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Well, in searching for a new way to help my students double time during solos I decided to give Steve Neff's "Approach Note Velocity" book a go.
The youtube clips of his approach reminded me of the lines I often play in the few keys I am very comfortable in. Got the book and realized that I would benefit greatly by working on this myself. Right off the bat it got me playing some appraches and lines I wouldn't normally reach for. And best of all it got me playing in all the keys. I discovered that the sole reason I was comfortable in certain keys is because I already had a vocabulary of approaches. The book leveled the playing field in my uncomfortable keys by providing new vocabulary.
Another killer thing that I have been doing is taking his smaller approach cells and rhythmically displacing them. To aebersold, I'll take Neff's 1st approach and improvise playing all of them on one, then another round on the and of 1, then another round of 2, then beginning the and of 2, etc... This is opening up my awareness of where I am in the bar. Forcing resolutions in locations I never would have otherwise. Cool stuff...
These approaches are also polishing my altissimo register as the cells are very easy to hear and make a nice platform to play them up in that register with a quality tone and intonation.
Get this book... It's great stuff.
The youtube clips of his approach reminded me of the lines I often play in the few keys I am very comfortable in. Got the book and realized that I would benefit greatly by working on this myself. Right off the bat it got me playing some appraches and lines I wouldn't normally reach for. And best of all it got me playing in all the keys. I discovered that the sole reason I was comfortable in certain keys is because I already had a vocabulary of approaches. The book leveled the playing field in my uncomfortable keys by providing new vocabulary.
Another killer thing that I have been doing is taking his smaller approach cells and rhythmically displacing them. To aebersold, I'll take Neff's 1st approach and improvise playing all of them on one, then another round on the and of 1, then another round of 2, then beginning the and of 2, etc... This is opening up my awareness of where I am in the bar. Forcing resolutions in locations I never would have otherwise. Cool stuff...
These approaches are also polishing my altissimo register as the cells are very easy to hear and make a nice platform to play them up in that register with a quality tone and intonation.
Get this book... It's great stuff.
