Here's an exercise inspired, for the most part, by the late, great pianist Walter Bishop, jr., from his book, "A Study in Fourths", published in 1976 and now, unfortunately, out of print.
I was fortunate enough to have bought this book from Mr. Bishop personally in the late 1970's or early '80s, after seeing him perform. I seem to remember him autographing it for me, but the book contains no autograph. Either I had asked him, but there was no pen available or he used invisible ink (or I was............never mind!).
*I remember now. As I had several copies of the book, I inadvertently lent or gave the autographed copy away to a student without checking. Careless maybe, but I know I wasn't trippin'.
It is said that Woody Shaw practiced out of this book, and maybe he did. But it is well documented that he played the way he did (using lines comprised of 4ths, not common on trumpet), long before this book appeared in 1976.
I was fortunate enough to have bought this book from Mr. Bishop personally in the late 1970's or early '80s, after seeing him perform. I seem to remember him autographing it for me, but the book contains no autograph. Either I had asked him, but there was no pen available or he used invisible ink (or I was............never mind!).
*I remember now. As I had several copies of the book, I inadvertently lent or gave the autographed copy away to a student without checking. Careless maybe, but I know I wasn't trippin'.
It is said that Woody Shaw practiced out of this book, and maybe he did. But it is well documented that he played the way he did (using lines comprised of 4ths, not common on trumpet), long before this book appeared in 1976.
In any case, I know I've gotten a lot of good usage out of this 32 page book over the years, and I'm very thankful to have been able to buy the book from Mr. B. (who Passed away in 1998), autographed or not.
The exercise here is another ii-V-I, dealing with his concepts, using the cycle of perfect fourths, as well as "skips" to interrupt the cycle so as to better fit the changes.
The relationship between the interval of a perfect 4th and the Major Pentatonic scale is tightly intertwined. A Maj. Pentatonic is actually a series of four consecutive perfect 4ths, built from the 3rd degree of the Maj. scale (i.e. E-A-D-G-C for C Maj. Penta).
The other way to look at a Maj. Pentatonic is that it is a Maj. scale with the 4th & 7th degrees removed. If you add a "B" (7th) as the first note of the cycle, and an "F" (4th) as the last, you get a complete C Major Scale as a diatonic cycle of perfect fourths.
Looking at the ii-V-I exercise here: The first measure (D-7) spells out a C Maj. Pentatonic. Cool. Measure 2 (G7alt), excluding the final eighth note, spells out a Db Maj. Pentatonic (tritone substution). The last eighth note of measure 2 could be considered an anticipated tonic of C Maj7 or a passing G7sus.
If you change the C Maj7 to a 7#11 you could play some version of D Maj. pentatonic over it. That would give you three pentatonics moving chromatically in an ascending direction, which you could use over a ii-V-I. Hmmmm!
Let's not forget, though, we're talking about perfect fourths here.
Mr. Bishop demonstrates his entire concept in the 25 minute YouTube video below.
Check out the whole thing. This is invaluable stuff!!
The exercise here is another ii-V-I, dealing with his concepts, using the cycle of perfect fourths, as well as "skips" to interrupt the cycle so as to better fit the changes.
The relationship between the interval of a perfect 4th and the Major Pentatonic scale is tightly intertwined. A Maj. Pentatonic is actually a series of four consecutive perfect 4ths, built from the 3rd degree of the Maj. scale (i.e. E-A-D-G-C for C Maj. Penta).
The other way to look at a Maj. Pentatonic is that it is a Maj. scale with the 4th & 7th degrees removed. If you add a "B" (7th) as the first note of the cycle, and an "F" (4th) as the last, you get a complete C Major Scale as a diatonic cycle of perfect fourths.
Looking at the ii-V-I exercise here: The first measure (D-7) spells out a C Maj. Pentatonic. Cool. Measure 2 (G7alt), excluding the final eighth note, spells out a Db Maj. Pentatonic (tritone substution). The last eighth note of measure 2 could be considered an anticipated tonic of C Maj7 or a passing G7sus.
If you change the C Maj7 to a 7#11 you could play some version of D Maj. pentatonic over it. That would give you three pentatonics moving chromatically in an ascending direction, which you could use over a ii-V-I. Hmmmm!
Let's not forget, though, we're talking about perfect fourths here.
Mr. Bishop demonstrates his entire concept in the 25 minute YouTube video below.
Check out the whole thing. This is invaluable stuff!!
B. Stern
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