The Mandolin Omnibook - two thumbs up

[John Soper]

Received in the mail yesterday & just starting to work through it. Some great transcriptions of solos by the heros of jazz mandolin. I'm working on getting that wholetone run that Jethro threw into "A Train" under my fingers tonight.

[Bill McCall]

Agreed

[Rick Jones]

Alex did the entire jazz mandolin community a huge service with this book. Absolutely great stuff.

[Jstring]

Yep- I love it...My trio plays about half of those pieces, so I'll be using it all the time...

Don Stiernberg points out in his comments in the intro that it's always better if you learn to improvise rather than copy other people's breaks.... But, I'm learning a ton from working through the omnibook, and playing a Don Stiernberg break sounds way better than anything I'll ever improvise...

Wouldn't it be cool if someone did an omni book for other genres? Go for it, Alex... I'll buy anything you put out, though I'm sure your pay per hour is pretty low considering how long the omnibook probably took to transcribe.

Oh, btw... I think everyone should buy a copy, but it's definitely "advanced" material to work on...

[montana]

What songs are in it?

[Jstring]

What songs are in it?

This describes it pretty well:
http://jazzmando.com/new/archives/002537.shtml

[Jstring]

And here's his site if you want to order a copy:
http://www.alexheflin.com

[mandrian]

Hi,

I bought the PDF version. It works well on IBooks in my IPad, although I'll probably print off what I want to study.

The tunes shown are mostly beyond my abilities, but I have the CDs the tabs are based on,so it's nice to see the notes against the tunes that you are so familiar with and I am sure that I can get a lot from the book. Alex shows the speed of the tunes which are bit daunting in some cases.

Well worth supporting Alex for him taking the trouble to do this.

Regards

[jetsedgwick]

Where can I hear the songs that are in the book?

[Teak]

Where can I hear the songs that are in the book?

Go here: http://jazzmando.com/new/archives/002537.shtml

Write down the song titles. Look up each song title on youtube. You will find different versions of the same song, which allows you to get ideas for developing your style.

[alexheflin]

Hello! Thanks everyone for the kind words about the book. It was a pleasure every step of the way. The community has been so kind and all of the artists involved are fantastic people as well.

Re: Jstring - Don and I agree completely on that subject. He definitely knows what he's talking about! But if you want to learn the full solos there's nothing wrong with that! I learned each of them as I was making the book. It is important, though, to realize that learning a fully improvised solo note by note isn't the same as learning to improvise.

At the moment I'm focusing on writing and recording my own music and covers. I am always transcribing though, so maybe a follow up will happen in time!

Re: Jstring & Mandrian - Some of these solos are incredibly difficult!

Re: Jetsedgwick - I attached the image featuring the track titles and albums linked to by the other guys. Teak is right though!

Thanks again everyone!

[Mandobart]

Just got my copy of the Omnibook based on this thread, thanks for the info! I was wondering, though, why all the tunes are written in C or Am? For example if you look at the Django Fakebook version of Nuages it is in G, but in the Omnibook it is in C. Same with After You've Gone. Not a big problem to transpose, but readers may want to be aware that you may not be able to try out that tasty lick you learned from the Omnibook in a jam if everyone else is in a different key (without transposing). Same thing with trying to play along with YouTube. My experience at jazz jams is most folks are playing in the Realbook or Django Fakebook keys.

[alexheflin]

Mandobart - I know I replied to your email but I'll also respond here so people can see.

The songs are not all written in C. Due to the chromatic nature of the solos, I decided to not use key signatures. This is so each note can be read at face value, making complicated lines easier to process.

Each solo is in the same key it was performed in. In all but very few cases this is the same key as the real/fakebooks, but in some cases the artist performed it in a different key. For example, in the Djangobook, After You've Gone is in G, but Don performed it in F, the key indicated in the Omnibook. However Nuages, which you mentioned, is in G in both the Djangobook and the Omnibook.

