The Post Your Thoughts of the Moment Thread 2

[Jompa]

If you wanna get started on jazz, the only real way of doing it is by exploring your own imagination while playing. The best way to do that is to play jazz standards along with a band or a play-along track, or just by yourself when you feel comfortable with it.

Do this:

- Print out this (it's a lead sheet for the jazz standard Caravan)
- Go to your piano, and get a grasp of how the song works.

here's what I can tell you about it

At the beginning (the A-part) it's in C-dominant phrygian (which is a modal scale that's a form of C-major) (yes, the sheet is wrong) and then it modulates into F-minor, before it's is repeated.
And for the B-part it pretty much just modulates four times through the circle of fourths starting at F-major, and using 251-progressions to make the modulations discreet (this lead sheet however does some stupid substitutions instead, but whatevs...).
Then the A-part plays once more to finish the chorus round.
And then the entire song repeats for how many rounds you may want it to.

For Caravan, this brilliant jazz standard, I'm not a big fan of the chord progression presented in the A-part of this lead sheet. The popular progression that I prefer goes like this: //: C7 l Dbmaj :// rep. untill the modulation to F-minor.

This jazz standard is really simple to improvise to, because its slow chord changes allow you get comfortable with each scale/mode/key you're in. It's easy to improvise cool melodies and stuff to this kind of song. Try only playing over the C-dominant phrygian scale for the A-part to begin with. That's how you'll get the feel of what you're supposed to be doing. The B-part is fiddly for a beginner, but most jazz standards do this kind of cliche - the whole circle-of-fourths-deal to modulate - so it's not like you'll get to avoid it. For a beginner the trick here is to get a grasp before-hand of what key and mode you'll be in at certain places where the chord progression makes the song modulate.
Yes, you'll have to know your scales when playing jazz. And by "know your scales" I mean you have to know what scale applies to where, how all different kinds of scales are built, and you'll have to be able to play them out of any given root. Being good at jazz is much more of a mental thing than a technical thing.
The best ways of practicing this are for example composing a whole lot, arranging a whole lot, or just playing jazz a whole lot.

[close]

- And then: play it with this playing in the background! Play the melody through first, and then improvise for a series of rounds, before you round it up with the melody on the last repeat through.

Try that^ and you'll be playing jazz. That's what they did on sakamichi no apollon, if that helps your motivation.
It's very fun!

[Bubbles]

Yes, you'll have to know your scales when playing jazz. And by "know your scales" I mean you have to know what scale applies to where, how all different kinds of scales are built, and you'll have to be able to play them out of any given root. Being good at jazz is much more of a mental thing than a technical thing.

Ahh, I was afraid of this. I know nothing about scales except that theres a major and minor (and apparently theres even more than that...)

Thanks for the beginners guide! I'll make this my summer project then, since I'll be away from any nice sounding pianos.

[Yugi]

http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/mario-shout/22012/

[Mashi]

yugi if those are your thoughts you should probably consult a psychiatrist

[FireArrow]

Don't try to play that game with headphones.

[mikey]

Ahh, I was afraid of this. I know nothing about scales except that theres a major and minor (and apparently theres even more than that...)

Thanks for the beginners guide! I'll make this my summer project then, since I'll be away from any nice sounding pianos.

Major and Minor can get you pretty far but at some point you need to know chromatic and diatonic, then the whole like Aeolian, Ionian, Phrygian, Dorian, etc. (I still can't keep them all straight- it'll take me a while)
At any rate, a majority of jazz sounds pretty cool and it's one of my favorites to play on the piano along with rag time and (of course) video game music.

http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/mario-shout/22012/

Afraid to click any links from Yugi boy.

[Kman96]

For a sec there, I actually forgot that Yugi once went by the name SocialFox. But then I remembered. Jesus.

[Bubbles]

I normally don't get into this kind of stuff, but I'm watching the video that guy Elliot Rodger made before he went on the shooting spree. If you really just sit back and listen to him, it's genuinely terrifying. Holy shit. I don't even know how to explain how I'm feeling other than that. I keep waiting for him to laugh and say everything he's saying is a joke but its all real

[ETFROXX]

I'm sitting in my kitchen with my roommates right now. We were discussing horse penis and now we're discussing well water and how we like our steak and it's very wtf. And the worst part? Only two of us are drunk! 2/6

[K-NiGhT]

^i hope my roommates are that cool

[blueflower999]

Salt and vinegar chips are so freaking good

[Ruto]

I normally don't get into this kind of stuff, but I'm watching the video that guy Elliot Rodger made before he went on the shooting spree. If you really just sit back and listen to him, it's genuinely terrifying. Holy shit. I don't even know how to explain how I'm feeling other than that. I keep waiting for him to laugh and say everything he's saying is a joke but its all real

Isn't he dead so he can't correct himself? And yeah ._.

[Kman96]

Salt and vinegar chips are so freaking good

Ahhhhhhh truuuuuuuu

[fingerz]

Oh shoot, I broke my promise to a sleeping Ruto; I wasn't going to use the internet today... BYE EVERYONE!! (I have exams in 15 minutes) XDDDDDDDD

[Ruto]

Hey! I left a message saying I was frying something! But maybe I was actually washing dishes and Kefka was doing the frying.