Modern Jazz Line #26 - Mini-Etude - Jazz Piano Improvisation Lesson

Sheet Music:  Modern-Jazz-Line-26-Mini-Etude-Jazz-Piano-Lesson.pdf

It's good to be back after a brief two week hiatus.  This week's modern jazz melody is inspired by Charlie Parker's tune "Chi-Chi," a bebop head written over an Ab blues.  The line starts with an ascending arpeggio of perfect 4ths that immediately resolves to the 5th of Am7.  This is followed by a short Am descending triad that anticipates the 3rd of Dm7 by a half a beat.

Next is a short burst of triplets that imply an E Major Triad over Dm7 (Dhalf-dim) and then outlines notes from a G7(#9,13). The line ends with an interesting circling of the 5th chord tone of CMaj7 followed by a repeated triplet motif.

I hope you enjoy transposing this melody through all twelve keys.  Feel free to substitute any of the written left hand voicings for your own.

You may want to watch my Introduction to Modern Jazz Lines 21-30 before continuing with this lesson.

You can find my complete collection of Modern Jazz Line "How to Improvise" playlists below.  You may want to review these lessons before continuing with the series.  They will give you an excellent introduction to voicing and improvising over the ii-V-I progression.

Modern Jazz Line #1-10 - The "ii-V-I" Progression
Video Jazz Piano Lesson Playlist (YouTube)
Sheet Music Collection for Jazz Piano Lesson (1-10)
Blog Posts for Modern Jazz Line #1-10

Modern Jazz Line #11-20 - The Tri-Tone Substitution
Video Jazz Piano Playlist (YouTube)
Sheet Music Collection for Jazz Piano Lesson (11-20)
Blog Posts for Modern Jazz Line #11-20

Sheet Music:   Modern-Jazz-Line-26-Mini-Etude-Jazz-Piano-Lesson.pdf

Video Lesson:

Lesson #27: Lennie Tristano Inspired ii-V-i

In this week's lesson we are taking a look at Lennie Tristano, one of my favorite jazz pianists.  Although he has somewhat of a cult status amongst jazz fans, Tristano's music has been making a resurgence over the past couple of years.  This hilarious video mocks this recent resurgence and idol like worship from many young jazz students.

Idol worship aside, Tristano's music really did push the boundaries of what was possible for improvisation.  He also holds a long list of "firsts." These list includes the first use of tape looping (long before the Beatles), first Jazz musician to experiment heavily with polyrhythm/polytonality, first person to codify a method to teach improvisation, and first person to record and perform live a "free" improvisation piece.  It's easy to see why young explorative players have become so infatuated with his methods and music.  Count me down as one of them.

The line I wrote out for this week's lesson is inspired by Lennie's recording of G Minor Complex (You'd be so Nice to Come Home To) and C Minor Complex (Pennies from Heaven in a minor key).  Check them out here:  G Minor Complex and C Minor Complex.

How to practice this line:
1) Work out fingerings if needed.  If you struggle with technique, it will be almost impossible to learn these lines adequately.
2)  Play the line without singing slowly with the metronome.
3)  Play and sing.
4)  "Ghost" the right hand and sing while playing a simple voicing or the written bass line.
5)  Sing the melody away from the instrument
6)  Repeat in all 12 keys!

YouTube Lesson:  Lesson #27 Lennie Tristano Inspired ii-V-i
Scribd PDF:  Lesson #27 .pdf
-  to print and download click the "purchase" button to the right of the PDF
SoundColoud Play-Along:
I hope you enjoyed this free jazz piano lesson.  If you would like more jazz piano lessons, join my site to the left or "subscribe" on youtube for weekly updates.  If you want to keep the jazz piano lessons coming please consider donating to my site or purchasing a copy of my album.  Thanks for all the support!

Lesson #26: Lydian Interval Exercise

In this week's lesson we explore one of my favorite scales for improvisation, the Lydian Dominant scale.  The Lydian Dominant scale is based on the Mixolydian scale, also known as the fifth mode of the major scale.  In Lesson #24 we learned the how and why of using the Lydian scale to improvise over Major chords.  In case you missed out, here's a brief explanation of what we learned.

Early on, maybe in a private lesson or high school band class, we learn that the Ionian (first mode of the major scale) is the best choice for improvising on Major seventh chords.  Six out of the seven notes of the scale sound perfectly consonant over a standard Major seventh chord. That makes it an easy choice for beginning improvisors.  Also, there is the added benefit that most students who have been playing for a couple years can easily recognize and play at least a couple major scales.

