Counterpoint
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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
Here’s a little 3-part arrangement of “There Will Never Be Another You.” I simply play the melody while holding a simple root-5 bass line underneath, what I talked about in this post. Then I added a guide-tone line in the middle.
Here’s the score.
This is really a starting point. I plan to add a little more [...]
Monday, January 21st, 2008
I’ve always been very interested in improvisation practices in classical music. It was obviously a very respected ability in the baroque era…it seemed a way of showing one’s level of musicianship and creativity. Many musicians like J.S. Bach and Sylvius Leopold Weiss were highly revered for their improvisational skills.
But how was this taught? It’s one [...]
Friday, December 28th, 2007
In an effort to add contrapuntal textures to my playing, I’ve been messing around with species counterpoint and trying to apply it to jazz tunes.
Here is my first attempt, a cantus firmus for the blues in Bb:
So first, I started playing it and improvising a line on top of it in first species. This proved [...]
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
Here’s a simple excercise to start applying some counterpoint to standards. I got the idea from Neil Olmstead’s book Solo Jazz Piano: The Linear Approach.
It consists of playing the melody of the tune along with a simple bass line: the root and 5th of each chord in half-notes. Simple! But it can [...]
Monday, October 29th, 2007
Lately I’ve been obsessed with counterpoint. Not just counterpoint, but the idea of improvising counterpoint. As if that weren’t enough, I want to do it on the guitar!
Now, for those who may not know, having two or more lines going at the same time can be pretty tough on this beloved instrument of [...]
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