Posts made by tjcombo

@Kehaulani @Dr-GO, thanks for your help so far.
Hope I haven't caused confusion by not framing my question right at the start. I play a solo over either AA or full form AABA - depending on how timing is going in the set.
We are playing in the same key as the above chart. To date I've been playing the first A section pretty much "as writ". To Gary's point above, it's not an ideal register to play a beautiful rich, smooth, relaxed solo.
Ideally, I want to outline the head in the first A section, but do this in a lower register where I can be a little more expressive. This is not a huge deal, but when I try to play an improv solo in the second A (and sections, the changes catch me out. My tiny mind has problems hearing chord changes which are sometimes counter-intuitive and making up a melody line - all in real-time. This second A/B is what I'm working on with the chart. I'm hoping that writing out a few notes/licks will help cement the structure in my head so I can just close my eyes and get back to having fun playing the solo.

@Kehaulani - your comment about bands playing the bridge in Ipanema is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Thanks for providing another voice in my head that I have to push out of the way when playing

@Kehaulani thanks - I wrote that post at the end of a laborious of entering chords on the bass line of this song. For most tunes, this is a quick process because chord patterns repeat and after initially entering a pattern once, it can be cut and pasted when repeated. The repeated patterns also make life a little easier when playing an improv solo. Not so with Mr Jobim. His tunes lead one down the garden path and if due attention is not paid to the changes, I find myself clashing violently (or unpleasantly) with sound made by the band. Hence the work on the chart that I'm doing.
Interesting that you've replied - I recall you commenting in the past on TM (forgive me if I'm mis-paraphrasing) that trumpet players tend to be not as observant as sax players of chord changes when soloing.
My question is: what techniques do improvisors use when working over changes such as those written by Jobim? My stand-by method of, know what key, know the form of the song, the melody and a glance at the changes, then just think about the line I want to play is breaking down here.

The vocalist in our jazz band loves this piece and so we're playing it at a jazz festival in a couple of weeks. The changes are (pick one) murderous/a wonderful challenge to solo over. Unfortunately I've not moved beyond murdering a wonderful challenge. I decided to notate a solo to get a few ideas cemented.
Check the changes - no chord is repeated until the end of the A section. I kept a simple base line as I just want some chordy noises to work with, but boy! Jobim must've been sadistic dude

@Tobylou8 - some manufacturing was already moving from China to countries with even lower labour costs (and slacker or non-existent protection for workers). Don't count on a wholesale return of jobs.

@stumac
we were a little taken aback too Stuart, but came up with a number which was accepted. This will now make a solid contribution to producing our first album. I'm still waiting to see if I'll have to stump up full price for ticket for my partner.

Don't mind if I do Dr G. Anyone who is anywhere near Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia on the Queen's Birthday Weekend (7-9th June) should check out both the historic Old Gold-mining town and the jazz festival.
https://www.castlemainejazzfestival.com.au/

Check out G&T Jazz for fine "new standards" written by our talented vocalist. We have two festival slots and the performance fee will go towards a recording session in the very near future.

@Kehaulani I think he is talking about using mouthpiece plus leadpipe (rather than just mp) as a warm-up. The notes infer that the embouchure will be more relaxed than when buzzing on a mp. The block of text before the Long Tone section talks about "blowing just as you did on the leadpipe" when working through the long tones.
In answer to your question about using the leadpipe, no, I just move straight on to long tones ona whole horn (but don't hold myself up as any example ).

Can you believe this dude?

@Kehaulani, Hope this uploads cleanly. This was found somewhere on the web a while back.

I've since heard several interviews with some great players taught by Bill Adams and from what I remember, students' routines varied according to individual needs, but FWIW, here is one...

I have a couple of Kelly MPs - 1 Kelly Screamer - feels and sounds pretty ordinary, but that may say as much about my playing on a too shallow (for me) mouthpiece. 2 A 3C cornet piece - the cheapest option after not packing a mouthpiece on a business trip. It plays fine and doesn't feel much different to a metal MP of similar size.

Lis Lewis' "Singer's First Aid Kit" comes with a great CD of vocal warmup exercises. Working with this really opened my eyes to the difference that a decent warmup routine can make.
I found that playing trumpet for 20 or 30 minutes has a similar effect on the vocal chords as a decent warmup. Some vocal warm-ups involve a limited amount of air flowing over the vocal folds - limited by humming, rolling the tongue, or what the vocal world calls "lip trills". Maybe it's the steady relatively small air flow blowing a horn that warms up the voice?

A little (but maybe not so much?) off topic...

Congrats to the board's founder and all who travel on it!
According to this message we've passed a meeeeelion views

@moshe I took a moment to get it too - a few seconds, but then again, I'm only 62

@Doodlin This video from Eric Bolvin is a great place to start. This is all about beginning improv - making up your own tune/licks/counter-melodies as you go. FWIW, until I started playing trumpet again ("comeback" still feels pretentious to me) about 7 years back, attempts at getting started with improv never took off. This video really opened my eyes and after first watching it, I spent 3 very happy hours noodling with what I'd learned in ten minutes.

Enjoy!

@BigDub the trombone guys are way ahead of us...

@GeorgeB some arrangers of marches are very unimaginative and write nasty parts for 2nd and 3rd cornets/trumpets don't they? My suggestion is to get your double-tonguing up to speed. It's far easier to cruise through a long stretch of semi-quavers even if you can single tongue at that speed.

A few years back a teacher gave me an exercise to develop triple-tonguing that is equally applicable to building double-tonguing speed and technique: Simply pick a scale that is comfortably in your range - maybe F major and start - (F) tktk tktk taaaaa (G) tktk tktk taaaa and so on, up and down the scale. Do it slowly at first, concentrating on getting the articulation clean and even. Getting the articulation clean is more important that speed ( +1 for the suggestion above to practice just "K" articulation too).

I won't buy into the discussion about tuku vs taka except to say that it's a case of what ever works in you head - dugu dugu works for me