In this lesson we look at a short melody derived from the classical augmented scale ( 1, b3, 3, 5, b6, 7, 1 ) and play it in triplets grouped in 7. The melody could work in several harmonic contexts but we’ll just look at it in the context of concert A major 7 (#9 b13). Many improvisers use this scale in it’s various modes to improvise over major, minor and dominant chords.
The melody is played in a symmetrical sequence ascending by minor 6ths yet all the notes are contained in one scale. This scale, like the diminished scale or the whole tone scale is symmetrical and so 1 scale applies to 3 keys each a major 3rd apart (tri-tonic). Therefore there are a total of 4 scales each one representing 3 keys. You can think of the scale as compared to the major scale ( 1, b3, 3, 5, b6, 7, 1 ) or as two augmented triads one half step apart i.e. A+ and G#+ creating the scale covering the keys of A, C# and F. This is the same scale used in Lesson 7 where the major 7 #5 chords found in the scale are used within a dominant 7 context. Also, Lesson 56, on Giant Steps uses this scale in the first 8 bars over the tri-tonic progression.
In the video we’ll fist practice the rhythm of the triplets grouped in 7 over 2 bars of 4/4 time with the metronome – just singing. Than we’ll play the melody slowly rubato over a drone, next with the drone and the metronome and lastly with a bass and drums play along track at 120 bpm. If you’re interested in the drum and bass backing track, it is available here at CD Baby for 99 cents.
After you’re comfortable with the melody try improvising from the scale and perhaps find the different triads and 7th chords found in the scale. You could also play the melody starting on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd triplet of beat 1, 2, 3, or 4 in order to help hear the phrase in a different location in the harmonic rhythm.
This is a simple melody that uses the 2nd mode of harmonic major over a -7b5 chord (or half diminished) in one key (concert F#-7b5) which is concert E harmonic major, the 2nd mode being concert F#-7b5(nat9, nat13).
This 2nd mode of harmonic major creates an interesting “bright” sound over half diminished; natural 9 and natural 13.
The more common locrian mode of the major scale gives you a b9 and b13 on a -7b5 and the popular 6 mode of melodic minor will give you a natural 9 and a b13 over a -7b5.
The 2nd mode of harmonic minor over -7b5 will give you the b9 and the natural 13.
All 4 scales will work nicely over a half diminished chord but this melody just focuses on using the natural 9 and natural 13 sound (2nd mode of harmonic major).
Here’s a simple chart that should help make it clear:
F#-7b5 (b9,b13) = F# locian (G maj scale 7th mode) F#, G, A, B, C, D, E, F#
F#-7b5(nat9,b13) = 6 mode of A melodic min F#, G#, A, B, C, D, E, F#
F#-7b5(b9, nat13) = 2nd mode of E harmonic min F#, G, A, B, C, D#, E, F#
F#-7b5(nat9,nat13) = 2nd mode of E harmonic maj F#, G#, A, B, C, D#, E, F#
The intro and outro clips in the video are short improvisations using this 2nd mode of harmonic major i.e. concert E harmonic major, 2nd mode = F#-7b5(nat9, nat13).
The short melody in the lesson uses a grouping of 7/8 over 4/4 and is a sequential melody descending by diatonic 3rds through the mode (cycle 6 in Mick Goodrick’s system).
Try singing the melody over a drone or the F#-7b5 chord until it feels comfortable than play idea on your instrument. After try improvising freely with the mode.
For more an introduction on the use of the 7 modes of harmonic major, you can pick up my book on the topic here.
While working on major 7th and minor 7th “drop 2″ chord voicings, I found a nice shape to work on through the keys. Drop 2 is a great way to voice chords and has been used in classical and jazz music for hundreds of years. Several of Mick Goodricks books really get into the drop 2 voicing in depth while this short exercise just looks at one simple major and minor voicing in isolation. Arpeggiating voicings on a single note instrument can be interesting and challenging and will help you incorporate intervallic melodies to contrast traditional linear ideas. One nice thing about working with a chord voicing is that, no matter what order you play the notes in, a strong melody ensues.
This lesson covers a great melody from one of the Bach Cello suites which has been extended slightly to cover the whole major scale.
