Givone phrases learned... now what ??

anthon_74

Okay folks –

So I finally have all the major6/9, minor6, and dominant 7th chord form phrases in my fingers (at least enough to practice them to play alongs). (I haven't got the minor 7ths down yet, as my brain can only hold so much)....

Now I am trying to figure out how to proceed. The main challenge in typical Django playalongs is that the givone form phrases are 3 to 4 measures long, but not many songs stay on a chord that long. Granted you have your 'sweet Georgia browns' where you stay on a chord for 4 measures, but I want to also work on songs like ‘All of me’ which is 2 measures per chord (until the last part of the B section).

SO…..

What have you all tried ?

Right now, I’m trying to pick ONE form, play as much of it over each change as possible… Then pick another form and do that one… and so on.

Another thing I’m thinking of trying to do is to split the form in half, go up the forms only on one pass through the song, and then go DOWN the forms only on the other pass.

Other plans ???? Other ideas on getting these forms out of practice and into application ??

Thanks !

Lango-Django

I already e-mailed a response to Anthony, so I'm not going to repost it here.

Besides, I feel like me and my big mouth have been wasting way too many electrons around this joint, so I am hoping to slip a bit further into the background.

I know this group includes some great players and/or writers, so I'm hoping some of you guys will post some thoughtful responses to Anthony's excellent question.

Regards,

Will

spud

now try to see how to make the forms work FOR YOU. to use them over 2 bar chords changes you can try thse things:
-cut it in half
-begin in the middle of the phrase
-use only a few notes from the phrase/play with the space between the notes
- play with repeating small sequences of notes
- play around with the rhythm, start at different places, longer/shorter durations of notes
- jump from one part of a phrase to another, so you are not always going from one string to the one next to it.

you get the idea, the possibilities are endless.

and in doing so you will also find how the different forms can interlace over chords changes, what are the common notes and the "different notes" between chords.
your idea of just sticking to one form, on area of the fretboard is a good one for this.

you will need to start turning the forms, and the connection of these forms, into phrases. keep the melody of the song in the back of your head too, it will help you with phrasing.

start very slowly and work on small passages of songs and slowly work on longer passages and build up the tempo.

Spalo

anthon_74 wrote:

Okay folks –

So I finally have all the major6/9, minor6, and dominant 7th chord form phrases in my fingers (at least enough to practice them to play alongs). (I haven't got the minor 7ths down yet, as my brain can only hold so much)....

Where are the minor 7th forms in the book?

Sp

Lango-Django

I think Anthony was using shorthand to refer to the "dominant-in-a-minor-context" forms on page 26.

But, yeah! I thought the same thing when I first saw "minor seventh"!

Will

anthon_74

Lango-Django wrote:

I think Anthony was using shorthand to refer to the "dominant-in-a-minor-context" forms on page 26.

Actually I had NO IDEA that's what that page was ! I can't read french and I just saw the word minor, and below it G7 and figured it was minor 7th forms... Hmmm.... I was thinking I would wait to learn those but now that I know what they really are I'm gonna have to tackle them ASAP...

Funny the things you discover !

Anthony

Spalo

I see now - the 7th forms you use when in a minor key - i thought I had some pages missing!

Sp

spud

In fact it too me a long time to understand it too, and i speak french! the "dans en contexte mineur" section is for any dominant that LEADS to à minor chord. it can happen in a minor key like les yeux noir or in a in à major key like the a7-dm in all of me. its not very well explained in his text. anyhow thats how i use them (when i can think fast enough!)

Lango-Django

Anthony, you are totally fearless to get right into those minor forms so quickly!

I'm still struggling trying to get the major forms really and truly mixed into my playing.

Anyway--- bonne chance!

And once again, if it were me, I'd transpose either the minor tonic forms up a fourth to C minor, or else transpose the dominant forms up a fifth to D7, in order to practise matching tonic and dominant forms together.

By the way, good luck with that form 3 "C minor" shape, I found the fingering really weird. It didn't match anything I'd ever used before and my fingers just didn't like it, you know what I mean? I'm still not sure if it's really something I'll ever use in real life.

Will

Jazzaferri

I was reading somewhere a comment from a really good jazz musician (internationally famous etc etc) whose name I can't recall ATM. That it usually took about 6 months for the stuff he was practicing on to show up in his playing.

Lango-Django

Great, Jay, then let me think about that.... okay, this top player is likely ten times better than me and practises ten times as much... so... let's do the math... hmmm... six months times ten..

... that's sixty months

.. which is 5 years...

Yep! Sounds about right!