Lesson 154: Major 7 b9 Melody
The b9 is not commonly over a Major 7 chord. This melody is one a wrote to help me incorporate it’s use into my melodic improvisation. In this context it functions as a passing tone between the root and the
Lessons
Lesson 153: Minor Pentatonic Warm Up
Pentatonic scales are amazing 5 note sets that are comprised of stacked perfect 5th or stacked perfect 4ths. They can be used in a variety of harmonic contexts. Keep in mind that the Major pentatonic and the (relative) minor pentatonic
Lesson 152: Maj Triad add #11 Tetrad
The 4 note cell or Tetrad using 1, 3, #11, 5 has many harmonic contexts and can be used for creating voicings, improvising melodically and composing. This lesson outlines one simple melody from the tetrad the descends skipping voices. After
Lesson 148: I Hear A Rhapsody – Etude
Etudes are a great way to work on new material, vocabulary, phrasing and a whole host of positive musical skills. Here’s a one chorus etude I wrote for Bari player Andrea Edwards who is earning her Bachler’s in jazz at
Lesson 146 Part 2: Countdown, Giant Steps, Tri-Tonic
In this video lesson I’ll demonstrate a few ways to practice the minor pentatonic concept outlined in the first video (Countdown Part 1). I start with an brief overview of the last lesson and than play examples of sequential ideas
Lesson 146 Part 1: Countdown, Giant Steps, Tri-Tonic
This is a 3 part series on ways to practice and think about Countdown my John Coltrane. This is on of his challenging tri-tonic tunes based on the song Tune Up. Countdown is one of those tunes that, depending on
Lesson 145: Major Melody using #9, #11 and #5
Here’s a nice major melody I wrote today at the piano and began learning, singing and playing through 12 keys. This short two bar melody incorporates several nice upper structure alterations including #11, #9 and #5. The phrase starts off
Giant Steps – Cycle 5 Melody
As a creative educator in improvisor, I often enjoy working on Cycle 4 and Cycle 5 melodies. This Etude is a vertical melody over the Giant Steps progression (John Coltrane). Each melody starts on the root of the chord and
New CD “Umbra”
Another CD is now out on Origin records. “Otto is a true original in his compositional efforts. He sounds like no-one else. Free? Sort or, and laid back, with a beautiful sax tone. It sounds like he is laying out
Cycle – Kansas City Trio
Here’s a pdf and video of a contrafact I wrote over the Sam Rivers tune “Cyclic Episode”. I love working on improvising over this progression because it uses all 12 minor 7th chords; making it a lot of fun to
Ear Training Series (Major Modes).
Passive Ear Training: A New Approach to Mastering the Modes of the Major Scale. Buy Here I’m excited to share a new ear training series I’ve developed with saxophonist Xose Miguelez. We’ve created something that I think will really help
Lesson 144: Barry Harris – Chromatic Chord Scales
Several of my students have been asking about various Barry Harris approaches to playing changes and creating strong melodic lines with chromatic notes (non-scale degrees and non-chord tones). Although I love Barry Harris as a playing and improvisor I never
Gallery
