the most. When you feel stuck/can’t hear something, you can go to the full transcription and find help from there.
Thanks, let me know if you have any further questions!
Hi Tuomo. Wow, I am getting so much out of your info on pianogroove.
I have a quick question. Many of the bebop transcriptions have 2-5s that are just one bar long. Many of the standards have 2-5s that are two bars long.
To get more of those longer 2-5 phrases, I’m thinking of transcribing from
There will never be another you which has about 5 or more 2 bar 2-5s.
So I like both Bud Powell’s and Wynton Kelly’s versions. I’d like to ask you from which of those two I will get the biggest bang for the buck? That is, the most useable phrases and the most to learn. I’ll just take the first chorus on each I think. Obviously I could do both and get the most out of it.
I have to say, of the exercises that I have done, I have by far gotten the most from the Red Garland Bye Bye Blackbird transcription. Should I go the What is this thing called love next or go to one of the Bud Powell or Wynton Kelly version of There will never be another you. (And I’m only transcribing the melodies, not the comping or chords at this stage).
Many thanks if you have anything helpful. I have found your info invaluable.
I forgot to say that the Bud Powell version is from Portrait of Thelonius. Wynton Kelly version is from New Faces New Sounds. I use TiDAL and not spotify, but I’m going to try to link to them on spotify anyway.
Touch to pick one, these both solos are amazing! My recommendation for these is to transcribe first chorus of both, then compare them while collecting melodies.
In general, for learning phrases and the language, I would pick solos where lines are most clear and logical, kind of “textbook” jazz.
Here’s a version by Hank Mobley and Donald Byrd, what do you think about transcribing the sax solo? So much awesome language
Thanks Tuomo, I just listened to the Hank Mobley solo a bunch of times, I love the way they play the head also. I’ll try transcribing the sax solo some tonight. I do think the Wynton Kelly version is the most playful and after transcribing 4 bars of that and 4 bars from bud powell they are both super interesting.
Let me know if I can help with anything!
Be sure to be back if I may have any questions. 