Tag Archives: bebop

Posts on John Coltrane’s improvisation approaches, Coltrane Changes, and some improvisation ideas

Dear Jazz-Saxists,

Greetings~

Not long ago, I began to write some casual posts relating to Jazz improvisation ideas and approaches, about Coltrane Changes, John Coltrane, and some off-the-cuff ramblings in my little site at www.jkchang.com.  These posts, collected in the “Dialogue” series, were really fun to write (and I hope they are also fun to read as well~), including:

Incorporating the Sound of Nicolas Slonimsky’s Pattern no. 626 in Jazz Improvisation

-Some ideas and approaches in creating “pure” or “quasi”of Nicolas Slonimsky’s Pattern No. 626 sound.  These ideas are less “analytical”…more like my own ways (aka shortcuts) to manage Slonimsky’s materials in his Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns

John Coltrane’s employment of “The Bebop Lick” in his Coltrane Changes lines in Countdown and Giant Steps

-listening/compiling Coltrane’s employments of “The Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps & Countdown to list few manageable variant.

Beyond Patterns: Sculpting Jazz Improvisation Lines with the Diminished Scale

-discussing few approaches and ideas to create Diminished Scale sound….for example, using layer approach…etc….to provide few ways, in addition to the usual “here’s your scale”, to execute this wonderful symmetrical scale.

Incorporating Motives of Super Mario Bros. “Underground” Theme in Jazz Improvisation

-a personal post about getting some improvisational ideas from Super Mario Bros.’s “Underground” theme…(although it might appear to be an “Ode to an-incredibly-horrible-gamer”….)

John Coltrane’s Improvised Line in Milestones as a Model for Incorporating Sequential Patterns in Jazz Improvisation

-a personal favorite! This post is about using Coltrane’s improvisational line as a phrasing model to handle lots of sequential patterns in a single improvised line.

Incorporating Dissonance in Jazz Improvisation

-few general ideas on spicing up our improvisations with some juicy dissonances.

More on Coltrane Changes

-ramblings on Coltrane Changes.

 

Have fun reading them~ and please let me know what you think~

 

Regards,

 

JK

100 Major II-V-I Bebop Lines SK “Single-Key” Edition

Dear all,

Greetings!

I am writing to let you know the complete set of “100 Major II-V-I Bebop Lines SK Edition” is now uploaded to the Downloads section at JKChang.com.  The SK “Single Key” Edition features bebop lines from the original “100 Major II-V-I Bebop Lines vol. 1” organized into individual key. This organization is designed to help improvisers to work on II-V-I lines in specific keys and might be helpful additions as the pre-chromatic transposition exercises.

Edition Information:

“This volume of the Jazz Improvisation Series, an extension of 100 Major II-V-I Bebop Lines, emphasizes upon major II-V-I jazz lines stylized in the Bebop tradition. In this edition, 100 Bebop lines are grouped into single keys to facilitate the development and familiarity of Bebop idiom of specified key. It is recommended that users start the exercises in a comfortable speed and gradually build up the facility to satisfy the technical demands in faster tempos.”

PDF file (200+ pages) is located in the Downloads page.  Click “Featured Download” banner to access the corresponding page for SK Edition.  Additionally, please submit your ideas and suggestions in the “comment” section of “Downloads” page if you have specific requests for new biab materials.  Please leave suggestions for existing projects in their corresponding pages. Thank you.

As always, I hope these materials will be useful to some of you:-)

Regards,

J.K.