A rarity to see in the jazz world! Tons of content on other artist's but lacking their personal reasoning for things. Great insight to a great player that I've made sure to send to all my students! Thanks, Dave!
ive been using your simple steps for improvisation the last few months and ive been digging it bro! im a senior in high school playing 1st tenor in our jazz band and lets just say my band director has been very pleased with my solo improvement and so have i! we've got our state competition in a few weeks and i've got a couple solos i'm playing and your lessons have really made me feel comfortable with the changes and style differentiations so thank for all you do. hoping for a good placement at the comp but who cares too much as long as i have a good time and play to my best.
This was really fascinating Dave. I can hear you were obviously playing the tonic diminished in bar 4 (Eb°) and the back door dominant sound in bar 10 (Fm7 Bb13#11), as everyone normally does, but because the transcriber wrote different chord symbols you seemed to be almost revising history and talking yourself out of what you played to make it fit the page. Eg on the back door dominant “meh, I meant to play a B on that G7” or whatever. Not that I’m assuming to know your mind, but I think that Fm sound was exactly what you meant to play. You were nailing that back door ii V sound. 😂 Same with the diminished sound in bar 4. Another really funny bit was in the triplet turns when you said “was it that? I better practice that” 😂 You LITERALLY already nailed it right there on the recording, so it COULDN’T have been the written thing you were struggling with that you originally played? Fascinating. I suspect you’re just too much of a nice guy to contradict the great work of the transcriber. 😊 Great video man. I loved peering inside your mind here, but especially loved the justifications and the underlying thought process more than anything. Like you said you were thinking about a D harm min sound, and that’s the important bit for me, but there were a bunch of Cs or whatever in there. I get it all, and I embrace the fact that none has to make sense either! 😂 Maybe I should do something like this, I dunno. People are always asking what you’re thinking aren’t they? Although it would be so much better to have Branford or something do it, not me!!! Good stuff bro ❤❤❤
Hah, thanks Jamie! I definitely can't remember what I was thinking that long ago so I was just analyzing what I saw/heard! I appreciate taking the time to watch/listen to this! You're the man 💪
Thanks Dave! This is such a great (and original) format. Amazing insight. As a student of jazz it’s sometimes difficult to move from theory to application and this format of teaching really helps that. Looking forward to #2
This is great, thanks Dave. I started humming the first few bars of Fried Bananas about ten days ago. I wanted to memorized the melody and wondered if it was a contrafact. I started a bit of a deep dive into Chet Baker and Sinatra. Eventually the transcription of your solo popped up so I was working my way through that. Now you are explaining it all to me. It's like serendipitous but I still haven't memorized Fried Bananas. There are never enough hours in a day.
@@DavePollack Great advice Dave but I sure wasn't complaining. Your information and advice have been a valuable facet of my music experience for years. It's always better that my cup overflow with music. I'd better get back to it now.
I’m just curious, why did you play the solo the way you did the very first time? Do you think about what cord when playing a solo? Is it all originally by you or is the solo a combination of licks? By all means, the playing is great.
It’s all a combination of things I’ve practiced, sounds in my head, influences, etc. Yes I’m thinking about and following the chords during the choruses.
Hey Dave! I hope you’re having another vibrant Friday. This was a super fun and engaging video. I really appreciate your analysis of the end of your solo in which you clarified that you were playing C major at one point, and you proceeded to not play C major throughout the duration of the last 3 chords of the turnaround. I am too analytical about these things, and if I transcribed you I would have assumed that you were thinking Cmaj7//Ab-9//D7b9b13//Bmaj13//Cmaj7 (whereas altered turnarounds [most notoriously the Imaj7//bIIImaj7//bVImaj7//bIImaj7] are another Tadd Dameron jazz cliché and a world of its that is own worth plenty of exploration!). Additionally, after collecting and reflecting from your Hang with Nathan and Ryan, I am now seeing into Ryan’s point (which Jacob Collier has also articulated eloquently in the past) about his academic study of any tone being able to function as a feasible melody note. I am particularly referring to the contextually (and unexpectedly) pleasant sound of the natural 7 over the diatonic V7 chord. You can trace this back to two chords, as you have mentioned, the first being the bIIImaj7 upper structure of the bvi-7 in a Sub ii//Sub V//I progression, or simply to its inherent being as the fifth of V7/iii (VII7), which is, in the case of C, the F# of B7, and its tendency to resolve upward by half-step to the fifth of Cmaj7, which is the lower structure of the typical resolution point that is E-7. Thank you for sharing this especially long video. I really enjoyed gaining insight from you about how you think on a large scale level about your melodic construction as it particularly pertains to your note-based musical elements of improvisation! Looking forward to more good times ahead! Best wishes.
