I think he means play what you hear in your brain

In my opinion, you are absolutely correct. After 40+ years of playing all other styles of guitar, I am starting to learn Jazz guitar. I am listening to all the great Jazz guitarists, learning some standards from Jazz fake books etc. I learn much quicker by watching other players. This is how I have learned all other music styles. jazz is no different. You can make it as complex as you like, I'm always going to make it easier for me to get straight to playing and enjoying building that muscle memory. I think the great Jazz guitarists like Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery did it this way, too. I'm in good company!! You can add your unique feel, timing, etc, later. Great observations 😊

Great vid Christiaan, I decoded the 'simultaneous sing/whistle/play' party trick some time ago. Your ear is reacting to the note you play on the guitar first. within a few 100ths of a second, and THEN you reproduce the note with the mouth, but the illusion makes it sound like you're instantly manifesting your internal ideas on the guitar like a musical wizard :D ..... It's still a valuable trick however, (and still not easy to do if your ear isn't great!) and it can really make you feel connected to your instrument, and your lines. I'm glad you've discovered this hidden 'secret' as well :D

@Lou-oc3jv

3 жыл бұрын

"Your ear is reacting to the note you play on the guitar first"... But I think that note was felt (thought) before the playing and then makes sense such idea of play what you hear inside your mind. You can listen to a progression without your instrument and think about the melodies you can play or what you would like to listen to someone playing and then grab the guitar and find where the notes are. Some guys can find something different than arpeggios from up to down and scales and enclosures from down to up!

Enjoyable and thought provoking. I am convinced that your approach produces many players at a high standard of technical capability. Indeed the campsite at Samoreau is now crowded with players playing at phenomenal tempos and reproducing amazing licks who have learnt this way. Where I differ is that I think that it can be a soulless experience to listen to. Tcha can play very simply and tear at your heart strings . In my opinion this is because he is connected to the sound of the music at a deep emotional level. Establishing this connection is what I would contend is the value of ear training. Also jazz transcribing is a method of ear training, so maybe the method you advocate is in itself “ear training “. Anyway thanks Christiaan very engaging.

@justsaying7512

3 жыл бұрын

Tcha is the perfect example to give to make this point. Well said. John Mayer says the same thing - kzread.info/dash/bejne/nmFlqLqJY63SYsY.html

@Clomwellschimdt

3 жыл бұрын

I think another way to look at is that IN ORDER to get the soul and feel of the music, you have to step onto the shoes of the masters, and the players you enjoy, and try to feel what it feels like to play like them. Duved Dunayevski is a good example of somebody who plays with an amazing amount of soul but he mostly plays django ideas. And because he’s studied him so much he actually FEELS like django, not like a robot copying his licks. Learning licks should be a way into the music, but it can’t be purely mechanical, you must internalize the feeling of the phrases and vocabulary.

Possibly your best video yet. Really like the discussion around the first 2 videos. One of my favourite questions, what is really happening when people say they are "improvising"? Would be interested in your take on Lee Konitz's paper "Art of Improvisation" in U of Michigan Press. I agree with your position as to what really matters in the practice room. I got a degree in "jazz guitar performance" only to find myself turning to your teaching to help me learn how to really play. The secret is simple, and not so secret. Still, the conversation around what is happening psychologically is fascinating. Sam Harris has a short book, "Free Will", that gets into what our brain is actually doing when we're in that flow state, coming up with phrases on the spot. Short answer, it's impossible to be conscious of what's really happening. Perhaps that's why there is so much debate around the semantics of it. Seems even masters of the craft are poor at putting it into words. You are one of the few striving to word it clearly so that others can be successful learning. Thank you.

I think you didnt get what barney means...

I agree that there seems to be an overfocus on ear training in jazz education. Without application leading the way first, your fingers will never actually follow your ear. I could study ear training for a lifetime, but would that lead me to create superimpositions like George Benson. Nope!

