| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Left Hand Vamps -Funk | |
| elwapo -- 04/05/2005, 08:56:47 -- #12483 | |
| Hi everybody! Well my playing has come on leaps and bounds ever since I really started to take on board all the good advice I received on this site. I seem to be gravitating towards funk and blues but I dont wanst to become a blues scale maniac. I have been doing alot of work getting my intervals down and chord drilling etc but what I was really hoping to do was pick your brains as to any vamps used for the left hand in the funk idiom (considering I dont have a bass player)! Could you recommend any recordings I could transcribe with some challenging left hand techniques in the funk genre. I posted a thread here before (pesomistic) relaying the fact that there is no structure to learning jazz as there is in classical but I am beginning to see that you cant really progress in jazz without getting a decent grounding in some areas so I am beginning to see a structure in this respect. I believe for example that one massively important factor in learning to improvise is a strong study of intervals. Anyways, Thanks in advance.....ew | |
| marksdg -- 04/05/2005, 09:13:56 -- #12484 | |
| Scot has some nice grooves posted on the midi/sheetmusic area (I forget which room exactly). If you want something that is just a single line in the left hand, try making something up. Often, you will find that stuff starts to sound a lot funkier when you add your right hand, but be sure to keep the rhythms in the right and left hands playing off of each other, and don't get them locked into similar patterns. | |
| gsandberg -- 04/05/2005, 11:24:03 -- #12487 | |
| You should get the Pop Piano Book by Mark Harrison. Funk is about the interaction between left and right hand and that book shows that in a great way. | |
| elwapo -- 04/05/2005, 12:21:32 -- #12488 | |
| That book by Mark Harrison seems very interesting. Is it fairly inclusive though or does it just breeze lightly through various styles and would you recommend buying the cds as well. Cheers.... | |
| bearman -- 04/05/2005, 13:19:37 -- #12489 | |
| Pop Piano Book is pretty extensive. Lot's and lot's of examples. From what I hear the cds are good. | |
| Scot -- 04/05/2005, 14:02:22 -- #12493 | |
| Looks like an interesting book. I've requested a copy from Mark Harrison for the book review section, hopefully he'll send one out. In the meantime, if you want to get it online, here's a link: http://www.musicnotes.com/affiliate_redir.asp?sid=631&ppn=bkhl220011 | |
| Bert -- 04/05/2005, 15:43:24 -- #12496 | |
| I recommend caution. It's one of the least used piano books I've ever bought. I've been tempted to sell it ever since I got it a few years ago but I keep thinking maybe someday it'll dawn on me how I should use it and I doubt I could even get close to the $40 I paid for it. Elwapo, in my opinion it barely touches the styles and using his own odd (in my limited experience) approach. As for the usefulness of the CD's you can get some samples from his website www.harrisonmusic.com and check them out. I've gotten far more from this website than I ever did from his book! | |
| Scot -- 04/05/2005, 16:59:55 -- #12500 | |
| Well, there you go :) | |
| LarryC -- 04/06/2005, 11:32:16 -- #12521 | |
| In general, I've found it to be overkill...almost too detailed and anayltical and the excercises progress to slowly. I feel the same was as Bert, tempted to sell it but keeping it thinking someday I'll learn how I should use it. I did find the sections on funk and gospel helpful. I did buy the audio examples after the fact (on cassette...remember those things?!?!?) which I would recommend, but now you're up to around $80 new. I use it more now as a reference guide if I have to brush up on a style of music. Larry | |
| Jazz+ -- 04/06/2005, 12:14:15 -- #12524 | |
| It's a very good book and I would never sell it. It covers many styles besides funk. | |
| elwapo -- 04/07/2005, 03:50:55 -- #12548 | |
| OK! Now youre confusing me! | |
| Bert -- 04/10/2005, 14:29:33 -- #12676 | |
| I started a "review" with the idea of asking those who liked the book to explain what I was missing and I've had one of those "Oh Sh*t" moments. I'll post what I've done so far and invite comments and if anyone's interested I'll follow up later. Pop Piano Book by Mark Harrison First 10 chapters are "basics": 1. Scales, modes, triads, 4 note chords, 9ths, circle of 4ths/5ths. Things that seemed unusual to me: Emphasis on diatonic chords (ex. for triads C, Dmi, Emi, F, G, Ami, Bdim, C) and building a modal scale over the roots of each (his example is D Dorian as the scale source for Dmi7). Add 9th to any chord not just dominant 7th. 2, Rhythms - pretty comprehensive and one chapter that I "got" and used. 3. Diatonic triads and 4-part chords - emphasis on getting the "feel" - sounded bad, didn't get the point so never followed through. (As opposed to say Scott's circle of 5th's exercises which I think sound good.) 4. Triads - inversions and voice leading. The concept was not new to me but the presentation on voice leading is much more in depth than I've seen elsewhere I didn't "get" his aid to finger position approach (grouped chords by relationships of black and white keys (so C and F are together because they're both all white keys). Getting the inversions to be automatic (which is the goal of the exercises) seems important. 