Major Scale Practice Routine

by psklaroff

Jazz Improvisation, Technique

Jazz Improvisation - Study Guides

Major Scale Practice

A Major Scale Practice Routine

Diatonic Scale and Arpeggio Exercises

Whay Have A Scale Practice Routine?

If you want to have a good improvisational vocabulary, you need to be fully familiar with all the scales you are intending to use. This requires a thorough understanding of not only some scale fingerings on the guitar, but also how the scales can be played in the various diatonic intervals and arpeggios.

In this lesson, I will be offering you one of the major scale practice routines I use regularly in my own practice. I find working on these exercises really gives my fingers a good workout and also helps me improvise more fluently.

At first glance, these exercises may seem like a lot of work but after you become more familiar with them, you can usually get through them all in a single sitting after a few weeks.

Intervals First

A lot of guitarists avoid practicing scales in intervals in my experience (as I did at first) as they can be difficult to finger and require some focussed practice. The results that can be achieved from regular practice however can really transform your playing.

Try the first few interval exercises in the musical examples below to get started on improving your facility with diatonic intervals from the major scale.

Diatonic Triads and Seventh Chords

Practicing triads and seventh chords are also very helpful for building a good improvisational vocabulary and the following exercises will help you gain a good facility with them.

Scale Sequences from the Major Scale

Many players practice sequences and patterns and whilst there isn’t space here to list many of them, the one illustrated below is a good one to begin with.

In future lessons I’ll list many more sequences and patterns that you can practice.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully if you have tried out some of the musical exercises above, you will have already seen the value in incorporating such exercises into your practice regime.

Btw – In the Soundslice example at the top of the post, the exercises have also been adapted for the Harmonic Minor scale for those of you who might like an additional set of exercises for another scale type. Ultimately you should practice all your scales with similar patterns.

Here is a PDF combining all the above scale exercises and also an MP3 audio file.

Scale Routine Major PDF

Happy practicing,

Pete

Coltrane Changes

by psklaroff

Jazz Harmony, Jazz Improvisation

Jazz Improvisation - Study Guides

Coltrane Changes

Using Coltrane Changes over a II V I

What are Coltrane Changes?

Coltrane changes (sometimes also termed the Coltrane matrix or cycle) refer to a progression of substitute chords employed by the great jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. These substitute chords have now become a commonplace harmonic device with many modern jazz musicians.

Coltrane began experimenting with these chords in the 1950s and continued his work with the cycle on his legendary album ‘Giant Steps’ in 1960.

The substitute chords Trane used for his cycle are perhaps best explained by comparing a standard II V I progression with one modified to include his matrix. A great example of this is his re-harmonisation of the Miles Davis composition ‘Tune Up’, which he re-wrote as ‘Countdown’.

Illustrated below (in the first stave) is the first four bars of the composition ‘Tune Up’ which features a II V I progression in the key of D major. In the second stave you can see the application of the Coltrane cycle over the same sequence.

Harmonic Analysis

At first glance, the two staves seem to have little to do with each other, except perhaps that they begin and end on the same chords (Em7 and Dmaj7) There is however an ingenious harmonic process at work here.

Coltrane uses a multiple key approach in his cycle which moves keys by major thirds. The sequence begins with the IIm7 of D major (Em7) and ends with the Imaj7 chord in the same key (Dmaj7) In between these two chords are two II V’s (the first in Bb major and the second in Gb major)

If we take these key centres in isolation, we get the following three major keys:

D, Gb and Bb

If we then count up (intervallically) from D, we find that Gb is a major third above D and Bb is a major third above Gb.

In simpler terms, this just means that the three keys Coltrane is using are separated by the interval of a major third.

To further emphasise the key changes, Coltrane added a V7 chord just before each new tonic chord, giving us: F7 – Bbmaj7 and Db7 – Gbmaj7. He also adds the V7 of the final key (A7) just before the last chord (Dmaj7)

'Tune Up' and 'Countdown'

Coltrane used his cycle on his own composition ‘Countdown’ which in itself is based on the chord changes to ‘Tune Up’ and it provides a way to enhance the original harmony without having to completely rearrange it.

In a future lesson I’ll explore some improvisational patterns that you can use to negotiate these tricky looking chord changes.

In the meantime try and memorise the changes above and play through the chords I’ve written above.

Final Thoughts

Coltrane changes will seem very challenging at first, however with some dedicated practice you will soon find that they are a a very valuable addition to your harmonic vocabulary.

Enjoy!

Pete

Jazz Arpeggio Patterns

by psklaroff

Jazz Improvisation

Jazz Improvisation - Study Guides

Jazz Arpeggio Patterns

Learning Jazz Arpeggio Patterns

Jazz Arpeggio Patterns for Practice

Most jazz guitarists routinely employ arpeggios and melodic patterns/cells in their soloing, as they really help to outline chord changes accurately. Having said that, some players don’t fully explore arpeggio note combinations and instead keep playing the same sequence (order) of arpeggio notes when they improvise.