One problem that improvisors can run in to however is the tension created between the third of a Major seventh voicing and the fourth note of the Ionian scale.  Play a simple Cmaj7 voicing in your left hand (say C-E-B).  Now play the note "F" in your right hand.  Doesn't sound very good does it?  That is because the interval created by these two notes is a minor 9th.  We learn in composition and some improvisation classes that the minor 9th is quite a tricky interval to deal with.  In most jazz books it is referred to as an "avoid" note.

The good news is that there is a simple solution to the problem.  Simply raise the fourth interval of the Major scale to make the interval a more consonant sounding Major ninth.  Raising the fourth of the Ionian scale essential turns it in to a Lydian scale (fourth mode of the major scale).  This means that you can play a Lydian scale by taking any basic Major scale and raising the fourth note.  The more correct and more complicated way of thinking about it is thinking down a perfect fourth to the relative Major scale.  For example, a C Lydian scale is a G Major scale starting on C.  A F Lydian scale is a C Major scale starting on F.

The same minor 9th interval is also created when improvising on Dominant chords using the Mixolydian scale.  We can deal with the tension in the same way we dealt with Major 7th harmony.  Simply raise the fourth of the Mixolydian scale to eliminate the minor 9th.  This new scale is what jazz educators have dubbed the Lydian Dominant scale.

I hope you have fun improvising over your favorite tunes this week using the Lydian Dominant scale!

YouTube Lesson:  Lesson #26 Video on YouTube

Scribd:  Lesson #26 .pdf in all 12 Keys

Free play-along recording @ 80bpm.

Lesson #25: Charlie Parker Inspired Line

In this week's lesson we'll be taking a look a melody I wrote out inspired by a Charlie Parker transcription I've been working on.  I've always enjoyed listening and working on Parker's music.  When I was first starting out, one of my teachers recommended that I purchase the Charlie Parker "Omnibook" sold by Jamey Aebersold.  I followed his suggestion and promptly "learned" (i.e. forgot the instant I stopped working on them) many of the transcriptions from the book.  Since then, I've gradually started moving away from written transcriptions.  Most recently, have tried to implement a more aural approach based on the teachings of Lennie Tristano.

I hope you enjoy this week's lesson!  Feel free to leave a comment or send me a message with any questions you might have.

View the .pdf (purchase to download and print):  View the PDF on Scribd.com
- note voicings in video were improvised and may not be the same as the .pdf
View the Video:  YouTube




Analysis:

Progression:  Em7-A7b9 |  Dm7-G7b9  | FMaj7

We can think of this progression in two ways.  The simpler of the two would be simply a iii-VI-ii-V-I.  However, since Parker uses the harmonic minor scale over the first bar, the implication of the Em7-A7b9 would actually be Ehalfdim7-A7b9.  This means this first bar is not actually the iii-VI (in the key of F).  It is instead the ii-V in the key of D minor.

The Melody:

The first bar contains a descending melody based on the Harmonic Minor scale.  The D Harmonic Minor scale is used since the first two chords can be used to imply a ii-V in the key of D Minor.  The second bar contains mostly arpeggiations of each chord.  On beats one and two of the first measure Charlie plays the 3rd-5th-7th-9th of the Dm7.  On beat three we have another descending diatonic scale resolving perfectly to a quick arpeggiation of the 3rd-5th-7th-b9 of the G7 chord.  The b9 of the G7 resolves chromatically down a half step to the 5th of the CMaj7 chord in the next bar.  In the final bar, the descending arpeggio is of the 5th-3rd-7th-6th of the CMaj7.

Practice:

1)  Play through each key.  Work out fingering as needed.
2)  Play and sing.
3)  Play LH voicings while singing RH melody and "ghosting" with the RH.
4)  Play LH voicings while singing RH.
5)  Sing the melody away from your instrument.

Lesson #24: Major #11 Lydian Exercise

In this week's lesson we'll be covering the most common scale for improvising over Major #11 chords (aka Cmaj7#11, Fmaj7#11, etc.)

Bill Evans was known to be consistently sightreading classical scores during his practice sessions.  These sightreading sessions had a tremendous influence on his playing as both an improvisor and composer.  I was inspired by Bill to take my own classical excerpt and try to apply it in the Jazz world.  The piece (or rather "motif") that I borrowed as inspiration for this lesson comes from J.S. Bach's Invention #1 in C Major.  Using Bach's simple motif we will learn how to better sing, play and hear melodies while improvising with the Lydian mode over Major #11 chords.

