Arps Practice Regimen Suggestions

Bones

Hi all,

I'm wondering if people have suggestions for arpeggio practice. I drill the basic major, minor, dominant in 'closed' and 'open' positions but some don't seem very practical or musical.

Any suggestions for arps that are maybe more fun and useful for including in improvisations or is it just a matter of learning the basic arps and then converting to specific licks to start using in solos?

Thanks

bopster

Transcribe Django's solos "Dark Eyes" 1947, "I'll See You In My Dreams" and "Django's Tiger" 1946. Tons of applicable Arps there.

kevingcox

If you don't do this already, practice the arps through the chord changes of a song. When the chord changes, rather than go to the root move to the nearest note of the next chord's arp. Then practice changing 1 beat before the actual change, or one even one beat after.

Jazzaferri

What has worked for me is to work the arps as @kevingcox indicated, however Once the basics are down I add different rules. No starting or ending on the tonic. Must be rhythmically interesting, not straightforward. Sometimes I will limit myself to say only 3rds and 7ths and other such like idiosyncrasies.

jazzygtr

My mind and time practicing is consumed with Rhythm and arpeggios right now. So thanks for posting this question. Looking forward to reading the replies

Ryan Rhea

Are you considered a complete tool if you just blanket a few bars in the key once in a while (say, if the song is in Am and you just play mostly Am shapes over each chord)? I have a tendency to want to do this sometimes, but I don't come from a Jazz background and it sounds fine to me... but I know how important it is to prove you can play over the changes in Jazz (and how important it is to the sound of the genre).

I'm doing remarkably well with it considering I know next to nothing about theory (not for lack of trying). I'm just not used to having to think the whole time when playing. That's throwing me a bit. I'll inevitably keep playing an Am arp long after the E7 has shown up and not even realize it. lol

Again, my ear and playing style has never had to be concerned about the changes, just staying in the key and within the relative scales was good enough. So when a new chord pops up and what I'm playing sounds good it doesn't occur to me at that moment that I may not be outlining the chord tones of that new chord like I should.... the melody often "distracts" me, if you will, from rigidly outlining chord shapes.

Of course, I know this gets much better with time and practice, but for now I'm a bit mystified at how people can craft improv melodies while at once satisfying the onus of showing that they can play the changes all at the same time. That's a bit too Kasparovian for this limited brain, I'm afraid.

RR

Jazzaferri

Hmmm...not sure...but it sounds like your ear isn't hearing the changes.....

Theory is just a way of discussing what is happening musically in English. If you are busy playing Am arps on an E7, either what you are playing is working fine, or your ears need further training. It's not just about the chords, keys, or any of that a fair bit of the time.

If one is playing a song, then there is overall harmonic movement in support of the melodic statement. Keeping that harmonic movement in mind as one improvises gives one a focal,point for ones improv.

If on the other hand, one is just looking to freely improvise, then I think Birds "there are no wrong motes unless you think they are wrong" philosophy comes into place. Either you think what you are playing is right or not.

Catch 22 is whether your audience feels the same way often enough that they like what you play.

kevingcox

While completely agreeing with Jazza, I would suggest Ryan that playing and practicing are (for me) two different things and that relentlessly practicing arpeggios over the changes means that when I am playing I don't have to worry about it very much, just like when I type I don't have to consciously worry about which letters to use and yet I am still following the alphabet.

Jazzaferri

@kevingcox is absolutely on the same page as me. Playing and practicing are completely different processes. Sorry for wandering off on you.


Keep in mind, if you will, how we learn to speak. We hear adults speak to us in sentences. We do not learn the alphabet first, and the the words and then how to put them together.

Take a song you wasn't to learn. Learn the head so that you can sing it. Then work out how to play it. One can get help, (tabs video live) or not. Once you can play the head. Learn a phrase that works over a part of it. Master it. Then deconstruct the harmony by arpeggiating it. Arpeggiate musically, add some passing tones.

Start on the next phrase. Repeat until you have the song down.

A very different approach than is usually taught.

Bones

Ok thanks guys. I'll give that a try....

jonpowl

Gonzalo Bergara's books, How I Learned Vols. 1 & 2, have given me insight on using arpeggios over chords. I don't enjoy practicing arp patterns over and over, but prefer practicing one and two octave arps by neck position and how it sounds, adding extra notes when they sound good. Here is a link to a similar thread http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/11706/importance-of-adding-color-notes-to-arpeggios/p1