Q. I'm starting to learn how to play jazz piano and need some intermediate music with some solos in it. I am a medium high skill level so sight reading shouldn't be much of a problem as long as it's not crazy. Also I'm looking for a piece with a sort of fast and upbeat tempo.
Also if anyone knows a good sight that teaches you the basics of soloing then please suggest them to me.
Thanks
A. Get yourself a fake book, man. A fake book is a collection of lead sheets - meaning that you've got the basic melody to the song, and the chord changes written above the staff. With a fake book, you can interpret the song however you want and you can make it your own. You can lay the chord voicings out how you like, you can choose a tempo you like, you can add any embellishments you want to the melody, you can take as many solo choruses as you want, etc. A fake book is a lot more loose and provides a lots more opportunity for broad interpretation than a standard scored-out fully arranged part.
You can add other musicians, too - my favorite combo arrangement is the piano trio because I have a friend who's a really good drummer and a friend who's an amazing bassist. I take lead on the piano, and together we sound pretty good - we've even scored some gigs around the area where we live. What we do, though, is take songs from my fake books and just play. Sometimes we'll make changes or arrange some parts (especially when we're playing with a sax or trumpet player - we'll arrange backgrounds and stuff for them), but most of the time we pick a song, a tempo, a style/feel, work out how the solo sections are going to go, and then go for it. It's really unstructured and it's really fun stuff.
If you want to get a fake book, by far the best one (and the most legal one, and the one that the most jazz musicians have) is called "The Real Book", published by Hal-Leonard. It's got 400 different jazz standards in it, and you can get it for about $20 at Amazon.com If you don't want to drop the cash or if The Real Book doesn't have the song you're looking for, there's an excellent online collection of single lead sheets at http://www.wikifonia.org - from there, you can search for songs, download and print pdfs of them, and even transpose them to a different key if you need to.
I realize I didn't really give you a suggestion for a specific song to play, but with a real book or a bunch of lead sheets, you can easily find and play any song that you like. I guess I could suggest a few cool songs that you could perform pretty well as a solo pianist: It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing), Autumn Leaves, Summertime, Take Five, Moonglow, Misty, etc. There are a bunch of great songs out there, and with a fake book you're open and free to interpret them however you like.
What is a good way to start learning guitar?
Q. At the moment I've just been trying to teach myself scales, and to be able to play them without looking. Is this a good way to start? Or should I start with chords or something else?
By the way, I have been playing piano and sax for 5 years, so I already know how to read music.
And one more thing, is it bad to play without a pick? I like playing without one better, but is it a bad idea not to use one? I don't want to start any bad habits
thanks!
A. Learning the basic open chord (CAGED), barre chords, and major, pentatonic, and minor scale patterns. When I bought my 1st guitar, it had a DVD which taught me all the above except for the major and minor scales. From there I spent the next several months playing tabs (which I really wish I didnt do. It doesnt matter if you can read music, you need to practice reading on every new instrument you play. I had been playing sax for 6-7yrs and trumpet for 2 at the time I picked up guitar so I skimped on it).
I think any type of playing is a good start. You need to get your fingers under you ASAP.The first song I learned was Californication by The RHCP, which introduce moving lines and used the open Am and F barre chord. From there, (about a week later) a friend gave me a death metal song to learn (it was The Faded Line by Lamb of God, which scared the hell outta me at the time adn was way too hard), and within the time it took me to get that down I learned how to alternate pick, palm mute, and improve my overall feel for the instrument. Some months later I got into Jack Johnson and I mix my metal and chords to improve both at the same (Johnson popular stuff uses nothing but barre, open, and 7 chords great starter to get into basic chords. The song Banana Pancakes is where i started). Then more random stuff, I learned more metal, acoustic songs, and anything I could play with moving lines (the hardest thing about guitar is getting familiar with it, and being able to move freely around it). Jazz, progressive rock, and much harder acoustic songs followed.
I think the biggest factors that will guarantee success are practice time (and content) and music theory. You should know basic chord theory with piano, and its pretty much the same idea but you tend omit and invert a lot more notes in guitar (ex: 13 chords are 1,7,3 (or a 10th),13). For jazz and anything acoustic-like, I find it easier to fingerpick or flick with my fingernails, but to I use a pick every once in a while to stay sharp. Using one or not isnt a bad habit, just know that the sound will change if you dont (I play electric and my amp's clean and crunch setting are for fingerpicking and if I forget to change the levels and use a pick, the sound is incredibly aggressive and almost vulgar).
