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RAFAEL'S LESSONS

Nov 10, 2024

Glad to have you back, Rafael! You're sounding really great on the tenor!

Your assignment for next lesson

EXERCISES - practice the diatonic triads sheet and the dominant bebop scale sheet w/ focus on articulation

TUNES - Dig in to the assigned segment of St. Thomas and continue with the Blues by Five transposition assignment​​​​

listen to this
  a lot!!

EXERCISES-

Get to work on both of these sheets - really pay attention to articulation:

We'll keep this here so you can go over it sometimes - you just need to get your brain and fingers working together in this range:

These 3 pages show how The Blues can use basic harmony with few chords or can use much more complex harmony with lots of chords, yet somehow it's still always The Blues: 

This link has the info that I was showing you a while back about how to sit at the piano and do basic jazz comping - with the chord root in the left hand and the 3rd + 7th in the right hand:

TUNES-

Always try to match the groove/pocket and the articulation/style of the recordings your are studying.

ALWAYS USE HEADPHONES when playing along with recordings.

You memorized the head to Saints today - can you remember it without looking at the lead sheet? Saints is typically in the key of F concert.

Try playing the guide tone line in the 2nd half of the tune.

You memorized the head to Second Line today - can you remember it? It's a blues form in Bb concert with the most basic chords.

Blues By Five which is a blues recorded by The Miles Davis Quintet in 1957. MEMORIZE Miles' 1st solo chorus and play it in all keys.

This solo uses a couple of melodic devices that are very common in the blues:

- flatted-3rd to natural-3rd

- 6th to root

We discussed St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins. This is a GREAT solo for examples of how to expertly weave through ii-V-I cadences. Focus on pick-ups to m. 38 - downbeat of m. 48: memorize this segment. This is such great language and you need to just eat it up: memorize it; listen to it so much that you can't stop hearing it in your head; figure out the mistakes that are in this written transcription:

-Ye Olde Stuffe-
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