The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: mnhnhyouh
Date: 2014-07-19 07:25
Have been playing for about 8 months, working hard on scales and progressing through the Jamey Aebersold book Volume 1, How to Play Jazz and Improvise.
I am up to Exercise 12 and 13. This has me playing minor scales up to the 9th, up, down and back up again. I know these scales very well, but the backing track is at 130 bpm, and the scales are played in 1/8 notes.
I just cant keep up!
I have been concentrating on keeping my fingers close to the keys.
I have practiced very slowly, 80bpm playing on the 1/4 notes, and going faster and faster, but when I get to about 100 bmp on the 1/8 notes it starts to get ragged, and at 130 is sloppy with missed notes, bad fingering, and when the notes do sound the timing is uneven.
For the last 2 months I have been stuck here. I leave it alone for a week and work on other things, but keep coming back. I have done it in the lower register in an ok fashion, but the upper register crosses the break, and that is part of the problem.
The three scales (in Bb) are G-7, F-7 and E-7.
First, can someone who knows this book tell me if I am reading it correctly? Is this the speed it should be played at?
Second, if this is the right speed, what can I do?
h
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Author: Bennett ★2017
Date: 2014-07-19 07:50
There's a technical solution called the Amaziing Slow Downer at http://ronimusic.com/ The program lets you slow music on a CD (or other source) without changing the pitch. It might help you slowly work your way to 1/8's at 130 bpm - which I think is pretty fast after only 8 months of playing. There's a free trial version; the real thing costs $50 for Mac or Windows.
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Author: James Langdell
Date: 2014-07-19 08:56
A number of the Aebersold books, including Vol 1, have slower tempo CDs available. The current edition of Vol 1 even includes a pair of CDs (slower and full tempo).
http://www.jazzbooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JAJAZZ&Product_Code=V01DSLOW&Category_Code=SLOWCD#.U8n6NFZhlrI
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2014-07-19 20:02
Turn off the recorded accompaniment and play it slowly with the metronome until you have it nailed. Then do a notch-by-notch speeding up until you reach tempo.
If you can't reach tempo no matter how much time you spend on it is a sign that you are not advanced enough to do it yet.
The other help is to turn the piece into a two-beat rhythm and tongue the "ands", as in; "one-AND-two-AND etc.", the ANDS being tongued and the ones and twos being slurred. "uuh-TOO-uuh-TOO-uuh-TOO". Then slowly play the piece using that articulation.
bruno>
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Author: afmdoclaw
Date: 2014-07-20 18:55
All good advice but I second Bennett's recommendation-- invest in transcription software. My fav is TRANSCRIBE! available on line for ~$ 40.00
Great learning tool and a lot of fun. Slow it till you play it, then speed it up IN EVERY KEY TOO
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