Lauren Lessons Term 3 2021

Lesson 9/9/2021


Hey Geoff,

We always have so much to get through in our lessons, it's great how many different things you're keen to work on at once! Star student haha!! Maybe next term we can get through a bit more if you want to have a 45min or hour lesson, something to discuss with Ben and Deb maybe :)

-->Love how you're working through the chord progressions 1 6 2 5,etc.

- this is what a lot of jazz musicians do --> practising specific progressions that can be inserted into so many different jazz standards :)

- attached is the 2-5-1 exercise sheet to start getting this progression (as a starting point) under your fingers in all 12 keys, going around the cycle of 4ths:

- start with root position chords then the next step could be gradually adding inversion. Try this:

-ii chord: root position

V7: 2nd inversion

1maj7: root position

Bouncing Ball Rhythm youtube video - stomping your feet and clapping to this is a great rhythm exercise! 

--> try walking to all four beats of the bar and only clapping when the balls bounce on certain beats haha!

--> See if you can clap the rhythm of C Jam blues melody to an IReal Pro backing track

Gymnopedie:

--> timing sounds great! Play around with different tempos on the metronome, both slower and faster

C Jam Blues:

--> make sure those walking basslines are even and played as crotchets !

--> incorporating the left hand chord rhythms will be one of the next steps to take with the alternative chord progression - as I said, there are so many

--> F maj or Bb maj will be good keys for trying out the Boogie Woogie LH riff version. This may take some patience but you'll get used to it and it's such a good exercise for your chordal knowledge as well as for your ears!

See you next week for our last lesson of the term,

Lauren


Lesson 5 19/8/2021

Feedback from Lauren…

Hi Geoff, 

Lauren here.

Below are some notes from today's lesson - 19/08/2021: 

Note to Geoff: 

Hey Geoff,

Here are my late notes for this week! Sorry about my tardiness:

In A Sentimental Mood:

- Root Position LH chord voicings will work as the 7th is changing in the chord progressions

--> we can talk about inversions next week 

- Keep listening to different recordings to learn the melody by ear and get you more comfortable reading the lead sheet

- Chords can be played as semibreves for now, especially as we'll be learning this one as a ballad (nice and slow!)

*Note: most ballads are played straight and quavers are usually not swung - you can hear this in the John Coltrane version. A more upbeat version like Django Reinhardt will be swung as it's not played strictly as a ballad)

C Jam:

--> we spoke about the added chords as your progress on the 3-chord blues progression sounded great! Hope this new alternative version made sense, use the sheet I linked you as a guide for the LH root position voicings

Gymnopedie: 

Make sure timing is right: LH bass note beat 1, chord should land on beat 2

If you type in Gymnopedie 1 Slow into youtube, there are many different versions, maybe you could find one that you can use to play along with the LH part - I couldn't find the one I was referring to in our lesson, beware that some videos that slow down the track also put it in a different key!

See you next week!

Lauren


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Lesson 4 missed.


Hi Geoff, 

Lauren here.

Below are some notes from today's lesson - 12/08/2021: 

Note to Geoff: 

Hey Geoff,

Sorry to hear you were having troubles with your internet for our lesson today!

Here are some things to work on and have a look at this week:

C Jam Blues:

--> Since we've conquered the 3-chord blues, I wanted to show you an alternative progression to spice up the chords!

Here's a dropbox folder to the recording of the head and also a solo and accompaniment:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dqsufutuuauk527/AADF1K0hP5YCUFuFy2P9v_Wqa?dl=0

--> And attached is the pdf to the chords --> have a close look at the chords in terms of numbers!

The progression uses a few minor ii V7's and we have added a Vi chord and #(sharp)iV diminished7.

In A Sentimental Mood:

If you like, I think we could start another jazz standard to see if we can apply voicings and other jazz language that we've already looked at :)

check out these recordings: 

Django: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_sshOaBqnM

John Coltrane and The Duke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiP7jKdAhD0

Emily Remler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WXTcsfLwdA

lead sheet: https://minedit.com/in-a-sentimental-mood-lead-sheet/

See you next week!

Lauren





Sincerely, 
Lauren 
Evergreen Music


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Lesson 3 29 July 2021


Hi Geoff, 

Lauren here.

Below are some notes from today's lesson - 29/07/2021: 

Note to Geoff: 

Hey Geoff, 
Here are my notes from our lesson today: 

Daydreamer: 
Rhythm Work: Keep counting while you play hands separate and try to keep the quavers straight - think robotic/metronomic! 
LH: add the Gmaj7 root position chord and Cmaj7 if you want to make the harmony a bit fuller :) 

Gymnopedie 1: 
RH: make sure you understand where the melody lands with the 3 beats of the bar - practice counting 1 2 3 
--> add LH, sounding good! 

All The Things:

- Great backing track!! Keep playing along with that video you found, really great as it's a good tempo and very clear with timing of the melody 
--> Separate practice both hands would help you a lot with timing here! Keep the left hand chords as semibreves, strict timing for them 
--> Next week we can work on putting the hands together, so for now keep it separate 

C Jam Blues: 
--> try to find a playalong video for this too if you can! 
- focus on the F7 to G7 chord transition, repetitive practice here 
- jump onto Ireal Pro for a backing track for LH chordal work 
--> LH walking bass line (chromatic lead in) - remind me to do this with you next week!

See you next lesson,

Lauren


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Lesson 2 22 July 2021


TIMING PRACTICE:

metronome at 70BPM

- clap or click with -metronome only crotchets

- "1 2 3 4" vocalising beats of bar

- play 4-note improv- your chosen notes with crotchets

- add LH chord when comfortable


--> quavers:

- clapping crotchets but vocalising "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and"

- play quavers then add LH when comfortable


make sure you're constanty asking yourself, am I rushing in front of the tempo or lagging behind?


Boogie Woogie LH riff: LH and RH should be syncing up as you are playing quaver patterns in both hands! just be more conscious of this and you'll settle into the groove of the LH riff


All The Things You Are: RH Melody needs to be more robotic, follow the crotchet melody that's written out in your chart and take note of which beats of the bar the phrases begin and end (and how that effects the left hand chords)


Try playing along with this guy


https://youtu.be/d_51NEg3WCk


Classical piece: if you can take a pic of the music and send to me we can look at it next week

--> I'll send you a chart for Gymnopedie (one of my favourites) as this is great for timing practice too!


 


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Lesson 1 15 /7 /2021


Below are some notes from today's lesson - 15/07/2021: 

Note to Geoff: 

Hey Geoff,

Here's a link to the C Jam Blues dropbox folder --> I will continue to add some more improvisation tracks to help so stay tuned! First backing track is already in there named:C7 to F7 backing track for 4-note improv

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dqsufutuuauk527/AADF1K0hP5YCUFuFy2P9v_Wqa?dl=0

When practising the melody of the blues remember to count in a swung quavers - 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and but thinking long short long short..etc. This should help with the placement and timing of left and right hand parts :)

Restrictive practice is best ! Helps you focus on a minimal amount of things so the 4-note improv should help! You are more than welcome to choose another series of 4 notes if you like - maybe take from the blues scale!

See you next week,

Lauren 


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 All Drop box links

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lanyza96tjk03tk/AABCabIzHIOJlFVVjUoxExj5a?dl=0


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