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The Music Thread
- Thread starter C-Money
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For some reason I thought he was included in the 27 club.
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Are you a regular listener?
Do you have her other albums?
That was a typo. So and Do give the sentence a different feel.
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Not really until recently. I have her early albums like "Taylor Swift" and "Fearless" but I stopped buying her albums when she went pop. I then bought and enjoyed Midnights which led me to purchasing Showgirl. Wife has other lps so I listen to them when in her car.
Her mainstream, pop music is usually not my cup of tea but I try to enjoy it since my wife and daughter derive so much pleasure from listening to it and I don't want to be left out.
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That's cool. I often have my daughter or wife play their music when we are driving, mostly not my preferred genre but I'm also just trying to connect and appreciate who they are.
I don't have anything by Swift, not sure about my kids.
Molotov Mocktail
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I’ve got a question for the musicians around here.
I just picked up my alto sax again after 20 years. Been practicing about an hour a day for the last month. Feeling good about staying with it for the long run, and I want to get better.
What newer resources are available that you’ve found to be good for learning and fun. I grabbed an app with tuner and metronome that’s pretty great. Thinking about a tomplay subscription since they usually run a good Black Friday deal. Found some YouTube creators that have taught me things I was never taught in 8 years as a kid.
I’d like to find a lot more sheet music and learning materials. I’ve been listening to a lot of Bird and Cannonball over the last month. I’ve read that The Real Book is a great collection of Jazz standards.
Any suggestions/ideas would be appreciated!
I just picked up my alto sax again after 20 years. Been practicing about an hour a day for the last month. Feeling good about staying with it for the long run, and I want to get better.
What newer resources are available that you’ve found to be good for learning and fun. I grabbed an app with tuner and metronome that’s pretty great. Thinking about a tomplay subscription since they usually run a good Black Friday deal. Found some YouTube creators that have taught me things I was never taught in 8 years as a kid.
I’d like to find a lot more sheet music and learning materials. I’ve been listening to a lot of Bird and Cannonball over the last month. I’ve read that The Real Book is a great collection of Jazz standards.
Any suggestions/ideas would be appreciated!
Centerpiece
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Learn Jazz Standards is a good resource… for jazz anyway.
Also, download the app iReal Pro… it will give you all the charts and chord changes. Learn to improvise your lines based on the chord charts, not necessarily just the lead sheets. Lead sheets are great for the melodies and a great place to start… always learn the melodies first, then embellish them as your solos.
You’re on the right track with YouTube tutorials…. That is THE resource these days that was not available to us back in the day. I’m an experienced player in a few different styles and I still use YouTube tutorials all of the time. Great resource.
Centerpiece
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Effective Tips and Advice For Jazz Musicians
Tool for Jazz Musicians to find Jazz advice and tips to improve practice sessions and resources. Learn with video, podcasts, blogs, courses and eBooks now!
www.learnjazzstandards.com
This site has a lot of resources at your finger tips…
BTW: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO “JOIN” the site… you can access a lot of the “LearnJazzStandards” stuff on YouTube…. Backing tracks and such. But I’m sure they would enjoy it if you signed up…
Also backing tracks.
Pick out your favourite tunes for alto sax, listen to and jam along with the original recordings but also download the backing tracks for those tunes…
Also, do the deep dive into Paul Desmond and Stan Getz. Try to mimic the tone and lines. You can’t go wrong with those two. Of course listen to Parker, Cannonball, ‘Trane, etc. Duh, that goes without saying.
Finally, get into the bossa nova… Learn Black Orpheus…. Usually played in Cmaj/Am concert pitch. Lovely melody and you can improvise in one key Center. That’s a good place to start.
You’re already on the right path by playing on a daily
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Centerpiece
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And yes, download or purchase paper copies of all the Realbooks / Fakebooks. They make them for alto friendly keys… Eb I guess. (I’m a string player so all my stuff is in concert C) I do know Tenor is all in Bb
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I'm lucky in that my wife and I enjoy almost identical taste in music. We often make and share playlists with one another.
Centerpiece
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Finally, last but not least. Learn to play the Blues! Any style of blues. Jazz Blues, Piedmont, Memphis, Chicago, Kansas City, New Orleans style… shuffle, swing, Latin… any and all rhythmic patterns in both major and minor Blues forms. I, lV, V … 12 bars baby. Learn how to play that basic form in all keys. Start with the easy Eb or other alto-friendly keys. Then move on the more non-alto keys.
Molotov Mocktail
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Thanks! I’ve seen iReal Pro mentioned before. I’ll check that out.
One thing I’ve recently realized is that music theory was barely touched on in my instruction decades ago. I’ve got a long journey in front of me just becoming technically proficient and learning more about music theory.
Centerpiece
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Regarding a little music theory - memorize all the relative minors.
Example:
C = Am
F = Dm
Eb = Cm
G = Em
Etc…. Quite often, if a tune is in a minor key, you can improvise A LOT in its relative major key signature. Example: If a tune is in Cm (concert pitch) you can usually riff on Eb major scale notes and not miss a beat.
However, there is a caveat on minor key tunes: sometimes it doesn’t jibe with the relative major scale… sometimes it’s the DORIAN MINOR mode that fits best.
But I digress… that’s another lesson in chord theory
Example:
C = Am
F = Dm
Eb = Cm
G = Em
Etc…. Quite often, if a tune is in a minor key, you can improvise A LOT in its relative major key signature. Example: If a tune is in Cm (concert pitch) you can usually riff on Eb major scale notes and not miss a beat.
However, there is a caveat on minor key tunes: sometimes it doesn’t jibe with the relative major scale… sometimes it’s the DORIAN MINOR mode that fits best.
But I digress… that’s another lesson in chord theory
Molotov Mocktail
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I watched a vid on the circle of fifths a couple weeks ago. It kinda blew me away how much information is contained there as I started to understand it. Everyday now I warm up with 2 major keys and their associated minors (harmonic and melodic). It was pretty awesome figuring out I no longer needed sheet music for any of this simply because I learned the circle of fifths.
Centerpiece
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Circle of fifths is always good theory stuff… and within that you will see the relative major/minor relationships. But start small, and start implementing that bit of theory in your practice. Pick any song that you know is in a minor key - Autumn Leaves for example: that tune is usually played in either G minor, or E minor (concert pitch) Pull up a backing track for that tune on YouTube and just start jamming along with it - but don’t think of it in that “minor” key… instead think and play all the relative MAJOR scale notes. Example: if your backing track for Autumn Leaves is in Gm… then you will think and play all Bb Major scale notes. Bb major and G minor are “relatives” and contain all the exact same notes in that key signature.
Have fun!
Molotov Mocktail
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That’s pretty much how I felt. Kept me from picking up my sax all these years. The kids I grew up around that were good musicians I thought were lucky to have that talent. Turns out they worked hard at it. I didn’t and thus wasn’t any good.
Now I’m enjoying playing more than I ever did.
Centerpiece
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And listening is the most important thing about music - especially if you’re trying to play it. You’d be surprised at all the “musicians” who don’t “listen” worth a crap… especially on stage with other players.
Guitarists are the worst. And I can say that because I play guitar.