I used this site a little too much when I was learning to help with guitar chord shapes, especially when you start to see chords like Emaj13#11
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/index.php
and double check your own voicings (works about 80% of the time):
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/chord_name.php
How best to learn to read notes after years of playing?
Q. I play piano by ear and I have for years.
I am, however, getting sick of not being able to play full chords. The songs sound boring after awhile.
How should someone who knows there way around a piano learn to read notes?
Any book suggestions? I am looking into lessons, but I prefer to teach myself :)
A. Hi Stephanie--I know exactly how you feel! I played the guitar, bass, keys, and mandolin for YEARS without understanding how to read music (I learned basic notes in the first position of the guitar when I was seven years old, but that was over three decades ago!). I DO know how to read music for the drums, as I took jazz drumming lessons. However, there are no 'notes', just symbols.
Five years ago I became 100% disabled, so I took advantage of the bedridden state and taught myself how to read and write music. I also delved into advanced music theory: counterpoint' modes created from modes; all sorts of chord voicings).
I can actually play and write for the piano now, even though I was studying site reading and writing for the guitar, and theory for guitar purposes. Since my fretting hand has nerve damage, I often write out the melodies I have dancing in my head and practice them with my right hand on the keyboard.)
You will be AMAZED at how much knowledge of reading and writing music will kick start your love for the piano again. NO MORE BOREDOM.
This is how I did it:
1)I started studying and dissecting the scales.
2) I gained complete knowledge of intervals: this is the most important element in music theory. You HAVE to understand intervals because ALL scales are based on and derivative of the major scale and it's intervallic construction.
3) You must understand the intervals of the major scale. ALL other scales and modes derive from the major scale. All chords derive from scales.
4) Once you have an understanding of the major scale, LEARN THE ORDER OF THE NOTES IN THE TREBLE AND BASS CLEF STAFFS. Once you know the order of the notes (for example, the "lines" of the treble clef are--from the bottom up-- E-G-B-D-F. You can remember this by the mneumonic phrase: Every Good Boy Does Fine. The "spaces" in the treble clef contain the notes: F-A-C-E. You can remember this because the notes spell out the word FACE.)
The Bass Clef is similar to the treble clef' yet the notes are shifted DOWN one line. You will understand what I mean when you plot out the notes.
4a) You will, of course, need to understand all of the symbols related to reading music, for example: the rests, notes (whole, quarter, etc...), time signatures, key signatures' etc.*
4b) To learn the key signatures, it is easy if you use the circle of fifths. You can find the circle of 5ths and 4ths found in both theory books Iist at the end of this answer. This is a SIMPLE way, although it does take time and practice to remember the sharps and flats.
5) Once you learn the names of the notes on the staff and have learned the intervals and notes in the major scale (start with the C major scale, as there are no sharps or flats--the C major scale is represented on the piano as all of the white keys...starting on C...and then going up to the next octave: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-(C)), PLOT OUT THE "C" MAJOR SCALE ON THE TREBLE CLEF. You must learn how to write above and below the ledger lines in order to do this. I will recommend a great book to teach you this at the end of my answer. (Introduction to sight-reading...)
6) You will notice that you are learning all of this without even needing to play nor look at your piano. I have found that it is EASIER to learn how to read and write music if you do NOT have your instrument in front of you (because you have played for so long and already have knowledge of the notes on the piano). Although I HIGHLY recommend that you practice your intervals on the piano to learn how they sound, yo u do NOT have to have your piano around when learning to WRITE music out on the manuscript paper. That will come later. If you understand how to WRITE the scales and chords on the paper, then you will be better able to READ the music once you put the piano and manuscript paper together.
7) You want to learn how to create and understand how chords are made? Here's your answer: The basic Major and Minor chords are created by stacking thirds. For example, the MAJOR chord contains the intervals 1-3-5. If you would like to create a "C MAJOR" chord, plot out your major scale and take the 1st interval (C), the 3rd interval (E), and the 5th interval (G): there you have it. The C Major chord is made up of the notes C-E-G.
8) Did you notice that the major chord is made up of EVERY OTHER NOTE in the C major scale? When learning how to write out chords on manuscript paper, it's quite easy: if your ROOT note (the name of the chord) starts on a LINE on the clef, the you put a note on THAT line of the clef, and then put notes on the two lines above that note, skipping the spaces. (I'm taking something that will take a while to understand and compressing it into one answer here. It will take you a while to understand how to achieve each numbered point that I am giving you.)
10) You have to understand which intervals create each chord:
Major= 1-3-5
Minor= 1-b3-5
Dominant 7= 1-3-5-b7
minor 7 = 1-b3-5-b7
M
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