Lesson 161: Recorda Me Etude.
Here’s a short Etude I wrote for Nic over the chord changes to Recorda Me (Joe Henderson). The Etude uses some triad pairs from the 4th mode of Harmonic Major over the first 8 bars as well as the (classical)
Lesson 159: Lee Konitz – Sing a phrase – play it back.
When I lived in New York City, I had the transformative experience of taking lessons with Lee Konitz. In his remarkable Central Park apartment, which had a grand piano in every room, he guided me through exercises that left a
Lesson 146 Part 3: Countdown, Giant Steps, Tri-tonic
This is part 3 in my video series on Countdown. In this lesson on Countdown we’ll continue looking at ways of thinking about, conceptualizing and improvising over Countdown. This method uses minor triads over each chord of the progression. On
Lesson 154: Major 7 b9 Melody
The b9 is not commonly over a Major 7 chord. This melody is one a wrote to help me incorporate it’s use into my melodic improvisation. In this context it functions as a passing tone between the root and the
Lesson 153: Minor Pentatonic Warm Up
Pentatonic scales are amazing 5 note sets that are comprised of stacked perfect 5th or stacked perfect 4ths. They can be used in a variety of harmonic contexts. Keep in mind that the Major pentatonic and the (relative) minor pentatonic
Lesson 148: I Hear A Rhapsody – Etude
Etudes are a great way to work on new material, vocabulary, phrasing and a whole host of positive musical skills. Here’s a one chorus etude I wrote for Bari player Andrea Edwards who is earning her Bachler’s in jazz at
Giant Steps – Cycle 5 Melody
As a creative educator in improvisor, I often enjoy working on Cycle 4 and Cycle 5 melodies. This Etude is a vertical melody over the Giant Steps progression (John Coltrane). Each melody starts on the root of the chord and
Wanjiku – Live recording June 2022
I wrote this song in 2001. Wanjiku was inspired by the book Pedals of Blood, recommended to me by my step-father Bruce Baron, who studied with the author while doing his undergraduate degree in education. I recorded the song in
Lesson 142: Dominant Shell add #11
The 4 note structure or tetrad made up of 1, 3, #11 and b7 is a very useful note set for voicings and improvising over all sorts of dominant 7th chords. These 4 notes are common tones from both lydian
Lesson 141: Major #9 Melody
This is a short melodic phrase that I wrote that includes use of the #9 on a major chord. I often think of this sound coming from the 6th mode of harmonic minor which works nicely over a major 7
Lesson 140: Cycle 4 Melody – Altered
In this live discussion I outline the entire process I go through when I work on a new idea. In this case, I have written a short 7 note melody which comes from the Altered scale (also called diminished-whole-tone or
Lesson 139: Simple 3 chord Tune “Melisma”
Yesterday I wrote a short 3 chord tune by writing the melody first using a minor pentatonic scale. Many great songs use a pentatonic scale (or relative minor pentatonic) as a theoretical basis for all or part of the melody.
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