A great solo and a great transcription! I'd like to remember that it was me that brought your attention to this transcription!?! Or was it another? Anyhow, still practicing your very solo to this day!
Great discussion, even better playing....I am going to work through the pdf this week. Honestly, it will be a solid month or more of work for me! Thanks Dave!
Awesome analysis. It’s what you played… but what were you thinking? Zen? Clear your mind? Close your eyes and picture yourself on a desert island? 😂 Awesome to hear the solos and see the physical transcriptions. Bravo to those that transcribed the solos. You’re awesome Dave!
That was so interesting and useful. I like your playing and it sounds so far away from where I am, but with the explanation i believe that some of that is attainable. Thanks so much. 😊🥰
I'm always fascinated, and a bit confused, when what on paper looks wrong, but still sounds great. Example: bar 39 is an Em7 arpeggio, but should be Em7b5. It speaks to me that melody and intent are more important than notes. However, I'm not saying that Notes Don't Matter...
Hey Dave! Any chance you could do your solo on "There Will Never Be Another You" from the video you did with a student a while back? It's titled 10/10 Stank Faces. I've always loved this solo and transcribed it myself, but would love a breakdown!
Great solo, have spent some time on this in the past not only because of language but also to emulate that amazing alto sound. Thank you very much for that awesome series!
A bit strange use of "A cappella". I suppose it's correct, but I always associate the term with vocal music. I feel you are playing "unaccompanied". A Cappella Has Italian Roots A cappella arrived in English from Italian sometime around the late-18th century. In Italian, a cappella means "in chapel or choir style." Cappella is the Italian word for "chapel"; the English word chapel is ultimately (if independently) derived from the Medieval Latin word cappella, which is the source of the Italian cappella as well. Scholars once thought all "chapel style" music written before the 1600s was performed a cappella, but modern research has revealed that instruments might have doubled or substituted for some voices back then. Today a cappella describes a purely vocal performance.
I think all techniques I need are here included!! Thanks for this video. Especially your time feeling is incredible, and I like I'd appreciate it if you could explain how you are feeling it in your brain. Thank you!!
Thank you! Basically I always think like I'm playing with a drummer. So my motions, breathing, tapping, etc. is all geared towards playing WITH someone else, even when I'm not. I never feel like I'm playing "alone" at all.
Use code "JAZZMONTH" for $10 off the "Strictly Major" PDF Package!
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A rarity to see in the jazz world! Tons of content on other artist's but lacking their personal reasoning for things. Great insight to a great player that I've made sure to send to all my students! Thanks, Dave!
Thanks so much for the kind words!! 🙏 So glad you dig this.
@@DavePollack I think your material is fantastic, and extremely helpful, plus you are a very melodic and musical player.
ive been using your simple steps for improvisation the last few months and ive been digging it bro! im a senior in high school playing 1st tenor in our jazz band and lets just say my band director has been very pleased with my solo improvement and so have i! we've got our state competition in a few weeks and i've got a couple solos i'm playing and your lessons have really made me feel comfortable with the changes and style differentiations so thank for all you do. hoping for a good placement at the comp but who cares too much as long as i have a good time and play to my best.
That's so great to hear! Keep going with it because there's A LOT of material there, and don't rush the process. Enjoy it, and good luck!
@@DavePollack i think i often do try to rush a bit haha so thanks for that.
This was really fascinating Dave. I can hear you were obviously playing the tonic diminished in bar 4 (Eb°) and the back door dominant sound in bar 10 (Fm7 Bb13#11), as everyone normally does, but because the transcriber wrote different chord symbols you seemed to be almost revising history and talking yourself out of what you played to make it fit the page.
