Free Jazz Education and Music
Etudes are a great way to learn new ideas, phrases, concepts and vocabulary. This is a short 12 bar etude I wrote and have been digesting over the last 6 months or so. Memorizing the etude is just the beginning,
Here’s a transcription of my tenor sax solo from the Alliance album (2020). This is over the chord changes to Woody and You (Dizzy Gillespie) on a contrafact I wrote called Woods. In the transcription I tried to notate what
In this lesson we’ll look at the first ii – V7 – I melody found in the “Modern Jazz Vocabulary vol. 2” book. This melody is comprised of major 1st inversion triads descending by half steps and a few chromatic
I thought it might be nice to work with a variation on Lesson 1 (Spread Triads) – In this exercise we play spread major triads a tri-tone apart, a sound which will work nicely over a dominant 7th chord with
This is a nice triadic idea that works through a dimished scale. By simply playing 2nd inversion major triads down by minor thirds you get a nice melodic line that clearly outlines the 4 major triads found in diminshed harmony.
I’ve always found it effective to work on a specific melody in order to incorporate a general concept into my playing. For instance, when learning to use the #5 on the dominant 7th or i diminished as a substitute for
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
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
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
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
Here is a simple melody that will help you hear diminished as diminished, not merely as a dominant 7(b9). This is fairly easy idea that is played through the keys around the circle of fourths starting in concert C. It’s
