We’re back again for our 3rd installment of “It’s Willie Time.” A lot of tunes have a similar pattern to “Tune Up”, the II-V-I going down in whole steps. Once you know “Tune Up”, you know a lot of tunes. Willie starts it off showing how you can move the pentatonic pairs through the changes and start establishing where the tonalities are. I’ll then show you an example of using the tri-tone substitution on this tune. Willie also gives a little taste of some diminished sounds which he outlines in his Diminished 3-pack. And we finish by playing some short phrases back and forth. That’s about it for this episode. Let me know if you have any questions or comments below.
Willie and I are back again for another jazz lesson in our 2nd installment of “It’s Willie Time.” This time we take a look at “On the Trail” and some improvisation ideas for this tune. When you’re learning to play jazz, one of the most important things you can do is listen to others. Willie and I talk about this a little bit, and then demonstrate some improvisational ideas based off of the melodies. Playing off of the melodies is a simple way to start building jazz vocabulary. I’ll also show you some simple ideas of playing off the scales which in “On the Trail” is F and Gb. We continue showing some examples of double time, embellishing the pentatonic pairs, and finish with arpeggios that use half step approach notes to each chord tone. That’s about it for this lesson, hope you like it! More to come…. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write below.
This is the first entry in “It’s Willie Time.” This is actually the first jazz lesson that I took part in for Jazz Everyone. Here Willie and I start putting some of the jazz language together to look at different improvisational ideas for the tune “Satin Doll.” Willie starts it off by building simple melodies and patterns while running them through the changes. Then I take a turn using a simple lick and running it through the changes. This form of thematic improvisation is something Sonny Rollins uses all the time. Willie and I continue to explore different ideas for improvisation including playing off the arpeggios, and the use of the pentatonic pairs, which Willie’s language system is based on. So check it out and let me know what you think using the comments below.
Secured by