Lead sheet downloads

[Ian Thumwood]

Prompted by Jazzrook's link to the Ayler website earlier this month, it is fascinating to see just how many of these websites are offering lead sheets for downloads. The sheets on the Ayler site aren't too clever as they lack harmony parts and I'm not convinced the melodies are correct either. There are a few other sites where amateur musicians have attempted transcriptions and which have errors. I can't criticise too much as I couldn't transcribe anything myself.

Amongst the professional jazz musicians it's am,azing just how much music is available when even a few years ago it was a revelation to buy books on line by composers as diverse as Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny or Herbie Nichols. Prior to this there were various editions of the Real Book and the play-a-longs by Aebersold. I'm not too keen of the Real Book and find playing stuff like "Beautiful Love " or "Blue Bossa" a real pain in the butt. Bascially, it's not interesting. What's great these days is that some contemporary musicians put their music up for download. I've bought Dave Douglas compositions in the past which has been interesting although some of the tunes are too difficult to either read or improvise on. You can appreciate the level at which these players are thinking and I do find this fascinating. I think there are about 2 out of the 8 DD pieces which I rehearsed. The latest downloads have come from David Binney's excellent site. You can order who arrangements form about $3 and his tunes aren't too tricky. Given that Binney's music has the parts written out, the music is brilliant to play as the music sits together better. I have also looked at Migeul Zenon's musi but I think he was joking when he posted the leadsheets on line as no one less than brilliant is going to be able to suss tunes where the time signatures shift so frequently. The two Binney tunes are great though!


I wonder if anyone else had investigated other sites and ncome up trumps?

[Tenor Freak]

Nah, I still own my old Real Book even though all the changes are wrong wrong wrong and there's a preponderance of Steve Swallow/Gary Burton/Chick Corea tunes. (Not surprising given that it's reputed to have been put together by Swallow when he was teaching at Berklee).

The best way to learn this stuff is to do it by ear, which I think I agree with, even though it's a pain in the arse to do. See this website which has a lot of sensible advice on improvising, learning changes etc:

http://jazzadvice.com/

Top tip from them:

Forget the lead sheet. Anything you learn with your mind and not your ear will not stay with you unless you constantly review it. Anything you truly learn with your ear will stay with you for a lifetime. Here are some things that if put into practice, will make you wonder why you hadn’t been learning tunes from recordings all along.

[Ian Thumwood]

Bruce

I agree with your comments to an extent. When I was having lessons my teacher used to say exactly the same but this is all well and good when you are playing standards, Monk or blues. In this cases I'm confident with substitutions. However, I think that with alot of contemporary jazz is that the harmony has moved well beyond this and you need amazing ears to work out how this works. I wish I could do this better but with the likes of Metheny, Douglas, Harrell or Binney the harmony is all based upon inversions with the bass notes not necessarily belong to the same key as the chord. I've also seen The lead sheets for tunes like Zenon's "Ceremonial" which I have seen are arrangements and so complex that they are beyond transciption. Personally, they are excellent at showing you how the music works and I would suggest invaluable at understanding how contemporary jazz works.

Here are some sites where you can get lead sheets either for free or for a nominal fee:-

1. Eri Yamamoto

http://www.eriyamamoto.com/index.htm

2. Dave douglas

http://www.greenleafmusic.com/store/sheet-music

3. David Binney ~ these are actually scores with complete parts for ensembles. The tunes work out at around £2.50 each

http://www.davidbinney.com/

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Ian

[Tenor Freak]

You may need amazing ears, but you could do something else. Either enrol on a jazz course at a music college somewhere, or just ask for some lessons from your favourite musicians. One of the best pieces of advice I have read is by Mark Levine in The Jazz Theory Book which is to get as many lessons as you can from the masters. He mentions having a lesson from Barry Harris which changed his approach to jazz fundamentally. I had a lesson from Iain Ballamy a few years ago and I'd ask others too if I had the bread. You could go trans Atlantic too - quite a few offer lessons via Skype (David Binney does this I see) or just fly over to NYC for a few days and give Vienne a rest.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i thought someone was at the roof of our broad church for a minute there ...



meme wars

[Ian Thumwood]

That books looks like heavy reading, Calum.

Picking up on Bruce's comment, I think that jazz courses are generally hit and miss. Some people are hopeless at teaching or don't really anything of practical benefit. I've been to a Q&A session with Tim Berne on two occasions and gained very little of practical benefit even though I loved the music that followed. During the last session, the most interesting remarks actually came from Craig Taborn and Tom Raney. Berne himself, seemed almost reluctant to offer any insights. This is not untypical. Last year I went to a workshop with Tigran and he simply used the session to massage his own ego. The best musician by a long chalk was Michael Brecker whose advice was both practical and sensible. Simon Purcell in the UK is probably the best teacher I've ever encountered amongst professional jazz musicians.

Worksops are all well and good. My experience is that they either concentrate on reading scores and go about the basics of chords and scales. I've never encountered any teacher during a workshop who has shown you alternative whays of expressing yourself or offered alternative harmonies. Some of Bruce's advise is good but I really believe you won't get an insight in to a player's style by a better whay that reading their lead sheets. You can also use other text books to show you how to build changes / scales from the harmonies in the manuscript or rely on your own knowledge. I don't have a great deal of technique nor do I have a comprehensive understanding of theory. Reading these lead sheets are fascinating and also far more interesting than the Real Book which bores me shit-less, regardless of the quality of the transcriptions. personally, I hate playing standards like "Beautiful love" or "Autumn leaves" and amongst the friends I rehearse with, the more obscure tunes are the ones that everyone enjoys playing most. Bruce is correct that a good proportion of the book is obsolete insofar no one ever calls the contemporary tunes from 1970's when the book was written not least because they are often incomplete or unfashionable.

