Modern Jazz Line #28 - Shapes in 12/8 - Jazz Piano Lesson

Sheet Music:  Modern-Jazz-Line-28-Shapes-in-12-8

With this line I tried to transpose and invert a simple shape through each chord of the I-VI-ii-V progression.  Take a moment to analyze the notes in order to understand how each shape works with it's corresponding scale.  Once you are familiar with the shape in all 12 keys you should begin using it as a guide to improvise slowly over some of your favorite tunes.  Over time, you will become more comfortable creating your own shapes and choosing your own scales while improvising.

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-28-Shapes-in-12-8

Video Lesson:

Modern Jazz Line #8 - Chick Corea and McCoy Tyner

This week's modern jazz line is inspired by the playing of McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea.  Tyner and Corea redefined "modern" jazz piano (along with Herbie Hancock) after years of Bill Evan's dominating presence in the jazz piano scene.  Some early seminal works essential to the diminished/pentatonic style of playing are Tyner's The Realy McCoy and Corea's Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.  Check out examples of both below!

Here is Modern Jazz Line #8, a melody using only diminished and pentatonic scales.  Follow the steps in the video to increase your ability to hear and improvise your own creative jazz melodies.

Sheet music for this lesson:  Modern Jazz Line #8 .pdf


Here's Chick Corea playing his version of the Blues on "Matrix" from Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.  Featuring Miroslav Vitous on Bass and Roy Haynes on Drums.



Here's McCoy Tyner's version of the Blues from the aforementioned The Real McCoy.  This album features Joe Henderson on Tenor Saxophone, Ron Carter on Bass and Elvin Jones on Drums.

Charlie Parker Transcription - Little Willie Leaps

Just finished another Charlie Parker transcription.  This one is of Charlie Parker playing Tenor Saxophone on Little Willie Leaps, a tune based on All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm.  I was interested to find that Parker, while a great improvisor, still used many of the same phrases over repeated progressions on the tune.  It just goes to show that even the best improvisors don't mind working some stuff out beforehand.

Here is the transcription:

Lesson 23: McCoy Tyner Pentatonic

I've been inspired by McCoy Tyner's playing as long as I can remember listening to jazz.  Some of my favorite solos are on the later recordings of the "classic" John Coltrane Quartet with Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison and McCoy Tyner.  My two favorite McCoy solos of all time are on "Song of Praise" from Live at the Half Note and "Transition" from the similarly titled album.  If you haven't heard either you are truly missing out on the wonderful energy and joy McCoy brings to every solo during this period.  I hope you enjoy this McCoy Tyner inspired line I wrote out for this week's lesson.

View the video of this lesson YouTube here:  McCoy Tyner Video Lesson on Youtube
Download your FREE .pdf on Scribd:  Lesson #23
Get the .pdf in all 12 keys:  Lesson #23 in all 12 keys

Practice with the play-along below:
If you enjoyed this lesson, please share with your friends and consider donating with the button on the left.  All donations go to support the site and help me keep making videos.  Thank you!

If you haven't seen any of my previous lessons from this series, here is a recap on 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.

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.

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 #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 #17: Open Position Shell Voicings

In this week's free jazz piano lesson, we revisit two-part shell voicings. We'll explore how to take these basic voicings and make them fuller sounding for when you're playing in a solo or duo situation. This style of jazz piano voicing is very commonly used by solo pianists (especially stride pianists of the '20s and '30's). Some great examples of this style of voicing can be found in the solo playing of Bill Evans, Bud Powell and even McCoy Tyner!

I hope you enjoy this lesson. Please leave a comment with any questions or suggestions and feel free to share this lesson with your friends.

Click here to view your free .pdf of 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!

 

Scribd Link:
Lesson #17: Open Position Shell

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.

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Transcription: Herbie Hancock's Solo on "Orbits"

Here's Herbie Hancock's solo off the classic Miles Davis record "Miles Smiles." I transcribed this in one week and learned it over the course of a couple weeks. This was probably the most challenging solo I have attempted. The chromaticism and the up-tempo was a recipe for many weeks of painstakingly slow practice with the recording.

Oribts is a great example of the "time, no changes" approach to improvising. The improvised sections were free, meaning there were no written chords. Although the harmony was free, the tempo and feel stayed constant. It was up to the individual improvisor to listen and direct the harmony.




For more video transcriptions, please check out my YouTube page at Youtube.com/tjjazzpiano

Warne Marsh - Yardbird Suite - Transcription and Performance

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Warne Marsh, he's easily one of the most gifted and under-rated improvisors of all time.  There's so much I could say here but I'd rather let the music speak for itself.  If you wish to learn more about Warne Marsh, I highly recommend this free e-book written by guitarist and one of his former students Jon Klopotowski.

The track "Yardbird Suite" comes from Warne's self titled album "Warne Marsh."  It can be purchased from Amazon or i-Tunes for a mere $4.  I highly recommend it.

Warne Marsh - Tenor Sax

Paul Motian - Drums

Paul Chambers Bass

Yardbird Suite (Audio)

Transcription in C Concert

Transcription in Bb Concert

Bud Powell Celia Transcription (Analysis)

I will try to include three or four interesting insights I have taken from the transcriptions I will be posting here. Hopefully these will help you when trying to incorporate aspects of the transcription in to your own playing.

Double Time Segments (m.m. 1-2 and 9-10)

Examine how Powell connects arpeggios, chromatic fragments, and scale fragments in these segments. For example, at m.m. 9 there are three groups of sixteenth notes. The first is an arpeggio, second is a chromatic fragment, and third is a scale fragment. When combined with proper resolution on downbeats, this method can be very effective for bop playing.

Rhythmic Repitition (m.m. 7-8)

Powell starts of with a rhythmic idea in m.m. 7 and uses it again in m.m. 8. In each, he keeps the rhythm and shape of the line but switches his note choice to fit the harmony of the tune. Developing a single idea throughout an entire solo is a great way to become a better improvisor. Some modern masters of this technique are Brad Mehldau and Keith Jarrett.

Resolution to chord tones on the "strong beats" (Entire Transcription)

The strongest beats of a measure (in 4/4 time) are always going to be 1 and 3, with beat 1 as the strongest beat. By playing chord tones on these beats you can improvise much stronger melodies and provide a better harmonic grounding for the listener. Check out how Powell leads up to resolutions on beats 1 and 3. One of the most effective ways to resolve is by leading a whole step or half step away from your target note. All "bop" players do this! Especially over iii-VI-ii-V and ii-V progressions.

Resolution choices (Entire Transcription)

I took a short inventory of which chord tones Powell resolves to on beats 1 and 3 throughout the entire transcription. Can you guess the most used? It's the third. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering the 3rd basically decides whether any chord will have a minor or major sound. The next two, which were basically tied, were 5ths and 7ths, followed by 9ths. Resolving to extensions of the chords (9th, 11th, 13th) is a good way to make your lines more interesting or out sounding.

Powell uses the root on beat 1 (the strongest beat) only once throughout the entire transcription! Remember, you don't need to emphasize the root if you have a bass player. He will do it for you (most of the time...).

Enjoy the transcription!