Because still nobody join me for creating a practice group, i decide to create this topic to challenge myself and see how i keep this practice going . For myself i still got difficulties to keep this going alone. I 'm interested in so many things. Even about music i love jazz latin , i am discovering funk neosoul, classical music . And even have other instruments bass and doublebass that i still practice… I dont count in all that, the time for my family and my job the daytime not long enough… . Doing all that is already a challenge itself. I hear Hayden speaking about meditation too . I travel in Thailand where i learn some basics with a great Buddhist monk ( just one day long), ; i think this should help me too, not getting insane but still nor regular yet.
But enough talk lets begin !
My goals
for this week 251 minor and learning a new song by memory i already know "song for my father " and a transcription exercice
for the month a new song i never played : my foolish heart
the challenge is written !
P.S.
Anybody can join me here for getting this challenge done ! I will try to write it there each week and will try to take stock of the situation at the end of the month.
i keep the idea of creating a practice group with you all pianogroovers friends !
Thats the version that touch me the most , simple and so effective ; but the singing is more than 50% for it ; and those cats for me does the perfect comping too . Thats the versions that makes me to play it too
Haha, your not getting insane @Pierrot I’m loving your posts and openness Keep them coming.
Also your use of emoji’s should win a badge of some sort here, loving the weightlifter
Not sure if you’ve included this version of “Song for My Father,” but I came across this video tonight and thought I’d share. It’s his quintet from 1968. Fascinating to watch him play. He’s really on here.
Ye great, so joyceful to see Horace Silver playing and getting inside this spicy song . In between really unique style of playing probably not the most impressing, but so effective and personnal , i love that . It 's some fusion between jazz funk bossa blues . In fact all the genres of music i’m in love Thanks @scott1 to point it to me.
We are Tuesday the day to post our videos …. i really hope some of you will join me in my practicing journey … even just posting some exercice about 251 minor … its a challenge for ourself , not a competition so dont need to be perfect played at all . It’s more about seeing at which step we are ourself , and recording ourself ( no need of videos too ) is often already a challenge and hearing ourself even could be painful sometimes ; BUT posting it in the forum is another step to push us to do it better .
Here’s my minor 251s all 12 keys moving around the circle of fifths
For each I play:
ii-7b5
V7b9#5
i-9
I do both Type A & Type B for each, Type A starts with the 1st Inversion for the ii-7b5 chord (b3-b5-b7-R) and then Type B starts with the 3rd inversion (b7-R-b3-b5).
You will see I made a little slip on my last 251 in G, which is all good, it shows which ones I need to practice. There’s also a couple of other hesitations which could have been quicker IMO.
Then experiment with the i-9 chord (we can also land on i-maj7 or the i-69 which sounds beautiful… the latter has a crunchy flavour which you hear a lot in Brazilian/Latin styles)
When I land on the i-7 chord, i sometimes like to bring out the minor line cliche, b7 moving up to maj7, then falling to the b7, then falling again to the 6. This could be a separate exercise in itself, but I like to practice multiple things at ones.
start with the -11b5 chord which is R-11-b5-b7 (see advanced minor 251 lesson here) and move every note up a minor 3rd and you get V7#5#9 - this is more of a modern sound… hard to visualise at first, but comes with time.
Finally at the end of my video, you will see that I stack some 4ths and 5ths on top using my right hand. This gives you a big fat sound which I like to use when comping. Again take around all 12 keys.
Also on that final note, we have 2-handed minor 251s, that is super useful to take around the circle of fifths and really helped me to start visualising the b9s and #9s in all 12 keys.
I’m sure there are many more variations too, that’s what I like to work on. Cheers!
This is awesome Pierre. Minor 251s are super tricky to learn and you are playing them nicely, I like how you are moving that voice around on the i-7 chord.
If I’m correct, you are playing the same in both hands? You are playing b9#5 over each dominant chord, and then when you hit the i- chord, to first play i-9, and then go to 1-69 by dropping the b7 to the 6. Is that correct?
I think it would help if we always explain what we are doing in the videos. Because it’s hard to see the keyboard. Just like I did here:
I think that would help other students understand what is going on, and exactly what the exercise is.
Awesome exercise this week Pierre , I enjoyed revisiting this theory, and it also helped me plan the upcoming practice series on minor 251s.
Wow that’s awesome Pierre beautiful arrangement .
Brilliant control of the melody which is tricky to play, and your improvised sections are really nice, and capture the Brazilian flavour. I’m impressed!
I didn’t actually get time to record myself but I will get around to it when I’m back at my piano in Manchester next week.
ps. I edited your post so that the video embeds properly in the post.
Thanks for your comment, but your to much polite :). Above all, don’t be afraid to criticize me and especially to point out to me the points where I should improve.
So i will do it for you :
grr I miss lot of my 251 and my rhythm is a not as acurate and swinging as i would like it to be. Probably normal because 251 not yet internalized too. I really need to work on this topic a lot and incorporate it in my routine .
In btw , It would be nice to do some course of different comping rhythm and exercice on it this could be a great topic IMPROVING RHYTHM in Jazz , not much about it on the site , or did i miss some lessons (only bossa rhythm from Jovino) ?
About my version of Song for my father ; i realize solo piano on it are rare as pearls and playing it was in fact pretty a big challenge for me. I even prefer not hearing it after recording before to send it .
I have tried to incorporated some montuno but i completly miss what i have prepared for it Maybe Master Jovino could do some 5 minutes or even a whole course on montuno and Cubano rhythm as he does with bossa that would be great ! . Even mutuno are not brazilian rhythm
I also realized that i would never have post those videos if i have not challenge myself here. Good or bad thing … future will tell it
PS What was wrong in my editing of videos , to avoid you wasting your time for next videos.
251 minor rootless voicing ii-7b5 to V7#5b9 to i-9 (voicing 3 on bottom) with an easy minor right hand pattern
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 (in bold the rhythm)
my foolish heart
-learn the A part
-trying to analyse the Carmen Mc Rae version ( arg yes it is in EbM , another challenge )
a question for you Hayden
Here where i am when i just play it reading the leadsheet 3 times. I know there could be a different answer for each players because of our levels and goals. So i post you this honest video just for this.
to challenge myself and see how i keep this practice going . For myself i still got difficulties to keep this going alone. I 'm interested in so many things. Even about music i love jazz latin , i am discovering funk neosoul, classical music . And even have other instruments bass and doublebass that i still practice… I dont count in all that, the time for my family and my job 
the daytime not long enough… 
. Doing all that is already a challenge itself. I hear Hayden speaking about meditation too . I travel in Thailand where i learn some basics with a great Buddhist monk ( just one day long), ; i think this should help me too, not getting insane 
but still nor regular yet.
!
, simple and so effective ; but the singing is more than 50% for it ; and those cats for me does the perfect comping too . Thats the versions that makes me to play it too
come all in water 
here fellows groover 
is for 
next tuesday , and takeoff 
before midnight
…
will supervise 
the flight … and master 
Hayden will groove 
around elegantly 
…
no no !!
, and recording ourself ( no need of videos too ) is often already a challenge 
and hearing ourself even could be painful 
sometimes ; BUT posting it in the forum is another step to push us to do it better 
.
ye need to still work on it too … but no more leadsheet needed this goal is attempted 
, I enjoyed revisiting this theory, and it also helped me plan the upcoming practice series on minor 251s.
beautiful arrangement .
:
. 