Play Alongs versus Music Minus One

[ricoche]

Hi there,

I am quite familiar with the "Music Minus One" concept from my early days as a kid when I played guitar, but I notice now a few of these "Play Along" series CDs when playing the piano. I am not sure exactly how they are used for practice. Are they to improvise and solo over? Or are they to play along and match what the other piano player is playing? From a guitar point of view it's kind of strange strumming together, so one naturally solos while the CD just covers the rhythm and visa versa. However, with Jazz Piano I am not sure what you do. Any experienced "Play Along" Jazz Piano users out there?

I know there is a series out there by "Jamey Aebersold Jazz", but when I listen to them it already sounds like a pretty good trio with the piano, bass, and drums. Obviously it's different than music minus one. Thanks!

Jim

[wmyette]

The Abersold recordings are music-minus-one but you need to change the balance to just left speaker or right. Most modern stereo boxes won't even allow you to change the balance.

I'm thinking about starting a music-minus-one "jam" track series.

Would anyone be interested in this?

-w

[ricoche]

I'm thinking about starting a music-minus-one "jam" track series.

Would anyone be interested in this?

-w

Thanks for the info Willie.

Yes! The Jam Track stuff would be great. I actually use another site at the moment for a few tracks to practice chords and voicings in all 12 keys. I wish there were more tracks, but I they have been very helpful so far. They even introduced some standards which I have yet to explore.

http://www.playjazznow.com/index.html

I like the idea they have by having the track in 12 keys. They also have a full trio version for those who require it, but I mainly use just the bass and drums for piano.

On my own, as another alternative, I like to create Midi tracks using my own drum machine and sequencer. I'll try to play the bass live along with the drums to get a more personal feel, but sometimes I'll just punch in the notes. I do this if I want to practice with different progressions I create.

What I primarily look for in Jam Tracks is just a variety of progressions, tempos, and keys to work in. One track in 12 keys really helps a lot with chords, so I would say that is probably the best thing about those PlayJazzNow tracks.

Perhaps that site will give you some ideas about how you would like to approach it. Also note they have a couple of tutorials where a gentleman explains how you can approach playing with the tracks. That was interesting as well particularly with his advice on dropping the bass note and playing 9th chords using the left hand while working off the 11th and 5th notes with the right. I think that's what he said.

Anyway, I look forward to whatever you come up with and I have definitely enjoyed ( and use ) the tracks you have developed already with your video downloads.

Thanks!

Jim

[wmyette]

Great, thanks Jim. I'll start working on some new playalongs with the upcoming DVDs.

[thierryn]

Personnaly I use a digital piano and would really love using some Midi files play along instead of MP3 files.

Does anyone know where to get some ?
Willie, any possibility to get some play along midi files ?

I'm looking for this for the 12-bar blues for example.

Thanks,
Thierry

[wmyette]

There are some MIDI files for the Blues in the DVD501 lesson

[leadbird]

Not sure if I'm off topic here, but if you are looking for play alongs, Band in a Box from PG Music (http://www.pgmusic.com)is a great program to create songs and styles. Only tried the demo myself, but it's easy to set up with a lot of styles and you can mute out the piano to play along.

Cheers