~Play Along CD in 7/4
This is Vol.2 of the Drum and Bass, Roots and Rhythm “play along” which is designed for both practicing and teaching. Vol. 1 has been well received and I thought one in 7/4 would be a nice addition. I’ve been
Lesson 79: Broken Arpeggio
Broken arpeggios are one great way to integrate some larger intervalic material into your improvisation while still outlining the chords that you are playing over. This simple ii-7b5, V7#5, i-6/9 melody utilizes broken arpeggios and underlying step-wise voice leading. By
Lesson 78: 8th Note Feel
Working feel of 8th notes seems like an ever ending process of refinement and over the years I’ve found an interesting and pretty fun way to work on it. By isolating and looping some of my favorite examples of 8th
Lesson 77: Triadic Blues
Here’s a Triadic Blues etude I wrote a while back for one of my favorite trumpet players Josh Welchez. It is comprised of all major triads either ascending or descending by half steps. The pdfs below will outline the specific
Lesson 76: 30 Day Challenge
I’ve done 2 posts on long tones in the past (long tone 1, long tone 2) and thought it might be fun to encourage a 30 day, “long tone” challenge. The long tone method outlined below is easy and a
Lesson 75: Cycle Wheel pt.3 (Cycle 4 and 5)
This is the final part of a 3 part lesson series dealing with using Cycle Wheels to deconstruct any 7 note scale. The 3 cycles will allow you to explore every ascending and descending interval from any scale. Check out Lesson
Lesson 74: Cycle Wheel Pt.2 (Cycle 3 and 6)
This is part 2 of a 3 part lesson series dealing with using Cycle Wheels to deconstruct any type of 7 note scale. The 3 Cycles Wheels will allow you to explore every ascending and descending interval within an octave
Lesson 73: Cycle Wheel Pt.1 (Cycle 2 and 7)
This is the 1st of a 3 part lesson on using what I like to call a Cycle Wheel to deconstruct a scale. I first wrote about Cycle Wheels in the “Modern Jazz Vocabulary Vol.1” book on Harmonic Major. I’ve
Lesson 72: 3 Note Cell
This lesson is similar to a study in triad pairs, however, in this melodic example, one of the 3 note cells is a sus (1,4,5) instead of a straight triad.For an in depth look at a similar approach I highly
Gig w Erik Jekabson
Here are a few mp3s from a recent gig with trumpeter Eric Jekabson. Eric and I met in New York just over 10 years ago and played quite a bit at that time. I was lucky to record on one
Lesson 71: E Modal Melody
Sometimes I find it helpful to spend time working on the modes and 7 main chords in just one key. This helps to strengthen my understanding and visualization of those keys that I end up playing less often. This lesson
Contrafacts
Here are some original compositions that I wrote which are all based on standard chord changes. This compositional approach is often called writing “contrafacts”. It’s nice to have some tunes in the book that are easy to improvise over because
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