A while ago, I was teaching at the Glamorgan Summer School. Mr. Jack Jones, the trumpet player (and retired maths teacher, and ultra nice guy) in my class, told me this story of the ancestry of a male bee. Sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
Females come from the fertilised eggs.
Males come from the unfertilized eggs.
So, a female bee has a mother and father. And a male bee has only a mother – a mummy’s bee, if you like.
Here’s a little diagram to show you this sequence.
At the top of the diagram is a male bee; let’s call him Alan. Below Alan [the white dot, one generation back] is his mother – call her Beatrice. Beatrice, being female, has a mother and father – Candice and Darius. Continuing the pattern, Candice has a mother and father, and Darius only has a mother. And so on. It’s an idealised generational model, by the way. I suppose they’re a bit more liberal in the hive :)
Now, if all that sounds like gibberish, check out this guy doing a much better job of explaining it all.
Anyhow, apiarists have known this for hundreds of years. Scarlett Johansson and Steve Vai know it. But it was Fibonacci who introduced the idea to the West in his Liber Abaci [not this]. The number of bees in each generation, going backwards, is therefore called – the Fibonacci sequence; i.e., [0] 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc. And this has many interesting properties.
Patterns
Here’s one pattern: Look at the last row of 13 black and white dots on my diagram above. It’s the same arrangement as a piano keyboard.
More Fibonacci numbers: there are 13 notes in one octave (C to C), 8 white notes and 5 black notes.
You could go on and try to find the answers to the universe or justify your belief that spiders created the world as we know it or whatever, or you could just use the patterns to mess around with and see what you can come up with.
For example, check out this video of a Tool song to which someone has kindly added an explanation as to how they used the Fibonacci sequence in the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeWGL_MIBtI
Not sure I totally agree with their idea of living your life like a Fibonacci sequence. It might get a bit messy when ordering the next round, for instance. But Fibonachos, that could work…
There are some interesting reads on the Fibonacci sequence here. And check this Bobby McFerrin video out too.
Here’s a list of blues tunes in every major and minor key. I’ve made a Spotify playlist [yet again!] of 24 tunes [the ones underlined] so you could play along and you’ll be playing in every key. Why you would want to do this I’ve no idea, but it might give you something to do on a slushy day. It’s too cold out, not enough snow for a snowman, X-Factor’s finished…
Major Key Blues Heads [Opens Spotify Playlist]
- C Major: Cheryl, Relaxin’ At Camarillo, Turnaround, Perhaps, C Jam Blues
- Db Major: Things Ain’t What They Used To Be
- D Major: D Natural Blues
- Eb Major: Sandau, Bessie’s Blues
- E Major: Follow Your Heart, Mystery Train
- F Major: Honky Tonk, [it’s massively out of tune but hey, ho. Amazing solo, so that’s ok. Sorry to all you perfect pitchers and people unable to retune their instruments :)] Billie’s Bounce, Au Privave, Blues For Alice, Now’s The Time, Barbados
- F# Major: Mr. Day, Texas Flood, Wondering
- G Major: Night Train, Cross Court, All Blues
- Ab Major: Freight Trane, Chi Chi
- A Major: Go Get It
- Bb Major: Blues On The Corner, Blue Monk, Vierd Blues, Mohawk, Parker’s Mood, Bloomdido, Buzzy
- B Major: H+H, Blues in H
Minor Key Blues Heads [Opens Spotify Playlist]
- C minor: Stolen Moments, Mr. P.C, Footprints, Baby’s Minor Lope, Spiderman, Nutville
- C# minor: Equinox
- D minor: Timeline, Isreal, Big P
- Eb minor: Loose Bloose
- E minor: Riders On The Storm
- F minor: Green Onions, Interplay, Blues Walk, Evil Eye, Little Green Men
- F# minor: I Put A Spell On You, Down Under
- G minor: Blues For Yna Yna, Nothing Personal, Talkin’ ’bout J.C.
- Ab minor: Party Time
- A minor: Love That Burns, Loan Me A Dime
- Bb minor: Boogie Stop Shuffle, Pursuance, One for Daddy-O
- B minor: Hide And Seek, Five Spot After Dark
So, as you can see, there’s a couple of keys not there yet. If you know of a tune that fits the bill, let me know and with the power of the hive mind we can complete the list for the good of the world, or as Bach would have it in the prelude to Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” :) Also, I’ll add any other suggestions for existing keys so long as that doesn’t mean having a list of 500 blues’ in F.
