Lesson 45: Bird Line
Bird may be my all time favorite melodic improvisor. His sound, feel and ideas still seem fresh and alive and I enjoy him more and more the older I get. I’m always shocked when I put on a side I’ve
Lessons
Lesson 44: Simple ii – V7
Often when I’m home improvising over a tune, I’ll stumble upon a simple melody and wonder whether or not I can play it through the keys. I might be able hear the melody clearly in my mind, can sing it
Lesson 43: Diminished
Here’s an intervallic diminished sequence that I wrote while in Leipzig on a short avant-garde tour in the late 90’s. We had many long days of doing nothing before the sound check and gig so I composed this short melody
Lesson 40: HW diminished
The use of the “half -whole” diminished scale over a dominant 7th chord can create some interesting and complex sounds. This “octatonic” scale outlines specific tensions – b9, #9, #11 and natural 13. There are a lot of possibilities for
Lesson 42: Synthetic Scale
Sometimes working with a synthetic scale can be rewarding and help free you from your normal melodic ideas. I still have a 12 sided die from the Dungeon and Dragon days of the early 80’s and by assigning 12 notes
Lesson 41: Shell + Tension
Oftentimes, as a single note improviser, it is difficult to recognize harmonic tensions by ear. For example, when playing just an A natural, it sometimes challenging to hear that note as a 13th on a major #5 chord or as
Lesson 24: Major Melody
This is a very simple melody that clearly outlines the major 7 sound (with a passing natural 11). First learn to sing the melody in one key to get familiar with the sound and help internalize the phrase. Singing is
Lesson 39: Bach Cello Suite
Here’s a very simple lesson taken from the 1st two bars of the second Bach Cello Suite prelude. The melody outlines the chord progression i minor to V7 b9. First, sing the melody until you hear it like a nursery
Lesson 38: 1st Inv Triads
Over the years I consistently hear from my students, “I know all my triads” and, “I know all my major scales”. After closer examination, it turns out that, for many developing sax players and musicians, this often means root position
Lesson 37: Singing Modes
This is an exercise I came up with since I have carpal tunnel syndrome and can’t play as much as I’d like to. I either sing along with this mp3 or I do long tones on the root while listening
Lesson 36: ii-V-i Harmonic Min.
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),
Lesson 35: ii-V-i Harmonic Min
This exercise is an 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
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