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 the tempo, will be challenging for your whole life. At a ballad tempo (like the way Joe Lovano plays it) the changes are fun and fairly easy but once it’s over about 200 it can start to feel pretty restrictive. By using some simplifications based on smaller note sets I’ve had some success pushing the tempo up over the years without needing to memorize choruses of material although I’m far from gaining comfort at 300 bpm.
In this first video, we’ll look at different ways to simplify the chord changes using 3, 4 and 5 (pentatonic) note sets and ways to practice implementing these new concepts.
In this first part I’ll go over the first simplification of the progression which is using minor (or major) pentatonics over each of the key centers throughout the piece.
From these pentatonic scales we will also look at just the minor triad, the major triad, the minor add 11 tetrad and the major add 9 tetrad.
There is a PDF outlining the basic ideas discussed in the video below.
~ Enjoy!
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