The lesson this week is broken down in to two parts.  Part one's main focus is on analysis of the exercise.  Part two focuses on how to practice the exercise.

Watch the lesson on YouTube:
Part One: Analysis
Part Two:  Sing and Play (currently processing upload)

View and download .pdf of this lesson:
Lesson #24 FREE .pdf in one key
Lesson #24 in ALL 12 Keys
Free SoundCloud play-along
If you purchase the lesson in 12 keys, feel free to share with friends.  However, the download is not that expensive (the price of a couple iTunes songs) so please consider encouraging them to buy it as well.

For more free jazz piano lessons, check out the the "lessons" tab on the top of this page and you'll find a list of all my free jazz piano lessons.

Lesson #22: Bill Evans ii-V-I Transcription in 12 Keys

I really enjoyed working on this transcription (more like adaption) of Bill Evans. It's an excellent example of his approach to vertical (chordal) playing on the piano.  His advanced sense of phrasing and rhythmic displacement is also evident in this melody.  Notice how the delayed placement of the V7 chord and delayed resolution to the I chord plays with the listeners perception of where beat "one" is.  This rhythmic playfulness is key to absorbing Evans' style and is especially evident in his later playing. Tony Bennett, when asked in an interview to describe Evans' style said, "He plays like the ocean."

Get your free .pdf of this lesson HERE.

How to train your inner melody using this free .pdf jazz piano lesson:

Step 1)  Write out fingerings for all keys if needed.  Play slowly through the line in all 12 keys and make sure you do not have any technical issues with any of them.  Any fingering mishaps will greatly slow your ability to translate what you're hearing in your head to the instrument.  It may seem tedious, but the more you do it, the less time it will take up later on.

Step 2)  Play and sing the melody.  Play slowly and focus on singing towards the exact center of each pitch.  Right now we're focusing on singing as in tune as possible.  Well, maybe not so much in tune as singing "in pitch."  Go slow and be honest with yourself.  I'm not the greatest singer but it's easy to tell when I'm not really getting things right.

Step 3)  "Ghost" and sing the melody.  Finger the melody on your instrument without making a sound and sing along.  This creates a very strong connection between the aural and physical perceptions we have while playing the line.  The line will sound more solid and become less challenging the stronger these connections become.

Step 4)  Sing the melody while playing simple left hand voicings.  Being a pianist grants us the advantage of being able to hear harmony and melody while playing alone.  Take advantage of this by singing slowly to hear the tension and release of each note against the harmony.  If you have trouble figuring out what voicings to play, check out my tutorial on Shell Voicings.

After completing these steps you will be well on your way to having the melody down.  Keep it up and try different tempos, phrasing and articulations to keep things interesting.

Thanks for watching and please feel free to send my any questions you might have about my videos.



Get your free .pdf of this lesson HERE.

Free Jazz Piano Lesson #18: Autumn Leaves Etude

In this week's lesson we take on "April's Line," my tune based on the very popular jazz standard "Autumn Leaves." Like in previous lessons, I have written a rhythmically complex and harmonically interesting melody over the original chord changes. Very little reharmonization has been done. However, I have taken the opportunity to write out any chord alterations as best as possible to better suit the melody. The alterations may be kept or thrown out while improvising over the tune. The etude may be played on any instrument even though it is best suited for jazz piano. Even if you are not a jazz pianist, give it a try!

 I have provided a purchasable lead sheet available if you are interested in playing this melody within your own group or any any other context. The .pdf contains parts in C, Eb, Bb and Bass Clef transpositions

Get it here: "April's Line" Lead Sheet in C, Bb, Eb and Bass Clef

How to practice this jazz piano lesson:
Turn on the metronome at a slow enough tempo where you can play the exercise effortlessly.
1) Play each hand as written while concentrating on hearing the melody in your head.

2) Play the L.H. as written while singing the right hand melody.

2b) An alternative to this step include pantomiming playing the right hand while singing. This helps connect the physical action of playing with your aural memory.

3) Sing the R.H. melody away from your instrument.

Was that not enough of a challenge for you?
1) Consider taking small sections you enjoyed through all 12 keys.

2) Practice displacing each phrase by half a beat, a full beat, or one and one half beats.

