

Thomas WOLLERSEN
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The ideal way of doing this would be that you develop such a strong link between what you hear in your head and what your body does to make it happen without any conscious thinking at all.
The way to develop this would be playing a lot by ear. This is easier said than done. It could turn out that one does not know the music well enough to start with. This process is particularly odd for a good reader. On top of that, there are apps that transpose a lead sheet with a simple push of a button.
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Thomas WOLLERSEN
MemberMay 20, 2024 at 1:55 am in reply to: How do you make your melody lines shine?You may as well try block chords à la Shearing, not necessarily all the time but when you want to give more weight to the melody.
Another approach could consist in reducing the accompaniment to the bare minimum, maybe just a simple bass line or, if you have good time feel, just a few chords but sparingly. -
One of the biggest problems is having too many choices. A good idea is imposing constraints or accepting already existing constraints. This can be very radical like using just one or two or maybe 5 notes and making something interesting with it (remember Beethoven or One Note Samba?).
What makes something interesting? A motif. It raises expectations one can play with: play what is expected or create a surprise.
Playing lots of notes tends to be rather uninteresting unless you want to make piano playing a sports game. Less is more. Develop, change register, play the same thing twice or half as fast, do it in octaves… -
I suppose what you want to do is let the bass shine. This means most of the time playing silence (yes, silence is part of the music).
However, when the bass or others may get lost, it might help if the piano just punctuates a little the structure to bring everybody back on board.
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Thomas WOLLERSEN
MemberMay 20, 2024 at 1:29 am in reply to: Comping without interfering with the guitar player?I suggest the first thing to do is to listen to what the masters do. What does Jobim play when there is a comping guitar?
When the guitar does the ground work the piano can hold notes, play accents at prominent places, play fills, counter melodies