| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Creating introductions | |
| tomwrush -- 01/21/2007, 21:53:52 -- #32604 | |
| Hi All- I'm trying to come up with some nice harp-like sounding arpeggios for the left hand for creating introductions. However, I'm not sure how what some of the stock LH lines are? Are there any? Any tips, anyone particular recordings with this sound on them? Thanks for your help:) Tom | |
| Scot -- 01/22/2007, 10:01:20 -- #32604 | |
| The harp sound is easy- dominant 7th chords starting from the root. Just 1-3-5-7 But a good introduction usually has something to do with the song. Many standards of written intros or a verse before you get to the A section. For tunes that don't, outlining the last eight measures, or starting rubato on the bridge are great ways to develop introductions. Keep this in mind- if your introduction to a tune doesn't mean anything with regards to the tune, why play it? Sometimes introductions to tunes have nothing to do with the way the song was written, but instead the introduction serves as a foreshadowing to something else in the song. Ahmad Jamal does this great. His intro to poinciana has nothing to do with the way the song was originally recorded, but it has everything to do with the way Ahmad is playing the tune. | |
| albetan -- 01/23/2007, 13:23:40 -- #32604 | |
| A practical formula for doing introductions is to play chord progression of last 4 or 8 bars of tune. A good introduction must "introduce" rhythm, key or tonality, and speed of tune. | |
| tomwrush -- 01/29/2007, 16:45:02 -- #32604 | |
| Thanks for the tips. I took a compositional approach to creating an introduction, incorporating some basic substitutions. Trying to incorporate some of the ideas you mentioned, however, I noticed that my ideas weren't clearly related to the tune's melody. I'm going to work on cleaning that up, record, listen, adjust, record, listen, adjust. That's the motto. | |
| Scot -- 01/29/2007, 17:14:31 -- #32604 | |
| Yes! Recording what you are working on is so beneficial. If you do this for everything you practice, you will turn into a jazz monster (if you're not already) twice as fast (or faster) as people who don't record their own playing and listen to it. | |
| Jazz+ -- 01/29/2007, 21:21:18 -- #32604 | |
| | I | VI | ii | V | or | iii | biii | ii | V | (Red Garland) | iii | VI | ii | V | | I | bIII | bVI | bII | etc.... | |
| PomPom -- 01/30/2007, 00:05:15 -- #32604 | |
| can you give an example for the progression ? for example if i want to make an intro on Autumn leaves where the first chord usually is a Cm7. | |
| jwv76 -- 01/30/2007, 04:21:09 -- #32604 | |
| A pretty typical intro for Autumn leaves is some kind of vamp on G minor, the parent key. Miles did it as G-6. All the progressions given by Jazz+ only work for tunes where the first chord of the tune is I, which isn't the case with autumn leaves. | |
| PomPom -- 01/30/2007, 07:12:36 -- #32604 | |
| yeah but a minor chord can also be treated as I...the problem in my opinion is that the whole introductory progression focuses on the minor chord (for example Cm7). So maybe the introduction doesn't fit to the tune ? | |
| Jazz+ -- 01/30/2007, 12:00:25 -- #32604 | |
| " play chord progression of last 4 or 8 bars of tune." Or do like jwv76 said ( listen to the Canonball+ Mles version) I sometimes play this pedal tone groove like Gene Harris might do: ||: G-7 | A-7/G :|| | |
| Barry -- 01/30/2007, 20:13:45 -- #32604 | |
| There was another relatively recent thread on introductions. Do a search and I'm sure you'll find some help there as well. | |
| Jazz+ -- 03/21/2007, 10:28:38 -- #32604 | |
| Searched but didn't find the other thread. | |
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