Try practising with these BIAB files from Jazzaferri

Lango-Django

These files will only work if you have a program called "Band In A Box" a/k/a BIAB.

They were created by our friend Jazzaferri (thanks Jay!) who uses them for practicing his alto sax.

I haven't tried them all yet, but I did find his mixolydian one good for practising my Givone dominant forms.

As BIAB users know, it's easy to change these files by putting them into any key signature or tempo you wish.


Will

PS If this is a program you like to use, I heartily recommend joining the BIAB users' group at yahoo.com.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Band-in-a-Box/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Band-in-a-Box-Files/

This group offers files for literally thousands of standard jazz/rock/country/etc tunes which have been already made up by other users, and these are available for free after you join the group... most of their GJ tunes tend to be filed in the "French" folder.

Passacaglia

Fantastic, thanks, Jay, and thanks for putting this up, Will.

Jazzaferri

For those that have older versions of BiaB you'll probably have to switch styles. Most guitar players will want to switch styles. I suggest using a style with drums as its easier to get the timing exact.

Lango-Django

I have my own way of using BIAB to practise my Givone forms which may work for other people, too, so I'm going to share it.

What I'm practising right now are the major tonic forms on page 20 and the major dominant forms on page 24. I like to practise them together because it makes sense that way. The only trouble is, you'll have to transpose the forms on either one page or the other to make them match, because in the book they're in G and G7.

So either you can transpose all the 'G' forms on page 20 up a major fourth so you'll have C and G7

Or you can transpose the 'G7' forms on page 24 up a major fifth so you'll have G and D7

Now, personally, I play a lot in F, so I transposed both pages so they'd come out in F and C7, which also works if you don't mind all that transposing.

I was just practising them now with my Band-In-A-Box set for two bars of C7, then two bars of F, then two bars of C7, then two bars of F, etc. etc.

If you do that and set BIAB to a rather slow speed, you'll find if you stay in one position for a while, you'll get to know that position well enough to fool around with the notes and improvise over the forms instead of playing them 'as is', which is what I like to do...

If anybody else out there has their own way of practising their forms that works well for you, please share it!

And speaking of sharing: don't forget, by the end of the month I'm hoping that everyone in the group will share something cool--- but not TOO hard!---- for our "Cut'n'Paste Challenge", by putting a copy of it in our group's Dropbox.

Will