Eg on the back door dominant “meh, I meant to play a B on that G7” or whatever. Not that I’m assuming to know your mind, but I think that Fm sound was exactly what you meant to play. You were nailing that back door ii V sound. 😂 Same with the diminished sound in bar 4.
Another really funny bit was in the triplet turns when you said “was it that? I better practice that” 😂 You LITERALLY already nailed it right there on the recording, so it COULDN’T have been the written thing you were struggling with that you originally played? Fascinating.
I suspect you’re just too much of a nice guy to contradict the great work of the transcriber. 😊
Great video man. I loved peering inside your mind here, but especially loved the justifications and the underlying thought process more than anything.
Like you said you were thinking about a D harm min sound, and that’s the important bit for me, but there were a bunch of Cs or whatever in there. I get it all, and I embrace the fact that none has to make sense either! 😂
Maybe I should do something like this, I dunno. People are always asking what you’re thinking aren’t they? Although it would be so much better to have Branford or something do it, not me!!!
Good stuff bro ❤❤❤
Hah, thanks Jamie! I definitely can't remember what I was thinking that long ago so I was just analyzing what I saw/heard! I appreciate taking the time to watch/listen to this! You're the man 💪
30:24 I kind of like it, reminds me of Cannonball
Hey, I’ll take “I kind of like it”
@@DavePollack lmfao you know what I mean 🤣 it’s great
Thanks Dave! This is such a great (and original) format. Amazing insight. As a student of jazz it’s sometimes difficult to move from theory to application and this format of teaching really helps that. Looking forward to #2
You’re very welcome, and thanks for the kind words!
This is great, thanks Dave. I started humming the first few bars of Fried Bananas about ten days ago. I wanted to memorized the melody and wondered if it was a contrafact. I started a bit of a deep dive into Chet Baker and Sinatra. Eventually the transcription of your solo popped up so I was working my way through that. Now you are explaining it all to me. It's like serendipitous but I still haven't memorized Fried Bananas. There are never enough hours in a day.
Just take one thing at a time! Don't feel like you have to do EVERYTHING.
@@DavePollack Great advice Dave but I sure wasn't complaining. Your information and advice have been a valuable facet of my music experience for years. It's always better that my cup overflow with music. I'd better get back to it now.
Thanks for this video Dave. I loved this solo and the breakdown. Excited to see where this new series goes!
Thanks so much! There will be more for sure 💪
I’m just curious, why did you play the solo the way you did the very first time? Do you think about what cord when playing a solo? Is it all originally by you or is the solo a combination of licks? By all means, the playing is great.
It’s all a combination of things I’ve practiced, sounds in my head, influences, etc. Yes I’m thinking about and following the chords during the choruses.
Hey Dave! I hope you’re having another vibrant Friday. This was a super fun and engaging video. I really appreciate your analysis of the end of your solo in which you clarified that you were playing C major at one point, and you proceeded to not play C major throughout the duration of the last 3 chords of the turnaround. I am too analytical about these things, and if I transcribed you I would have assumed that you were thinking Cmaj7//Ab-9//D7b9b13//Bmaj13//Cmaj7 (whereas altered turnarounds [most notoriously the Imaj7//bIIImaj7//bVImaj7//bIImaj7] are another Tadd Dameron jazz cliché and a world of its that is own worth plenty of exploration!). Additionally, after collecting and reflecting from your Hang with Nathan and Ryan, I am now seeing into Ryan’s point (which Jacob Collier has also articulated eloquently in the past) about his academic study of any tone being able to function as a feasible melody note. I am particularly referring to the contextually (and unexpectedly) pleasant sound of the natural 7 over the diatonic V7 chord. You can trace this back to two chords, as you have mentioned, the first being the bIIImaj7 upper structure of the bvi-7 in a Sub ii//Sub V//I progression, or simply to its inherent being as the fifth of V7/iii (VII7), which is, in the case of C, the F# of B7, and its tendency to resolve upward by half-step to the fifth of Cmaj7, which is the lower structure of the typical resolution point that is E-7.
Thank you for sharing this especially long video. I really enjoyed gaining insight from you about how you think on a large scale level about your melodic construction as it particularly pertains to your note-based musical elements of improvisation!