3) Practice improvising with the melody by altering the rhythms within each phrase.

Click here to download your free .pdf of this lesson on Scribd.



Consider supporting my website by purchasing the lead sheet of this lesson:
"April's Line" Lead Sheet in C, Bb, Eb and Bass Clef
Click here to download your free .pdf of this lesson on Scribd.


Did you like this lesson and want to see more like it?  Please donate to help me keep making videos!

 

Thanks for watching!  T.J. Martley

Free Jazz Piano Lesson #21: Bud Powell Solo Break Analysis and Performance

 As a teacher and a student I have always struggled to find the "best" ways to practice.  The older and more experienced I get, the more I learn what works best for me.  A professor once told me a story about about Oscar Peterson's intense practice routine.  He would work out 4-5 fingerings for technically troublesome passages.  That way he was sure not to get tripped up in any situation when trying to implement it.

Lennie Tristano has a similar method while teaching scales.  He would have students learn the traditional fingering followed by up to six other variations of fingering.  He would then have the students play all the different fingerings with implementing complex polyrhythmic variations.  I guess the point that I'm trying to make is, sometimes it's best not to be so single minded in our approach to practice.  The more ways we approach the problems of playing, the more options we have to fall back on if we happen to fail.

Here are some suggestions for practice when working with new melodic material:

1)  Scientifically approach analyzing the material to the best of your ability.  Try to be thorough but not overly so.  Once you've analyzed the material, beginning taking snippets of it through all twelve keys.  This method is most effective when combined with an ear (aural) based approach.  


2)  Use an aural approach.  In previous lessons we've talked about singing melodies at and away from our instruments.  Don't worry if you're having trouble at first.  The goal isn't to become the next Frank Sinatra, it's to sing as accurately as possible the pitches you are hearing in your head.  


3)  Try various technical approaches to the material.  Varied fingerings, using both hands, changing octaves, changes in phrasing, ghosting random notes, leaving out notes, playing as fast as possible, playing as slow as possible...

I hope you've enjoyed these past two lessons.  They took some time to make and edit.  If people seem interested, I will continue to make more.  Although, they likely will be a little less detailed then these have been.

Did you like this video and want to see more like it?  Please donate to help me keep making videos!

 

Lesson #21- Solo Break Analysis

Free Jazz Piano Lesson #20: Bud Powell Solo Break in 12 Keys

In this video we check out how to learn this Bud Powell melody in 12 keys using an aural approach.  Enjoy!

Step 1)   Sing and play the melody and the same time.  Play slowly to make sure that you are singing each pitch accurately and in tune.  You will want to play simple shell voicings in your left hand in order to hear the melody within it's harmonic context.  Repeat in all 12 keys before proceeding to the next step.

Step 2)  Sing the melody over left hand voicings without playing the right hand.  You can "ghost" the notes in your right hand if you are able.  Singing while ghosting, i.e. pressing a note down without making a sound, helps us combine the physical and aural approaches in a deeper and more meaningful way.  Repeat in all 12 keys.

Step 3)  Play the melody in the right hand without singing.  If you've completed step 1 and 2 honestly, this should be the easiest step.  You do this step with and without the L.H. voicings.

Click HERE to view your free .pdf on this lesson on Scribd.com.

Did you like this lesson and want to see more like it?  Please donate to help me keep making videos!

 

Free Jazz Piano Lesson #13: Melodic Shell Voicings (Part 2)

Please be sure and check out the previous lesson before continuing:
Lesson #12:  Shell Voicings (Part 2)

How to practice this lesson:
Turn on the metronome at a slow enough tempo where you can play the exercise effortlessly.
1)  Play each hand as written while concentrating on hearing the melody in your head.
2)  Play the L.H. as written while singing the right hand melody.
2b)  An alternative to this step include pantomiming playing the right hand while singing.  This helps connect the physical action of playing with your aural memory.
3)  Sing the R.H. melody away from your instrument.

Enjoy!




Lesson #13: Melodic Shell Voicings (Part 2)

Did you like this lesson and want to see more like it?  Please donate to help me keep making videos!

Lesson #11: Melodic Shell Voicings

For more lessons, check out the "Lessons" tab above.

You may want to review Lesson #10 before moving on.



Click here to view and download your FREE .pdf copy of this here.

Tips for practicing this exercise.

Step 1: Play the exercise slowly (80bpm or less) with both hands. Be sure you can play the entire etude effortlessly before moving on.

