Jason Lyon Music

Category: b) Harmony & Comping

  • Hexatonics, My Pretties…

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    Jason
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    This one’s for Elton Mottley, a guitarist (and southpaw, unless he’s flipped his avatar). He recently got in touch to say he didn’t know what a hexatonic was. No shame in that at all. I have a somewhat childish streak to my sense of humour (you might have noticed) and replied to Elton that a hexatonic…

  • Inside, Outside, Leave Me Alone

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    Jason
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    Some Thoughts on Accompanying an Adventurous Soloist. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that accomplished pianoforte accompaniment requires such skills of listening, following, supporting, interacting, suggesting and sometimes even leading, as have been correctly acquired for the purpose of conduct in polite society. Yet what, dear reader, is a humble pianofortist to do, when confronted with the discomforting prospect…

  • Instant Big Band – Just Add Beer

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    Jason
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    or How to Be an Arranger without Really Trying. If you have a busy jam session it can be great fun to get every horn player in the room up together for a feature number at some point in the night. A gash big band number. Even if it’s all a bit wobbly, the sheer sound…

  • Diminished Responsibility

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    Jason
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    Jazz musicians don’t use the harmonic minor scale, right? Wrong. Of course, everyone would admit there are occasions where the harmonic minor is specifically called for, to evoke a sort of “Eastern promise” sound (a lot of people use it on Nardis and Caravan, for instance). But actually this scale is commonly used in all…

  • Playing Scales in Chords – the Basics of Drop 2

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    Jason
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    You might have heard of “Drop 2”. It’s a technique for harmonising a moving line. This was originally used in arranging for orchestras and big bands, but it’s also used by pianists and guitarists when soloing or comping. Often when they have to follow a horn player who has just spent a solo stomping the number into a pink miasma then tosses over the remaining entrails, hoof…

  • Turnarounds

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    Jason
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    Most lead sheets for standards don’t bother including the turnaround at the end of each section – it’s just assumed that you’ll know what to play. In case you don’t know, this article will run through the most common first choices for turnarounds to chords on each scale degree. You can also use the same…

  • Rootless Voicings from Scratch

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    Jason
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    You simply can’t play modern jazz without knowing these voicings in all the keys. It’s a bit like getting the hang of the clutch when you’re learning to drive. While they’re not the only voicings used, they are the backbone of jazz piano and you need them so instinctively programmed into your hands that you can play…

  • Four-Note Scales from Melodic Minor

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    Jason
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    Well, can we call a four-note scale a scale at all? Possibly not, particularly the ones we’ll be looking at, since the even spread of four notes is more reminiscent of an arpeggio than a scale. But conceptualising them as scales can be very useful as a device for soloing. What’s more, there are ways of expanding these…

  • You’ve Been Taught the Wrong Chord Tones

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    Jason
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    Hold it right there – if you’ve learned jazz within the past twenty years or so, it’s likely you’ve been taught the wrong chord tones on tonic chords. People tend to teach from the perspective of chord-scales. Which is fine. Pretty much the first thing we’re taught is to stack our chord tones in thirds.…

  • Coltrane’s Substitution Tunes

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    Jason
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    On two groundbreaking albums, Blue Train (1957) and Giant Steps (1960), John Coltrane presented a group of original tunes that stretched to breaking point the possibilities of functional harmony. Shortly after these albums he began increasingly to turn his back on the traditional use of chord changes. Of the 11 tunes on these two albums…