Scot Ranney's LearnJazzPiano.com archive: 360 degrees

LearnJazzPiano.com archives: 360 degrees
albetan -- 01/28/2004, 08:03:30 -- #1075305809

Hi Gary: I was reading Scot´s room now and i saw that you mentioned a message to me. I did not receive it. Now i will test a private message to you. God luck. ALBERTO.
smg -- 01/28/2004, 08:55:30 -- #1075308930
Message to all "visitors"
Message to all "visitors" I decided to name this room based on the idea of dealing with musical involvement in all its' aspects within the context of the forum itself.I'd like to invite anyone who wants to get info about improvisation,specific styles of jazz piano,voicings,melodic concepts,transcription, harmony,theory,composition,practice routines,online sources of educational materials,and related subjects to post here and I'll try to give as complete a response as possible when I can;and send you over to Scot,Barry,7,Ryan,Mike, Whacky,Albetan,et al for more info(or when I think you're asking about something they'd be better suited to reply to!)
albetan -- 01/28/2004, 13:37:34 -- #1075325854
o.k.
Thanks for answer.
smg -- 01/28/2004, 15:57:09 -- #1075334228
article from "contributor's section of old site
Although some of the formatting is a little off,I figured I'd post this here until things are finalized from the other site- Developing Melodic Improvisation Skills, by Gary Shore For players who have found that trying to develop their improvising skills using the chord-scale approach hasn't allowed them to get to the place they hoped it would, here's a little different method of going about it. This approach is designed to be used by the improviser at any stage of their development from the novice just beginning to move into actual playing situations, where reliance on the ear to negotiate and create must be carefully monitored, to the experienced player who wishes to confront the internal process of improvising and examine just what factors are at work that subtly(and seemingly unchangeably, to many longtime players' awareness) impact the ears' capacity to learn new ways of hearing and playing, to remove/add elements of a personal style, and to make the most effective use of practice time in a way that produces results that are perceptible instead of being committed to a routine which enhances technical development while continuing to neglect the more important aspects of the relationship between what's often referred to as the "inner ear" and harmonic/melodic awareness and sensitivity. For players who have long struggled with the more complex of the jazz originals and standards which make up the indispensable repertoire of the working jazz professional, as well as anyone who wishes to understand the connection between the types of chords and scales used in these compositions, this approach is also intended. An easy way of looking at the relationship between horizontal and vertical elements as they apply to jazz improvisation and coming up with your own lines and patterns is to take a section of a song you're working on, determine what voicing and what type of chord you want to use(i.e.if it's a m7 are you playing a regular 1 3 5 7 or are you playing the 9,11,13 in your voicing?) and then on a sheet of notebook paper just write down the notes you hear melodically over this voicing, stacking them up:then, for the next chord, do the same thing. See what kind of melodic connections you can find from one chord to the next using a simple note-to-note concept. THEN build patterns and ideas from this, instead of the other way around, playing scales over chords and trying to go to patterns and ideas from them. The phrase "stacking them up", which is usually used to describe a way of thinking about the upper extensions of a chord in a way that allows you to see them as individual tonal centers over a given root (i.e. Coltrane in some interviews he gave around the time he was recording albums like Milestones and Kind of Blue with Miles Davis where he explained the harmonic concept he was using at that time.)is used differently in this context. What I'm talking about in contrast to this is a very simple way of understanding the relationship between melody and harmony which I use to list the available melodic choices on a given chord and/or progression and to see what I'm hearing, what a given style I'm studying is made up of in this respect, to see which notes on a given chord are the ones I want to use based on my ear (and on concepts like guide tones and voice leading, which I'll get into further on in this article)and especially to take apart any tune or harmonic structure which is unusual and really get to know it. The relationship between chords and scales could be characterized as being very similar to what happens when you look at a page from a comic book under a microscope. What you see instead of a solid color is a group of dots of that color, the analogy being that the chord itself is made up of individual melodic elements (this is not exact but just conceptual). A word of caution with this: Don't be led to mistakenly conclude that I think you should forget about studying what scales can be played over what chord and the interrelationship between the two....if anything I think I'm suggesting a broader definition of scales than just 8(or 5)from bottom to top, based on the root of the chord you're playing, although in a theoretical sense of course that accepted definition is correct. How I like to think of it is as if you took a vertical harmonic structure and arranged the notes consecutively and horizontally, for example, suppose you played a fairly common m7 voicing, in your LH let's say you play Eb Bb D, and F and A in your RH.. I know that this voicing is not as pianistically hip as the ones' advanced players use, but it was chosen because it's a nice, easy to understand example and unlike a lot of the voicings that I'm comparing it to, the notes are arranged consecutively. What you've got if you lay those notes out in order is the 3rd,7th,9th,11th,and 13th,so the "scale" formed by these notes is Eb F A Bb D. By adding the root and 5th (of course in this case C and G)you come up with the dorian mode, the "given scale" on min7 chords. Another way of wo
smg -- 01/28/2004, 15:58:35 -- #1075334313

