iJazzed

Last night, for the first time ever, I officially jazzed in public. It's a weekly big band workshop kinda deal, and I rocked up with my Spear to find three other guitars, bass, drums, and a whole horn and flutes section there. We were given sheets with arrangements (heads, and chord indications) and then told pretty quickly the structure before playing it.

The first tune was the hardest, and really threw me (I learned that while I understand jazz chord notations symbols like - and the triangle, I've yet to become comfortable reading those charts and playing the chords in real time, heh heh) - it was a fast paced bebop tune with a couple of chords per bar and I couldn't grasp the head well enough to use it to know where I was in the music. But, two hours later, I'd officially comped some Mingus, some Hancock, and Parker, and by the end of the night was feeling a lot more comfortable playing. I even managed to play two-note chord stabs on a few tunes, moving nicely between them.. The Hancock was easy to groove to - I like his playing and know his grooves fairly intuitively, so it was comfortable doing that (even though the horns kept losing their place in that one), and I was listening a lot to the other players and varying my playing rhythms and dynamics to accent and support them without drowning anyone out. It's a weekly thing, so I'm hoping a few months from now I'll be able to cope with most/all charts thrown at me and be thinking of interesting voicings to sit with the other guitars without playing the same thing as them all the time. I've vetoed taking solos for the time being so I can work on this here, but will take solos once I've developed my rhythm skills a bit more.

The workshop was followed up by swinging by Studio 2 to listen to some jazz, including a guitarist called Anthony Ormesher who has some very tasty chops and lines - we talked about him giving me lessons in jazz guitar (he tutors and gigs, comes from a jazz-playing family and won a major Best New Jazz Artist award when he was only 18, and I'm confident he really knows what I need to learn). I'm expecting a lot of that to be working on soloing and improvisation, tho I also hope to learn more about jazz guitar in general and how to accompany a soloist better (I mostly listen to jazz where there's no guitar, or the guitar is the soloist so I want to develop playing a range of jazz styles and fitting in well in each). It's also good to have someone jazz-specific on hand who I can ask Qs like "if this chord gets substituted for that chord here, how would you solo over it?" I really appreciate the responses I get here from my theory Qs (thx guys! don't expect my Qs to stop...heh heh), but having someone who can do a quick demo and/or spot me and let me know if it sounds like I've "got it" is a boon too.

The Studio 2 gig is half the night a proper gig, followed by half the night being jamming. I was a little jazzed out last night to participate in the latter, but am planning a Tuesday night jazz "session" where I spend the workshops learning new tunes and developing big band comping skills and chart reading, then getting involved in the jams at Studio 2 to develop my smaller combo comping and soloing.

Throw in lessons with Tony, plus the help I get from guys like Fretsource, NoteBoat. David, et al, with theory on here, and given some time I should become quite the little jazz player. I also learned my Spear is not just my most "jazz" guitar, it's also a great axe for this kind of not-sure-what-you're-gonna-be-doing playing, and a great talking point (the cat's paw prints on the FB were a total hit with everyone and drew a lot of comments, as well as a number of guys trying my baby out and commenting positively on the sounds and build quality).

So, it's official - I now jazz. iJazz, I jazzed, and will continue to do so. In public too. :shock: Without prepping tunes. :shock: Bring it on!