Tutorials tagged: “Modern jazz”
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Phrygian harmony
The Phrygian chord is a dominant seventh chord with a suspended fourth and flattened ninth. It sounds cool.
The Phrygian chord • Phrygian scale • Triplet 8th note scale • 16th note scale • Examples: iiø7-V7-i in F minor ✕ 2 • Phrygian chord in practice: ‘Auld Flame’ cadence; ‘Dreich’ turnaround • Jamming with the Phrygian chord
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Playing outside the changes⟶
★ Featured free tutorialPlaying ‘outside’ or ‘outside the changes’ is a cool sound that builds tension and adds additional interest and excitement to your soloing.
Example 1. Jungle/drum and bass • 2. Chilled Latin • 3. Straight-ahead bebop • Jungle/DnB and chilled Latin backing tracks to jam along to • Exercise 1. Jungle, minor 3rds ascending • 2. Medium swing, major 2nds descending
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Playing outside: Dorian mode exercises
Example exercises of playing outside the changes with the Dorian mode.
The C Dorian scale • Example: 16th notes, inside-outside-inside • 8th notes, chords ascending a semitone every two beats • 8th notes, descending line • 8th note triplets, descending line • Playing against a swing beat, ascending • Playing against a swing beat, descending • Fourths pattern • Fourths pattern: ascending chromatically • Fourths pattern: adding rhythmic interest over a swing beat
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Mining Bud Powell: an applied analysis⟶
★ Featured free tutorialThis tutorial takes eight bars from Bud Powell’s solo on ‘Oblivion’ from The Genius of Bud Powell and works with it in different keys, at different tempos, and in different contexts.
Transposing a few bars of Bud’s solo from E flat major to G major: how I think when transposing, in terms of key, chord progression, and scale degrees • Transposing just a single phrase • Taking phrases and using them in other contexts: in another jazz standard, over a rhythm changes bridge, and in a contemporary jazz context
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Playing outside: more exercises
More examples of taking a phrase and playing it outside the changes.
Exercise 3. Bebop, ascending in minor 3rds • 4. Jungle/DnB, ascending in major 2nds • 5. Jungle/DnB, descending in minor 3rds • 6. Jungle/DnB, descending in minor 3rds (variation) • 7. Medium swing, ascending in major 2nds • 8. Bluesy-rock groove, ascending in major 2nds • 9. Jungle/DnB, playing outside by moving around the left-hand voicing
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Comping and soloing over complex changes
★ New tutorialA case study on comping behind and soloing over a complex, 22-bar chord sequence. Includes two composed ‘ideal’ comping run-throughs (complete with notes about the voicings and techniques used), and exercises on improvising a solo based on chord tones only and then chord tones with passing notes. Finally, have a go comping and soloing yourself with a backing track.
‘The Boyfriend Chord’ head (section A) • Composing an ‘ideal’ comping run-through, version 1 • Bonus PDF: “George Shearing-style ‘locked-hands’ block chords” • Diatonic planing block chords over B major 7 • Composing an ‘ideal’ comping run-through, version 2 • Planing with So What voicing • Improvising a solo based on chord tones • A more realistic improvised solo, with passing notes • Jamming: have a go yourself