The sequence outlines the main seven chords found in the major scale (in the key of C: Fmaj, B-7b5, E-7, A-7, D-7, G7, Cmaj); the root motion moves in diatonic fourths. I’ve found this exercise to be very melodic and yet strangely challenging to memorize and play technically.
To expand on this melody, try playing the material in smaller phrases, perhaps just outlining one or two of the chords. Also, changing the rhythm in a variety of ways should help the material become a more creative part of your vocabulary.
I thought it might be nice to work with a variation on Lesson 1 (Spread Triads) – In this exercise we play spread major triads a tri-tone apart, a sound which will work nicely over a dominant 7th chord with with a b9 and a #11 (or as a substitution).
This is one simple way to begin hearing larger intervals and shapes while still maintaining melodic and harmonic integrity. I like to work on the material slowly with a metronome while trying to sing and memorize each interval right from the start. This helps to internalise the new material quickly and exercise your analytical mind. By singing melody slowly over a drone in a key that fits the range of your voice the larger intervals will become easier to hear and to incorporate into your improvisation.
There is a PDF and video of me playing the lesson below. The melody is played through the 12 keys starting on Concert C7.
This is a nice triadic idea that works through a dimished scale. By simply playing 2nd inversion major triads down by minor thirds you get a nice melodic line that clearly outlines the 4 major triads found in diminshed harmony.
This line also works nice over a dominant 7th chord with a #9, b9, #11, 13. Or over a standard diminished chord. Since it is so symmetrical, it will work nicely for playing outside the changes as well…
The line is played around the circle of 4ths starting on concert C. After you feel comfortable with the melody, practice improvising with the underlying structure (major triads descending by minor 3rd). Using this basic schematic, you can discover endless melodies.
In this lesson we look at embellishing a triad with specific upper and lower neighbor-tones. The bulk of the exercise will focus on a major triad with surrounding embellishment from the major scale although the concept can be applied to any chord and any scale.
The line is played in 5 different rhythmic displacements; as eighth notes on beat 1, eighth notes on the “and” of beat 1 and lastly as all triplets starting on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd triplet of beat 1. The melody is played through the 12 keys.
Start by singing the melody to get it in your ear. It will sound like 5 distinct melodies when heard correctly displaced against the harmonic rhythm.
Here’s an intervallic diminished sequence I wrote when I was in Leipzig on a short avante-guard tour in the late 90′s. We had many long days of doing nothing before the sound check and gig so I wrote this melody and put it through the keys to keep myself occupied and out of the bars. The use of spread triads within the line helps creates a nice intervallic shape.
The melody is played 3 times in each key, each time it is displaced by one triplet (i.e. on the first, second and 3rd triplet of beat one of the bar). The melody is than played through the keys around the circle of 4ths.
I really enjoyed learning several of the great diminished sequences from the Nicolas Slonimsky book; mainly the ones that Coltrane made popular on recordings like Blue Trane. After that I really wanted to try and come up with a few of my own ideas and build off what I had learned, this melody was one that stuck over the years.
Oftentimes as a single note improviser it is difficult to contextualise individual or groups of harmonic tensions by ear. That is, when playing just an A natural, for example, it sometimes challenging to hear that note as say, a 13th on a major chord or a sharp nine on a dominant 7th chord. This harmonic context is often something drive single note players to the piano (which is a good thing). Guitar players, piano players and other polyphonic instrumentalist can play a shell voicing or an entire chord in one hand and an upper-structure tension, group of tensions or entire melody in the other, giving them the complete harmonic or contextualised sound any harmonically ambiguous musical idea.
Over the years I’ve used a simple tool that can really aid a single note player in creating a harmonic context without a piano or chordal instrumen which is often not available. Simply by arpeggiating the shell voicing (root, 3rd and 7th of a chord) first and than playing a tension, group of tensions or entire melodic phrase.
In this lesson we just deal with one arpeggiated shell voicing (the dominant 7th) and 2 upper-structure tensions (the 13th and b13th).
To expand upon this concept, simply play any shell voicing (the root 3rd, and 7th of any major, minor dominant diminished etc) fallowed by any tension, group of tensions or entire melody. This will help give harmonic context to whatever your working on.
Although I’m no Art Tatum, I’ve found that, over time, my ear has improved at identifying tensions and becoming a bit more aware of the polyphonic, harmonically rich world of piano and guitar players.
