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Hello all-
Angelo here. I’m looking for some direction here. Here’s the scoop:
1) I know how to voice tunes
2) I forget them once I memorize them and that leads to frustration.
3) GOAL: Play on the fly from
fakebooks.4) Markham has suggested piano time might be separated into two distinct
times: play and practice.5) I’m looking for some advice how I might similarly separate my practice time (like #4 above) into what specific segments?
6) For example, what percentage of practice time might be dedicated to the following:
A]Playing tunes already memorized?
B]Learning newly voiced tunes?
C]Am I missing something?7) What to do as after two songs or so memorized, I start to forget them? To Markham and others who might be able to play on the fly from fakebooks, how did you reconcile the problem of not being able to memorize more than a handful of songs without getting too frustrated?
I do realize that my traveling in and out of the method does not lead to real internalization of more than a few “clusters,” but nonetheless, any advice about how to specifically devote time to what specific topics would be helpful.
Any specific advice regarding numbers 6 and 7 above would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks again 🎹
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Hi Angelo,
I’d say three things:
1. There’s no formula that fits all for what you want to do with your practice time. Experiment, find out what works for you – or works for you now.
2. I “read” fake books to get a little refreshed and see if there are other tunes I want to spend some time with. I also use fake books to refresh my memory of songs I used to play a lot.
3. I don’t “know” tunes as well as I think I do – you probably don’t either. You have to play tunes a lot and make and correct a lot of errors to get them deeply into your hands. It’s a lesson I’m still learning. I’ve picked up “Misty” again after not really playing it for a couple decades. I’m learning that I just got bored with it, I didn’t really learn it. Now I’m spending more time thinking about how the song feels to me and how else I might want it to feel.
You might also find William Westney’s book “The Perfect Wrong Note” inspirational and helpful.
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Hi Angelo, in addition to agreeing with David’s comment, I would make one observation. Suds talked about getting the chord shapes into your hands. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me at first, but do it awhile and it will make a lot more sense. What I mean is that your hands get used to automatically playing certain shapes when you see a chord. And by see, I mean either on paper, or just in your mind.
So if you see/think a D7, your right hand is so used to playing that C-Eb-F#-G# shape as inner voices, you put your hand to keyboard and it just comes out. The only way it becomes automatic is to use it a lot.
Here’s an example of one of my songs, which I arranged myself, where basically I am just playing these shapes. Plus a little stride bass from playing Joplin.
So, personally I have never had a “practice” time per se. It’s just – sitting down and playing songs. I believe Suds would have agreed with that philosophy. I think he also talked about learning scales. I know scales pretty well from playing over the years. But if not for you, I can see your “practice” time being playing scales and the rest of your time “playing great songs” (I believe that’s a Suds quote, it’s been awhile).
Remember also, you don’t have to play them exactly the same every time, or even get all the color tones in. Nobody will know or care. Suds said you “must” have all those color tones, but then he followed it up by saying that’s the goal, to hand your hand fall to them naturally. Even some of the dot songs don’t have them all.
Best wishes with it!
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Hi Gary – I enjoyed your rendition of “September Song”. As you may know, Kurt Weill, who wrote the song, has an interesting back story. He composed a number of orchestral works and collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on several stage productions. He believed in writing songs that had a socially useful purpose.
He fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and ended up in New York where the Broadway debut of his musical “Three Penny Opera” opened to mixed reviews – although a song from the musical found its way into the jazz lexicon: “Mack the Knife”. He became more immersed in American popular music and among the songs I know of his is an interesting collaboration with Ogden Nash titled “Speak Low” – Nash’s one and only foray into writing song lyrics.
Angelo – if you’re still mashing about with “play” and “practice”, I have some other thoughts that I’m hoping to share in a newsletter that I’ve been putting off for way too long.
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Thanks David! I was just last night suggesting a friend check out the site and Suds’ materials. They were huge for me, opening up my eyes to something I’d never dreamed I could do. You are doing an awesome job keeping things going here.
I did not know that backstory, thank you for sharing. A couple things about September Song. It’s obviously most closely associated with Jimmy Durante, but Sinatra did a great duet version of it together with John Denver on the 1977 TV special Sinatra and Friends. By that time, Frank’s voice was not as versatile as it had been (although I am a huge Sinatra fan, and still believe his 1982 Concert for the Americas is one of the greatest live performances of all time). But this song really highlights John Denver’s amazingly pure voice. I had long dismissed John Denver, but I may have to go back and listen to him again.
Also, it seems like a lot of people think of September Song as a sad tune. But I disagree. When done with feeling – as with so many songs Sinatra sang – the final A part (“these golden days… I’ll spend them with you”) is a beautifully touching song of lifelong love. Sinatra has really been my mentor in singing. I love the way he does the final A part of songs like You Make Me Feel So Young, My Funny Valentine, and maybe most remarkable of all Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. Just listen to this:
Thanks for all you do.
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Hi sleddog999!
You should see a ‘Student home’ menu option to the left of the ‘Home’ menu option. Just mouse over/hover over Student Home, and in the dropdown, you should see ‘My Homepage’. Click ‘My Homepage’, and toward the middle of the page, you should see a link for ‘Sudnow Method Lessons’. Clicking that should take you to your lessons.
If you haven’t already, and if you need further help, send an email to markham@sudnow.com.
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