Here’s the video lesson on Chapter One of The Shape Method for Jazz Improvisation. Each of these videos cover about 30% of the content of each chapter so you can see what is going on in the text and hopefully get a little inspiration too! You can Click here to go to a page with links to purchase them.
I haven’t posted in a while for a number of reasons, including that huge tiger hack. But most importantly, because of the project that rolled out this summer.
I’ve published my text on learning jazz improvisation, The Shape Method for Jazz Improvisation and two volumes of supporting Etude Supplements on amazon. You can Click here to go to a page with links to purchase them.
I’m also releasing a short video lesson on each chapter of the text. The Introduction and Chapter 1 were posted on Aug. 4 and I’ll post a new video each Monday. Please subscribe to to get updates so you won’t miss a one. You can also Like my The Shape Method Facebook page.
All successful jazz players know the language. What we choose to play is the grammar, and syntax, and how we play it is our accent. Or, as Miles Davis says:
Hi there! It’s been a while since I’ve written, but rest assured, it’s because I’ve been very busy.
Here are some examples of the cool things I had the pleasure of doing this past summer:
First, my wife and I traveled to NYC where I participated in the International Society for Improvised Music’s Cross-Cultural Improvisation Workshop. There were about thirty participants from all over the world, including two guest artists from Korea. We workshopped ways of combining various musical traditions for a couple of days and then presented a concert at Roulette in Brooklyn. Here’s a video of the performance of the quartet I was in.
Of course, we also had the opportunity so see lots of great art and architecture as well as visit with some great friends.
A little later in the summer, Kalin and I traveled to the “left” coast. I worked at the Woodwinds in the Wallowas camp in Northeastern Oregon. Here’s a video along the walk to my office:
After the camp, I went to Portland, OR for a three-day recording session for my good friend Jim Olsen. Jim has written a bunch of great tunes and had a lot of fantastic players on the date (look for it on Origin Records) including Bobby Shew, John Harmon, and Dick Oates. Here are excerpts of first mixes of some of my solos from the date:
After a couple of great weeks in Oregon we returned home to Colorado, and not long after I led the Rocky Mountain Jazz Repertoire Orchestra in a concert of vocalist with big band music. Most of this music was from the swing era and the vocalists were Donna Wickham, one of my colleagues at the Jazz Studies Department at the Lamont School of Music, and David Arthur. Both did a fantastic job, though I have to admit David had the swingin’ edge because I programmed four tunes from the Sinatra with Basie book! Sorry I don’t have audio from that because it was really poppin’!
Michael Wittgraf and I have been working on improvisations with Kyma hardware/software in which I improvised input with my saxophone and Mike improvises with processing parameters that he has programmed into each of the “sounds.” We played a concert of these improvisations at the University of North Dakota and Z Space in St. Paul, MN. It was great being able to hone our chops on this material in preparation for the next summer event.
Next, and last thing on the summer agenda was a trip to Europe to perform the opening concert for the Kyma International Sound Symposium in Brussels, Belgium. Kalin and I spent some extra time in London before going to Belgium and really enjoyed the city! I had decided to borrow or rent a tenor in Brussels so I wouldn’t have to worry about traveling with my horn (airlines are very unpredictable). It was ironic that in the country in which the saxophone was invented I couldn’t find anyone who would loan me a horn for a few hours. However, I found one place that would rent me one for a day, but it wasn’t easy to find. European streets frequently change names unexpectedly and this place was on a street that had both a Dutch and French name (as is common in Belgium) AND a different name two block west of the location of this business. On top of all that, this is what the entrance to the business looked like:
GENE-Electra, DBA Clark’s Music.
I finally got the concert and found the venue in time to do the sound check. That night we played the concert to a very receptive audience of fellow sound geeks. Part of it sounded like this:
I hope you enjoyed the travelogue and look forward to seeing you at the next concert!
The symmetrical diminished or octa-tonic scale consists of a series of half-steps and whole-steps (or whole and half, depending on when it is started). This organization also generates sets of triads, each a minor third apart. In addition, those triads may be either major or minor. Many jazz phrases utilize a symmetrical relationship of these triads, using either minor or major triads. This is convenient because it creates patterns that repeat very frequently and the strength of using the same triad-type gives the line a sense of cohesion. However, more interesting shapes can be made from combining triads of different modes.
I have recently begun focusing my practice on combining a major triad with a minor triad a minor third above the root of the major triad. For instance, combining a C Major and Eb Minor triad generates these tones: C, Eb, E, Gb, G, Bb. When each of these triads are alternated in arpeggiation very interesting melodic shapes appear. In addition, since these conveniently create sets of three note, interesting rhythm shapes can be implied.
Try experimenting with these shapes and see how they impact your improvising.
Today I concentrated my practice on superimposing the Major Triad based on the Flat Seven scale degree on Minor Seven and Half-Diminished Seven chords. This is a particularly interesting sound on the half-diminished and the Wayne Shorter Aebersold play-along provides many opportunities at a variety of tempi to work out these ideas.
I’ve been trying to formulate concepts for balancing aspects of rhythmic simplicity/complexity with those of harmonic simplicity/complexity. At first blush it seemed there should be a rather straight-forward relationship between the two. You know, like “if the harmonic motion is very rapid (few pulses for each chord) then the rhythmic complexity needs to be simple.” Stuff like that.
However, when I really evaluate how harmonic and rhythm fit together to form a balanced whole I discover that music that fits my aesthetic does not always have such a clear-cut relationship. When I see those cases I try to understand why a piece sounds good that violates what might be a most basic concept. As I examine the music more closely, I find there might be influences of melodic movement/stasis that pertain. Or there might be complexities of harmonic relationships, or lyrics might play a part, or the harmonies might have internal complexities, or the timbres of the music are very important, or many other reasons.
I think there is some sort of relationship between these various musical components that “balance” each other in ways that create music that pleases my aesthetic. However, I think it is a much more complex system than just a simple A/B balance – something along the line of three-dimensional chess.
Anyway, it is a subject that interests me, I’m going to keep thinking about it and I’d love to read your thoughts.
Hi all – I’ve joined the mobile gang with my quartet and have an app for android that you can download for FREE. You can get my blog, see videos, see my performance schedule, get a sample of the new recording LectroCoustic (that will drop on May 21). Unfortunately, it’s only for android at this time, but if you have an android smartphone please download it from reverbnation and let’s stay connected on the go!
Here’s a great article on practicing shared from a friend Aakash Mittal. I’ve always held that dedicated practice time was the most important and demanding things you’ll do each day and I really enjoy the emphasis in this article on those and related subjects. What do you think?
Check out the Basie band performance of Shiny Stockings (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3SF4BbBcpA) and notice how, in the in-chorus, all notes longer than a quarter note crescendo and have vibrato. Practice your parts in this way.