Most Popular Lessons

Hi folks,
I wanted to take a compositional approach to the TOTM this time. I find it can be insightful to compose a melody over a tune you're working on. For this one, I was trying to keep it simple- stay with a few basic rhythmic themes. I used some 4 and 5 note groupings discussed in previous lessons and used some Lee Konitz inspired melodic ideas. I always hear Lee's type of melodic playing over this tune, especially at a slow/ medium tempos. Love it!

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.

Dampening etude #3

In day 3, the rhythm changes slightly. Make the articulation of the two quartet notes fat, but keep the eighth note short.

For this week of 8MAD, we'll be looking at voice leading. I like to think of comping more in terms of voice leading. Rather than just thinking about 4 note voicings, it's also good to think about where each note wants to go. For day 1, observe these simple ii-V-iii-iV voicings. Pedal each new chord.