Vocal + piano and nothing else recordings of standards (follow-up sorta)
February 20, 2018 8:45 AM Subscribe
Are there other recordings like "Intimate Ella" with just piano, no combo, for me to try and crib from?
Still working at learning to accompany standards, however demipygously. One thing my boyfriend suggested was transcribing an actual recording. I tried this, with a little success, with "Black Coffee" from the album where Ella Fitzgerald sings with Paul Smith on piano and no other accompaniment. There have to be other recordings like this but I don't know where to look for them. (If the accompaniments were a notch simpler, I wouldn't complain, but simplicity is not a big goal in jazz performance, I suppose.)
The other thing I was going to try was just bearing down despite my lousy music reading and playing through written-out accompaniments. The thing I've run up against there is that every book of written-out standards I look at includes the melody in the right hand, which isn't the kind of accompaniment I'm interested in, because I want to sing along. Is there some distinction I should be making in the music I search for?
As my question history indicates, this learning process is glacial, but fortunately I have no scheduled debut at the Village Vanguard.
Still working at learning to accompany standards, however demipygously. One thing my boyfriend suggested was transcribing an actual recording. I tried this, with a little success, with "Black Coffee" from the album where Ella Fitzgerald sings with Paul Smith on piano and no other accompaniment. There have to be other recordings like this but I don't know where to look for them. (If the accompaniments were a notch simpler, I wouldn't complain, but simplicity is not a big goal in jazz performance, I suppose.)
The other thing I was going to try was just bearing down despite my lousy music reading and playing through written-out accompaniments. The thing I've run up against there is that every book of written-out standards I look at includes the melody in the right hand, which isn't the kind of accompaniment I'm interested in, because I want to sing along. Is there some distinction I should be making in the music I search for?
As my question history indicates, this learning process is glacial, but fortunately I have no scheduled debut at the Village Vanguard.
I'm a big fan of Ellis Larkins, here he is with Ella. He also did a number of duets with trumpeter Ruby Braff.
This is a lovely album Hank Jones did with Roberta Gambarini.
I think these recording should be inspiration, not necessarily full transcription material, which seems like it could be overwhelming. Pick up a phrase here or there - how does the pianist bring the song in, how does he end the song? What sort of rhythmic things are happening under neath the singing. W/respect to the books you have, being able to play the melody is a useful tool, so I might take those books that you have and then work on playing 1 chorus accompanying yourself, one chorus of the melody. When you accompany yourself, the big thing is to not play in the same range as your voice, so your right hand is hitting notes higher or lower than your voice.
posted by littlerockgetaway at 9:31 AM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
This is a lovely album Hank Jones did with Roberta Gambarini.
I think these recording should be inspiration, not necessarily full transcription material, which seems like it could be overwhelming. Pick up a phrase here or there - how does the pianist bring the song in, how does he end the song? What sort of rhythmic things are happening under neath the singing. W/respect to the books you have, being able to play the melody is a useful tool, so I might take those books that you have and then work on playing 1 chorus accompanying yourself, one chorus of the melody. When you accompany yourself, the big thing is to not play in the same range as your voice, so your right hand is hitting notes higher or lower than your voice.
posted by littlerockgetaway at 9:31 AM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Are male vocalists okay? If so, please look for the Complete Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Recordings.
I also wonder whether you might be interested in Playing for Singers by Mike Greensill.
Also, just because the sheet music has the melody in the right hand, doesn't mean you have to play it. Try playing just the left hand of whatever you've got, and singing the melody. Then maybe try adding an occasional chord or arpeggio into the right hand. See how it goes.
If you can learn how to play shells, you should have a really nice accompaniment to play along with. VERY simply put: play root and 7th with your left hand, play 3rd and 5th with your right hand. See this What Are Chord Shells - especially "Fly Me to the Moon" at the bottom, just remove the melody; and this other blog post about chord shells, and in particular scroll down to "Shells for two hand voicings."
Finally, check out your library (you're in California, right? So you can get lots of extra things through Link+ in addition to whatever your own city's library has). The San Francisco library has lots of piano transcriptions, including Benny Green and Marian McPartland and Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. Check some of these out and rather than laboriously learning them note for note, just sit down with a notebook and look for ONE THING in each song that the pianist did. "Oh, octaves here. Oh, chord on each beat, then a little half-scale here." Just get some ideas, and then try adding one or two of those ideas - or even variants on those ideas - in between a few of your shell chords.
(Note that I have no actual expertise, but I, too, am hoping to learn to sing along with my solo playing, and these are things I've thought of and, in some cases, tried.)
posted by kristi at 11:25 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
I also wonder whether you might be interested in Playing for Singers by Mike Greensill.
Also, just because the sheet music has the melody in the right hand, doesn't mean you have to play it. Try playing just the left hand of whatever you've got, and singing the melody. Then maybe try adding an occasional chord or arpeggio into the right hand. See how it goes.
If you can learn how to play shells, you should have a really nice accompaniment to play along with. VERY simply put: play root and 7th with your left hand, play 3rd and 5th with your right hand. See this What Are Chord Shells - especially "Fly Me to the Moon" at the bottom, just remove the melody; and this other blog post about chord shells, and in particular scroll down to "Shells for two hand voicings."
Finally, check out your library (you're in California, right? So you can get lots of extra things through Link+ in addition to whatever your own city's library has). The San Francisco library has lots of piano transcriptions, including Benny Green and Marian McPartland and Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. Check some of these out and rather than laboriously learning them note for note, just sit down with a notebook and look for ONE THING in each song that the pianist did. "Oh, octaves here. Oh, chord on each beat, then a little half-scale here." Just get some ideas, and then try adding one or two of those ideas - or even variants on those ideas - in between a few of your shell chords.
(Note that I have no actual expertise, but I, too, am hoping to learn to sing along with my solo playing, and these are things I've thought of and, in some cases, tried.)
posted by kristi at 11:25 AM on February 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
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posted by rd45 at 10:54 AM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]