This is a basic, fundamental exercise dealing with Major Triads and their inversions. The triads are spaced a whole tone apart with the scheme being ascending / descending in an upwards direction for 2 octaves, then ascending / descending back down. Each inversion is presented in four groupings, as each measure is a Major Third apart, thus dividing the octave into 3 equal parts. Therefore, the triads repeat after the fourth grouping. Triads are one of the more basic tools in an improviser’s arsenal. A good technical facility, as well as a basic theoretical understanding of their usage both in … Read More
Bobby Stern
As we continue the saga of MM (aka Melodic Minor), our “Major Modal Mutant”, and cast a brief glance over our shoulders for a quick recap, we remind ourselves that: MM was formed by lowering the 3rd degree of a Major Scale, which altered it’s internal intervalic relationships. Whereras Major has 6 perfect fourths and one tritone, MM now possesses 4 perfect fourths, a diminished fourth (Maj. 3rd), and 2 tritones. MM contains substantial pieces of both the whole tone, and diminished scales. … Read More
In Pt. 1, we saw how M.M. was created from the ribs of a Major scale by simply dropping the Maj. 3rd a half step, and in the process, changing the interval relationships (and therefore the tensions) within the scale itself. Using C Melodic Minor as an example, the sound of MM is now darker and more mysterious than Major, due mainly to the added whole tone (creating an augmented triad, (Eb-G-B), and the diatonic presence of two diminished triads (A-C-Eb & B-D-F), meaning that our new scale now possesses two tritones (A-Eb & B-F). Besides the tritones, we also … Read More
Friend and fellow tenorman, Chicago native and long time NYC resident, Russ Nolan features a very concise and insightful look into some of the processes that go into both jazz composition and improvisation, as well as highlighting similarities of bot Russ refers to composition as “improvisation out of time” and improvisation as “composition in real time”. Being an accomplished composer as well as a world class improviser, he knows well of which he speaks. Check out his 3 part post, and learn more about Russ. … Read More
The scale and it’s harmonic system known as Melodic Minor (aka: Jazz Minor, Ascending Melodic Minor, Ionian b3, etc.) is probably the most misunderstood and under digested of the traditional diatonic derived scale systems being used in improvised music. Many students, and professionals alike, tend to freeze up like they saw Frankenstein when presented with chord symbols or mode choices native to Melodic Minor, or for that matter, not native to Major. Most of us have been taught to view any altered chord type as an altered form of it’s Major counterpart. … Read More
The idea for this post is the merging of an exercise I posted previously on playing 5 Pentatonic modes from a common tone (it’d probably be helpful to check it out first), with formula #1 from the book “Inside Improvisation Series, Vol. 2 – Pentatonics”, by the eminent saxophonist and guru, Jerry Bergonzi. In this book, the Gonz presents 8 different formulas (4 descending and 4 ascending, based on steps and skips up or down), for creating pentatonic lines. What we’re doing here this time is taking Bergonzi’s pentatonic formula #1 (which is (x) skip step down (x) step down … Read More
As I’ve been frantically trying to finish my new eBook “Slick Licks That Stick!” during the past several weeks and hadn’t had the chance to post anything new, I thought I’d do a quickie “Marc Meyers type” record review of an album I’ve been digging a lot lately, Bobby Hutcherson’s 1963 recording, “The Kicker”. Featured here, besides Hutcherson on vibraphone, is the always amazing Joe Henderson on tenor (of course), as well as Duke Pearson – p, Grant Green – guitar (tracks #4-6), Bob (he’s everywhere, he’s everywhere!) Cranshaw – bass, and Al Harewood on the tubs. Not only does … Read More
As I revealed in my post on synthetic reeds from 12/02/2012, I have been an endorser for Bari Woodwinds for about eight years now and I’ve been happily playing their synthetic reeds since 1987. So, you ask; what does an endorser do? He or she endorses, of courses! But only if the product in question warrants an endorsement. Right? … Read More
Riding the wave of innovation pioneered by Jimmy Smith and the resulting popularity of the Hammond B-3 electric organ, B-3 organ groups soon sprang up like mushrooms in bars and lounges all across urban America during the late 1950’s and throughout the next decade. By the early 1960’s, as organ / tenor saxophone groups were approaching the peak of their popularity, the best of the rest of these groups was the one led by the husband & wife team of tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine and organist Shirley Scott. … Read More
Here’s a nice little fourth / pentatonic type intervalic ii-V7 pattern, a la Woody Shaw, that slipped into my fingers the other day as I was doing my saxophonic due diligence. A quick analysis of the first line reveals that on beats 3 & 4 and 1 & 2 of measures one & two respectively, there’s a brief tonality shift into B Major, or one half step below the target key, C. Beats 3 & 4 of measure two are an altered four note grouping, relative to the dominant (G7), leading back to the targeted tonic chord C minor (or … Read More