Hi,

I recorded an improv. In the left hand, i'm constantly playing an Dadd9 chord (I think that's about the same as a Dsus2, but then the sus2 note an octave higher ??) and improvising with triads in the right hand.
Hope you like it
https://soundcloud.com/bas-verkooijen/improv-over-dadd9-20130105

Cheers,
Bas.

That sounds great! I like the clear sound with those tasteful dynamics in your playing! Is it the Stickup there? Just like me you need to practice on getting the rhythm consistent; one can hear in this recording that a note here and there is a couple of milliseconds late only because you needed that extra time to move a finger or two.

Nice sense of performance and combined Stick sound. The overall body rhythm seems consistent, so the "groove" is there. Couldn't ask for more (or could I?). Maybe some modulations to different key centers? Wouldn't be hard at all to do with that "fingerSticking" style and technique.

A real sense of discovery. Glad you digitized it.

First the wave form loaded, and finally the play button loaded but it doesn't actually play anything when I click it or even pretend to be working on playing it. Funk music often just has one chord so it's all good. One thing though.

We all know what you mean when you say Dadd9 but technically there's no such animal. If the chord already has a seventh in it then a 9 can be added beyond it, but if there's no 7th to which extensions can be added beyond , then it would need to be Dadd2 not Dadd9 unless there's no 3rd in which case you'd have Dsus2 or DMaj7sus2. Nitpicky I know, but it can create confusion when reading charts, especially if the tune is fast.

To the song writers.
This may seem like a dumb question but, what determines the cord when playing melody? Is it the trained ear or is their a formula of cord structure?

Nice job...on my side I don't really care if the speed moves a little bit. You have more freedom that way. There is a meditation side to play your left hand like you do. Then you can explore a lot with your right hand...and that is exactly what you do. With this chord structure in your left hand - Dadd2 - you can go from the minor to the major key if you want...with a smooth transition it's possible to do it in your right hand. I really like these complementary chords you play in your right hand. Well done...congrats...

I think Per sums it up nicely. But hey, I only have 90% of the guts necessary to post my measly progress yet. You have good beginnings.

Are you sure about this? I've always thought it is a matter of octave; the ninth note being one octave over the second note. Maybe I have been misinformed... And maybe chord naming theory isn't applied exactly the same way in Swedish vs English, causing a bit of confusion on my side.

Thanks for the feedback, love it !

@Per, yes, there's definitely a few bits in there (especially on 00:47) which are not tight, that's cause i'm not so much of a improv player . I suddenly felt creative and wanted to capture that, since I usually can't remember what I played a couple of days later (or hours!). I kind of liked the result (despite the timing errors), so I posted it. The dodgy bits are there cause I'm not yet really used to thinking ahead about what to do and then I run out of time with the hand movements. I also noticed that in this particular recording, I play the root note (D in the left hand) on different beats.
Funny thing here is that this improv spawned from something I saw and heard in Radkon's video 'wrapped around your fingers' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL4a24a_9B0 (around 1:30). It's the two chords at the end of the chorus just before going back to the intermission that precedes the next verse.
I have a pasv4 block on my stick, but in this recording it was mixed with a acoustic guitar (steel strings) cosm model from the gr55. No amp simulation, just some chorus, reverb and delay.
@tatsu : I'm not much of a theoretical guy when it comes to music, but I figured it was add9 since i played the sus2 note an octave higher.
@sagehalo : just do it, trust me ! I started playing the stick 2008, rough start, not much progress and after a workshop in 2010 with Steve, I started practicing a lot more. I've always been too shy to post stuff, and I think this is my second or third posting. It's great to get the feedback and when other tell you they like it, or notice stuff that needs to be improved, it sure helps to improve your skills...just record and post ! I also posted this recording on Fandalism and got very good responses which I didn't expect

Cheers,
Bas.

It depends on how the writer hears it in his/her head when they come with the idea.
Sometimes, I've come up with a melody, and only applied chord changes to it after. The chord changes will fit in with the tone center (and/or mode) of the melody (although sometimes I've let a chord change that I hear after the fact alter the melody just a bit.)
Other times, I've started with a nice chord progression, and the melody only came to me after the progression was already in place.