Tag: jazz
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On Pianos – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Here comes another blast of unashamed opinion. Looking forward to the comments! I recently got involved in a discussion about a certain piano at a venue. One chap, a knowledgeable listener and amateur tinkler, maintained that the instrument was rubbish and cited a friend of his who had performed on it and refused to touch…
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Diminished Responsibility
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…
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Playing Scales in Chords – the Basics of Drop 2
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…
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Turnarounds
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…
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Composing Solos – or How to Cheat
I have often found it a very useful exercise to sit down and precompose a few choruses of soloing over a tune that’s captured my imagination at the time. It’s pretty obvious to say, really, but improvising is ultimately nothing more or less than instantaneous composition. Since we don’t have the luxury of time when…
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Transcription: Tommy Flanagan on Eclypso
This is a transcription of the two-chorus solo that pianist Tommy Flanagan takes on his own composition Eclypso (solo starts at 0:45). You’ll find it on the 1959 album The Cats. This solo makes a good study for any number of reasons, but here are two. First, the harmony is very simple – as is fitting for…
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Word for the Day: Slatin
Every now and then someone coins a new word and I think it deserves to spread. I’d like to introduce you to the wonderfully descriptive term “slatin”, which comes courtesy of virtuoso percussionist João Bosco de Oliveira. Bosco will sometimes tell a little tale about one particular gig when he’d only recently arrived from Brasil in the ’80s…
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Bebop Part II – All the Exercises You Can Eat
Bebop is ultimately all about being able to play any chromatic tone on any chord. Obviously, if we just play chromatically with free abandon, the harmony goes out the window. Theory dictates that we place strong tones on strong beats to best convey the harmony. The principle is simple – these exercises are designed to…
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Finding Your G Spot
No, it’s not that kind of article. But it’ll probably drive up the hit count a bit… So set spam filters to maximum and we’re going in… Go to your instrument and play a single simple G, nothing more. Listen to it, really listen to it. Listen to the attack and the way it rings.…
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A Shaw Thing – Connecting Pentatonic Scales
Mention pentatonics in jazz and people will probably immediately think of Coltrane and McCoy Tyner. They might also think of trumpeter Woody Shaw, who developed pentatonic playing to an incredible level. Woody’s kaleidoscopic approach involved zipping across multiple tonalities on each chord by using collections of pentatonics. First things first though – for now, we’ll…
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