Lesson

Chord Tone Soloing on Coltrane's Giant Steps: One of the concepts that my students and I were working on in improv class this week was Chord Tone Soloing as applied to various compositions including Giant Steps. Practice techniques and concepts included focusing on motives, soloing with chord tones while limiting the range to an octave and Chord Tone Connection in which we go up and down the entire range of the instrument and connect from chord to chord with stepwise motion.

Here's a clip on improvising with Pentatonic scales for the standard Green Dolphin Street. There is a post on the All Things Improvisation blog that includes this videoclip as well as a page listing the pentatonic scales being applied. Vibist Volker Heuken from Nuremberg, Germany did an excellent job transcribing the solo.

Here's the link to the All Things Improvisation blog: http://allthingsimprovisation.blogspot.com/2015/03/pentatonics-on-on-gr…

Berklee Improv Class - Applying the improvisational concept of Four Note Groupings over John Coltrane's Giant Steps. In my 39th year of teaching and it's still a pleasure to teach improv to these talented and motivated musicians. I feel fortunate to be able to pass on the information as well as learn and grow along with the students.

This is a past Percussive Notes article from 2000 that addresses a variety of Tension Resolution techniques for jazz improvisation. Tension Resolution is one of the chapters in The Complete Guide To Improvisation Volume 1.

Here's the link to view and download the article:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0TwrpqjL6dQfnZ1RGJMSC1wMVJWVzZ…

Here are some beautifully improvised choruses by Gary which were recorded during a 1985 clinic in Argentina. Gary was talking about improvising with motives. Gustavo had this tape of the clinic and transcribed the choruses from the clinic.

Practicing today on sound possibilities in executing a line over C-7 F7 Bb Maj7. Focusing on variations with pedaling, dampening, deadstrokes, ghost notes, accents and stickings. The first example is fairly dry with no pedal. There are a lot of possibilities in executing a simple line like this. I'll sometimes take even a smaller phrase and work with it trying to get as many nuances and phrasing possibilities out of it. Note selection is important for sure, but sound is also very important and needs to be constantly looked at.

Had a little time today before a class at Berklee. Practicing some improvisation with the concept of Tension Resolution on Autumn Leaves. With this concept I'm focusing on using one tension and chord tones for each chord change and making to sure to resolve the tension to the nearest chord tone. It is a simple but effective improv technique that sounds the changes with a melodic flow. I'm playing 8 measures out front to establish the context of the song.