Lesson 40
Notes to Lesson 40
We continue creating solos for our earlier chord progression studies. This time in Lesson 40 we return to Bridges. As a review, let's go back to Lesson 15 and play through the three exercises that we transposed to the key of G. If this is the first time you've reviewed this lesson, I'm sure it'll seem like an old friend. Remember your first time with this lesson and now how comfortable you are with it. We've come a long ways in a short period, haven't we?
Mickey suggests that we also revisit Lesson 29 which gave us Dominant Runs. The runs and riffs that Mickey uses in Lesson 40 are either taken directly or modified from those runs.
About the exercises:
No. 1 and No. 2 are solos for Mickey's Lesson 15, Exercise 1.
No, 3 and No. 4 are solos for Mickey's Lesson 15, Exercise 2.
No. 5 and No. 6 are solos for Mickey's Lesson 15, Exercise 3.
Did you notice in Lesson 39 in your book that Mickey has stopped giving us fingerings for the runs and riffs? He continues that in Lesson 40 and through to the end of the book. His philosophy is that if you are having a hard time finding the fingerings, you aren't ready for the lesson and should go back to Lesson 24 and start over. Even if we have the fingerings nailed down, going back to earlier lessons is a wonderful practice for several reasons. No matter how many times we review a lesson, we always find things we missed earlier. Also, it acts a a gauge to show us just how much we are progressing.
Bonus: In Lesson 39, we started a project where we added Mickey's riffs to I Got Rhythm. As I promised, here is a continuation, with one of Mickey's Bridges transposed to Bb and added. By the way, did you notice that I gave the Guitar Solo a new MIDI voice, Electric Guitar (Jazz)? How's your project coming along? Can you share it with us?
Being a good improviser is being a good composer. Listen to solos of your favorite musicians and you'll notice at least two different philosophies. One is to add as many notes as possible and play them at a blistering pace. The listener is momentarily stunned by the effect. For the lack of a formal name, I refer to this as "Flash Point". The second philosophy is to create a counter melody that maintains the interest that the original melody imparted. In some ways this is more difficult and let me say from personal experience, it's a lifelong learning experience. We all can benefit by going back to our Standards Portfolios and analyze the standards by the great composers, Rodgers, Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, Kern, Jobim, etc. Note how they take a simple phrase and build around it, such as repeating it up a 2nd or a 3rd. Look at the standard notation, not as musical notes, but rather as art. You'll see repeating rhythmic patterns and waves. This theme and development is present in all music since we began archiving sound with paper and pen. As a personal note, one of my favorite jazz musicians, certainly in my top five list, is Johann Sebastian Bach. He was a master improviser and he expected folks would improvise during performances of his works. His music seldom has extremely colorful chords, probably a Minor 7b5 (such as a vii7 chord in a Major scale) is about the limit. A study of his solo Violin Sonatas and Cello Suites reveals all the tricks that Mickey has been giving us using scales and arpeggios. Bach didn't have the Blues in his day, but, just as Gershwin embraced the Blues, I'd like to think that Bach would have, too.
Don't forget to add some tunes to your standards portfolio. Here's an example of a guitar duet that Mike Emblem and I put together of the wonderful old standard by Harold Arlen "Let's Fall In Love."
Just keep it FUN!