Looking forward to more good times ahead! Best wishes.
Man you went deep on that! I appreciate the kind words, and I hope you enjoy all of the videos in this series!
Thank you Dave!
It is so precious...
A great solo and a great transcription! I'd like to remember that it was me that brought your attention to this transcription!?! Or was it another? Anyhow, still practicing your very solo to this day!
It may have been you! I honestly don’t remember. Good luck with it!
@@DavePollack It is such a great solo, challenging in the right way. Great to hear you talk about it too. Man you are good!
Great discussion, even better playing....I am going to work through the pdf this week. Honestly, it will be a solid month or more of work for me! Thanks Dave!
Thanks so much, and good luck with it!
Awesome analysis. It’s what you played… but what were you thinking? Zen? Clear your mind? Close your eyes and picture yourself on a desert island? 😂 Awesome to hear the solos and see the physical transcriptions. Bravo to those that transcribed the solos.
You’re awesome Dave!
Thanks so much!!
That was so interesting and useful. I like your playing and it sounds so far away from where I am, but with the explanation i believe that some of that is attainable. Thanks so much. 😊🥰
I appreciate that! Just keep at it - you're on your own path, and just keep moving forward.
Glad to see even at this level of playing it's still "that sounds goofy I dont like it" when you listen to yourself haha
😂 oh 100%...there are SO many times I hear something I played and just roll my eyes, hoping others don't hear it the way I did!
Yo….what scale was that?
Scales are for nerds
Thank you for taking the time to share this. Love the solo, there’s lots to take away. Is there an audio version of it?
You’re welcome! If you go to the original video, you can just delete the “ube” from the url, then hit enter, then you can download the mp3
@@DavePollack wow that’s absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much.
I'm always fascinated, and a bit confused, when what on paper looks wrong, but still sounds great. Example: bar 39 is an Em7 arpeggio, but should be Em7b5. It speaks to me that melody and intent are more important than notes. However, I'm not saying that Notes Don't Matter...
Well if there was a band playing the half-diminished chord I might have sounded much more wrong 😂
Well, that's the beauty of a capella, no pesky band to get in the way of playing whatever substitutions you want.
Hey Dave! Any chance you could do your solo on "There Will Never Be Another You" from the video you did with a student a while back? It's titled 10/10 Stank Faces. I've always loved this solo and transcribed it myself, but would love a breakdown!
Absolutely! And there is a transcription for that as well.
ily dave
Really great video. Ps I shoulda also said really great solo as well. Sound, articulation, time and content the trifecta plus one.
I appreciate that!
Great content!!😊
Thanks!
What mouthpiece are you using?
Now I use a Boston Sax Shop M-Series size 8, but in this video I believe it was a 10mfan Alto Madness size 5.
@DavePollack how do you find the M series compared to a meyer?
Great solo, have spent some time on this in the past not only because of language but also to emulate that amazing alto sound. Thank you very much for that awesome series!
You're very welcome!!
"I don't like it" - Me trying to understand what the heck it's going on! THAT SICK LICK
😂
A bit strange use of "A cappella". I suppose it's correct, but I always associate the term with vocal music. I feel you are playing "unaccompanied".
A Cappella Has Italian Roots
A cappella arrived in English from Italian sometime around the late-18th century. In Italian, a cappella means "in chapel or choir style." Cappella is the Italian word for "chapel"; the English word chapel is ultimately (if independently) derived from the Medieval Latin word cappella, which is the source of the Italian cappella as well. Scholars once thought all "chapel style" music written before the 1600s was performed a cappella, but modern research has revealed that instruments might have doubled or substituted for some voices back then. Today a cappella describes a purely vocal performance.
cool story bro
you know damn well thats not goofy.... c'mon man!
I think all techniques I need are here included!! Thanks for this video. Especially your time feeling is incredible, and I like I'd appreciate it if you could explain how you are feeling it in your brain. Thank you!!
Thank you! Basically I always think like I'm playing with a drummer. So my motions, breathing, tapping, etc. is all geared towards playing WITH someone else, even when I'm not. I never feel like I'm playing "alone" at all.