Another way of working with this approach is to take the exact notes you're using to play the chord and play and/or sing them as melody notes over the chord using that same voicing. Then from there you can see what other notes you hear, sing them over the voicing, find them on the keyboard and see what they are and how they relate to the underlying chord structure. As far as the 3 scales used below goes, especially the idea of using the full chromatic scale over the dom7,FIRST you see what you hear on the chord, and in a lot of jazz-related improvising contexts the notes of those scales will give you pretty much what you're looking for, then you can use additional notes melodically, given the style you're into, and before you know it your ears are working, and you can get to patterns and ideas from there. Also, by using this concept, which allows you to "see" what any note sounds like on a given chord, eventually you'll start to understand why players of today think in terms of chord superimposition melodically, which leads back to the original meaning of the term "stacking up" which I referred to at the outset.. For the sake of making this easily understandable, I've used the example of a very common progression, the II-V -I in F maj., but of course once you understand this, you can apply it to any chord or progression depending on your degree of familiarity with chords and scales. Vertically it looks like this: F Bb E E A D D Ab C C G Bb Bb F# A A F G G E F Eb D Db C Gm7 C7 FMaj7 Horizontally: F E D C Bb A G - G min Bb A Ab G F# F E Eb D Db C - C7 E D C B Bb A G F - F maj What you have now is, on the min7, the most commonly used scale(dorian),which in harmonic terms consists of the root,9th,b3rd,11th,5th,13th,and b7th,on the C7, due to the fact that there are so many possibilities for alteration I use the chromatic scale based on the root(minus the maj.7 which, although usable in certain patterns melodically, is not really considered a strong harmonic choice on the dominant 7),again looking at the scale in harmonic terms you've got the root,b9,9, #9,3,11,#11,5th,b13,13,and b7,and on the maj. chord you've got the root,9th,3rd,11,(#11 can of course be used if you want instead),5th,13th,and 7th. Before you go try this out, let me go into a few things: 1.If you're new to all this and aren't really familiar with what's meant by the terms "voice leading" and "guide tones"(or even if you are to some degree but really want to understand them)I really recommend that at this point you take a look at one of the many excellent books available that deal with this in a jazz-related context. To explain these two terms as simply as possible, voice leading in the melodic sense means moving from the melody note on one chord to the melody note on the next chord in as ?close" a fashion as possible, either using a tone common to both chords or moving by a whole or half step, while guide tones are the 3rd and 7th of the given chord which define the specific sound of that chord(if you've had a chance to study chord voicings at all, you've probably already noticed that, whatever notes you add or take away, you've got to have those two, unless you already know what you're doing and are into voicings that substitute a close neighbor for one of them or are using quartal harmony, etc.) To give you an easy to understand example of these two concepts as they apply to the present example: You go from Bb which is the 3rd of G min to the same note on C7 which now becomes the 7th of that chord, then you resolve to either C or A(the 5th or 3rd respectively)on the maj chord, or you go from F which is the 7th of G min down to E which is the 3rd of C7 then you stay on that as it becomes the 7th of F maj. 2.Once you start to understand this stuff, what I like to do next is to find melodic connections between the chords, based on larger intervals and moving in any direction depending on what my ear hears. As a pianist the best way to think about this is to see it as moving from voice to voice in a traditional four-part harmony sense within the voicings, although melodically you're not restricted to the notes you're using to voice the chord. Often I skip the first part of this exercise and just write the name of the chord on the bottom of the column and see what notes I hear over it instead of listing the scales. Also,as I've already indicated, you can list the notes in order of the chord formation instead of as a scale and see how that helps you with understanding which note goes to which,i.e.1 3 5 7 9 11 13;often you'll discover how a color tone on one chord can move to a basic tone on the next. With all of this, I like to think of it as a sort of musical form of "connect the dots". 3.Once I find chord to chord melodies I like, the next step is to see what patterns they suggest. At this point, you're thinking in terms of more than one note on a given chord and the patterns you come up with can be as simple or complex as you want.
smg -- 01/28/2004, 15:59:38 -- #1075334376

3.Once I find chord to chord melodies I like, the next step is to see what patterns they suggest. At this point, you're thinking in terms of more than one note on a given chord and the patterns you come up with can be as simple or complex as you want. Now is when I get out the manuscript paper and start to write things out. Before long I've come up with little "etudes" which I use to work on tunes (or specific sections of tunes.) This way of approaching melody and harmony is designed for both beginners new to the study of jazz improvisation and for players of any level who want to either develop or change their melodic approach, or who feel themselves stuck in a way of playing they want to break out of, or who are looking for a way to focus in on parts of structures. I want to emphasize that this approach to things, which is actually pretty simple and basic, is not intended to replace, challenge or oppose an approach anyone has that works, but rather is intended to complement whatever else you're working on. The main thing about it is, it?s designed to help you hear the changes and all the possibilities for developing lines in a no-stress, laid back way. It?s not an approach to improvising designed to overload your intellectual, cognitive, right-brain, memory-oriented, technique-related abilities but actually a way to recover from the fallout from doing too much of that without getting the results you're after, to keep on working on things without having to stop and get away from it all when you really don't want to but feel you should. Many players are talking about the problems they're encountering developing improvising skills in the forum. I really recommend you try to work on things this way for a while and see what happens. 