Lesson

I just worked on this with a student. I wrote out some two five one progressions where the chords keep moving down.

Where chops come in is this: You practice this and work up speed. Play 2 5 1 6's in different keys. This would really help your chops!

I've attached the 'rough' pdf I made for the student.

This doesn't need video or audio or anything. It needs discipline. And discipline is hard. I have back problems and when I do my back exercises I have no pain. And then I forget to do the exercises. And then let's not even get into food.

Bebop Tunes

prepare 3 tunes and then turn on your recorder and do a concert. record the 3 tunes.

this is much better even than doing one tune. i'm doing it all the time now.

i think we should have a little online concert series. maybe some of you prepare a mini concert and we pick a weekend and post them!

i can't believe i didn't think of it before. think of all the things you work on!! going from tune to tune. the concentration.

ok for beginners you just do this. you play 3 heads in and record that. or one of the tunes you prepare a solo.

So Watch this video:

See all the double sticking. I think in order to play 4 mallets we need to study some of this technique. The thing about this technique is that the hands are separated a lot of the time. Ok, it's more then we want, but check out the polyrthyms and how he uses double stops to free up one hand and move it. The bass line for instance.