The Binney downloads are excellent as they are not too difficult. (Simpler than the DD or Metheny charts.) I only really play for my own amusement and therefore not too fussed about studying seriously - anymore than I would train for squash. ) Personally, this music is much better than the usual Cole Porter or even the "Modern" jazz stuff you often find in the Real Book. Curious to see charts like "Line for Lyons" not being anymore adventurous than something like "Gee baby ain't I good to you." Compare and contrast with DD, TH, DB or PM where they are using a different musical language.

[Serial_Apologist]

That books looks like heavy reading, Calum.

Picking up on Bruce's comment, I think that jazz courses are generally hit and miss. Some people are hopeless at teaching or don't really anything of practical benefit. I've been to a Q&A session with Tim Berne on two occasions and gained very little of practical benefit even though I loved the music that followed. During the last session, the most interesting remarks actually came from Craig Taborn and Tom Raney. Berne himself, seemed almost reluctant to offer any insights. This is not untypical. Last year I went to a workshop with Tigran and he simply used the session to massage his own ego. The best musician by a long chalk was Michael Brecker whose advice was both practical and sensible. Simon Purcell in the UK is probably the best teacher I've ever encountered amongst professional jazz musicians.

Worksops are all well and good. My experience is that they either concentrate on reading scores and go about the basics of chords and scales. I've never encountered any teacher during a workshop who has shown you alternative whays of expressing yourself or offered alternative harmonies. Some of Bruce's advise is good but I really believe you won't get an insight in to a player's style by a better whay that reading their lead sheets. You can also use other text books to show you how to build changes / scales from the harmonies in the manuscript or rely on your own knowledge. I don't have a great deal of technique nor do I have a comprehensive understanding of theory. Reading these lead sheets are fascinating and also far more interesting than the Real Book which bores me shit-less, regardless of the quality of the transcriptions. personally, I hate playing standards like "Beautiful love" or "Autumn leaves" and amongst the friends I rehearse with, the more obscure tunes are the ones that everyone enjoys playing most. Bruce is correct that a good proportion of the book is obsolete insofar no one ever calls the contemporary tunes from 1970's when the book was written not least because they are often incomplete or unfashionable.

The Binney downloads are excellent as they are not too difficult. (Simpler than the DD or Metheny charts.) I only really play for my own amusement and therefore not too fussed about studying seriously - anymore than I would train for squash. ) Personally, this music is much better than the usual Cole Porter or even the "Modern" jazz stuff you often find in the Real Book. Curious to see charts like "Line for Lyons" not being anymore adventurous than something like "Gee baby ain't I good to you." Compare and contrast with DD, TH, DB or PM where they are using a different musical language.

I guess I've managed to discover harmony for myself, improvising at the piano, admittedly with a bit of background in classical music, ie pieces by English composers such as John Ireland and Bax which harmonically seem to prefigure quite a lot of jazz post-Bill Evans. I remember after a Mike Garrrick gig going up to the piano, (I must have been p*****!), and trying to play a well-known standard. I told Garrick that I could never figure out how to return to the original key from the bridge. "Ah, just come on one of our courses; no worries, we'll soon put you right!" he said, smiling. Iirc his course was 2 days residential, somewhere out in the styx, and charged something like £300. I remember a Radio 3 programme titled "Jazz Piano" or some such in which examples and recordings from different styles and periods were played. Simon Purcell - a very good, too little exposed Herbie Hancock-influenced player btw - was on, elucidating the respective playing methods of, iirc, Hines, Tatum, Powell, Monk and Jarrett - and himself gave an example of stride piano with a remark to the effect that one needed to have a good left hand aim to play this!

[Tenor Freak]

I wasn't talking about workshops, but actual courses at colleges where you may get some instruction on contemporary jazz harmonies if that's what you want to do.

Workshops are OK but you generally end up playing "All the things you are"

[Ian Thumwood]

Most of the books on harmony I have seem to deal with A and B form voicings or even consecutive fourths. However, the piano has move well beyond that although it is fascinating from the lead sheets to understand which musicians are actually the most adventurous. Although the first composer to really mix harmonies up on the piano is in my opinion Herbie Nichols (totally go away from minor-dominant-major patterns or even conventional Western harmonies in pieces like "Karna kangi" ) but I feel Wayne Shorter is probably more influential than anyone else in opening up jazz harmony and structure in composition. I don't understand the logic behind his harmonies but you can clearly see how someone like Tom Harrell followed his items. What I like about these tunes is that the themes sound "progressive" whereas it is difficult to make the same sounds with other work like standards even if I can "stretch" blues harmonies, especially if in minor keys, quite readily.

In my opinion, it's all well and good playing unusual scales or putting substitutions in yet to hear how jazz musicians really construct harmonies nowadays.

Oddily enough, one of my work workshops / masterclasses I went to as a 16 y.o. was given by Michael Garrick. That involved playing something like "All the things you are" and was used as an exercise to practice circle of fifths. I didn't understand anything at the time. When I had lessons, everything was harmonised by ear albeit all the harmonies would be littered with accidentals. I think I have said before on this board that contemporary jazz seems to be about extending the harmonies at the bottom whereas bebop / intervallic jazz that emerged between Bird and Coltrane seemed to be about building extensions up from the top.

Curious to read the Ayler transcriptions o n the site Jazzrook linked to as they had no harmony. There are also a few others which people have posted changes too yet I'm not convinced by all of those either.