1.The Giant Steps 2-5s The reason I selected this as an example to begin with is that this tune has been turned into an instrument of self-torture by so many players, which is certainly not where the composer was coming from. I picture him turning over in his grave every time another neophyte goes all out trying to play this as fast as possible or when it's used to create division and bad vibes by being treated as a vehicle that is only played to "prove something" or else avoided as being "too hard" for a beginner to even think about trying to play, much less come up with an approach to. Granted, the standard of performance level established with Giant Steps has become accepted as a given and I do not want anybody reading this to get the impression from the above that I am challenging this, far from it. This tune is played up, this is the art form, to be respected as such, and this level of playing skill to be aspired to. The Giant Steps changes themselves(here I'm referring to the succession of m3 cycle)have been dealt with in great detail in a lot of places).This exercise is on the 2-5s,it can be applied to any 2-5 once you understand it. It is intended to be played SLOW, to get your ears working...... I included a way of moving back into the m3 section at the bottom. You?ll notice I used a lot of color tones, if your neighbors are complaining about what you've been practicing, try this out on them.....Don't forget these ideas can serve as both a springboard to derive all kinds of lines and patterns from(see next example) or as the upper note in your voicings. Fm7 Eb C G D Eb D Bb G Bb7 D Eb F C D C G Bb Ebmaj7 Bb D D Bb G G F D Am7 B E B G B F# G D D7 F# B B G G F# G D Gmaj7 A A F# D D A D B C#m7 B Bb F# F# D# Bb Bb D# F#7 Bb F# D D# F# G# G# C# Bmaj7 F# D# A# C# A# C# F# C# Fm7 G D Bb Eb Bb Eb G Bb Bb7 F G G D G D Eb G Ebmaj7 D F F D D Bb F F C#m7 D# G# A# A# D# A# G# D# F#7 F# E D# C# A# G# F# A# Bmaj7 F# D# C# D# F# F# D# C# What each column gives you is a melodic line, respecting natural melodic principles like voice leading at times, other times moving from note to note in ways similar to the type of melodies used by John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner in the 60's.It's up to you to decide the direction when there are intervals. The next example is a way of working on a part of a tune which may be hard to get melodic ideas on, due to the changes being a little different, and also shows how to move from single notes to patterns: The chords here are Dbmaj7/C+7/Abm7, bars 3,4,and 5 of the classic Benny Golson tune "Stablemates". Start with the same basic approach again, for example, take the 3rd of the Dbmaj7,F,move up a minor third to the #5 of C+7,G#,and then go to the 9th of Abm7,Bb. Now we'll develop this a little. I'm going to indicate rhythms and patterns without using software to notate music so careful study of the following is suggested. Use whole notes at first for the F and the G#, but when you get to the Abm7,rest for two beats, then play a descending arpeggiated form of Bbm7 over the Abm7 melodically in eighth notes for the next two beats to finish out that measure, then, since the next measure is the V7 of a 2-5,Db7,play the same melodic shape again, but use the notes
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smg -- 01/28/2004, 16:01:11 -- #1075334470

Use whole notes at first for the F and the G#, but when you get to the Abm7,rest for two beats, then play a descending arpeggiated form of Bbm7 over the Abm7 melodically in eighth notes for the next two beats to finish out that measure, then, since the next measure is the V7 of a 2-5,Db7,play the same melodic shape again, but use the notes G E D B and instead of resting on the next two beats of the bar, hold an A until the last eighth, when you'll play a Bb to resolve this line to the 3rd of the F#maj7,the 1 of a 2-5-1. To get a little more analytical about it, the notes of the Bbmin7 which was used over the Abmin7 are respectively root,13th,11th and 9th,the pattern used on the V7(which mirrors the shape of the previous pattern but is "modal" in character where the other was a descending min7 arpeggio) uses the #11,#9,b9,and 7 of the Db7,hold the #5 for the last two beats of the measure and then resolve it to the 3rd of the F#maj7. F /G# /rest AbFDbBb /GEDB A.. /Bb 1+2+3+4+ /1+2+3+4+ /1+2+ 3 + 4 + /1 + 2 + 3+4+/ Here's some more of the type of exercise shown above with Giant Steps, this time using a section from Joe Hendersons? "Inner Urge": maj7 maj9 #11 13 Emaj7#11 D# F# A# C# D# F# A# C# C#ma7#11 C D# F# A# D# G A C Dmaj7#11 C# E G# B C# G# B E Bmaj7#11 A# C# F G# C# G# A# F Cmaj B D F# A B A B F# Amaj7 G# B D# F# B G# B F# Bb7 Ab C D F# C Ab C G G7 G D D G D A B F F#m7b5 F# E D A E B B E What you've got here is-columns 1-4,melodic movement from chord to chord using the same extension on each; columns5-8,melodies which are more about voice leading. As far as my use of the G7(actually I think you'd want dom7w/9 and 13 on that and the Bb7)I'm referring to the recent excellent recording of this tune on the Wallace Roney CD "Village". A few more melodic concepts to work with for this tune: on each of those maj7#11,also on the 2 maj7s,here are few "scales? you can use and the tensions/chord tones they're built on- 13/7/9/#11,3/9/1/13,13/7/9/3/#11,5/13/7/9/#11,13/7/9/3(1+2 are descending,3-5 ascending),also try playing 2-5 patterns from the 13th as if it was the root of the min7,,i.e. on the Emaj7#11,use C# E G# B, then move down a half-step melodically to Bb like you were going to the 3rd of the F#7. As far as developing the melodies you come up with into usable jazz lines, patterns, and phrases, studying transcriptions of solos is the generally recommended next step in the quest to becoming a competent improviser. As someone who's done an immense amount of transcription, here are some suggestions regarding this: 1.You should only transcribe what you want to internalize as an influence on your own playing, i.e it's not so much that the practice of transcribing is in itself that important(although it is in terms of developing various faculties of ear and cognition)but it's what you transcribe in terms of who you are listening to and what you want to sound like that counts, and especially what you do with what you transcribe and how you transcribe it. 2.Less is more, in terms of the actual effect on your developement. What I mean by this is, I think it's better to identify one thing, one idea, one passage, and take it off BY EAR, don?t even write it out at first. Everyday you decide you want to work on it, listen to the recording(a tip I could give you is to use a little handheld micro cassette recorder, they have a switch that allows you to go to half-speed which is great for melodic transcription, especially for slowing down fast passages and seeing what they're made of, but can get muddy depending on the range of what you're working on, see below for more on this).Use it to make a composite tape of various solos and parts of solos, just listening to them will help you focus in on what you're trying to learn(tape them onto the micro cassette from their original source).Then decide on something else, another short motive or phrase you want to learn and again you take it off BY EAR, after a while you'll be able to play THAT from memory and depending on how your mind works and what processes are involved in improvising FOR YOU, you might find that it has entered into your playing style and influenced the way you sound. 