Tag: McCoy Tyner
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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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How to Handle a Sus Chord Part II – Sus Blues
Most learning players approach a blues by combining the following two approaches: Using figures from the blues scales over quite straight old-fashioned blues harmony. Using bebop scales and language over elaborated “jazz blues” changes. There’s another way to go about things, though, and it’s characteristic of McCoy Tyner’s approach (as heard on albums such as…
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How to Handle a Sus Chord Part I – the Real McCoy
It’s a common problem among people learning how to improvise that they freeze when faced with a sus chord. I’ve often found that the reason people don’t know what to play over this chord type is that they don’t really understand it. Here are a few ways of tackling this mysterious chord type that should…