~Lesson 89: Altered Melody
This is a simple Altered Melody that works on a dominant 7th chord with a #5, #11, #9 and b9 and comes from the 7th mode of melodic minor (i.e. B7 alt = the 7th mode of C melodic minor).
Free Jazz Education and Music
Lessons
This is a simple Altered Melody that works on a dominant 7th chord with a #5, #11, #9 and b9 and comes from the 7th mode of melodic minor (i.e. B7 alt = the 7th mode of C melodic minor).
In this lesson we’ll look at and play a theme from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book 1; Fugue 10 in E minor. What I find so great about this melody is that it uses a guide- tone cliché or line
Lesson 87 is a simple ii-7 V7 melody that you’ll probably recognize. This line will work over both a ii-7 or a V7 so it’s good to practice it in both harmonic contexts. Learn to sing the melody first so
Playing bebop melodies through all 12 keys can be a great practice that will help develop your ear, your analytical mind and your technique. Sometimes a whole melody can be a bit daunting so it can be nice to take
Studying with George Garzone was always extremely inspiring and challenging. One seemingly simple assignment he gave me when I studied with him at Berklee in the 80’s was to play random intervals or random notes. The challenge was to actually
When studying with George Garzone in the mid 1980’s, I learned to practice and play without using any tongue. In my experience, playing without any tonguing exposes your finger technique and thus, through improved awareness, helps both the time and
In lesson 82 we will look at an easy 5 note (pentatonic) scale that works well when improvising over a Major 7 #5 chord. This chord can be challenging when you’re starting out and this group of 5 notes are
Here’s a one chorus solo I played over the chord changes to “Well You Needn’t” by Thelonious Monk for the “Jam Of The Week” facebook group, which I thought might make a nice etude. A video of the orginal solo
Improvising using odd rhythmic groupings or accent patterns while not getting turned around (loosing the harmonic rhythm) has always been something I enjoy working on and I’ve found that many of my students share this experience. This is a simple
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
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
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