@aheadofmetal

3 жыл бұрын

Also, i think ear training is important, but more because it helps you compartmentalize your ideas.

I lke these video's with your deconstructed Solo and Lick video's of the great player's. Great work and sound.

Barney uses the word "imagine" Which is IMAGE picture, visualization.You can see the fretboard but you can only auraly channel music.

Off the bat I can think of one everyday situation where a good ear is super useful to an accompanyist. In the blues, after you come off the IV into bars 7 - 8, the soloist is going to think of either the (II)V7 of II or (II)V7 of V. So when comping if you care about making the whole thing neat and clean, you gotta react to it and play either (In C) Em7-A7 (or just C) or Ebm7-Ab7 (or just Ebdim7), and it'll probably be different every chorus. Applies to a bunch of standards too. But overall in the message I think you're still correct. Thanks for the quality content once again Chris

Chicken or egg? Modern jazz education insists that it's chicken. Christiaan quite rightly points out that it's egg and always has been.

re: ear training it seems like a 'correlation vs causation' style error and it comes out strongly in educational settings. It is likely true that the better players have better aural recognition as a result of transcribing more, playing more / for longer, having better teachers / overall conditioning, and genetic / nervous system factors etc. The mistake then is thinking that a. having good ear training is a necessary condition for being a good player and (more importantly) b. that if your ear training improves then you will magically be a better player. This is an appealing proposition because you can relatively easily improve your interval recognition and get an 'A' on a test, whereas becoming a better player requires some serious insight and problem solving skills, which thankfully Christiaan is helping us out with. Awesome video Christiaan, really liking this 'reaction' format, many thanks for all of your content.

How do you get ideas to use with this concept? First, start with hearing the melodies to tunes in your head and try to play those just from what you hear in your head. Then you do what every other competent jazz player has done: get with recordings of great players and start picking what they are playing by ear, starting with simple, short phrases at medium to slow tempos. Do not write these down. Learn to play them solely by ear. Then start taking those phrases and try making up your own variations of them. After you have done enough of this, you will have some basis to start doing what Kessel is talking about.

Transcribe Transcribe Transcribe.....then analyze the transcriptions from a theoretical point of view. Or...for those insanely gifted individuals just copy what the masters are doing and go from there. Analysis really works for me by making me a better player.

The best thing that you can search after this, is the work by the music educator Edwin Gordon that calls this as "audiation", this phenomena refers to the ability to reproduce sound in your mind, like you can imagine a colour without seing it. Like imagining the sound of a chord quality, or a phrase, or whatever. This only possible as you said if you already listened to that particular sound or group of sounds and internalized it, like you can't imagine a colour that you've never seen before.... so obviously Barney is not considering to make clear that all the music that he heard before is in fact the basis for his improvisations. I totally agree with you about the singin' part once what's important is to have a musical intention before playing, doesn't matter if you are totally aware of the notes and you're able to reproduce them on the voice cause in the end of the day you want to play guitar and not to become Pavarotti. It's funny that he doesn't botter to explain that the things that he sing or whistle actually come from the things he heard before or even the ones that he played before, so in the end you sing what you play and play what you sing. I thing this is very useful because you want to create a dettachment from the instrument and still have the music with you, so you can feel that the music comes from you rather than from the guitar and all your knowlodge from the fretboard and all the fingerings that you see, in a way that you are focused about the aural aspect of sound rather than the visual aspect of the instrument. I think one can achieve this by spending a lot of time thinking about what one plays, and just try to lie on your bed and imagine what you play, play imaginary guitar in your mind, try to imagine the fretboard, you playing it, and the sound that comes from the instrument while thinking about the harmonic context or quality, The more you develop this ability to reproduce music in your mind, even if it comes from the stuff that you play, it will in fact help you to feel that you are in command of what you play instead of letting your fingers and muscle memory decide for you, and your creativity is sleeping cause your are on auto pilot mode.

