How to Play a Jazz Solo With GREAT Rhythm
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- Do you struggle with syncopated rhythms? How about odd time signatures? Or changing meters? This is how you learn to do it...
When I moved to NYC in 2000, I was floored by the musicians I met who had impeccable time feels - not only could they swing, but they could also play over extremely complicated song forms that involved changing meters - and still sound relaxed, expressive and spontaneous. I wanted to be able to do that too.
So, I took my drumming background and applied it to vibes: by writing rhythmic etudes for myself. I would force myself to use certain rhythms while improvising - whether it's 4/4 or 15/16 doesn't matter. What matters is that you know what rhythms you are playing while your improvise. The stronger your sense of rhythmic phrasing, the stronger your melodic phrasing will be.
In this video I wrote several rhythmic etudes that I applied in a fairly simple harmonic way - but I hope that you will be able to take the idea and adapt it to whatever song, meter, or style you want.
Rhythms are just like melodies - they can be very memorable and carry the song. So it's important that we treat rhythms with the same importance that we do scales and chords - because quite frankly, without the right rhythm, all that other stuff is moot.
A short overview of the contents:
4/4 swing rhythms
4/4 swing rhythms, but more syncopated :)
5/4 swing rhythms - I ended up playing 'Take Five' the classic from Dave Brubeck
Then for fun, I wrote a 5 bar chord progression that went from 4/4 to 5/8 to 4/4 to 7/8 to 3/4..I soloed over it to show how I practice.
AND of course I transcribed everything - you can find it all at my website as usual ;)
If you enjoy please subscribe! - Hudba
TIM ,YOU ARE BEST THE EDUCATOR ON THE NET.
Nice job - simple yet profound. I'm a guitarist trying to get solo chops together and I've been working on phrasing lately - this fits in really well to that
I couldn´t agree more with your statement. RHYTHM is The GOD
Thank you very much! ❤
Great educational videos, please continue making videos. I've learned so much from ur videos, seriously. I appreciate your work.
Very helpful; thanks. I'm a trumpet player. You'r right; the rhythm is more important than just running the changes.
hey tim! just wanted to say thank you for inspiring me and sparking my inner jazz vibraphonist. i decided to audition for my schools jazz band (ive been doing percussion for 5 yrs and marching band for 2) and i’m happy to say i’ll be starting next year as the Hononegah Jazz Band’s first vibraphonist!! thank you for your videos.
That’s great! I’m glad to hear that.
Top notch lesson ! The best way to put a rythm in context of a song with harmony and melody, but also the best way to put harmony in context with a rythm and melody, and the best way to put melody in context with rythm and harmony. learning with this method cannot become boring. Creativity associated with serious work, the winning pair !
Thanks a lot for this lesson.
danke! was für ein großartiges video!
After teaching thousands of students over 20 years and as a professional musician in Los Angeles I would almost agree with you about rhythm. Rhythm would be secondary the primary most valuable and important thing in music is TIME! Time, time, time! I play with so many musicians and taught so many students that thought that there were so hot they got these cool riffs and lines, but suddenly when you get them on stage with a group their timing was so bad, regardless if the line was cool or not their timing was bad and it sounded off. If you want to know if a musician is good or not check their timing. Timing is God and rhythm is the Son.
Great lesson Tim ! Dizzy Gillespie said the he thought of the rhythm first, then the notes . Rhythm is the answer. Also, you have a couple of great progressions , to just jam a blues pentatonic on.
It’s awesome lesson! Please continue
Thanks for this! I have a jazz concert coming up and I will definitely use these ideas!
This is amazing
Mind blowing 🤯🤯 I am inlove with Jazz more
Gracias maestro por compartir sus valiosos conocimientos, un abrazo
Probably my favorite video of yours. Keep up the great work!
The etude gave me a kind of 70s canterburry scene progrock impression, great vid thnx!
Muy bueno!!!! Muchas gracias! Saludos desde Buenos Aires!
Thank you for this!
Great!! Thanks a lot!
wow!!good work!
Always great🎹❤️🎵🎶🎼
This is probably my biggest weakness out of many lol I’m a guitarist.... need to make my improv more rhythmic everyone say I play the same exact rhythm all the time
yeah thank you for this!
Always prefer a good grove over a solo that sound all over the place
Great!!
Most important thing is playing what you want to hear not exact theory and notation
Another great video! Thanks! I love your dedication and seriousness, CZcams needs more vibraphone players. I wish you could upload more often, but of course, quality over quantity.
Thanks! Yeah once a week is actually quite a bit of work, but maybe in the future I'll be able to do more often!
Great video as always, A question for you: What mallet were you using in your demo and could you at one point have a little discussion about your favorite mallets depending on the style of music you play, etc, etc. Thanks for your generosity and the humour you add to your videos, you rock! :-)
Thanks - I recently discovered these red mallets, Innovative Percussion RS251 - they are my new favorites. I was thinking of doing a review video for them. I will use them for pretty much everything, except maybe if I play duo with a pianist in a very live room, I will use the Albright mallets.
There is a whole lotta publications and music pedagogues that want to make it more complicated than it has to be. Ha ha!
Nice lesson. I'm curious did you randomly pick those rhythms for the first exercise because you thought they'd sound good? Or was there some reasoning behind it?
I picked them because they aren’t too complicated and a good way to get started. Not too much more reasoning though.
I have a solo mostly written, but I just don't know how to end it, any tips?
Blues riffs are always a good way to end :)
Do you have any recommendations in terms of blues solos for vibes? I've been looking around for some ideas to start from and I haven't had too much luck.
This is definitely something I've also had on my mind- a video will be coming soon about it! Possibly also with lots of Milt Jackson riffs as an added benefit.
I also totally forgot that i have an older video about playing blues with pentatonics.. have you see that?
No, I haven't. Thanks for the recommendation and I'll be sure to check that video out
I'm sorry to bother you with this, but do you think you could do a tutorial on writing for big band?
I can play with rhythm and in time, however I can't really count or I loose my place wtf?
Do you count?
I kind of sing/humb melodies and tap my foot on all four beats,and I swing right and left with my body while I'm playing, my right is beats 2 and 4 and left 1 and 3.
Do I really need to count if I can keep it together by feel alone?
I spent hundreds of hours singing with records, snaping my fingers on 2 and 4. Playing with records as well, I guess that helps, I just can't count and play different rhythms while I'm playing 😂
I guess the thing that really helped me was playing drums.. when you study drums - you learn how to play one steady rhythm with one hand -- say, quarter notes -- and ANY other rhythm with the other hand. There's a drum book called "Progressive Steps to syncopation for the modern drummer" from about 100 years ago that works on this very concept. Still totally relevant today. Maybe that will help?
@@TimCollinsVibes Yeah man it would be great if I had access to drums 😂
I tap on my legs already.
Thanks tho
I really like your phrasing
do you give private lessons?
Yeah - over Skype or in person.
@@TimCollinsVibes I'll contact you privately through your page. By the way, I used to play in a band with an older gentleman who studied with the master: Milt Jackson. He showed me pictures, but he didn't have to. Even at 80, this guy sounded like MJ.
@@pickinstone what a story!!! Is it possible to know who is that person ?
What’s your website
What is your website url