#azjazzlessons #9: Kurt Rosenwinkel Soloing, Comping and Ensemble Ideas

For jazz guitarists & jazz improvisors:

#azjazzlesson #9 #todayIlearned

So I'm trying to learn something new everyday by documenting what I learned from watching a YouTube video. Today I looked for something from Kurt Rosenwinkel.

Here's what I learned:

Kurt Rosenwinkel Group - Jacky's Place [2006]

Solo Development Ideas (from 2:06 onwards)
1) End long scalar or sequenced phrases with longer notes
2) Create drama by using double time or smaller subdivisions in the later part of a long phrase 
3) Have clear breaks/spaces between phrases
4) Use triplets on long phrases to build tension
5) Continue sequences longer than expected into higher registers
6) Use end fragment of a long phrase as the motive for the next line

Tone 
7) Keep a clear tone even in higher register
8) Use accents to highlight higher notes of phrases and longer note duration

Comping Ideas
9) In a piano & guitar dual comping situation, one should use a constant rhythmic patern and the other instrument play a countermelody or a complementary rhythmic phrase
10) Take turns during comping, cue for lead comping role when there is both piano and guitar 

Ensemble Ideas
11) Use clear breaks for a tight arrangement 
12) Unison tenor and electric guitar lines can be powerful
13) Guitar can play softer chord attacks in between melodic phrases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD_RDZQowoM

#jazzsolo #improvisation #jazzguitar #guitar#kurtrosenwinkel

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7 Things For Jazz Guitarists To Practice

Over 14 years of learning Jazz with many amazing guitarists has led me to believe that the essential building blocks of Jazz are the same & once understood can really speed your learning process. Here are the 7 key areas:

1) Melody (single line improvisation and composition)

This includes learning melodies to songs, ii-v lines, melodic etudes, solo transcriptions, licks and composing melodies. The idea here is to develop your personal sense of melody, to develop your melodic vocabulary. For the advanced player, this would also include being able to develop a melody compositionally so that it tells a story.

2) Harmony (chords, voicing and chord progression)

This is the study of harmony from understanding and being able to play intervals to playing larger chord structures and voice-led chord progressions. The idea here is to be able to be fluid when playing more than one note at a time.

3) Rhythm (grooves, time signatures, rhythmic patterns)

This is to develop a strong sense of time, groove and rhythmic energy. Some rhythms will feel heavy and others will make the time float. This includes study of different time signatures, polyrhythms, syncopation and beyond.

4) Improvisation (how to improvise, improvisation practice)

This is the pure study of how to improvise and create music in real time. It may include what Wayne Krantz calls ‘Compositional Playing’ which is music that assembled using certain idiomatic vocabulary (licks, cliches, patterns) or ‘Improvisational Playing’ where no particular vocabulary is attached, just recombination and assembling in real time of certain material, without idiomatic consideration.

5) Songs (learning repertoire, parts)

This is all about learning songs & parts to songs. This is learning the music directly. 

6) Ear Training

Ear training includes many different aspects including:

  a)Transcribing

• to your instrument
• to paper

b) Playing by ear

• by listening to something someone else played
• from memory

c) Sightsinging

7) Technique

This is the pure study of technique without considering the music. Techniques may be as fundamental of hammer-ons and pull-offs or more involved topics such as tapping, hybrid picking, odd grouping string crossing & string skipping combinations.

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[Creative Fridays] #3 : Dylan Kay

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I first met Jazz Guitarist Dylan Kay while we were both studying in Berklee College of Music. We had a mutual friend, Swedish guitarist Magnus Lindstrom and at some point we became a guitar trio and had different opportunities to perform together. We remained friends even after graduating and I've visited him a bunch of times when he was based in London. Fairly soon though, he will be relocating to New Zealand. My own dream is to get a chance to tour with him when he's finally based in the same region.

More about Dylan: He's been on faculty at Guitar Insitute London, led his group 1224 Project and has been teaching for year at differents schools in London. For an exclusive lesson with him, check out his guest blog post on A Chord A Day here.

For now, in our 3rd installment of Creative Fridays, we'll learn more about what inspires this creative musician....


 

1. What's your latest project? 
“What Happened to The Foot” is my latest CD with 1224 Project. It’s all original compositions (plus a re-worked medley of a couple of Nirvana tunes). The trio features two incredible musicians (and great friends) I have played with for a long time – David Bouet (drums) and Leslee Booth (6-string bass).

2. What inspires your music?
My mum, Lynette Kay, is an abstract artist. Through enjoying her work, I have become more and more aware of the similarities and differences between these art forms. I am always hugely inspired by visiting galleries and exhibitions (I also studied a lot of Art History at university…)

3. What's your 5 Desert Island Albums?
"Bright Size Life" Pat Metheny
His first album as leader... a big initial inspiration for me.

"Yo Hey" David Tronzo
Live album from 1996. Incredible music and playing! A genius. (See question 4)

"Quiet" John Scofield
I used to listen to this endlessly – a radical departure for Sco, but absolutely beautiful in every way.

“King of the Delta Blues Singers” Robert Johnson 
This scared the hell out of me the first time I heard it, and I really did not know how to relate to it. Unbelievable.

Blue" - Joni Mitchell. An album I have listened to intensely for a long time. Just beautiful.

4. Who's one artist/musician that you love but most people probably don't know of? 
It has got to be slide guitarist David Tronzo. I think it’s absolutely criminal that this guy isn’t a household name. Tronzo is possibly the most incredible musician and most fearless improviser I have ever heard. A huge inspiration to me (and pretty much anyone else who’s heard him play…)

5. What's an advice you wish someone told you when you started in the arts? 
I often find that people have already told me what I needed to know – I just didn’t realize it at the time! Perhaps this would have been particularly helpful though: to know that everyone progresses in their own way, at their own pace. Don’t be swayed or intimidated by people who seem to be further down their own particular path.

6. How do we reach you?
Website: www.dylankay.co.uk
Buy CD/Album/MP3 Link: www.1224project.co.uk/music

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