I recently discovered an awesome book by NYC alto saxophonist / composer John O’Gallagher, entitled “Twelve Tone Improvisation” (Advance Music) after stumbling upon it via a Dave Douglas podcast. O’Gallagher is a monster alto player with a fresh & unique concept. After hearing some of the music from the podcast off of his latest CD “The Anton Webern Project” and how “sophisticatedly funky” it sounded (Anton Webern gets jacked by Ornette meets Sun-Ra meets Bitches Brew), I got so excited I bought both the book & the CD. Although I’ve previously had some minimal exposure to twelve tone rows in … Read More
Category Archives: Woodshed
Let’s take a look at a very hip sounding scale, Melakarta #31, known as Yagapriya. As you can see on the keyboard graphic to the left, Yagapriya has an unusual interval makeup: 1 1/2 steps – half step – half step – whole step – half step – half step – 1 1/2 steps The interval scheme of the second four notes (tetrachord) is the reverse (mirror image) of the first four notes, separated by a whole step.Yagapriya can also be thought of, in western terms, as 4 triads: (In C) C Maj., C min., F Maj., & F min. … Read More
The Augmented Scale is a symmetrical six note (hexatonic) scale. It can best be described as being formed by two augmented triads a minor 3rd apart (C aug & Eb aug) or, with different inversions, a half step apart. (C aug & C# aug). It can also be viewed as being made up of three Major triads, a Major 3rd apart. From C, the resulting hexatonic scales would be: C – Eb – E – G – G# – B (stepwise: -3, 1/2, -3, 1/2, -3), or C – C# – E – F – G# – A (1/2, -3, … Read More
Here’s a groovy little line, based on 3 note groupings of diatonic 4th intervals of the Melodic Minor scale, which morphed into being today as I waxed saxosophical. In my recent series of posts entitled “Melodic Minor: Major’s Evil Twin”, Pts. 1 -5, it was mentioned that: 1) The Melodic Minor scale system does not contain an unbroken row of 6 perfect fourths, as does Major (i.e. C Maj: B-E-A-D-G-C-F). As a result of altering the Maj. 3rd “E” to “Eb”, the newly created C Melodic Minor scale now has 4 perfect fourths, 2 tritones (Eb-A, F-B) and a diminshed … Read More
Here’s a transcription of John Coltrane’s soprano saxophone solo on his composition “Big Nick”, recorded April 11th, 1962 at Rudy Van Gelder’s famed studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ and was included as part of the CD release of the album “Coltrane”, on the Impulse! label. This is the first of two versions of the tune recorded by Coltrane that year; the second, which appeared on the aptly titled Impulse! classic, “Duke Ellington and John Coltrane”, was recorded in September. The main difference between the two versions, is the form (and the intention). The “Ellington” version is a standard 32 bar, AABA … Read More
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
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
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