So come on, surely it’s possible to get a blues in E minor, F# minor and Bb minor before Xmas/the end of the world…
**Update #1:
OK, with the help of top man Phil Wain we now have a blues in Bb min and F#min. I’m so happy to have Nina Simone on this playlist as she’s one of my absolute favourites. I Put A Spell on You in F# minor – fantastic! [I’ll leave it for you to decide if that’s a blues or not. Blues ballad, maybe?] There’s a Creedence Clearwater version of IPASOY in E minor but think it’d be better not to have duplicate tunes. So, still searching for the elusive blues in E minor. Now who would’ve predicted that?
**Update #2:
My life is complete. I can enjoy Christmas secure in the knowledge that here is a playlist that has a blues in every major and minor key. Adrian Clark nailed Riders on the Storm – the elusive E minor blues. A big Christmas thanks to everyone who came up with tunes and anyone else who even thought about it.
Happy Xmas!
***Update #3:
Curses! How can the New Year be a good one with the realisation that Up ‘Gainst The Wall, with its stupid apostrophe, is, as pointed out by good man Martin Speake, a major blues? How idiotic can I be? Anyway, enough self-flagellation. I will not rest until I have the minor blues in Ab on this list. Even an A minor blues by some de-tuning blues ruffian would suffice…
*** Update #4:
The circle is complete! – Thanks to top fella Alan Benzie who nailed the Ab minor blues with Lee Morgan’s tune ‘Party Time’. And it is cause for a party. So I’m off to the pub :)
Share the playlist far and wide with your musical friends. A practice playlist “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study”
Following on from the 19 great books about music musicians and the creative process post a while ago, here are some great instruction books that I’ve found particularly useful. I have many more books than this, probably too many, but these are the ones I seem to come back to and have gotten most use out of. I’ve added links to Amazon if you feel moved to make an investment.
They make pretty good Xmas presents too :)
So, in no particular order…
The Jazz Composer’s Companion – Gil Goldstein
Mainly for the last section of the book which is a series of interviews about compositional process.
The Guitarist’s Guide to Composing and Improvising – Jon Damian
Similar in a way to Mick Goodrick’s book, but different. Still full of good stuff.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown – Dr. Lick
A book of James Jamerson’s bass lines. Great for practicing bass-clef reading. The lines Jamerson played, the groove, syncopation and melody are well worth studying.
Guitar Secrets – Joe Satriani
Some interesting ideas for getting away from the usual stuff.
Improvisation and Performance Techniques for Classical and Acoustic Guitar – Ralph Towner
Some interesting things about right-hand control using accents and implying polyrhythms.
The Brazilian Guitar Book – Nelson Faria
Superb examples of Brazilian guitar styles – a must.
Creative Guitar 1 and 2 – Guthrie Govan
I absolutely love Guthrie’s playing, and it’s always very interesting to hear his thoughts on guitar playing.
Exploring Jazz Guitar – Jim Hall
Lots of great ideas from Jim Hall. He analyses some of his approaches to playing and composition. Especially like the tune Cross Court and his dissection of it. Good things on phrasing with other instruments, rhythm guitar and the magic of music. Inspiring stuff.
Jazz Harmony: Think, Listen, Play – A Practical Approach – Frank Sikora
This is a great book about harmony (in the sort of Berklee-speak/Real Book charts tradition). Very well laid out with good examples. I like Frank’s writing style, clear and natural sounding.
Training The Ear Vol. 1+2 – Armen Donelian
Pretty systematic ear-training course.
Ultimate Ear Training for Guitar and Bass – Gary Willis
I like Willis’s idea of physically connecting finger and thumb to reinforce the interval sound with the fingering.
An Introduction To Sight-Singing – A. Forbes Milne (Book 1) – (Book 2)
This is a really well laid-out, short, book. It starts with the interval of a 5th, and you sight-sing the intervals in a few keys so you get used to seeing the intervals as they occur at different pitches/note-names. And then you add all the other intervals until you’ve got the whole major scale. (I don’t use the solfa stuff) Also very useful for learning all the basics of sight reading. Book 2 adds more minor key examples, modulations, bass clef, time sigs, etc.
Music Notation – Mark McGrain
A great book on how to notate music properly. Your music will look really nice after you’ve read this. I really love seeing hand-written music as there’s so much personality that comes through in a beautifully notated score.
Rhythm & Meter Patterns – Gary Chaffee
I use the rhythms in the book and improvise my own notes. A great study in getting away the jazz curse of just playing 8th notes.
