Mickey Baker Jazz Volume 2

[mahayana]

Thought I'd start a thread for this book, since Kiwijohn (morjaz) introduced it over at Theory, and we're talking about it again. I just ordered a copy from SheetMusicPlus- (about $12 including shipping)

www.instrumentpro.com/P-SHM3595958?source=froogle

My impression is that the "forms" you memorize in these lessons are more about finding melodic leads than about comping, as a lot of them are pretty hard to grab.

[morjaz]

Hey Mahayana.....I'm glad you finally get to have a copy of MB2.....
and I agree.....the forms wouldn't be easy to comp with. You'll find that Mickey gives examples of how to use the forms in song excerpts...
Again I'd say that having been through both books I use MB1 learnt material all the time....and MB2 hardly ever.
I hope you post notes on how MB2 goes with you.The forms are pretty nice after all.

[mahayana]

Yeah, that's kind of what I had in mind. Go through it slow and put down what can be done with it. Like the four forms in lesson 6-

XX7654--XX7544--X76444--X7665X

If you arpeggiate them, you might come up with more that follow, like

X5765X--X5455X--X4645X--XX7887

I like stuff that changes the way I think musically.

[mahayana]

I got the book yesterday. A shiny new Book 2 to go with my 25 year old yellowed Book 1.

Interesting to see all the songs in it. Book one just had "Dark Eyes" at the end. This one has 12 songs copyrights 1941-1944, and 3 Mickey Baker originals all copyright 1959. The only one I know is Frank Sinatra's "This Love Of Mine" 1941.

I'll start with the "forms" and lessons after I do a little play-through.

[mahayana]

OK, the "impossible" forms from page 2 first. I'm going to keep Mickey's numbers and names, but you'll have to draw the chord diagrams yourself. These all stretch five frets and are shown in third position (frets 3,4,5,6,7). After you draw the pictures, practice them up at position 8 (frets 8,9,10,11,12) and move them towards the tuning pegs until you see how far you can use them. Great stretching exercise, and of course learn all the chord names and notes at each fret, lol. To really get into Mickey you need to get a notebook and write everything down that you learn.

1. Cm form XXX743
2. Gm form XX7333
3. Gmaj form XX7433
4. Cmaj form XXX753
14. Gm6 form X7533X
15. Cm6 form XX7543
16. Gmaj6 form X75433

[mahayana]

It's OK to add comments, etc. There's lots more than what kiwijohn laid out in the first Mickey Baker thread. A good portion of this book involves symmetric cycles, using the same chord going up and down the neck as part of your leads and intros and endings.

Just to be a bit clearer on this thread, the easier forms from lesson 6 (that I put in earlier) are #5, 6, 7, and 8, which Mickey drew at position 3 as Fmin9 form, Bb13b9 form, Ebmaj7form, and Ebmaj6 form.

Anybody still with me? Is your hand feeling anything new?

[mahayana]

The rest of the 18 "forms" are all easy- 4 just cover three frets, and two more cover four.

9. Fmaj6 form-----XX3535
10. Fmaj6 9 form--XX3533
11. Gmaj7 9 form--XX4435
12. Cmaj9 form----XX2533
13. G13b9 form----4X345X
18. Em6 9 form----X25422

[mahayana]

OK, I'll assume you've tried playing all of those, maybe memorized a few? A couple you probably already knew with different names are 5 and 11. People often question Mickey's chordnames, but if you diagram them out, you'll see they are equivalents.

5. XX6543 Fmin9 form (=Abmaj7)

11. XX4435 Gmaj7 9 form (=Bmin7)

Lesson 2 is about playing the forms, then moving your little finger around to add different scale notes to the the "held down" notes from the other fingers. Just try it up at position 8, see what it sounds like to play the scale notes up and down with your little finger while you hold the rest of each form.

Mickey uses forms 1-4 in lesson 2, but it's the same idea for the next few lessons, using the other forms.