For a long time, this was very true of my own playing until I began working on some different note combinations.

In this lesson I’m going to suggest an approach to jazz arpeggio patterns that I have found very helpful in my own practice.

The Foundation Arpeggio Pattern - 1 3 5 6/7

As you’ll likely know, the majority of jazz standards employ sixth/seventh chords of one form or another in their harmonic structure. In arpeggio terms, this gives us at least four arpeggio notes to work with if we play the root, third, fifth and sixth/seventh degree of each arpeggio.

Many players just practice playing what I call the ‘basic arpeggio pattern’ of root, third, fifth and sixth/seventh of each chord. They then take this pattern through the chord changes of the composition they are working on. In doing this, they modify each arpeggio pattern to match the chord quality, lowering the third for example if the chord is minor , or lowering the seventh if the chord has a b7 present etc.

Whilst this is undoubtedly a valuable practice routine, it does sound very much like an exercise and is only scratching the surface of what is possible with four note arpeggio combinations.

The Numbering System

After becoming rather frustrated with playing the same note combination every time I employed arpeggios (i.e. just using the foundation arpeggio pattern) I began to explore some different combinations. I soon realised just how powerful they can be if they are played in different note combinations.

Play through the exercises below which are illustrated on the first four bars of ‘Autumn Leaves’. I begin with the foundation arpeggio pattern ascending, then played descending. Thereafter I use some different arpeggio combinations, but I keep them consistent over each chord.

Listen to how the later combinations sound really melodic against the chord changes, but don’t sound as much like an exercise as the first two patterns.

To work on arpeggio note patterns like these, I employ a simple numbering system.

The root of each arpeggio is numbered 1, the third is 3, the fifth is 5 and the seventh degree is 7. A very simple system to use, just as long as I remember that some chords will have a minor 3rd and others have a b7th etc. I still just call the intervals 1 3 5 7 etc. regardless of chord type.

Practice Suggestions

Working on different note combinations such as those illustrated above, can really enhance your soloing and in total there are 24 different combinations possible of the four arpeggio notes, so you have plenty of variations to work with.

At this point, you may be thinking that you should write out all the 24 different note combinations. I recommend not doing this. In my view, writing out all 24 possible combinations of four notes is counter-productive as when I did that at one point i simply ending up reading them and not using my ears.

You need to be able to play these combinations without reference to any written music, so that they become an automatic part of your improvisational vocabulary.

I set about learning these patterns by telling myself that I was going to play for example; 1 7 5 3 on each chord. At first, this was agonisingly slow, as I had to really think carefully about the notes I was playing on each chord, but after a few weeks, things became much faster.

I generally just work on a couple of note combinations at a time until I feel comfortable with them, before moving onto others.

Don’t rush this process! It will take as long as it takes.

OK, that’s it for this lesson. Take your time and learn the combinations thoroughly and slowly. You may be quite amazed at the difference it will make to your playing!

Happy practicing,

Pete

Rhythmic Subdivisions

by psklaroff

Jazz Rhythm and Time-Feel

Jazz Improvisation - Study Guides

Rhythmic Subdivisions

Learning Rhythmic Subdivisions

Subdividing Rhythms

This short lesson is all about learning how to subdivide specific rhythms against a single beat (in this case a quarter note)

In the practice sheet shown below, I have illustrated a variety of different rhythmic subdivisions ranging from 8th notes through to 32nd notes all played against a single quarter note pulse.

Working with a rhythmic exercise like this can really help you become more familiar with different subdivisions and how they sound against a beat. It’s especially useful if you haven’t played groupings in 5 and 7 before too.

Before you play any of the examples, listen several times to the accompanying Soundslice audio file above whilst you follow the music to hear how the various subdivisions sound.

Each rhythmic subdivision is played four times and the whole exercise is performed at 55 bpm. The first eight bars just use a single pitch to illustrate each rhythm and the following eight bars use a simple C major scale again playing the same rhythms.

Once you have a clear idea of how each subdivision should sound (you may have to listen to the audio several times for this) then try to play along with the recording.

If you are a pick-style player, I’d highly recommend using alternate picking for these exercises, so that you can just concentrate on the rhythms and not worry about picking technique.

Learning these different rhythmic subdivisions won’t make you a brilliant soloist overnight, but they will considerably increase your facility with rhythm. You may also find that your rhythmic vocabulary becomes a little more varied as well.

PDF download and Mp3 Audio

Here is a link to download the above the musical examples as a PDF file so that you can print it out for your practice sessions, or view at a higher magnification on your chosen screen type.

Rhythmic Subdivisions PDF

Final Thoughts

Take your time learning these rhythmic subdivisions, to ensure that you can play each and every one accurately. Over time, you will find that your rhythmic vocabulary will increase considerably by working on these exercises

Enjoy!

Pete