The Advancing Guitarist – Mick Goodrick
Reams of material to work through in this. Sure everyone will have this already as it’s a classic but just in case you don’t…
An Improviser’s OS – Wayne Krantz
I love all things Wayne Krantz. The first part of the book is a big list of permutations of note grouping possibilities from 1 to 12 notes. The rest of the book is how Krantz uses this material to practise. It’s full of good stuff.
Elementary Training for Musicians – Paul Hindemith
Great basic training book.
Drum Wisdom – Bob Moses
Lots of interesting rhythmic ideas here.
Telemaster Guitar – Jerry Donahue
One of my favourite guitarists. An absolute master player.
The Jazz Language – Dan Haerle
This is a really clearly laid out book on music theory. It’s concise. Which is good. Sometimes.
Metamorphosis – Sam Most
Reams of stuff in here, great to practice reading with. There’s a bit at the back that’s sort of a ‘basic stuff you should totally know backwards’ thing. Scales and what not.
Guitar Comping – Barry Galbraith
Great book for practising sight-reading chords. And a good book to study 4-note voicings too. All the voicings are basic good comping voicings – stuff that sounds great and is playable.
British Fingerpicking Guitar – Stefan Grossman
Transcriptions and interviews with three of my favourite guitarists: John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and Davey Graham. I’m always playing Renbourn’s ‘The Hermit’, a brilliant drop D tune, and Faro’s Rag. All three players have incredible touch on the instrument, and in totally different ways. Renbourne is very deep and precise, Jansch and Graham are really physical.
Music Reading for the Guitar – David Oakes
Some good, practical ideas about sight-reading in this book.
Modern Reading Text in 4/4 and Odd Time Reading Text – Louis Bellson/Gil Breines
Books for practising rhythm-reading. Improvise your own notes to make it more interesting.
Creative Rhythmic Concepts For Jazz Improvisation – Ronan Guilfoyle
Great book on different rhythmic ideas.
Jazz Theory Book – Mark Levine
Good examples and reams of info.
Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music – Derek Bailey
Enjoyed the TV series that went along with this book.
Guitar Player Magazine – Secrets From The Masters
Some great interviews
Down Beat – 60 years of Jazz
Interviews and articles from 60 years of Downbeat magazine.
Harmonic Mechanisms for Guitar Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 – George Van Eps
A chord book that’ll put hairs on your chest.
Chord Chemistry – Ted Greene
Some good stuff here. Best thing I ever did with chords was to write my own little chord book, will blog about that sometime soon. I’ve found some fantastic Ted Greene stuff on the net recently that I really need to sit down and go through. Amazing chap.
Voicings for Jazz Keyboard – Frank Mantooth
Interesting ways of thinking about voicings that you can easily apply to the guitar.
Bach – Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin and Two Part Inventions
My guitar teacher Peter Bocking made me learn some of these pieces and the 2 part inventions are great fun to read with another guitarist.
An Approach to Comping – Jeb Patton
Great book on comping. Vol 2 is equally good.
389 Choralgesänge – Johann Sebastian Bach (Edition Breitkopf)
The more common Bach choral book is the Riemenschneider edition, but it looks terrible, imo. The notation in this edition is bigger and clearer. I mainly use it for reading practice – I’ll select two voices from the SATB and read it, or attempt to play all the voices which is sometimes sort of do-able on the guitar, sometimes not as the spread of the voices is too wide and tricky to sustain moving parts, but anyhow, you can bodge through them for fun.
Insights in Jazz: John Elliot
In this book, you learn a little harmonic move, for example, the move from tonic to relative minor. John highlights these little harmonic cells and has done the heavy lifting of showing 20 other tunes that use that move. Really useful for learning tunes and thinking about common harmonic progressions. Check out his excellent blog which tells you all about it.
Jimmy Raney (Aebersold Vol 20)
A collection of 10 Raney solos on some standards. His playing is beautiful and quirky, and these are great to study.
Reading Studies for Guitar & Advanced Reading Studies for Guitar – William G. Leavitt
I used to think these books were too straight and predictable in comparison to the actual music I’d be reading normally, but now I think it’s exactly what you need for basic reading practice: simple studies across the range of the guitar that highlight the basic harmonic moves (move to relative minor, move to chord IV, diminished stuff, iv minor, etc. I don’t use the fingering principle he uses, but in general super useful. The handwritten notation is lovely too.