3.The reason I'm emphasizing this idea is that there's nothing worse than being the type of totally-into-jazz, thoroughly dedicated musician who falls into the trap of becoming a great transcriber, faster and more accurate at sitting there for hours on end filling up notebook after notebook with transcriptions of the most amazing players playing the most amazing stuff, but when they go to play, due to their lack of a functional approach to assimilating and internalizing this material, find themselves playing the same way they always did, as if they'd never even listened to what they'd so faithfully transcribed and practiced, hoping that by osmosis and relentless reading through and memorizing they'd somehow magically start to sound like, and the only thing they're left with after all that effort is t
smg -- 01/28/2004, 16:02:03 -- #1075334521

that effort is the conscious awareness of how little effect it all had in any tangible, perceivable way; subsequently these type of formerly-motivated players develop a huge complex, start to hate the way they actually sound in light of the influences they'd hoped to reflect in their solos, and are rapidly on their way to becoming ex-musicians, never understanding what it was that caused the discrepancy between how they sounded, what they were actually able to do, and what they'd transcribed and studied. 4.To avoid this happening, not only do I recommend that you follow the "LESS IS MORE" concept explained above and respect the degree to which you're actually able to learn something concrete and usable by transcribing but, I would recommend that you focus your efforts not on transcribing in of itself but on, once you've isolated something and learned what it is and can do it at a tempo that's comfortable for you, THEN AND ONLY THEN write it down and figure out what it is theoretically, then use the new concept you've learned to make up(or find in books) exercises based on this idea, and compare it to what you do, see what the difference is, internalize this particular player's concept, because that's the reason they sound like they do, just like your concept is the reason you sound like you do. For example, let?s say that your way of playing an F7 is to play A and Eb in your left hand and in your right hand you play a line that's based on F Ab B Bb Ab F Eb,(without the software to notate this, I?m just giving you a simple example of a basic blues pattern without being too specific about the rhythm).Now, your degree of familiarity with this, both ear wise in terms of this being what you hear over this particular voicing and theoretically in terms of knowing that in your left you're playing the 3 and 7 of the chord and in your right you're playing 1 b3 #11 4 b3 1 b7 is where YOU are at as player at this point in your development (and before players of any level get on my case about this use of the blues scale and a basic left hand voicing I don't mean to imply anything here!) So now here you are and you've been listening to somebody who blows you away and what they play when the tune gets to F7 is first they play F Bb and Eb then they quickly follow it up with Ab A C# Eb then they play G C F then they play B Eb G then Db F A(this is a somewhat extreme example of what I'm talking about)this is all in their left hand while the bass player is holding down the root, meanwhile in their right hand they're playing all kinds of patterns based on the scales they hear on each of those chords-man, which do you think would be more productive to you as a student of this player-to write out a whole solo of this style,20 choruses or whatever, or to focus on learning and understanding this one F7 section? In terms of the process of learning whole solos verbatim and studying them to get a sense of improvisational elements, solos that are less intricate in their use of harmonic and melodic variation and less complex where patterns are concerned are a good place to start. For example many people begin with the Miles Davis solo on the original recording of" So What" because MD focuses on all the elements of a solo that he was a master of at that point in his career-use of space, so-called "lyricism", making simple statements, ?laying back in the groove", etc, and you can learn a lot about how to construct a solo from that one. What I want to stress again, though, in terms of memorizing and internalizing lines, is that your inner ear is going to remember, depending on your innate capacity, only a few of the different ways that are used melodically to define a given harmonic area, and if you overload it by learning a whole solo, conceptually you might get a lot out of it in the beginning stages of your development as a soloist, and you might be able to get to the point where you can sing it or play it from memory along with the recording and use that time-honored process to develop a sense of form and other basic elements of what makes a good soloist, rather than one who just plays a bunch of licks, but don't forget-you have conscious and unconscious memory and you're actually "programming" yourself so don't overload it! Just a word of caution to all potential transcribaholics out there. If you're working on developing your melodic approach and wondering about the way to use the phrases you've been transcribing, here are some ideas of ways to maximize your practice time and to get some concrete results, rather than playing through whole solos and wondering why you don't seem to be able to reflect the stuff you're working on so diligently in your actual solos.(Take a look at the book in the excellent series by David Baker that deals with how to isolate and practice phrases and parts of solos to get an idea of what I'm talking about here, I have to apologize for forgetting which one it is, they?re all excellent as are so many other great jazz piano books on the market.) First of all
smg -- 01/28/2004, 16:03:26 -- #1075334604

