How to get better at fake book realizations?

[Bob]

I think I've asked this before... deja vu...

I've got a Christmas fake book.  I know the chords well enough.  Easy enough to read one line of a melody.

But when I play it, it doesn't sound quite like a real arrangement.

I could probably improve the chord voicing, do something better for the accompaniment pattern, and add some kind of filler touches at the ends of phrases or just to vary the harmony a little.

Any ideas?

[smoothsound]

The first thing you should probably do if you know the melody of the song in your head is to try and visualize how you want the piece to sound. One of the things I do when I'm doing a set is to get that fixed in my head first. Once you do that, there are several techniques you can fool around with in the left hand. Depending on the song , its mood, or tempo, or rhythm, you might try some left hand arpeggio work, or block chords moving up the piano, or just solid repeated chords on the beat. For syncopation you can keep the chords on the beat,  but move the melody off the beat. Also if you have the skill for it, add part of the chord structure to the right hand and don't keep the melody as a single note all the time.  The chords in a fake book are only a guide. Depending on how well you hear, you can try moving part of the chord chromatically, or extending the chord, say changing a C Maj 7 to a C Maj 9 . You can also try some chord substitutions. Say if your resolving to a C chord, instead of playing the G chord before hand, play a D flat chord.

Even if a person doesn't have great technique the variety is almost endless. Normally I will run thru the same song 3 or 4 times, with different variations each time. The middle variations tend to be more improvisational in nature, but the last time I go thru the song I make it a lot like the first time I played it , but bigger or grander. A lot of what to do can be learned thru theory , but if you have a good ear its a heck of a lot easier. 

Im sure this didn't help to much, but maybe it gives you a starting point.

hope all you sounds are nice and smooth,


Mitch.

[nystul]

I'm not very good at these but... One thing I like to do, depending on the style of the song, is catch a chord note or two with the right hand under the melody.  That frees up the left hand to experiment with walking bass or arpeggios or stuff without sounding too thin in the middle.  People like bass notes/root-octave/etc. in the low range, but close voiced chords get muddy if played too low.

[Bob]

I'm wondering about how to voice chords...

Depending on what it is.... The root in the bass or whatever the chord symbol says if you go by that....

And whatever in the right hand?  Whatever fits? 

LH could be an arpeggio but otherwise I'm thinking open voicing is good.  A fifth could be used, but the fifth doesn't have to be there.  Seventh, yes. 

Hmmm....

[1piano4joe]

I went to my library and took out a book titled "Play Piano in a Flash" by Scott Houston. It had a list of suggestions for the right hand such as playing the melody in octaves, etc. and another list for the left hand. I found it useful.

[ian_f001]

Are you familiar with the Sudnow method? David Sudnow was a sociologist who passed away several years ago. He created a piano method for adults looking to play "songs" from a chart and nothing more. For the traditionally trained pianist (or piano teacher in my case) there are many things he says that are easy to take offense to. However, in the very narrow scope of what he set out to accomplish, he had some good points.

I'll admit that I shelled out the $99 for the student account to get access to the 3-hour audio training course. And while I can't say there were any 'revolutionary' ideas presented, I can confirm that the systematic approach presented to playing standards really jumpstarted my ability to read from a lead sheet and not have it sound "amateurish".

The biggest help I got from the course was the system for chord voicings. It gets more complicated that this, but here in a nutshell is a chart for determining how a chord could be voiced to yield a sophisticated sounding result. It presumes that the LH will always play two notes (the root and usually the fifth or seventh), while the RH will voice the melody on top, incorporate the major or minor third below it if possible, and then add one or more of the suggested color tones.

