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
Free Jazz Education and Music
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
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
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
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
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
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
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),
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
Using odd rhythmic groupings when improvising can be challenging. How many times have you tried to play a seemingly innocent group of 3, 5 or 7 while improvising over a song in 4/4 only to find that you’ve gotten turned
Here’s another beautiful melody from the Bach 2 part inversions that comes from the harmonic minor scale. In this lesson I sing the phrase in one key (concert Ab minor) and then play it through all 12 keys. I really
In lesson 31 we’ll take a small melodic fragment from the Bach 2 part inversions and both play it and sing it through the diatonic chords found in concert Eb major. I enjoy taking a small phrase from any number
Since I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in 1990, I began to sing as a way of practicing the saxophone without using my hands. After my operation, I could not use my hands to play the sax for 4 months so