Lesson with Jordan

By the way... another thing that I would be interested to know is WHEN to use this. this whole playing certain modes over certain chords, that's cool... but wouldn't it just mean that you are simply playing over the exact same scale all the time...? ah, but I suppose not... I'm thinking linearly... I'm thinking in that ii-IV thing, for example. but, I suppose composers have (obviously) put scales in jazz that are "out" of the tonic scale, so I suppose that's where this kind of thing would be more useful?

I suppose I'm just kind of looking at the practical "what can I use this for" thing.


also, I'm sure this leads smoothly into bop? perhaps making bop scale based on that mode? I think I might be ready to move on now, because I'm asking too many questions

Originally Posted by Jordan

...another thing that I would be interested to know is WHEN to use this. ... I'm thinking linearly......composers have (obviously) put scales in jazz that are "out" of the tonic scale, so I suppose that's where this kind of thing would be more useful?
...

I'll be a little more available soon - what we're going to do is look specifically at some leadsheets.

When you say 'out of the tonic' are you thinking tonic as the key of the tune? OR, the key of the moment? You might play 'All The Things You Are' in Ab, but it goes many MANY other places...which is where knowing which chords are from which key is important.

Soon, I'll upload a chart to look at and dig into where this stuff fits into it. Eventually getting into 'substitutions' and 'side-stepping' and other fun stuff



Stay tuned.

awesome stuff.. I am waiting with trepidation jazz band at my school has already started, and next week we start to play, so I am hoping to see what you have got to show me soon!

Okay, since both lessons are headed in a similar direction, I'm going to copy & paste this: how to approach melodic content, a start at least.

What you need to do is be aware of two parts of all this. Chords and scales. Chords and chord-tones are what sound good, and let listeners know you know what you're doing. Scales are good for connecting everything together; again, so you sound like you know what you're doing.

Attached is a leadsheet for the Kern/Hammerstein tune 'All The Things You Are'.

Now, chord tones - a good way to organize yourself melodically is with 'target notes'. It may be at the end of a 4 measure phrase, in the middle of an 8th-note run, or at some main tonal shift in the tune. The point is, to have a clear goal in sight, and a clear way to get there.

Guide Tones (not sure if I mentioned these here): are the third and seventh of a chord. These notes make up the meat & potatoes of the chord. 1 and 5 are merely filler, and have little to do with defining the chord; 9, 11, 13 are simply color. The 3rd defines major/minor. 7th, dominant/otherwise.

A cool thing about 3rds and 7ths appears when you analyze the ii-V7-I progression. Looking at All The Things, measures 2-4.

Bbmin7 ... Eb7 ... AbMaj7.

We all know the construction of 7th chords, right?

Start on the 3rd of Bbmin7: Db.
What's the next logical choice, for Eb7? Db. (7th)
And for AbMaj7? C (3rd)

Flows nicely: Db, Db, C.

Works the other way too

7th of Bbmin7: Ab
3rd of Eb7: G
7th of AbMaj7: G

Alternating 3rds and 7ths makes a nicely contoured line: works beautifully for backgrounds. These work well for target notes in improvisation.

Quickie assignment: For each chord, pick a single note, find a line that flows nicely through the changes. Avoid 1 if at all possible...5 is okay...3rd or 7th preferable.

(spoiler) ...in 4-measure phrases:
C Db Db C | C B B-B |
Bb Ab Ab G | G F# F#-F# | G F# F#-F#||
A A G#-G# | Ab Ab G G
F E Eb D | Db Db C-C ||

Another one:
Ab Ab G G | F F E-E |
Eb Eb D D | C C B-B | C C B-B ||
E D# D# E | Eb Db Db C |
C B Bb A | Ab G G-G ||


Dunno how it sounds as a whole, but it goes to show that a simple line can be found to weave through the changes. Looking at the melody for All The Things you'll notice that it uses (for the most part) 3rds of the chord. Neat, eh?!

Now, what to do is to pick one of these notes as a target, and utilize scales/modes to aproach and unify them.

