Hi! I'm Ron Drotos and I'll get you improvising with joy, fluency and confidence. Fun and inspiring Jazz, Blues, Rock, Pop piano improv lessons at keyboardimprov.com
Hey Ron, me again... this is one of my favorite Monk tunes! The harmony is a real challenge (on guitar) to get sounding good. I am struggling with it. Playing against a backing track, I am starting to improv effectively, but can see that it is going to be a journey!! Still loving your real book series!
Great! Remember that continuity is more important than doing it every day. If life gets in the way and you have to miss a few days here and there, just come back to it when you can. That's the key.
This is great! I've been going slowly with this one, starting with the melody and adding a simple 1,2,3 in the bass. I'm finding it hard to hear what you are playing in the left hand sometimes. Is this in three or are you doing something else with the left hand?
Apart from playing chords can i use single notes to accompany a song. If so is there a way i can master the sounds of the notes and be comfortable with playing along any song in the key of f#
I remember as children we used to mock jazz pianists and later on we realized it sounded more like Thelonius Monk than anything else which we didn't consider to be a compliment because we hated his style.
Yea! You really took us all over the place with this one. I particularly liked where you briefly put the melody in the left hand and did a little chromatic walk up with the right hand. Very cleaver.
Thanks Mark! I like to play the melody with my LH once in a while. It's a good technical exercise and also leads us to play different pianistic textures. Give it a try!
Hey this was really neat. I have to play this tune 1 time a week at least in philadelphia(I'm an upright player) and I found this to be very informative. It reinforced a lot of what I already know and I learned some new things as well! Cheers
I’ve been meaning to say your improves are sooo good and unique and original everytime, they are really inspirational! ✅ finished today with a flat maj 2-5-1 again.
Hi Ron! I love your arrangement of this classic with Juliet’s vocals ❤ There’s something about how you play a bossa nova that always bubbles out and makes me want to move!
My generation learned (might be slightly older than you) improvisation via Abersold and including all the specific chromatically altered harmonies / chord scales. What this did for me was make me more comfortable with songs that modulate like this one or Along Came Betty or have modal shifts like Fall or my own compositions. But slightly alianated from meat and potatoes diatonic partner close in tonal changes. So in my 50s I realized that's what bebop is actually designed for. Fucking live and learn. But I grew up around two different things old bopper big band retired cats who loved Phil and Dex etcetera. But I also grew up composing and loving Wayne, Kenney Wheeler and Ralph Towner.
I used to play this on the guitar quite a while back, just accompanying sax etc who would do the tune. A pianist who I follow (Chris Durham) did a collaboration with a saxophonist a little while back and it inspired me to ask him for a backing. Well, he put one up and mentioned I asked for it, so I'm sort of obligated to have a go now😂 That bridge definitely has some interesting changes and I think Chris is going faster than the record. I checked out other guitarists playing/teaching their fingerings and it seems to be a general thing to ghost the triplets. But, just as you said, I'm practicing slowly and am trying to get them all in. I will definitely do as you say and try to get some of the little licks to use in the solos. Thank you for the lovely story too. 👍
That's funny. A guy talks about "modal" all the time but not once did i hear a "phrygian" or "lydian" even though in Nardis these scales practically punch you in the face. Recommended recording of Nardis: Chet Baker in 1985.
I love how the message is “listen and play what you hear” and then there is a chord by chord analysis of possible theoretical options and implications, but the original message still shines through. Brilliant as always Ron!
In Ellington's recordings and videos of his live performances, he always played it in concert Bb. For some reason, the Real Book has it in concert Ab. I'm not sure why.
Benn grinding my way through this tune for a couple of months now. Man there's a lot going on. No idea when it'll be session-ready but you gave me some good ideas here. Thanks man.
As a guitarist for many years, I've thought that. Keyboards/piano can be awfully complicated and the people playing them make it that way. I'm sure Ray Charles didn't do that. Excellent video, albeit 6 years late for me.
Great tutorial!!! I still have a question though on improvisation. I know in the head the tune is played twice. First time with Ab7 at the 11th measure then Bb7 on the 2nd time around at the 11th measure. However, it seems like on all the improvisations on this tune the Ab7 at the 11th measure is played throughout the improvisation. Is that basically what's going on?
It is nice to remember the sweet songs of a good man who is one of the few left who truly favours freedom over fame or fitting-in with ferocious fearmongers.
