Lesson

I'm at school right now and I had a few minutes with the camera on. So I thought I'd play a very rough and quick version of Donna Lee, the etude I have posted here.

I think if anything the etude will lead to you thinking about using double stops in your lines to get the chords happening.

I also have a version over Bud Powell's Celia that I'll post soon.

I do spend a lot of time playing solos 'in slow motion' and seeing where I can add things in. That's what is fun about this instrument, it can be sort of like a puzzle.

I've been working on some bebop heads and just using them to work on my left hand. My thought is, if that gets comfortable with smackin' down double stops, that that will help my four mallet playing and enable me to do some fun things over lines.

It's not a big deal, but it's something I think about and have fun with. It's as if you're playing a line that is primarily a single line and with your left hand you're slipping in double stops. I thought it would make me more fluid.

Part 1 of 4 with some ideas for scales.
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Chinese translation for Chinese students
練習音階很重要
第一個，可以加強雙手的技巧，
第二，你要了解每一個音階中的每一個組成音，這樣當你看到一個和弦的時候，你就知道用什麼音階套用在上面。

Here's an in depth study of the tune Stella By Starlight. It's an intermediate/advanced lesson that covers ways to study Stella as well as other tunes.

Ok, so download this file below. Burn all the tracks to a CD or put them on your ipod. Then set to shuffle. Listen and play the note back. Use the pause button if you need to. This should be a daily thing for a bout 5 or 10 minutes most days of the week!

This will help you get to know your instrument and work on your ears.

Try it and let me know what you think of it.

Here's a lesson plan for Invitation.

A great way to study this tune in pieces. Each lesson in the beginning will focus on one part of the tune. Later we put it all together and focus on the tune as a whole and work on improvising on it.

What's great about Invitation to study is the A section is sort of a modal section and the B section are changes. The same changes in lots of other tunes like, Cherokee, Laura, and others that mention in the lessons.

This is a great lick. It really gives some insight about weaving and vocabulary.

Check out the bebop major scale coming down. What a natural evolution for the scale huh? It just smooths out the major scale!

I love how he gets to the 4 chord at the end.

I laugh when I play this lick.

I'm definitely on the side of learning licks to study and show you ways through changes. I'm definitely of the belief that it does NOT make you a cut and paste player unless you already were, and then that's another story.

The more I do this the more I realize the power of a site like this. The more you talk about things, the more you post, the more you comment, I think, the more you learn.

When you record something with the intent of posting on this site you will work hard on the piece and it will sound your best by the time you get it up here. That's important. We all have to do things to sound our best.

I've been thinking about transcribing these days as I work on a Tom Harrell solo.
I dig Joe's philosophy.

We have a new trumpet site up with Joe and I asked him if I could post his trumpet video on transcribing. He said yes.

When Bobby Hutcherson heard Joe Magnarelli play his reply was: 'Man that cat can spell!'.
I love that quote!

I'm always checking myself. Especially with all the different opinions here on the site. Gary has really helped me chill out about practicing. I still DO practice a lot, but i'm not as freaked about it. I'm someone who put in 8 hours a day on average for about 20 years. And personally I think most young musicians should be practicing and playing ALL THE TIME.

No matter what I read or hear about transcribing, I just love doing it. It's fun and I play along with someone whom I really admire for a few days and have a good time.