SO: looking at the tune, can you identify the parent major (or minor) scale for each chord?

....aaaaaaand.....GO!

All The Things You Are: leadsheet.

huh. alright. I won't put up my answers what with the quickie assignment, because I just kind of thought of it and forgot it... it's kind of spur of the moment. as should be with jazz

however. the scales.

it should go like this. I'm just going to cite the Parent Major/minor scales, so it will look weird... consult the original (also, because they are mostly minor, I will just put the letter UNLESS it is minor, then I will denote it.)

E Ab Ab Ab

Db C C C

Bb Eb Eb Eb

Ab G G G

G G G G

E E E ???... augmented. well, erm... E? the G# in E would match the augmented fifth in C...

Eb Ab Ab Ab

Db B Bb um... I think that's Diminished? so, um... I'm gonna take a wild guess and say C, because I think that that shares the most notes.

Ab Ab Ab C F.




so... erm.... any good? I think that wasn't bad.

also, you just inadvertently taught me (or maybe on purpose, and you are brilliant) how to write better chord Progressions. thanks. and keep this stuff up, I like it

Originally Posted by Jordan

...also, you just inadvertently taught me (or maybe on purpose, and you are brilliant) how to write better chord Progressions.

I'm glad you got something out of it. It's cool to see how a great progression stays in a key centre for a while, and also how it moves around.

There were a couple places that tripped you up - simply because it's not something we've mentioned yet.

[I presume the first E is supposed to be Eb...you got it right the second time ]

Anyway.

Do you also see how a simple melody can be developed over/through the changes? ...

Now I'll mention a couple of new scales/chords. Synthetic scales are those that do not exist naturally in any major/minor scales. The first one you stumbled upon was the C+7 augmented chord.

C+7 = C E G# Bb [could also be notated as C7#5]

Along with this we uncover the whole-tone scale. Pretty straight-forward. There's only two of them possible, built entirely of (duh) whole-steps:

C D E Gb Ab Bb
Db Eb F G A B

The same scale is used for any augmented chord with that root... i.e. the D whole-tone and Ab whole-tone scales are identical; likewise with F and Db and so on...

Make sense?!

The other chord you ran into was Bº7 ... It's a little hard to read, but that's what it is. B-diminshed.

Diminshed scales are built on alternating half and whole steps. And, there's two ways to build them: starting with a half-step, and starting with a whole-step. Which one to use? I've devised this little gimmick... chord symbol looks like: Bº7? The circle looks like a hole...whole. Whole-half. If the symbol is something like B7(b5, b9) [the b9 is the kicker] then I go with half-whole...So, for All The Things you could pop in a little diminished lick:

B C# D E F G Ab Bb B

Fun.

See it...hwhwhwhwhw...and so on. Again, the same scale relates to several chords, because it synthetic and symmetrical.

Neat-o!!

...

oh, so whole tone scales work over augmented chords? see, I was wondering about that.

also, the diminished scales, yes, I know what they are, but that was a neat perspective. cool. so... what's next?

Originally Posted by Jordan

...so... what's next?

Practice.

You're wanting to apply this stuff to your playing, right?

Get some leadsheets (Easy standards: Autumn Leaves, Summertime, Beautiful Love), practice them: learn the melody; arpeggiate the chords. Get some Aebersolds (Volume 1 is actually very useful); write a solo; transcibe someone elses solo; listen to records and play along......

Let me know if you want some more charts, or even to 'borrow' some Aebersold tracks...

I would very much like some more sheets. I would love autumn leaves, because I don't have that... actually, really, all I have right now is "My favorite things", "lullaby of Birdland", and that's about it. so, any standards that you could hook me up with would be great. (open up the floodgates, I swear, my hard drive can take it. )

also, some of the abersolds would be nice too... but then again, if you don't want to be risky, I'm cool with the sheets.

Originally Posted by Jordan

...if you don't want to be risky, I'm cool with the
sheets.

I like to live dangerously... stay tuned. (Do you use iTunes? Would save the .m4a >> .mp3 transformation)