Step 2: Play the left hand shell voicings while simultaneously singing and playing the right hand melody.

Step 3: Play the left hand shell voicings and sing the melody.

Step 4 (optional): Sing the melody alone and away from your instrument.

This reminds me of a story one of my teachers told me about asking Barry Harris how he practiced. Barry answered, "You've got to learn to the play the piano in your mind!" You're not always going to have your instrument available, but that doesn't always mean you can't practice. Being able to hear and sing accurately will allow you to practice anywhere, anytime, regardless of if you have your instrument available.

Feel free to leave a comment or message me with ideas for future lessons.

Lesson #10: Shell Voicings (Part 1)

Try out some of these voicings on your favorite standards! In our next lesson, we'll take a look at how to practice shell voicings (or any voicing) in a more melodic fashion.



Lesson #10: Shell Voicings (Part 1)

Lesson #9: 2nd Inversion Diminished

If you have not checked out the previous two diminished lessons, it would be helpful to watch/read them first:

Lesson #7: Diminished Pattern with L.H. Voicings
Lesson #8: Diminished Pattern in 1st Inversion

In this week's lesson, we take our pattern from Lesson #8 and transpose (invert) it one octave.  Unlike, the patterns from the previous two lessons, this pattern is not very common.  In fact, I'm not sure I've heard it before on a recording and I certainly don't remember transcribing it.

Whether you like this pattern or not, I recommend at least trying to give it a couple days of working out.  Transposing patterns (or "mental gymnastics" as I tell my students") is a one of the best ways of preparing your brain for more meaningful improvising.  Good luck!

In next week's lesson we are going to learn (review?) some basic left hand voicings for piano.

Sheet Music for this Lesson:  Lesson #9: 2nd Inversion Diminished Pattern

Lesson #8: 1st Inversion Diminished Pattern with L.H. Voicings

If you have not watched/read Lesson #7, you may have trouble following this lesson. Please click here to do so before continuing.



In this week's lesson we take our pattern from Lesson #7 and invert it to get a completely new pattern. I learned this technique from my college professor. He was all about getting the "total mileage" out of every concept we would work on. This meant exploring all possible inversions, rhythmic variations, modal transpositions and articulations possible for each pattern. The goal of which is to eventually learn how to improvise with each variation on the fly. When you think in these terms, the possibilities are endless!

To invert our original diminished pattern we simply transpose the lowest note of the pattern up an octave. We then have a completely new pattern, which is really simply an intervalic variation (or inversion) of the original. As we learned in last week's lesson, we can transpose the new pattern up and down in minor thirds and all the notes will remain within the same diminished scale.

To created some rhythmic variation, I've added an anticipation to beat one of each pattern. This gives the pattern a better feeling of forward motion through the entire exercise. You may also want to try anticipating by two sixteenths or three. If you're having trouble thinking of this exercise in sixteenths, feel free to try thinking in eighth notes.

Download a free .pdf copy of Lesson #8

Lesson #7: Diminished Pattern with Left Hand Voicings

Donwload Link for Lesson #7 .pdf

In last week's lesson we talked about how to play less patternistically while improvising with the Hexatonic scale. This week, we're going to be looking to do the opposite with the Diminished scale.. The symmetrical nature of the diminished scale lends itself quite well to patternistic improvisation. However, the improvisor should still always be careful not to overuse just one approach to playing over changes.

There are two basic diminished scales. They are built by constructing alternating half-whole and whole-half steps from any given scale root. For example:

C half/whole: C Db Eb F F# G A Bb
C whole/half: C D Eb F F# G# A B

The symmetry established by the consecutive half-steps and whole-steps means that it is very easy to transpose patterns within each scale. The example pattern shown in this lesson is based on the half/whole diminished scale. When the initial pattern is transposed up or down a minor 3rd, it will still contain all notes form the original diminished scale it is based upon. You can transpose a pattern up or down in minor 3rds up to three times before it starts repeating itself.

Sound complicated? It's really not once you start getting used to the concept. After learning the initial pattern from the .pdf, you should find the other two transpositions to be much less challenging.

Remember to take it slow, stay focused and try to play as effortlessly as possible.



