LearnJazzPiano.com archives: work systematically through Forward Motion

asteffen -- 06/12/2006, 08:16:31 -- #27999

Hi, anybody has derived a systematic way (systematic excercises) to work through FM. I think it's a fantastic book, however it doesn't point to a systematic way to work through it, or? A.

jazz jasper -- 06/12/2006, 17:46:04 -- #27999

rc has anwsered this loads he seems to be the master of it he told me a few really good things, rc please could you repeat what you had to say on the book and how to work through it...?

rcordero -- 06/12/2006, 18:18:44 -- #27999

Ha! Jazz jasper, don't call me a master of this! Anyway, I've given a couple of approaches to the portion of Forward motion related to where to put strong notes vs. weak notes. Most of this can be just developing the ear to hear where you need a chord tone vs. a non-chord tone. So early in this exercise, I played ONLY chord tones. The point of chord tones is to outline the changes and when you do this, the theory is that the solo's foundation sounds good. I've actually had this verified by multiple other books (for example 'Building a Jazz Vocabulary' by Steinel). So let's say you just practice outlining the chord(s) for the progression. I did this first on a jazzified Blues progression (I-IV-V...ii-V). Just do chord tones only. Get your ear used to hearing only chord tones and do quarter note solos only. I think I did this for a couple of weeks non-stop until the chord tones were second nature in my head. Then I started filling in the quarter notes with eight notes on the offbeat but used passing tones (non-chord tones). Accent the chord tones on the quarter notes though. You've got to get your ear used to outlining the chord. As you get more solid on this, you can just leave the chord tones on 1 and 3 in 4/4, and everything else in between can be anything. After awhile this becomes more of something you hear in your ear and not really memorizing 1 and 3 chord tones. If you don't hear your solos outlining the progression, start this exercise again as your ear isn't functioning here. An example of use of Forward motion is in lots of Bebop tunes, particularly Rhythm changes and similar heads (Donna Lee, Confirmation). You'll see how this is actually used. This is the alternate approach I find is to just be able to play these bebop heads and gives you a practical application of forward motion. In Bebop, if you use the Bebop scale and start the note on a chord tone and go stepwise chromatically in any direction, you will end with with chord tones on the appropriate beat. This is why the Bebop scale has 8 notes instead of 7. Lots of chromatic movement in bebop. Note that in forward motion, phrases do not start on Beat1. Many start after beat 3 (like Donna Lee). This causes more motion on the solo. I'd like to emphasize that I don't really think about this now. It is pretty automatic. And it really is more developing the ear to the bebop sound. In my case, I've practiced a lot of bebop specific phrases (4 note phrases typically) and because you work on them in advance, they have chord tones on the 1st note. In other words, the forward motion is locked into the memorized phrases. Lots of approaches here.

Jazz+ -- 03/21/2007, 11:29:59 -- #27999

I think it's best to make your own little exercises over standard tunes using the concepts rhather than the examples in the book

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