Schlagwort: saxophone

My Roadmap

Here I outline my roadmap for improvising over chords.

1. First, I’ll continue practicing miniscales. These are triads plus a second or fourth.
2. Triads are a subset of miniscales. Mastering them with all their inversions doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
3. Root and third if the chord is only meant to be sketched out. For example, if the chord only spans two beats. In the case of a diminished chord, the root and tritone are good options.
4. Turnarounds often involve one chord per beat. I make it easy for myself and just play the root.

First, be able to apply 1. to 4. over some standards!

The next steps are:

• 4-note chords
• 4-note chords with a second or fourth. For m7, that would be the minor pentatonic scale. For maj7, the best way in jazz is to use the major pentatonic scale with the 6th.

It will certainly take some time to master this concept.

Expanding from five notes to seven would be the final step. This would bring me to the modes for major, dominant, Dorian minor, and half-diminished. For fully diminished, I could still learn the whole-step-half-step scale. But five notes are usually sufficient because the duration is short.

Mini Scales

In the improvisation workshop on learnjazzstandards(dot)com I learned a simple system of 4 notes for the common jazz chords. Jazz friends already knew this concept. Take the triad and add a well-fitting note. In major and dominant, a second is added to the major triad. In minor and half-diminished or fully diminished, a fourth is added to the triad. For example:

Cmaj7: C D E G

C7: C D E G

Cm7: C Eb F G

Cm7b5: C Eb F Gb

Cdim: C Eb F Gb

Of course, this concept needs practice. Note that the mini scales are the same in two cases. For 60 chords, you need just 36 mini scales. I set about learning them with enthusiasm. I estimate that I will need about six months before I can improvise with them fairly fluently.

I also thought about how to expand the system. You could take the four-note chord and add a second or fourth. In jazz, it is better to use the sixth rather than the major seventh for a major chord.

Cmaj7: C D E G A (major pentatonic)

C7: C D E G Bb

Cm7: C Eb F G Bb (minor pentatonic)

Cm7b5: C Eb F Gb Bb

Cdim: C Eb F Gb A

Sifting Gold

“You have to sift the gold!” Jazz coach Brent Vaartstra says to his students. You have to decide for yourself which advice or course is best for you at the moment. What you want to put the most effort into improving now. Many things may still be too difficult, need more time or can only be achieved in small steps.

Since 2007 I have been making more music again, on saxophone, piano and clarinet. Sometimes I have more time, sometimes other things are more important. That’s life. I’m glad I’m doing ear training. I’m not very far along yet, but at least I can recognize intervals. In Darmstadt I played in workshop bands, in Paderborn I currently have time for saxophone lessons.

The question is whether well-placed tones can solve problems. Probably not directly, but you feel more relaxed and optimistic, which is certainly helpful. Art makes our world more beautiful.