In this video I quickly explain how to take a basic idea and try to develop it to make your solos more interesting and memorable. Remember to leave lots of space!!
Recommended reading:
Tag: Phrasing
Playing in Fourths
I really like this style of phrasing, take some great examples like McCoy Tyner, and a lot of the ‘hard bop’ jazz cats. The basic idea is this: take a scale, in this example I will use a C major scale.
Now play all the diatonic fourths contained in C major:
In the video I am playing on a Dm (Dorian) vamp, but you can use this phrasing technique on any scale, mode…have fun.
Guitar Great Vic Juris: A couple of great video lessons.
I was lucky enough to study with Vic Juris in the early 90’s. Today I stumbled into a couple of great lessons on youtube and I wanted to share them with you. He is a great jazz guitarist, if you don’t know about him, check out his music: http://www.myspace.com/vicjuris
In this lesson he talks about some very cool (and incredibly easy) applications of the standard box pentatonic shape:
Here he talks introduces his book Modern Chords:
Advanced Harmony for Guitar (Mel Bay’s Private Lessons)
I cannot recommend enough to check out this incredible musician!
Recycling melodic material
Recycling melodic material is a concept that you can apply to many different situations. Here we will see how to change a melodic line and how to adapt this line (with some harmonic knowledge) to other chords.
1) This is our original melodic line, a D minor ‘jazzy’ kind of phrase.
2) The first thing I could do is to lower all the A to Ab so to use the same phrase on Half diminished chords (natural nine adds a really nice color to the phrase)
3) Let’s now change the m3 (F) to M3 (F#), and the m7(C) to Maj7(C#)
4) Let’s try anther one: m3(F) to M3(F#), m7(C) to Maj7(C#), P5 (A)to #5(A#) goes to morph the phrase so that if fits a Dmaj7(#5) chord. Very Modern indeed.
5) Let’s see if you can spot these other examples: Altered dominant & Dim H/W
Expand your vocabulary Pt2
Expand your vocabulary Pt2
After I have learnt my phrase in every key I will now use it in context. Here I am using it on ‘autumn leaves’ every time there is a 2-5-1. of course I use it in the appropriate key, and I fill the rest of the tune with material stylistically similar. Here you’ll find the two files you’ll need to do this exercise:
Printable PDF: 2-5-1 Example Phrase Exercise
Printable PDF: Chords for Autumn Leaves