Share Your Music, Recordings, & Performances šŸŽµ

Thanks @George_Miller for your kind words. I keep plugging away. :sunglasses:

1 Like

Hereā€™s an arrangement of Beautiful Love that I worked on for a class, where the assignment was to use a perpetual motion style. Examples are Resignation and Unrequited by Brad Mehldau. For VST aficionados, this uses the VSL implementation of a Steinway D274 with the player mike only.

4 Likes

@gregb

So very nice! Thatā€™s one of my favorite tunes.

I may have shared this with you before, but I canā€™t let an opportunity slide for mentioning my favorite version by Tierney Sutton and Christian Jacob. Enjoy! :musical_keyboard:

By the way, can you share a bit more about this perpetual motion thing?

1 Like

That was certainly inspirational Greg! And cool!

OMG. This is so beautiful. I want to get here so badly. :weary: Sometimes I feel so far off from it, but I know Iā€™ll get there. This piece reminds me of my favorite pianist and singer Brian McKnight. Love it!

1 Like

So yeah. Iā€™m in tears. How long have you been playing???

1 Like

Hey @scott1

Just realized I never responded to your question about perpetual motion.

Hereā€™s a nice YT video from Jeremy Siskind on perpetual motion:

And, hereā€™s a spotify link to one of my all time favorite perpetual motion arrangements of a classic Ellington tune (from Shai Maestro):

Thanks so much @karenwclark thatā€™s very kind!

I played classical as a kid and teenager; I could always read a lead sheet but never seriously studied jazz until 3 years ago when I joined PG. Itā€™s a very nice community; Hayden and Tuomo are fantastic!

And, at the risk of overstaying a welcome (and posting too much) hereā€™s a recent version of what is probably the most overplayed jazz tune ever! I tried to give it a different take.

3 Likes

@gregb

Thanks for getting back to me. Itā€™s an interesting concept. Great example with Shai Maestro. Heā€™s an amazing artist. I had the good fortune to see him with his trio in a small venue. One tune was so fast and furious that he had to shake out a cramp at the end. Hereā€™s a clip of him accompanying Camila Meza, a Chilean guitarist, on one of Jobimā€™s most beautiful, ā€œOlha Maria.ā€

(Also, your take on ā€œAutumn Leavesā€ is very nice. Love the intro.)

OK everyone here is my attempt at the 251 drill, type a. If Iā€™m being honest, I really get crossed up when Iā€™m reading music. I actually love the lead sheets, but I feel myself getting lost when I try to read it. For example, I do so much better when I just feel where Iā€™m going. Does that make any sense to anyone? I know I need to learn to read and I will. I worked on this for more than an hour today. I just couldnā€™t stop. :blush:

Let me know if you have problems viewing the video. Thanks, everyone!

2 Likes

Hey @karenwclark :wave:

Thanks for sharing the video and nicely done with the exercise!

The 3-note 251 progression is one of the most foundational jazz piano exercises and so all time spent here is time well spent!

Yes thatā€™s a very good point. When playing a jazz standard from a lead sheet, if we have memorised the melody and the harmony, it allows us to fully immerse ourselves in what we are playing which in turn allows us to play more creatively and spontaneously.

In addition, when playing the whole step 251 drill as in your video, itā€™s important that we are visualising each chord on the piano, and visualising the 7ths falling to 3rds in each 251 progression.

If we only complete the exercise by sight-reading the notes from PDF download, it can be problematic for really memorising and internalising the chords, and the movement in each progression. By all means use the notation as ā€˜a crutchā€™ to start with, but avoid become reliant on it.

I think a nice step for you next would be to move onto the first module of this course where we apply these voicings in the context of a jazz standard. Here is the first lesson:

In the first 3 lessons of the course, we stick exclusively to the basic chord tones (R-3-5-7) and we play through the entire form of the tune ā€œThe Nearness Of Youā€. This will be nice for you to see how the exercise that you played above is applied in the context of a tune.

The goal of these lessons is to help students to memorise and internalise the harmony of the tune and remove the reliance on the lead sheet.

After taking the cocktail jazz and bluesy stride piano courses, Iā€™ve been working on getting the two standards demonstrated as ā€œunder my fingersā€ as possible in order to play them comfortably and variably using most or all the concepts shown. Iā€™ve also been working on having multiple licks and lines to incorporate them into my improvisation. Overall, these two courses have been great in setting a foundation for working on various jazz standards where I can apply many of the concepts presented.

Including a recording of Misty where I play the head-solo-head format. I donā€™t have a set way of playing the song and much of it was ā€œon the spotā€ so excuse the mistakes and pauses every now and then, oh and the background noise. :sweat_smile:

Iā€™ll hopefully have a recording of Georgia using most of the same concepts soon but this do in the meantime. Happy holidays!

2 Likes

Sounding great @jose2 - thanks for sharing.

I didnā€™t notice any mistakes.

You keep a constant flow of music which is the most important thing.

Iā€™ve mentioned in my seminars that if we feel that we make a ā€˜mistakeā€™ and stop playing; thatā€™s the worst thing we can do. If we just continue playing the listener/audience will most likely not notice as the music moves by so fast.

Congrats on your performance! :clap: :sunglasses:

1 Like

Really nice @jose2 !

Great improv and progressions!

1 Like

Thanks @gregb and @Hayden! You can clearly see the courses I mentioned reflected on my performance. Theyā€™ve definitely had an impact on my playing :sweat_smile:

1 Like

Nicely done @jose2. And donā€™t apologize for the background noise. To me, it creates a cocktail bar vibe that goes well with what youā€™re playing.

2 Likes

As I mentioned on the Misty post, Iā€™ve also been working on a solo piano version for Georgia based on the bluesy stride piano course, however I implemented many of the topics covered on the improvisation portion of the Cocktail piano course. Hereā€™s a recording of a run I decided to do today for the tune. Similar to the Misty recording, this was on the spot as well so there may be some short pauses during the solo section while I came up with something to play :sweat_smile:

3 Likes

Wonderfulā€¦ thatā€™s all I can say. Greetings Cornelius

1 Like

Sounds great, Jose! Youā€™re a real pro!

1 Like

Happy New Year All!!

I learned ā€œTune Upā€ today. Still a work in progress, but Iā€™m getting there. Those Kenny Barron voicings will present an issue for me because my hands are so small. But thankfully thereā€™s a work around for people who canā€™t reach as far as others with longer fingers.

All feedback is welcomed!

6 Likes