First of all, decide on a line you want to internalize. The process of being able to play a given melodic phrase as part of an improvised solo in a "stream of consciousness" way is different than the process involved in "memorizing and consciously playing something from memory? although some of the procedures involved are similar. Once you've decided on a phrase,(usually it's better to start with just four or eight notes, depending on the level of your cognitive and differentiative abilities),the next step is to determine the harmonic context of the phrase you've isolated, i.e. is the chord type the line is based on maj,min,dim,aug,sus,dom7,2-5, etc. What I recommend is that you start to keep a manuscript notebook where you write down the lines you're working on according to their harmonic function(for those players that haven't learned to read and write music, you can use different cassettes, each labeled with a specific type of line).This helps you to see what types of patterns you're focusing on and will alert you if you're trying to learn too many of one kind of pattern; your internal ear can only differentiate between so many ways to play on a different chord and giving it too much conscious information will prevent you from learning anything at all. The term "inner ear? describes the faculty you're developing. Here are some ways to go about it: 1.play the line with the chord 2.play the chord, listen to hear line internally, especially the starting note. (this is important because sometimes you'll hear the line back from your inner ear on a different starting note on the chord, many lines can work pattern wise on more than one note of a chord and you want to be sure that's not happening.(although as an advanced improviser you may want to start to conceive of patterns in of themselves, independent of their harmonic function, you want to be careful of this at the beginning) 3.play the chord again, relying on your internal aural impressions, not intellectual process, to concieve of it,(unless the line is unfamiliar; if this is the case, continue to repeat #1). 4.Play the chord and this time try to sing the starting note and as much of the line as you can. 5.Play the line with the chord again, listen, then play the first note of the line while holding the chord and sing the rest. 6.Hit the chord, stop, listen internally in the silence, then find the line on the piano while singing it at the same time(incidentally once you're able to sing the lines you're studying, you can sing the line when you play it each time, starting from #1,this may speed up the internalization process, also you may have noticed how great pianists like Stephen Scott actually are singing the lines they're playing as they solo) 7.Playing the same line in different keys is often the next step many players use, you can do this around the cycle of fifths or using root movements of half or whole steps, aug. or dim. chords, it?s up to you. With this step, the following consideration should be taken into account-play the line only as long as your inner ear is "interested" and retains the memory of the line,(this gets into the area of productive vs. self-deadening practice techniques),as far as how many different keys to play the same line in. At this point, it?s often a good idea to start the same process over in a new key, using another line and, depending on your own judgment, another type of harmonic context. 8.Review and retention is more important than how many different lines you work on and how many different keys you play them in, to this end, once you've done a few, stop and re-familiarize yourself with them before moving on. With this, the axiom "Less is more" definitely applies. 9.The goal of all of this is to reach the point where you can sit down, play the chord, sing the line, sing and play the line together with the chord, then play the line, without singing it, as you play the chord. 10.Unlike speed-and-facility-related technical practice, this stuff is best done slowly, using no tempo at all, just concentrating on your inner processes. Although there's a lot of great software available to use when transcribing, some described in the forum, what I do is take a mini-cassette player that uses the same kind of micro cassettes a telephone answering machine does, then I tape the music I'm going to transcribe onto it and just hit the half-speed button on the side. You can run a little speaker into the headphone jack if you want and listen to the stuff back for a while at half-speed. I like to use the external speaker idea because you can listen to the solo at a volume that allows you to really hear it and figure it out before you actually sit down and transcribe it.I got in the habit of listening to lots of stuff at half-speed rather than full-speed which really develops your capacity to figure lines and patterns out and anything complex you listen to after you do this for a while isn't that much of a problem to figure out. A couple of cautionary note
smg -- 01/28/2004, 16:04:20 -- #1075334660

A couple of cautionary notes about this method: 1.You've got to watch how whatever power source you use affects the pitch. Also adding to this variable is the fact that some models of these machines only run at approximately half-speed and you might end up transcribing a piece in C in the keys of B or C#! ,make sure you can return it if you don't check this before you buy it. Of course ,for a person whose ears are already on the money this type of thing is no big deal, plus you can always set the pitch up or down if you use an electronic keyboard to transcribe. 2.As far as transcribing chords and voicings, this method is only so good, probably you'd want to use the type of software mentioned at the beginning. It all depends on how your capacity is to hear down an octave. But for patterns, this works good, also you can carry it around in your shirt pocket, listen to solos at half-speed and sing along with them while you're doing things around the house if you want. In closing, I think that if you can find a good teacher to get together and go over this with, that?s the best way to get these type of skills together, and to find a way of going about things that works for you, based on your individual strengths and weaknesses. Interestingly enough, sometimes the best players are not the always best teachers in terms of working with you over the long term, although in a few "master classes" in a one-on-one situation they can open your eyes to what you most need to work on and how to go about doing it, and explain elements of their personal style to you if they feel you're ready to learn these kind of advanced concepts. Often it's better to hook up with a competent teacher who, while they may not play in the style you're into, can easily explain the particulars of that style and go over it with you, especially if you find books that cover it that that they feel you're ready for, while they stress fundamentals and check your progress and overall musicianship. Good luck and here's to hearing you!
