Lesson

I decided to do a series of analysis of tunes.

I decided to call this series 'Pimp My Tune', and I think you could definitely call this 'Ghetto Analysis'. I did go to college, but I was interested in playing and learning off the street. What was great about that was I got a lot of interesting perspectives on tunes and harmony, from some great musicians. It was amazing that in school everything was made to seem difficult and on the street everything was made to seem easy. At least that's how I perceived it all.

So when I was in college I came up with this plan that really helped me. It's a little over the top, but it could be a good guide for some of us.

In school it helped me keep the music going. Even after I graduated I kept this going and it helped me, I think stay in the business.

Here it goes, first:

Ear Training: 1 hour equals 2
Practicing: 1 hour equals 1 hour
Listening: 1 hour equals 1.5 hours
Jamming and gigging: 1 hour equals 3
doing music business stuff: 1 hour equals, .5 hours
teaching: 1 hour equals 1 hour

Here's a prerequisite for the Shapes and Patterns of Music sight reading. My recommendation is to play these exercises as fast as you can but start at the beginning no matter how proficient you already are. If it's too easy, play it faster!

Joe's Performance and lesson on 'She's Always a Woman to Me'.

Thanks so much to Barryk. He posted this Band In A Box file for my tune, titled and dedicated to Vince Guaraldi.

Check it out!

Here's a tough mental challenge.

Here's the complete Shapes and Patterns of Music book for Subscribers. Thank you for your support of the site!

Several years ago 1980's, I did a lot of transcribing. I found a great way was to start in the beginning of the Jazz Era and work your way up. We had a great library in Pasadena, CA and I checked out a bunch of early jazz from around early 1900s starting with "Cylinder Jazz" (before vinyl recording were done on wire and cylinder) and started transcribing melodies that were descendants of slaves' field chants.

Here's something I'm posting that I think helps students to understand how different keys relate to each other (modes, major keys, relative minor etc). It also helps teachers when teaching it.

This is a really hard etude as I remember. I just stumbled on it.