Book – Lessons 1 to 22
I’ve put together mattotto.org blog lessons 1 through 22 in a 60 page, 8.5 by 11, spiral bound book for easy reference. I did omit the Long Tone and Drone exercises since they don’t include written material, but I’ve expanded
Lesson 53: pentatonic
I played a gig a few weeks ago with a wonderful alto player from NYC named Logan Richardson. While playing over Without a Song in Eb using Joe Henderson’s changes, Logan played a nice pentatonic idea over the concert B
Dayna Stephens
Dayna Stephens, a great young tenor player is in need of a new kidney. Even a small donation helps… check out the NPR article, the video and link below. http://www.helpdaynastephens.org/ NPR Article To support mattotto.org please visit the store: https://mattotto.e-junkie.com/
“Red ” – free album
Here’s a quartet album we did on Origin Records. We recorded it in 1999 and released it in 2005. You can download this for free by clicking on the album cover below. ~Enjoy! Matt Otto, “Red”Origin 82445 click
Lesson 52: Enclosures
Chromatic and diatonic enclosures are a great way to begin working with melodic embellishment. In this exercise the 3rd of both a major triad (with an added 9) and the 3rd of a minor triad (with an added 9) are
Lesson 51: Maj 7 #5 melody
Finding melodies on a single note instrument that really bring out the sound of more complex types of harmony is often a challenge. Here’s a Major 7 #5 melody I found the other day while doing some slow improvisation. It’s
Lesson 50: Wide Intervals
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 upper-structure tensions (9, #11, and 13). The melody
Lesson 49: sus4
The sus4 chord can be found in most genres of music; blues, jazz, rock, classical, folk, hip hop, etc. In a normal C7 chord, the 4 notes are C (the root), E (the major 3rd), G (the 5th), Bb (the
Lesson 48: -7b5
When starting out as an improviser, the half diminished 7th chord is often a difficult chord to hear and play over melodically. Even after working on it for years the half diminished chord can still be more challenging to sing
New CD – Anima
This album was a pleasure to record. Pianist Leonard Thompson and I did 6 hours of live takes at a Church in Kansas City with a huge Steinway grand and great acoustics. Playing with Leonard is always a pleasure as
Lesson 46: Altered Melody
Here’s a short melody that uses all the notes from the Altered Scale (the 7th mode of the Melodic Minor Scale). While chord-scale theory can be a valuable part of learning to improvise, finding an actual melody, not just the
Lesson 47: Dizzys’ Bebop
I always liked the introduction to the Dizzy Gillespie tune Bebop. A close friend and wonderful alto player Gabe Eaton and I learned this tune back in the early 90’s and played it frequently while living in Japan with our
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