| PATH for beginners in jazz:
(If you don't know how to improvise at all
and Jazz Fiddle Wizard looks daunting you should start with my books Jazz
Fiddle Wizard Junior and practice those lessons for a couple of months.)
If you already know how to improvise on
fiddle tunes, the Blues and/or simple swing tunes but are not quite sure
where you are in the tune try this approach:
1) Start by playing the tune My House on
page 21 using track 6 on the CD. You can essentially get away with using
the G-major scale on the whole thing yet the 3rd line (m. 9-12) sound a
bit off.
2) Take a look at the chord progression by
reading over lesson 6.
3) Read the theory part of lesson 11 about
inner melodies.
4) Improvise over My House again but in the
third line use the inner melody C-B-Bb-A (one whole-note per measure) in the third
line. You can add rhythms to the inner melody and a couple of notes from
G-major. That's it. You are now improvising on the entire tune following
the chord progression!
5) Now add the chord-note-on-the-beat stuff
(see philosophy) by reading through
lesson 2 and 3 and practicing the D7, G7, C7 (though we don't need C7 in
My House) and F7 bebop scales using the beginning of track 4 (see lesson
5).
6) Read lesson 7 to learn about how
to incorporate the bebop scale into My House.
Now you are ready to go through the rest of
the book
and the tunes. Skip lesson 13 for now.
Good Luck! |
PATH for more advanced jazz
players:
OK, so you already play with chord notes on
the beat and can improvise comfortably over tunes like Sweet Georgia Brown
while keeping the form in your head. BUT you want to expand your
vocabulary and get more comfortable in odd keys:
1) Start with the exercise in lesson 18.
Just make sure you're in the right key by checking the key signature or
the last chord in each line. Practice the major scales of the keys your
are uncomfortable with.
2) Now let's add some spice by messing with
the V chords. Go to lesson 20 and 21.
3) Add what you now know to your repertoire
of tunes and all the tunes in Jazz Fiddle Wizard.
4) Now go to lesson 12 and 13. You probably
already play with regular appeggios (lesson 12) but try adding arpeggio shapes
(lesson 13) to your
vocabulary. They add a quite sophisticated sound and are a never ending
source for new ideas (I practice all this myself).
5) Also clean up your minor keys by
practicing the exercise in lesson 23 using track 15.
I start any jazz practice with ii-V-I's in
all keys and tempos.
Good Luck! |