video: Donna Lee
Hey I’m on a roll today with the theory, so here’s a crazy uptempo bebop video to chomp on while you digest all the basic theory crud.
I have been shedding this thing for weeks. This take was at about 230bpm. I spent a long time getting it worked out at 170 or so, then it actually wan’t all that hard to move up the tempo scale with it. The crucial realization was when I saw how badly I was overplaying. Once I noticed that, I gained a 20 bpm increase almost magically just by playing less hard. Over 240 I get pretty repetitive in my blowing, but at lower tempos I can crank out ideas pretty reliably for a long stretch. I usually practice this for two complete “metronome winds” at a sitting. So I wind up, blow like hell till it stops, and do it again. By then I’m usually pretty shelled no matter what tempo I’m running at.
I don’t know if that’s how you should practice, but it seemed to work pretty good for me. I couldn’t play this tune at all at anywhere close to 200bpm originally. I can shoot through the head at around 270 now, but I don’t stand a chance blowing that fast. 240 seems to be my next barrier. And I’m not really convinced that playing it faster equates to better after that.
