I haven’t been blogging as much lately, but for a really good reason… I finished, and published my first book. [ Sidebar, I actually wrote another book before this one but didn’t publish it. ]
Bebop by the Numbers is now available. Yes, you can buy it.
Now available in 2 different versions. If you want your book to lay flat, while you mark it up and do the exercises, get the spiral bound edition from lulu.com.
Amazon – Paperback Version
[Order on Amazon.com]Lulu – Spiral Bound Version
[Order on Lulu.com]
Why did I write this book?
It was my students and band director friends that told me I should put my crazy way of teaching improv in a book.
I have been working with students of all ages for many years. During that time I have come to understand that everyone learns differently. Some people are visual and they need to see how it works. Some are auditory and need to hear it. Some need to feel it and touch their instrument to connect and feel the flow of the melody, scale, arpeggio, and create their own music.
Creating music is an artform. It can be very discouraging at times for the learner, trying to learn how to be creative. Like other artforms I have tried, sometimes I feel inspired to draw something, but it’s just not right. It just doesn’t look good to me. Well, music is the same way. We try and sometimes it just doesn’t sound good to us.
I have my own names for “Musical Stuff”
“Hey that sounded good, but you should try…. Looping and Weaving…”
I have been looking for ways to give specific advice to students and “that doesn’t sound good” is just not constructive. Maybe the notes they played were perfect, but not in the right place to sound the way they want. Sometimes it’s just putting the notes on the downbeat, and sometimes they need to add a couple more notes to help the line flow a little better for the style we are going for. What follows is the result of many experiments in teaching students, breaking apart the sounds of Bebop into smaller parts, and then reassembling them. Sort of a paint by numbers approach, but different. I wanted to be able to work with a student and say, “you have the bones of a great idea, try adding _______.” I think my students and I, together, have come up with some building blocks that are pretty cool, and will help you develop musical ideas that consistently sound great.
So why numbers?
It started when I began teaching improvisation to beginning jazz band students and writing ideas for them to play on a whiteboard. It didn’t take too long for me to get tired of writing every idea in three different keys. You see, band instruments are in different keys. I have no idea whose idea that was, but as a piano player, I find it fairly crazy. Regardless, I started writing ideas using numbers and told my band kids to figure out what each note was. Of course I would help them if they got stuck, but I was impressed at how quickly they could figure it out.
I also started using numbers to teach my piano students. Specifically talking about the different intervals of the chords and how to embellish the chord tones. I found it useful to talk about the ideas using numbers so my students could transpose them into different keys. I even incorporated using numbers into pedagogy exercises and methods for learning tunes.
Numbers are very helpful. If you can think about the numbers of the scale degrees instead of the letters, you can then translate ideas to different keys more quickly. “What’s the one, what’s the three?” And then in the other key, it’s the same question, just a different answer. You can’t transpose very quickly from one key to the other without using numbers.
I have also done a lot of experimenting with teaching students, testing who learned faster – the students who used notes and their corresponding letters, or the students who went by numbers? In my experience so far, the answer is “Numbers”. Even though they may add an extra step and the students have to figure out how to play the pattern, they tend to learn more quickly, retain better and start coming up with their own ideas sooner than those who learn note by note. My theory is that it’s necessary to make comparisons to play ideas. For example, “This is the minor third, and I’m going to the sixth, the sharp four, then five; I like that sound. Okay, let me try it with this key.“ I don’t see students making those discoveries as quickly when we go note by note and ideas are written out for them.
So for these reasons, I wrote, and now published Bebop by the Numbers.
Enjoy
Now available in 2 different versions. If you want your book to lay flat, while you mark it up and do the exercises, get the spiral bound edition from lulu.com.
Danny Kolke 