@duartesilva158

3 жыл бұрын

Of course i don't think there's a great practical aspect of this if this music you play is too complex to sing, but you can always imagine it by the impact it creates on you when you listen to that particular chordm line, bla bla bla. Again I love this type of videos you're making now, your sarcasm is very funny man!

Two thoughts. First, how important is (almost) simultanious singing and playing? I'm just thinking of trumpet players, flute players and so on who - for obvious reasons - can't do it but nevertheless can become brilliant musicians. Second, take a well known lick or melody, sing it and play it at the same time on guitar , then listen to it, slowing it down extremely. Will it be absolutely perfect in sync? I don't know the answer, but I'm afraid it's "No".

Music is our God , the theory is our theology.frases are prophecies without words.solos are our prayers.

recently found a Ted Gioia channel, doesn't give music instruction, but he seems to be a good historical Jazz analyst.

@Harry-zc8rg

3 жыл бұрын

Ted is a legendary author. If you can, I recommend you pick up his book the Jazz Standards. It is a very good guide to standards, including recommended recordings from various masters for each one, and a short background story of each standard.

@7thson341

3 жыл бұрын

@@Harry-zc8rg thanks I'll take note of it. He has good discussions. I totally have similar views on the status of "music" today. Great vids

Ok you manage very well music technology and you play well too but maybe use this video to explain your theory about "playing what you ear" it's a little bit "out of theme". Let me explain, if you read old interviews about Barney and you perceive his approch to music you understand more deep sense of his words. When he talk about playing what you ear, it's because in that years last 70' and especially 80', jazz music enter in a decade of contaminations that in many cases "attacks" the nature of early jazz, it became a product to sell like everything, Barney is not completely out of that system because he work a lot for music and TV industry but he felt maybe that something was completely lost forever. So in many cases especially when he learn, he remind this aspect to play what you ear, this is not means don't use licks or something else, like you said guitar improvisations of Barney have a lots of that patterns licks that when you listen to remind to him, that early remind to Charlie Christian...I think that we must to "use" this Barney's lesson in a different prospective, however a lot of your conclusions are very interested, and congratulations for your video...Barney is my mentore and i will really appreciate if you did other videos about him and his music.

It's interesting how your AP stops at G3, Violin thing right? I have the ability to find/identify any note but it's not AP because I can't do it without a reference. I just have several notes all the time floating in the back of my brain that I can relate to in order to simulate a slow perfect pitch. Ab and F are strongest, from the period I spent grinding Donna Lee after learning Indiana

@TypingHazard

3 жыл бұрын

I experience this too. I generally have to "remember" a pitch by recalling a tune in that key or that starts on that note. I tend to get flustered by G, Eb, and B. Most other notes I identify correctly. Not-so-much if they're buried in a piano player doing like their whole arm on a keyboard (i think of them as "elbow chords", C elbow 7) but if it's a phrase or a triad or a seventh chord I'm usually good to figure it out without an instrument. I'm better at it if I'm doing a lot of transcribing. It comes and goes.

agree 100% and have wasted so much time in the past with bad advice from exerts whether intentional or not

You are the Xu Xiaodong of jazz.

John Mayer says the same thing as Kessel - kzread.info/dash/bejne/nmFlqLqJY63SYsY.html .. Learning licks by rote is fine. But then you gotta learn to use them to say something.

Too much emphasis on copying! The main problem is that many especially guitarists can't hear chords consistently! Lines are based on rhythmic impulses that are loose and hip. There are only 12 tones and basic chord types. Since you have perfect pitch you already know how to hear! Most don't have PP including ,Coltrane, Hubbard Martin Taylor,GB,Bill Evans and others. Relative is better for Jazz note rote memorized hearings. The other aspect is soul that you are aware of but isn't easy to explain. Just listen to the Innovators who were/are loose and hip! Copying them only reflects them not us!