Chord Type|	Bass|	RH (+ melody on top and the maj or min 3rd if possible)|
Major|	Root & 5th or Root & Oct|	6th, 7th, 9th|
Dominant Seventh|	Root and minor 7th|	9th or flat 9th, 11th or sharp 11th, 13th|
Minor|	Root and minor 7th|	5th, 9th|

In the beginning, having a system like this is very helpful for the classical player to start to get the sound and feel of jazz voicings in our ear and fingers. After going through about a dozen tunes and actually writing in the voicings you plan to use for each chord, you will find that it starts to become automatic. From there, you can start exploring more advanced voicing techniques and improvisational methods for the RH.

Check it out at www.sudnow.com

Like I said, I don't agree with a lot of what the man said about piano teachers as a whole, but I did get enough nuggets of very useful information out of his course to make it worthwhile for me.

[oxy60]

There is a very old rule for the bass line. Root or fifth on 1 and 3, anything else in between. On changes, root on 1 of the first bar of the change.

[cjp_piano]

These are all good ideas. It's hard to say without being with you in person and seeing your skill level and such. But, try lots of different things for the LH:

bass note only: roots of chords
one note only, moving as little as possible from chord to chord (For example, if the chord progression is C G C F C G C, LH can play ascending: C D E F G G C)
5ths blocked
5ths broken
root position triads blocked
root position triads broken
different inversions blocked
different inversions broken
1/5/8 pattern blocked
1/5/8 pattern broken

That's just the basics. Then, of course, you can do different rhythms and articulations, play 7th and 9th chords, and much more. But an important thing you should do is also MIX and VARY the different patterns and experiment with different ways throughout.

Have fun!

[Bob]

I think I'm expecting to do it straight off the bat too which isn't great.  And I'm still not actually working on this.  I probably should spend more time on just one piece instead of expecting to sightread it.  That's sounds more reasonable. 

[Bob]

Haha.  I'll take ideas from wherever but I thought this was amusing on that Sudnow site...

“In four months,
I could really play”
-- GQ Magazine

That's GQ saying that.  GQ man.  And they've got a bunch of morning news talk shows too.  Haha.  And he's a "guru."  *Bob ponders becoming a guru of Bobness.*

[coffee_guy]

I have to say I am extremely skeptical of any "get good at piano in 4 months scheme". I have put in too many hours on the instrument to think otherwise.

[oxy60]

I have only put in bass parts playing from a "lead sheet." A few times I've actually played live on a piano but what I did was very basic. (The drunks singing around the piano loved it...)

All kidding aside, you are going to need to work a lot on this. Pick ONE song you like and work on your rendition of it. Once you go through the process, the next one will be easier.

I know you teach music. Have you ever thought about dissecting a popular song as a study unit for your class?

[Bob]

Possible.  Form works for that.  Pop songs do get covered, but overall for vocal performance stuff it's more teaching by rote.  I don't like that but that's the situation.  Pop stuff vocally is more complicated than "regular" things too, at least for what I've had kids do.  Rhythm, inflections, etc.  

It is an idea though to combine what I'm interested in working on with job stuff.

[oxy60]

The dissecting part was to show the kids how their songs are put together and the roles of the bass, !st guitar, 2nd guitar, keyboard, drums and vocals. Also I would want to show how bars are counted and the harmonic structure. Keep in mind that there are grades of complication in popular music. Some songs are easier than others. 12 bar blues is probably the most accessible form but may not be what the kids know.   

[freejazzlessonsdotcom]

There are a ton of things you could do to make your tunes sound like a real arrangement.  Here's a fe quick tips.

1. Change your left hand rhythmic pattern as the piece evolves or to mark different sections.  So, for the first 8 bars you could play a whole note chord in your L.H.  The next 8 bars you could play quarter notes.  Next 8 bars arpeggiate eighth notes etc etc.

2. Change octaves on repeats or different sections.  You could do this with both hands or just the R.H.

3. Play tenth chord voicings for certain sections. Instead of playing a triad in 3rds in your L.H. you take the 3rd and play it up an ocatve.  So, there is a tenth interval now between the lowest note in the L.H. and the highest note in the L.H. 
      ******If your hands are not big enough you can roll these chords******

4. Reharmonize some of the chords the second time around.