albetan -- 01/29/2004, 10:43:34 -- #1075401814
Chopin, Debussy and Ravel
In a forum about Chopin´s Nocturno in C# minor, you mentioned them. Chopin worked with traditional classical harmony but in a splendid romantic style. I think his piano works are the most rich in expresion and thecnics. If you play Chopin... you may do everything in a piano. Debussy and Ravel were two geniouses completely out of their years. They were pioners using ninth, eleventh, thirtheen, altered chords, whole tone scales, extended chords and arpeggios and a lot of stuff out of those days. Where did they get those knowledges? That is a mistery. May be from subconscious. Remember Debussy didn´t pass his harmony test at Conservatory.
smg -- 01/29/2004, 10:54:17 -- #1075402457
Directions for understanding the posts on this part of the site
1.Go to the bottom of the screen and read the"message to all visitors" 2.read "article from the contributors section of the old site" 3.This continues in consecutive posts as you work your way up the screen
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Whacky -- 01/29/2004, 19:37:26 -- #1075433846
Debussy
I guess he failed his harmony test because he didn't resolve his dominant 7th chords (thank God)
smg -- 02/02/2004, 07:28:13 -- #1075735691
Developing melodic improvisation skills
For players who have found that trying to develop their improvising skills using the chord-scale approach hasn't allowed them to get to the place they hoped it would,here's a little different method of going about it.This approach is designed to be used by the improviser at any stage of their development,from the novice just beginning to move into actual playing situations,where reliance on the ear to negotiate and create must be carefully monitored,to the experienced player who wishes to confront the internal process of improvising and examine just what factors are at work that subtly(and seemingly unchangeably,to many longtime players'awareness) impact the ears' capacity to learn new ways of hearing and playing,to remove/add elements of a personal style, and to make the most effective use of practice time in a way that produces results that are perceptible instead of being committed to a routine which enhances technical development while continuing to neglect the more important aspects of the relationship between what's often referred to as the "inner ear"and harmonic/melodic awareness and sensitivity. For players who have long struggled with the more complex of the jazz originals and standards which make up the indispensible repertoire of the working jazz professional,as well as anyone who wishes to understand the connection between the types of chords and scales used in these compositions,this approach is also intended. An easy way of looking at the relationship between horizontal and vertical elements as they apply to jazz improvisation and coming up with your own lines and patterns is to take a section of a song you're working on,determine what voicing and what type of chord you want to use(i.e.if it's a m7 are you playing a regular 1 3 5 7 or are you playing the 9,11,13 in your voicing?) and then on a sheet of notebook paper just write down the notes you hear melodically over this voicing,stacking them up:then,for the next chord,do the same thing.See what kind of melodic connections you can find from one chord to the next using a simple note-to-note concept.THEN build patterns and ideas from this,instead of the other way around, playing scales over chords and trying to go to patterns and ideas from them. The phrase"stacking them up",which is usually used to describe a way of thinking about the upper extensions of a chord in a way that allows you to see them as individual tonal centers over a given root(i.e.Coltrane in some interviews he gave around the time he was recording albums like Milestones and Kind of Blue with Miles Davis where he explained the harmonic concept he was using at that time.)is used differently in this context. What I'm talking about in contrast to this is a very simple way of understanding the relationship between melody and harmony which I use to list the available melodic choices on a given chord and/or progression and to see what I'm hearing, what a given style I'm studying is made up of in this respect,to see which notes on a given chord are the ones I want to use based on my ear (and on concepts like guide tones and voice leading,which I'll get into further on in this article)and especially to take apart any tune or harmonic structure which is unusual and really get to know it. The relationship between chords and scales could be characterized as being very similar to what happens when you look at a page from a comic book under a microscope.What you see instead of a solid color is a group of dots of that color,the analogy being that the chord itself is made up of individul melodic elements (this is not exact but just conceptual). (A word of caution with this:Don't be led to mistakenly conclude that I think you should forget about studying what scales can be played over what chord and the interrelationship between the two....if anything I think I'm suggesting a broader definition of scales than just 8(or 5,etc.)from bottom to top,based on the root of the chord you're playing,although in a theoretical sense of course that accepted definition is correct. How I like to think of it is as if you took a vertical harmonic structure and arranged the notes consecutively and horizontally,for example,suppose you played a fairly common m7 voicing,in your LH let's say you play Eb Bb D,and F and A in your RH.. I know that this voicing is not as pianistically hip as the ones'advanced players use,but it was chosen because it's a nice,easy to understand example and unlike a lot of the voicings that I'm comparing it to,the notes are arranged consecutively. What you've got if you lay those notes out in order is the 3rd,7th,9th,11th,and 13th,so the "scale" formed by these notes is Eb F A Bb D.By adding the root and 5th (of course in this case C and G)you come up with the dorian mode,the "given scale"on min7 chords. Another way of working with this approach is to take the exact notes you're using to play the chord and play and/or sing them as melody notes
smg -- 02/02/2004, 07:30:51 -- #1075735849
#2
