Dampening and Technique

🎵 Harmony Without Chords – Pt. 9: Adding Enclosures and Chromaticism

In Part 9, we take harmonic implication a step further by incorporating enclosures and chromatic passing tones into our line construction. Applied here to the chord progression of Minority by Gigi Gryce, this exercise demonstrates how carefully placed chromatic notes can add tension, sophistication, and forward motion while still clearly outlining the harmony.

Friedman Pedaling Etude #13

Dampening and Technique

🎵 Harmony Without Chords – Pt. 8: Applying Scale & Chord Outlining to Tunes – “Minority”

In Part 8, we take the scale and chord outlining concepts from the previous lessons and apply them directly to a jazz standard: Minority by Gigi Gryce. This exercise demonstrates how a thoughtful balance of linear scale motion and targeted chord tones can clearly express harmony within the context of a real tune — without relying on block chords or dense voicings.

🎵 Harmony Without Chords – Pt. 7: Scale & Chord Outlining Combinations

In Part 7, we combine two essential approaches to line construction: scale-based motion and chord outlining. These exercises move through ii–V progressions in descending whole steps, blending linear scale passages with clear chord-tone targets to create lines that sound both melodic and harmonically grounded.

Hi Tony, Hi all,

As you advised, I worked on memorizing chord changes of the standards and on altered stuff.

Here are some atempts on different tunes :

I work for a non profit called Global Academy For Inspirational Arts (GAIA). We work with music students in Costa Rica. I had to make a tutorial on the modes and thought maybe some of you would find it useful. Everything you need is attached. I would love to see some of you work on this and give me your thoughts. (Including misspelled words, I still have to put it in Spanish!)

I remember learning the modes in classical theory class. And online later when I learned modes from the same note, could I really here the difference between them. 

🎯 Harmony Without Chords – Pt. 6: ii–V Outlining Variants

In Part 6 of Harmony Without Chords, we expand on previous ii–V concepts by focusing on clear chord outlining and upper extensions over dominant chords, all while continuing the descending whole-step motion. Rather than relying on chord voicings, these exercises show how strong line construction alone can clearly imply harmony, even as the harmonic density increases.

This is another recording of an etude that I got a few months ago that I haven’t gotten around to posting. In this one I have a slight rush that I think was causing some issues when I got to the later sections of this piece, on top of a few mistakes here and there. However, I think that doesn’t detract to much from the piece itself. What are your thoughts? Feel free to respond with any feedback or questions you might have. I am/have posted some of the most recent etudes that I’ve done as well if you are interested in checking those out as well.