Click here to download your free .pdf copy of Lesson #7

Lesson #6: Hexatonic Melody

I first discovered Hexatonic scales a couple years back while playing through Jerry Bergonzi's Inside Improvisation series. I didn't spend much time on the subject until recently when I began revisiting the series. The scale concepts he presents in the book have certainly opened my ears up to new sounds. However, the book falls a little short with me in it's discussion of practical application of the scales. In an effort to sound less patternistic, I wrote what I feel to be more melodic ideas over ii-V-I progressions. In lesson #6, we will be discussing one of the more successful of those attempts.

Click here for the FREE .pdf copy of this lesson

Lesson #5: An Introduction to Hexatonic Scales

A Hexatonic scale is simply a scale using 6 out of the possible 12 notes of the chromatic scale. The Blues Scale, Whole Tone, and Augmented Scale are all excellent examples of the Hexatonic Scale. In lesson #5, we are going to look at how to create and apply our own Hexatonic scales. In this lesson you were learn how to identify how the scale is constructed and how to apply it over standard jazz chord progressions.

In the .pdf document, the chord on the left represents the name of the two combined major triads. For example D/Db represents the combination of the D Major and Db Major triads. The chords in the next measure represent the possible applications we discussed for the scale.

As always, feel free to write or comment with any questions you may have. In our next lesson we will be looking at how to construct our own unique melodies using the scale we created in this lesson.



http://www.scribd.com/doc/84543279/Lesson-5-An-Introduction-to-Hexatonic-Scales

Lesson #4: Keith Jarret Plays Be-Bop

Here's a line a transcribed off of Keith Jarrett's Quartet record Bop-Be. I've always been a fan of the standards trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. Keith's approach to standards is so invigorating and fresh that I always am getting something new from his improvising. Even after hundreds of listens, I still have months where I don't even take Whisper Not or Live @ the Blue Note out of my CD player.

Here are some tips for practicing this line in all 12 keys:
1) Work out solid fingerings for each key if you are having trouble with certain chromatic passages. Don't be afraid to change them, but once you find one that works try to stick with it.
2) Play the right hand melody with simple root-third or root-seventh shell voicings. If you are having trouble, just play the root of each chord instead.
3) Always practice with a metronome. No one is judging you for playing slow. Speed up the tempo when you can play it effortlessly.
4) The last step is memorization. If you've been working slowly and thoughtfully you might have already achieved this. If not, try singing the melodies or visualizing the notes on the keyboard away from the piano.

I plan on making some practice tips videos later on. For now, enjoy the free lesson!

Lesson #4: Keith Jarrett Plays Be-Bop

Lesson #3: ii-V-I Pentatonic/Diminished Melody

I was inspired to write out this melody after watching Kenny Werner's DVD Living Effortless Mastery.  The idea is to write out a melody inspired by ideas or concepts you would like to have come out in your improvising.  By practicing the melody (in 12 keys), you're solidifying the concepts you're working on as well as the technique required to perform the them.

I usually try to write out a new melody each week or borrow one from a transcription I'm working on.  It helps me stay creative with my improvising and is a great way to keep things interesting in the practice room.  Just think of all the great ideas you would have if you did this exercise every week for a year!

Check out the FREE .pdf in the link below the video.



PDF Lesson#3 II-V-I Melody in 12 Keys

Check out Kenny's DVD Here:

Lesson #1: 1-2 Alternative Fingering for Major Scales

DISCLAIMER: Learn your traditional fingerings first! There are plenty of sites out there which offer free downloads of traditional scale fingerings. Find them first and master them before tackling alternative fingerings.



Practicing scales with alternative fingerings provides better situational awareness for improvising pianists. Have you ever heard something in your head that you just couldn't quite get to come out in your playing? Most likely you were limited by your technique (or lack there of). By practicing scales with alternative fingerings you will be able to better handle any idea that comes to you while playing not just ideas you've worked out or predetermined in your practice.

I first came across this concept while reading about Lennie Tristano's teaching methods. However, the idea of alternative fingerings isn't unique to the jazz world. Chopin, Liszt, and Czerny all produced etudes with alternative scale fingerings for their students. After all, you don't often find yourself running up and down basic scales in Classical repertoire either. At least not in pieces not specified as technical etudes.

Please enjoy the free .pdf document listed below. I recommend practicing them at 40-80bpm with hands separate at first.   You could apply the 1-2 (thumb-index) fingering to virtually any other scale as well.  Be sure to practice slow and concentrate on good timing and tone. Enjoy!

If you're interested in a complete guide to Tristano's methods, check out this excellent book.



PDF Link
Lesson #1: Major Scales with Alternate Fingerings (1-2)