Free Jazz Education and Music
This lesson features several etudes I’ve written over standard chord changes. Back in the 80’swhile doing an undergraduate degree at Indiana University, David Baker would make us write out solos over tunes we were learning. I still use this method
Here’s an easy way to begin to introduce some wider intervals into your improvisation while still maintaining melodic and harmonic integrity. This exercise uses a dominant 7th chord, and also includes it’s upperstructure tensions (9, #11, and 13). The melody
The composer and trombonist Alan Ferber visited Kansas City recently and we played 3 very fun gigs together, including one with the People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City; which featured all of Alan’s original big band compositions. You
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
Sometimes working on just one key for a while can be beneficial. Today I practiced a bit on concert A major – on tenor sax this is B major, which does not lay well on the horn for me, mainly
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
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 melody uses a minor triad with the added 9 over the ii chord (D-7 would
This is a simple minor major nine melody I started hearing in my head a few days ago. It’s nothing special but I enjoyed singing it and working it slowly through the keys. Sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that help
John Stowell, a wonderful guitar player from Portland Oregon came out to Kansas City and we played a clinic, gig and session together. Here’s a few tunes that I recorded using my little mp3 recorder. ~ Enjoy! w Gerald Spaits
This is the first “play along” that I’ve produced for both practicing and teaching. I’ve been using Drones and Pedals with a metronome for years but now I’ve started using this play along for the same basic purposes. The bass
This first group of songs was recorded in 2002 for a demo with Bruce Saunders (guitar), Mark Ferber (drums), and Yoshi Waki (bass). I recorded a mix of standard jazz tunes plus the first recorded version of “End Class” which
Some of my students and many professional musicians and hobbyists that I know, experience a lot of stress, anxiety and general nervousness prior to, and during music performance. This short post will examine a few strategies that I have used