Hearin’ The Changes – Jerry Coker, Bob Knapp, Larry Vincent
A book similar to Insights in Jazz in that it’s about highlighting common harmonic moves as they occur in the jazz repertoire, and learning to recognise them by ear. One of my first experiences of this skill was talking to my guitar teacher Steve Willingham about ear training outside some practice rooms at college, and, to demonstrate, he called out the chord changes he heard that a student was practising – that really made an impression on me that it was all about the ear; he didn’t need an instrument/chart/explanation to work it out. He just heard it and knew what it was. Simple.
Essential Principles – Marco Tamayo
Really interesting thoughts on technique. And he has some editions with hyper-detailed fingerings that are fascinating to go through.
So, that’s it. Hope my list is of use. Feel free to share any other recommendations. I’m always up for getting lost in book world…
My lovely wife has just put her orchestral soundtrack to the film The Battle of the Somme on Bandcamp. It was performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Nic Raine, and Jonathan Allen engineered the recording and mixed it at Abbey Road Studios, London.
The film shows footage from the First World War, and when it was released in 1916 almost half the population watched it. It’s an amazing, important film.
For part of her research we went to visit the Somme battlefields. I was chauffeur and chief map reader. Just before we went, Laura’s aunt mentioned that her Great-Uncle was at the Somme and she had his diaries from that time. It turned out he was positioned right by where we were staying on the Somme. He was a stretcher-bearer and attended the 29th division (they appear in the film) on July 1st 1916, so it’s possible he could even be in the film. Here’s an extract from his diary that dates from the first day of the Battle.
There’s much more info about the music written for the film at Laura’s site as well as both diaries scanned and transcribed in full.
Here are 10 random solos that I really like. Now that I’ve compiled the playlist I can think of many other solos that are equally great but this 10 will have to do. I’ll do another 10 soon. If you’re lucky enough to live in a country where Spotify works you can click on the link to hear the playlist:
The Electric Campfire – Playlist #7
Charlie Parker – Embraceable You
Parker’s solo on this is just incredible. He sounds so lyrical and free on it; every phrase is perfect. I made an album with Martin Speake and we used the solo on this track. We play phrases from Parker’s solo and improvise in-between them.
Emily Remler – Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
I love this arrangement of Softly. Emily plays the tune with harmonics and octaves, and plays an utterly burning solo full of triplety goodness. The CD that this is from, East To Wes, is a classic; every track’s a winner. One of my favourite guitarists. Here’s my transcription of her solo. The Hotlicks DVDs she made were great too.
Charlie Christian – Boy Meets Goy (Grand Slam)
I first heard about this solo because Jim Hall mentions it as being one of his favourites. The feel he gets is so powerful; he really lays into it. Also, the arrangement and ensemble playing are great too.
George Benson – The Cooker
Benson shredding right from the off here. Again, the whole record is classic; as is the other record from this period [It’s Uptown]. There’s so much to like in Benson’s playing but one of the things that grabs me about the way he plays on this album is how energetically he plays. Amongst everything else :)
John Coltrane – Satellite
Love this solo. It’s a trio of sax, bass and drums. The tune is based on How High The Moon and Coltrane uses his giant steps cycle thing on it, but in a way that’s more interesting to play over than Giant Steps. Also I like the trance-like intensity of it. And I love the way Elvin Jones starts every new chorus after the vamp.
John Scofield – Do Like Eddie [Eddie Harris]
It’s Eddie Harris that does it for me on this track; Scofield is no slouch either! The feel Eddie gets is great as well as how he can seem to split ideas up and carry them on at the same time. He’s all over the saxophone on this. Ridiculous. Check out these Eddie Harris tracks too: Is It In and Cryin’ Blues
Larry Goldings – Little Green Men [Peter Bernstein]
Peter Bernstein plays guitar on this. I love this trio and this album and this tune! This Bernstein solo is a classic; so relaxed and melodic.
Lennie Tristano – Line Up
I think this and East Thirty-Second are my favourite ‘8th-notey’ solos ever. They’re just staggering. They deserve an entire blog post really as there’s so much in them. Also interesting for when they were done and how they were done – will do that soon.
Pat Metheny – All the Things You Are
There’s so much good stuff in this solo. The phrasing is the thing, and how they mess around with the barlines/rhythm.
Wes Montgomery – D-Natural Blues
A total classic. Maybe it’s just because I’ve heard it a lot, but it the whole solo sounds like a song. Someone must have put words to it somewhere?
Right, I’m off to remind myself how to play them all. The whole playlist is an hour so it makes a great practice session to play all that lot. Much more beneficial and enjoyable than playing triads over bass notes :)
The Electric Campfire – Playlist #7