Another way of working with this approach is to take the exact notes you're using to play the chord and play and/or sing them as melody notes over the chord using that same voicing.Then from there you can see what other notes you hear,sing them over the voicing,find them on the keyboard and see what they are and how they relate to the underlying chord structure. As far as the 3 scales used below goes, especially the idea of using the full chromatic scale over the dom7,FIRST you see what you hear on the chord,and in a lot of jazz-related improvising contexts the notes of those scales will give you pretty much what you're looking for,then you can use additional notes melodically, given the style you're into, and before you know it your ears are working,and you can get to patterns and ideas from there. Also,by using this concept, which allows you to "see" what any note sounds like on a given chord, eventually you'll start to understand why players of today think in terms of chord superimposition melodically,which leads back to the original meaning of the term"stacking up"which I referred to at the outset.. For the sake of making this easily understandable, I've used the example of a very common progression,the II-V -I in F maj.,but of course once you understand this concept, you can apply it to any chord or progression (depending on your degree of familiarity with chord types and their related scales. Vertically it looks like this: Bb A Ab G F Gb E E F D D E C C Eb Bb Bb D A A Db G G C F Gmin C7 Fmaj Horizontally: F E D C Bb A G - G min Bb A Ab G F# F E Eb D Db C - C7 E D C B Bb A G F - F maj What you have now is,on the min7, the most commonly used scale(dorian),which in harmonic terms consists of the root,9th,b3rd,11th, 5th,13th,and b7th;on the C7, due to the fact that there are so many possibilities for alteration I use the chromatic scale based on the root(minus the maj.7 which,although usable in certain patterns melodically,is not really considered a strong harmonic choice on the dominant 7),again looking at the scale in harmonic terms you've got the root,b9,9, #9,3,11,#11,5th,b13,13,and b7,and on the maj.chord you've got the root,9th,3rd,11,(#11 can of course be used if you want instead),5th,13th,and 7th. Before you go try this out,let me go into a few things: 1.If you're new to all this and aren't really familiar with what's meant by the terms "voice leading" and "guide tones"(or even if you are to some degree but really want to understand them)I really recommend that at this point you take a look at one of the many excellent books available that deal with this in a jazz-related context. To explain these two terms as simply as possible,voice leading in the melodic sense means moving from the melody note on one chord to the melody note on the next chord in as"close" a fashion as possible,either using a tone common to both chords or moving by a whole or half step,while guide tones are the 3rd and 7th of the given chord which define the specific sound of that chord(if you've had a chance to study chord voicings at all,you've probably already noticed that,whatever notes you add or take away,you've got to have those two,unless you already know what you're doing and are into voicings that substitute a close neighbor for one of them or are using quartal harmony,etc.) To give you an easy-to-understand example of these two concepts as they apply to the present example: You go from Bb,which is the 3rd of G min,to the same note on C7,which now becomes the 7th of that chord,then you resolve to either C or A(the 5th or 3rd respectively)on the maj chord,or you go from F,which is the 7th of G min,down to E which is the 3rd of C7 then you stay on that as it becomes the 7th of F maj. 2.Once you start to understand this stuff,what I like to do next is to find melodic connections between the chords,based on larger intervals and moving in any direction depending on what my ear hears.As a pianist the best way to think about this is to see it as moving from voice to voice in a traditional four-part harmony sense within the voicings,although melodically you're not restricted to the notes you're using to voice the chord. Often I skip the first part of this exercise and just write the name of the chord on the bottom of the column and see what notes I hear over it instead of listing the scales.Also,as I've already indicated, you can list the notes in order of the chord formation instead of as a scale and see how that helps you with understanding which note goes to which,i.e.1 3 5 7 9 11 13;often you'll discover how a color tone on one chord can move to a basic tone on the next.With all of this,I like to think of it as a sort of musical form of "connect the dots". 3.Once I find chord to chord melodies I like,the next step is to see what patterns they
smg -- 02/02/2004, 07:33:25 -- #1075736003
#2(corrected)
Another way of working with this approach is to take the exact notes you're using to play the chord and play and/or sing them as melody notes over the chord using that same voicing.Then from there you can see what other notes you hear,sing them over the voicing,find them on the keyboard and see what they are and how they relate to the underlying chord structure. As far as the 3 scales used below goes, especially the idea of using the full chromatic scale over the dom7,FIRST you see what you hear on the chord,and in a lot of jazz-related improvising contexts the notes of those scales will give you pretty much what you're looking for,then you can use additional notes melodically, given the style you're into, and before you know it your ears are working,and you can get to patterns and ideas from there. Also,by using this concept, which allows you to "see" what any note sounds like on a given chord, eventually you'll start to understand why players of today think in terms of chord superimposition melodically,which leads back to the original meaning of the term"stacking up"which I referred to at the outset.. For the sake of making this easily understandable, I've used the example of a very common progression,the II-V -I in F maj.,but of course once you understand this concept, you can apply it to any chord or progression (depending on your degree of familiarity with chord types and their related scales. Vertically it looks like this: Bb A Ab G F Gb E E F D D E C C Eb Bb Bb D A A Db G G C F Gmin C7 Fmaj Horizontally: F E D C Bb A G - G min Bb A Ab G F# F E Eb D Db C - C7 E D C B Bb A G F - F maj