The 4 note structure or tetrad made up of 1, 3, #11 and b7 is a very useful note set for voicings and improvising over…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 140: Cycle 4 Melody – Altered
In this lesson (which was originally a live stream discussion) I outline the entire process I go through when I work on a new original…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 165: Harmonic Major Modes Over 2-5-1 in Minor
Using Harmonic Major modes over 2-5-1 in Minor. I’ve been working on using the 7 modes of Harmonic Major over various chords as alternate scale…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 150: Blues Etude – 4 note cell
Here’s a blues etude that uses some different 4 note cells (tetrads) and various scales. By writing an etude you can learn to hear melody…
Read Full Blog Post-Lesson 70: Augmented Melody
In this lesson we look at a short melody derived from the (classical) augmented scale ( 1, b3, 3, 5, b6, 7, 1 ) and…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 67: min triad add 9
This ii-7, V7, I melody that uses minor triads with an added 9th (or 2nd) i.e. 1,3,5,9 or 1,9,3,5 etc… The first part of the…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 64: Book ii-V-I
In this lesson we’ll look at the first ii – V7 – I melody found in the “Modern Jazz Vocabulary vol. 2” book. This melody…
Read Full Blog PostLesson 63: Nat 9 ~ Flat 9
In lesson 63 we look at a simple melody that uses both the natural 9 (the #11) and the b9 on a dominant 7th chord. …
Read Full Blog Post-Lesson 60: Diatonic Sequence
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…
Read Full Blog Post-Lesson 59: Spread Tri-tone
I thought it might be nice to work with a variation on Lesson 1 (Spread Triads) – In this exercise we play spread major triads…
Read Full Blog Post-Lesson 58: Triad Diminished
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…
Read Full Blog Post-Lesson 57: Scale Routine
Scales have been a popular thing to practice in both the jazz and classical world for years. Playing through scales as been compared to a…
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