Inserting more Bebop vocabulary in my Blues

[CEB]

I got my first online course ever.  There is a YouTube channel I enjoy watching based out of St Louis, started by Peter Martin I believe.   I saw this video on the channel and I got this players course.  He demonstrates something I want to be more successful at... using more "non-Blues" vocabulary in Blues.   

 

I have been working on this since January.  I have had pretty good success and a lot of fun this summer when we were without a guitarist.  Our bassist stayed on his upright and we were ripping some cool blues that wasn't standard fare.   I will start looking at the course after Saturday's gig.   If nothing else the instructor played some cool lines and the course includes pdf sheet music of everything.

 

I am going on autopilot too often recently and regurgitating the same worn out lines.   My practice needs focused goal.  My piano skills are decent right now for a tired old man.  I work on piano about every day but have been lacking any concise goals.   I'm hoping this will be fun.  Also going to work on some of of the suggestion from the Book suggestion thread.  Dave gave me some great homework.

 

 

 

 

[Docbop]

You'll find there are a number of Open Studio students floating around here.   

[JamPro]

Peter Martin has some great instructional material in YT; I make a point of watching when I see them.

 

If you don't mind my asking: what do you pay for this course?

[CEB]

It is an introductory offer.  The very first course is free.   

[Docbop]

Peter Martin has lots of YT video both as  Peter Martin and as Open Studio.    Peter's own YT page goes back about 14 year with his Two Minute Jazz Piano lessons.    Then there is the Open Studio YT that goes back many years.

 

Peter Martin's YT

https://www.youtube.com/@pianopeter/videos

 

Open Studio YT You'll Hear It channel

https://www.youtube.com/@YoullHearIt/videos

 

One of the main teachers at Open Studio guitarist Chris Parks has a channel explaining Barry Harris concepts.  Yes, he is a guitar player but he's teaching piano and bass players at Open Studio about Barry Harris. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/@thingsivelearnedfrombarryh2616/videos

 

 

Those YT links above a lot of great info and ideas for freeeeeeee. 

[Doerfler]

On 12/6/2023 at 9:32 PM, CEB said:

 

I am going on autopilot too often recently and regurgitating the same worn out lines.   My practice needs focused goal.  My piano skills are decent right now for a tired old man.  I work on piano about every day but have been lacking any concise goals.   I'm hoping this will be fun.  Also going to work on some of of the suggestion from the Book suggestion thread.  Dave gave me some great homework.

good for you, Ed. 

[Baldwin Funster]

The Harris 6th opens up alot of blues vocabulary.

Also the #5.

Then a little more touchy in blues, the #9.

Add those to the blues scale (but not all at the same time).

It's not bebop but it sounds jazzy on a jazzy tune.

[Joe Muscara]

I’m all over that Open Studio shizznit. I even own the painting that’s the cover of Peter Martin’s newest album, Generation S, and saw them live as part of an “Ultimate Open Studio Experience“ in St. Louis back in October. It’s something I was considering sharing here but life got in the way. 
 

I highly recommend all of their stuff, and the Chris Parks courses both recorded and live are just amazing. (The live courses are part of Open Studio Pro, a subscription but great instructors and a great community as well.) Chris distills Barry Harris’ teachings on bebop in a friendly and approachable way. If you take his live classes, he makes everyone with their camera on play, and if you have no idea what he’s talking about he will step you through it with a patience and compassion that you didn’t know you deserved. 

 

I think anything you get from Open Studio is worth it. Check it out.

[uhoh7]

$20 from the horses mouth:

https://www.barryharris.com/music-improvisation-tutorial

 

Sadly we lost Barry, but he taught as Parker and Monk thought, very simple and practical. 

 

Many videos about him, but once you have those basics in the short PDF, here are two youtube sources who really know how it works. These guys spend more time gigging than making movies, so excuse production issues. But I spent many hours searching for good information, and these are my favorite two.

 

and 

 

This guy below is incredible, despite low production quality. He lays it out as Barry might have in a simpler world, without a roomfull of students every day.

 

I recently relented and subscribed to Apple Music, and Parker now sounds incredible in my living room. His lines inspired me to buy my first instrument in 1981, a Clarinet. I learned about him by sheer accident in Alaska. 

[zephonic]

You’ll Hear It podcast one of my favs, they make LA traffic a bit more bearable.

[zephonic]

To piggyback off the Open S

On 12/9/2023 at 4:38 AM, Joe Muscara said:

I’m all over that Open Studio shizznit.

 

On 12/9/2023 at 4:38 AM, Joe Muscara said:

 

I think anything you get from Open Studio is worth it. Check it out.

 

 

Yeah, I was skeptical at first, but they have done a very thorough job.

 

I bought Peter Martin’s 27 Essential Jazz Piano Etudes, and although there is quite a bit I already knew, they are great exercises in their own right. I enjoy practicing them.

 

What’s good is you don’t just get the pdf, but he has videos for each exercise and I mostly study his fingering, as that is an area of focus for me right now.

 

 

[obxa]

Thanks for posting.   Had a similar quest  couple of months ago brought on by some exposed gigs.  Went into heavy shedding mode and seeking sites.  Wish I had done  much of this earlier in life, but as an older student I'm actually better motivated.  I talk to other players  our age who say the same thing.   Resources now are light years from the things  like the Mix Bookshelf or Jamey Arbesold  series I grew up with.

 

  I didn't bond to Open Studio's presentation  as much I would of liked but found a couple of others.   I do really like the video you posted,  hadn't seen that guy on there- and want to see more.   Subscribed to Bill Grahams's channel posted above  a while back - he really does make Harris concepts much easier to grasp.

 

 I like Mdecks a lot. It's cheap,. they offer a lot free stuff too.   They take a very unique approach to presenting concepts and breaking them down to bite-size pieces and building from there.   Easy to digest, and more important:  retain.  Which is always my bane.    Not overwhelming, especially if you want to accomplish something with limited practice time for the day.    The business model is a little weird, but I get it now. 

 

I do the $5 a month plan.  With the holidays  got behind, but back to work now with gigs as motivation.    They have a ton of different things and post every couple of days -  I  focused on their Bop and Reharm stuff.  Also bought a couple of their books that keep me busy.   Real world use for me is always a win;  love seeing  the hoary-real book things we all play and learning how to approach them differently.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBCch4Wd-JAuyURvmmA1oyQ

 

Also  Paul Tobey's  jazzmentl stuff takes a similar approach.

https://www.youtube.com/jazzmentl

 

 

Here's an example of a typical Mdecks lesson:

 

 

 

Danger is I want to sign up for everything.  I wish they sold a magic jazz pill, but I know it always boils down to just doing the work.