The second volume of Modern Jazz Vocabulary is finally done. I made some changes in the books format based on a lot of the feedback I got from people about vol. 1. This book is bigger in size but should still fit in a sax or guitar case, about 7.5 inches by 7.5 inches and is spiral bound so it will stay open on your stand better. There are 288 II-V-I melodies in the book and all the lines are different in every key so you could put them through all the keys and have a ton of material to work on.
Modern Jazz Vocabulary Vol. 2
Is an in depth study of the classic II-V-I progression found commonly in jazz improvisation.
The nearly 300 melodic examples incorporate rhythmic groupings, triad pairs, enclosures, chromatics, synthetic scales, chord substitutions and more.
“In this second volume of Modern Jazz Vocabulary, Matt Otto presents a wide
range of how to play over the
II-V-I progression. …A very direct and clear approach utilizing
vocabulary from several different eras of jazz, as well as accentuating the
importance of presenting examples from seemingly simple to more complex.”
~Steve Cardenas
Guitarist with:
Charlie Haden, Norah Jones, Paul Motian,
Joey Baron, Mark Johnson, John Patitucci, Ben Allison.
” A thoughtful and refreshing revisit to the II-V-I. Matt Otto has an eclectic personal style and he has added his creative sensibilities to an often cliched topic. I can definitely use his book for myself and my students”
~Bob Sheppard
Saxophonist with:
Freddie Hubbard, Steely Dan, Chick Corea, Sting,James Taylor, Nat Adderly, Joni Michell, Horace Silver.
Billy Childs, Lyle Mays, Natalie Cole, Mike Stern, Al Foster.
Saxophonist/educator Matt Otto has just released Vol. II of his Modern Jazz Vocabulary series. The first volume dealt with modes of the Harmonic Major Scale, which I personally got a lot of new great ideas from working out of. Vol. II consists entirely of ii- V7s. There are several pages of phrases in each and every key. There are are ton of other ii- V7 books out there and I can honestly say that Otto’s new book blows them all away. What makes Otto’s book better, you ask? The lines are actually hip, in stark contrast to the embarrassingly stale and corny patterns that take up a majority of space in most other ii-V7 books.
Otto uses many different modern harmonic and melodic devices in his book and the resulting lines are highly sophisticated and unique sounding. Matt’s personal style is reflected clearly in this book, which is a good thing because Otto sounds somewhat like a cross between Warne Marsh, George Garzone and Stan Getz. His lines are highly melodic and lyrical while still sounding like cutting edge Post-Bop. I think if I only had one adjective to describe the lines in this book it would be snakey, and I like snakey lines a lot. Actually there are a number of straight-ahead Be-Boppy sounding lines in there as well and when you come across one it’s kind of surprising after playing so much super hipness.
Pattern books are good for giving you new ideas to incorporate into your own playing. As long as you make an attempt to make the lines your own rather than learning them by rote I think they are a highly effective way to expand your vocabulary. Your source material matters however and if you start with lame patterns you’ll end up with a lame vocabulary, even if you put your own slant on the lame patterns. What do they say about turd polishing again? Anyway, you’ll find Matt Otto’s Modern Jazz Vocabulary Vol. II on my music stand for a while.
This exercise is a (second) example of using a harmonic minor scale to create a melody over a minor ii-V-i progression. To do this we use the harmonic minor scale of the i chord. For example in a D-7b5 (ii), G7b9,b13 (V7) and C-maj7(i) progression, a C harmonic minor scale is used throughout.
If you examine the modes of harmonic minor you’ll see that the 2nd mode outlines the -7b5 7th chord and that the 5th mode outlines a dominant 7 with a b9.
Often times dogmatic music pedagogy tells us the b9 on a -7b5 chord is an ‘avoid note’ or that a natural 11 over a dominant 7th chord is an ‘avoid note’. Although these notes sound mildly dissonant when sustained in a vertical harmonic structure, they are quiet melodic when used in a linear, or horizontal context. both these notes and the harmonic minor scale in general is used frequently in both baroque music (Bach) and bebop (Sonny Stitt, Bud Powell etc…).
This melody is played around the circle of fourths starting in concert C minor.