The indicator of key, rather than key signature, is the chord structure. It's more of an advanced technique to imply your key centers based on harmony, but it made sense given the advanced nature of the book.

[DSDarr]

The songs are not all written in C. Due to the chromatic nature of the solos, I decided to not use key signatures. This is so each note can be read at face value, making complicated lines easier to process.

This is one of the things I like about the Omnibook in fact -- I'm not a great reader (getting better but it is a slow process for me) -- and this makes reading these kinds of lines easier for me.

-David

[Teak]

Where can I hear the songs that are in the book?

I got my .pdf copy of this book just yesterday and went straight to a song that I have been working on lately "Take the A Train".

It looks like Alex transcribed the solo that Jethro played on this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fNUi5AyAUI. It is the first solo after having played through the melody straight once.

All I can say is WOW. Good work Alex!! I have already figured out a fairly simple solo myself to the song, but having one of Jethro's solos in notation helps me learn some new "vocabulary".

I only have one question or comment. In the fake book from which I sourced the chords and melody line to "Take the A Train", I note that the second chord in is a D7b5, which means that the A is flatted (or G is sharped). You covered that by showing Jethro playing a G#, but the chord was noted as D7.

I saw a Don Julin youtube teaching session on this song whereby he suggests the mandolin play a D7 and let the bass or guitar player add the Ab or G#. However, since I play with only a drummer or piano player (who is still learning jazz), I play D7b5 on the mandolin as 565x, which sounds right when the melody line is added over it. I was just wondering why other mandolinists don't use 565x rather than D7 (545x).

Anyway, great project Alex, and I look forward to some tough fretboard workouts.

[John Soper]

Teak:

In the online tapes of Jethro lessons, he talks about using an E augmented after the first C... 5-6-7 on the bottom 3 strings; enharmonically the same as a D9b5... that is a function of using an augmented voicing, where every 2 frets (whole step) an augmented voicing gives you an altered dominant chord. On solos, you can base your solo over a dominant chord on a whole tone scale to give the "out" tonalities of the b5 and #5. as Jethro did (tho I think there is an F# rather than an F in the whole tone-based run that is transcribed).

When playing rhythm on this tune, I'll often use a C (557x) or C6 (577x) --> D9 (547x) and add the b5 (567x) or vice verse --> Dm9 (537x) --> G7 (435x) and sometimes G7b5 (434x) --> C6 (223x). Gives some nice internal movement to the voicings.

Pick on...

[alexheflin]

Teak -

You may notice some of the chords throughout the book don't perfectly line up with the real books. This is partially a personal preference for me. I tried to use extension-less chords as often as possible, except either when absolutely necessary or when requested by one of the artists.

This is because - and let's use the D7 chord in Take the A Train as an example - you have several options regarding how you approach a given chord, especially a dominant. You could think of is as a Daug7, a fully altered Dominant, or a partially altered dominant. Any of these (and more) are correct:

Daug7, D7#11, D9b5, Db9b13

Of course, the band has to agree with sound to go for, so you cant overlap them all, but they are all independently functionally valid. Boy that was a mouthful.

John -

If you think I missed a note feel free to point it out so I can correct it in future prints! Which run are you talking about?

[Nick Gellie]

I think that is a great way Alex to simplify the chords used. It is hard enough trying to remember a while lot of seventh chords and their inversions.

[alexheflin]

Thanks Nick! I appreciate it!

Also John Soper definitely caught a wrong note. If anyone else catches one PM me and I'll fix it and send you a sticker!

[Teak]

Thanks Nick! I appreciate it!

Also John Soper definitely caught a wrong note. If anyone else catches one PM me and I'll fix it and send you a sticker!

Alex and John, thanks for the comments RE "Take the A Train". I appreciate learning from anyone further down the road than I am.

[John Soper]

Nick:

There are plenty of times when I feel like my Google Maps took me down a wrong turn, but you muddle though and try to end up at the right destination! The more you play, the more you hear... and hear what you want to play.