What you have now is,on the min7, the most commonly used scale(dorian),which in harmonic terms consists of the root,9th,b3rd,11th, 5th,13th,and b7th;on the C7, due to the fact that there are so many possibilities for alteration I use the chromatic scale based on the root(minus the maj.7 which,although usable in certain patterns melodically,is not really considered a strong harmonic choice on the dominant 7),again looking at the scale in harmonic terms you've got the root,b9,9, #9,3,11,#11,5th,b13,13,and b7,and on the maj.chord you've got the root,9th,3rd,11,(#11 can of course be used if you want instead),5th,13th,and 7th. Before you go try this out,let me go into a few things: 1.If you're new to all this and aren't really familiar with what's meant by the terms "voice leading" and "guide tones"(or even if you are to some degree but really want to understand them)I really recommend that at this point you take a look at one of the many excellent books available that deal with this in a jazz-related context. To explain these two terms as simply as possible,voice leading in the melodic sense means moving from the melody note on one chord to the melody note on the next chord in as"close" a fashion as possible,either using a tone common to both chords or moving by a whole or half step,while guide tones are the 3rd and 7th of the given chord which define the specific sound of that chord(if you've had a chance to study chord voicings at all,you've probably already noticed that,whatever notes you add or take away,you've got to have those two,unless you already know what you're doing and are into voicings that substitute a close neighbor for one of them or are using quartal harmony,etc.) To give you an easy-to-understand example of these two concepts as they apply to the present example: You go from Bb,which is the 3rd of G min,to the same note on C7,which now becomes the 7th of that chord,then you resolve to either C or A(the 5th or 3rd respectively)on the maj chord,or you go from F,which is the 7th of G min,down to E which is the 3rd of C7 then you stay on that as it becomes the 7th of F maj. 2.Once you start to understand this stuff,what I like to do next is to find melodic connections between the chords,based on larger intervals and moving in any direction depending on what my ear hears.As a pianist the best way to think about this is to see it as moving from voice to voice in a traditional four-part harmony sense within the voicings,although melodically you're not restricted to the notes you're using to voice the chord. Often I skip the first part of this exercise and just write the name of the chord on the bottom of the column and see what notes I hear over it instead of listing the scales.Also,as I've already indicated, you can list the notes in order of the chord formation instead of as a scale and see how that helps you with understanding which note goes to which,i.e.1 3 5 7 9 11 13;often you'll discover how a color tone on one chord can move to a basic tone on the next.With all of this,I like to think of it as a sort of musical form of "connect the dots". 3.Once I find chord to chord melodies I like,the next step is to see what patterns
heybaby12 -- 02/02/2004, 16:19:24 -- #1075767564
i don't know what to say
freeze
7 -- 02/02/2004, 20:39:16 -- #1075783156

Nice formatting. I speak for all of us dumbos in saying thank you! 7
Phinneas Newborn Jr CD A Worldof Piano - mind boggling technique and swing!!
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Barry -- 02/03/2004, 00:13:13 -- #1075795990

Hey SMG, Unfortuantely I can't read your file - I suspect it's because I'm using a mac. What program does the file extension .rtf come from?
Barry -- 02/03/2004, 10:01:48 -- #1075831308
Aha!
Oh yeah.... rich text format. I was just trying to open the file from here without downloading it. As soon as I did it was fine but I haven't had chance to read it properly yet...but I will! Cheers Gary B
smg -- 02/09/2004, 09:59:23 -- #1076349563
update
just wanted to let anybody checking things out here know-I've got 2 new files on the way..as far as the excerpts from "developing melodic skills" posted as individual sections,just check out the file instead....
loluoresegun -- 09/23/2004, 08:01:32 -- #7372

you're welcome femi
femi -- 02/15/2005, 10:15:31 -- #11224
link to sites for jazz sheet music
hi 360 can you give a link to where i can get the sheet music to this jazz music by stan getz "autumn Leaves" i will most grateful for any help femi
john1965 -- 02/23/2005, 07:35:03 -- #11497
Lead Sheets
I have really enjoyed all your advice but just wanted to ask how to tackle a lead sheet when playing from a fake book. I find there are so many chord changes I get lost. Can you give some examples of how you would tackle a common jazz standard like 'Fly me to the Moon' playing from a lead sheet, improvising over it using scales etc? It would be great to see how to put all the theory into practise. I don't fully understand how when sometimes there are so many chords in quick succession and modulations that you can change between scales so quickly according to the chords. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...John
Phinneas Newborn Jr CD A Worldof Piano - mind boggling technique and swing!!
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lumpthenolegdog -- 03/19/2006, 22:44:36 -- #25367
voicing melodies
Hey all. 15 yo, w/ much classical training. Started playing jazz a few months ago. Can improvise over changes alright, any tips for voicing melodies in head section? Have tried parallelism and three notes voicings, etc.. but don't seem too interesting really. Also any tips on how to spread out harmonic lines in solo sections, left hand seems to be doing all the harmonizing, and right seems to be doing all the melodizing, with just single notes though. Any advice would be wonderful. Thanks -Lump
smg -- 07/11/2007, 15:09:47 -- #35804
July 07 update
smg here..I still check over here from time to time,if anyone who's gone through the files wants further info,let me know..there was a period where I couldn't get much free time to go online,kind of disappeared from LJP and maybe some of the people who would have wanted info,etc...seeing the last time this room was active figured there was no point in posting here..anyways...just to let you know...
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