Lesson 53: pentatonic
I played a gig a few weeks ago with a wonderful alto player from NYC named Logan Richardson. While playing over Without a Song in Eb using Joe Henderson’s changes, Logan played a nice pentatonic idea over the concert B
Lesson 50: Wide Intervals
Here’s an easy way to begin to introduce some wider intervals into your improvisation while still maintaining melodic and harmonic integrity. This exercise uses a dominant 7th chord, and also includes it’s upper-structure tensions (9, #11, and 13). The melody
Lesson 48: -7b5
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
Lesson 43: Diminished
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
Modern Jazz Vocabulary Vol.2
The second volume of Modern Jazz Vocabulary is finally done. I made some changes in the books format based on a lot of the feedback I got from people about vol. 1. This book is bigger in size but should
Lesson 20: V7 to i using -3rds
Here’s a short melody I worked out using minor 3rds descending by half steps. It works well as a V7 to i minor cadence and after the descending minor 3rd passage I added a short 5 note minor melody to
Lesson 19: Maj7 #9 #11 Melody
Using unusual modes from scales can help produce some interesting melodies. This major #9 #11 melody comes from the 6th mode of harmonic minor (i.e. Ab to Ab from C harmonic minor). This mode is a wonderful substitution for Lydian
Lesson 13: Lydian Melody in 5ths
Playing larger intervals can help to break up more linear ideas in a creative way that still sounds melodic and outlines the harmony clearly. This exercise in comprised of consecutive 5ths through Lydian, so it will work well over Major
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