Here is the new submission of Ralph Towner tune "Summer's End". 4 choruses: Melody / Chords / Solo / Final Melody. In the solo I tried to make some variations of the beautiful melody, although I'm not entirely satisfied with the result. In the end I lose the thread a bit and the tempo. The next step would be to do shell voicings instead of chords. And maybe try to do a chord melody, mixing melody and shell voicings, so that there is more variation. This, while I'm practicing Shiny (Glabraith) which is really hard for me.

Several people have been playing this tune lately - @Philip Halton and @Bradford L Romans come to mind - that made me want to work on this tune. This is a comping study that I wrote translating the Galbraith lessons to a new tune with the objective of improving my feel for more complex rhythms. I've attached the study w tab if you have interest. For the initial round thru the song (about 60 seconds) I comp only using guide tones (2 notes only - mostly 3rd and 7ths of the chords). The objective is to focus on getting the rhythms correct and not on complex chord changes. Plus I wanted to challenge myself to play something interesting with only 2 notes. After the first minute I use the identical rhythms but now add voice leading and greater chord complexity.

This post is for @Casey Childers @Miquel Bassols @Chad Bird and any other potential Galbriath comping travelers. Part of the difficulty beyond the complex chord structures is counting the rhythms. It gets easier once you recognize the recurring Charleston rhythms. The other key lesson in Shiny is anticipation of the chord change by playing on the 4th beat or the & of 4. I marked up the first 3 pages of Shiny with the reoccurring rhythms (see attached). Things to note: - Charleston's on the first beat (marked in blue) - Just in case you didn't realize that Charleston's were important, Barry starts with 4 basic Charleston's in a row - and 8 on the first 3 pages! - Chord anticipation - playing the next chord on the 4 or 4& (marked in red). Just to clue you in that it is important, Barry follows his 4 Charleston's with 5 (!) consecutive chord anticipations. He gives us 3 different approaches - play the next chord on the & of 4, play a single note on the downbeat of 4 leading to the anticipation, or play chromatically a half step above before the anticipation chord. - Charleston's on the 3 (marked in yellow) - Barry gives us another way of approaching anticipation chords - playing a Charleston on the 3 with the anticipation chord on the & of 4. Other than the standard Charleston's on the 1 - playing Charleston's on the 3 is a favorite of Barry's - there are 11 (!!) of them on the first 3 pages alone. - Charleston on the 3 with chromatic move to the anticipation chord - Barry introduces this in measure 27 and then again in measure 35 & 39 - Charleston's on the 1 & (marked in purple). This is sometimes used as a rhythmic variant to Charleston's on the first beat (see measure 19). It will emphasize the downbeat of 3 - which is helpful for the next idea - Combining Charleston's on the 1& with Charleston's on the 3 - (purple and yellow together). Yet another way to set up anticipation of the next chord. Start a Charleston on the 1 & , land on the 3, and play another Charleston that ends with a chord anticipation. This is introduced in measure 11, and then repeated 5 other times in the first 3 pages.

Here is a first attempt with Shiny (from Galbraith), only the first 16 bars, at 125 bpm (I lowered the bpm with Amazing Slow Downer). Difficult to follow the tempo. Added problem: these days my ring finger nail broke, a tragedy after practicing fingerstyle! With the pick, it was almost like learning it all over again. 😮‍💨 I will go on with the following bars. Very nice exercise! Your indications and corrections will be welcome (specialy from the Galbraith connaisseur, Mentor Bob Kinney).

I'm starting to work these days with volume 3 of Barry Galbraith (with Marc's videos, they are fantastic!), very difficult and very useful at the same time. To relax a little, I wanted to start playing a piece by Ralph Towner that I've always liked: Summer's End, a beautiful ballad. I've made the chord sequence with iReal Pro (I attach an image). It's the second tribute that I dedicate to my beloved Ralph Towner (who I've been listening to since I was sixteen) and who passed away this past January. I'll also try to make a chord melody, let's see if I can manage it.