5. Triad over root chords - the "beginning of the end" for me with this book. I kind of got what he was saying - he put the same chord over various over different bass notes and discussed possible interpretations and uses for each. Then he went through the circle (5ths/4ths) progressions, patterns (rhythmic variations) culminating in a "make your own progression" chart. Where I lost it was they (like most of the book's examples) mostly sounded bad to me so I didn't get how or why I would want to use it. 6 & 7. Same as chapters 4 & 5 with major and minor 7ths in less detail. 8. 9 to 1 resolutions - a 9th chord followed by the root. 9. 4 to 3 resolutions - suspended 4th chords followed by the 3rd. 10. Double 4th chords - chords built two perfect 4ths. The rest of the book is applying this to several styles, pop ballad, pop and hard rock, new age, RnB ballad and Funk, Country and country rock and gospel. As I started in on the applications, I realized that this was indeed the most detailed "how to use a leadsheet" instructions I'd ever seen and that I hadn't really tried to just apply them. I'd only let my eyes glaze over at the detail and unfamiliar terms and my ears object to the poor results of the examples and I'd just gotten lazy and given up. So my plan is to take a leadsheet and just try to apply one of the style suggestions in detail. I'm sure it'll take a while but hopefully the results will be worth it and I'll become a convert. I still welcome comments and suggestions. | |
| Bert -- 04/13/2005, 11:14:42 -- #12789 | |
| Just a brief update for my own personal sense of closure. My in depth attempts to actually apply the book to a lead sheet led only to frustration. The presentations while highly descriptive (mostly they just verbalize the sheet) are not per se instructional, by which I mean that I got no sense of why he chose a particular structure at a particular place and why or when I might be motivated to do the same. I also felt his style descriptions were idiosyncratic (slow gospel is either 3/4 or 9/8's only and fast gospel is cut time for example.) So for me the book is back on the shelf pending a flash of inspiration or suggestion or a motivation to sell. | |
| Scot -- 04/13/2005, 22:48:57 -- #12818 | |
| "You can't hold no groove if you don't got a pocket." ~ Victor Wooten So you want to play a groove? Turn your metronome on and start by playing a single note in quarter notes. Work out a syncopated rhythm in the right hand with a minor chord that fits with the bass note. So I'll play C on quarter notes at about metronome setting of 90. Then in the right hand I'll play on all the off-beats and three chord progression: P1 means pattern 1. Bb,Eb,G (P1) C,F,A (P2) D,Eb,G,Bb (P3) So it would look like: P1 P2 P3 P2 P1 P2 P3 P2 C C C C C C C C Play the C's legato, play the pattern chords short and soft. The pattern chords should be below middle C, and the C bass note should be two lines under the staff. It's a simple and cool groove, and I suggest you play it for like, 20 minutes, and then start changing things up a bit. A groove is about repition, syncopation, and solid time. | |
| gsandberg -- 04/14/2005, 04:56:59 -- #12827 | |
| Well, I personally think the Pop Piano book is a great book and it really speeded up my playing. But I guess it depends on what you´re looking for. It doesn´t learn you how to play jazz, the closest it gets is the RnB chapter with sort of smooth jazz chords and the slash chords gets you into the realm of fusion and rockjazz. But you wont find any ii V Is, Bill Evans A B chords, phrygian chords or So What chords or solo lines. Then you should get the Jazz Piano Book, not much sololines in that one either come to think of it, and the chapter on pentatonics stink, but its great for jazz voicings. The great thing wit the Pop Piano Book is that it teaches you how to work with rythmic patterns with two hands in your playing.But you really have to ingrane them into your spinal chord so you don´t have to think about them when youre playing and then you can twist and turn and change and combine them or whatever. I think its a great book for modern piano playing but different strokes for different folks I guess... | |
| Gordon -- 04/14/2005, 09:01:24 -- #12831 | |
| would it be possible to make a midi recording of that Scot ? | |
| elwapo -- 04/14/2005, 11:27:49 -- #12834 | |
| Yeh! That would be great! | |
| Scot -- 04/14/2005, 12:40:30 -- #12838 | |
| My keyboard is set up somewhere else right now, so I can't do that. But I also forgot to turn on message formatting, so the "notes" didn't look right. Try it with this: P1 P2 P3 P2 P1 P2 P3 P2 C C C C C C C C I'll go ahead and upload a file to the grooves/licks room that has sheet music and such. It will be sibelius so you'll be able to listen to it. | |
| hepcatmonk -- 04/20/2005, 13:52:01 -- #13038 | |
| Elwapo, I seem to remember talking to you before on these boards about harmonies and comping and voicings in funk sometime last August and I told you I'd make a follow up post about so what chords and clusters and their uses in funk but I never got around to it because that was around the time I was moving to Bloomington and I forgot about this board. Anyways, just wanted to say, sorry for leaving you hanging with that followup post, and I'll get back to you about funk stuff as soon as i have time this week! zach | |
| elwapo -- 04/21/2005, 03:57:51 -- #13064 | |
| Welcome back Hepcatmonk! That would be great if you could get the time. Your last posts were very helpful and I would love to her any other good advice you may have! Cheers! | |
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