Tag Archives: Patterns

Chromatic III-VI-II-V Patterns

August 14, 2013 ericdano Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an actual exercise. Here is one I use with students to introduce chromaticism into their playing. Enjoy.

Chromatic III-VI-II-V's (373.7 KiB, 249 hits)
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Backgrounds For Exercise for Eb Instruments at Q=120 (3.2 MiB, 127 hits)
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Backgrounds For Exercise for Eb Instruments at Q=160 (2.4 MiB, 65 hits)
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Backgrounds For Exercise for Bb Instruments at Q=120 (3.2 MiB, 105 hits)
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Backgrounds For Exercise for Bb Instruments at Q=160 (2.4 MiB, 60 hits)
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Articles

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

September 11, 2011 2 Comments

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.

Hardcopy Of The II-V Patterns

December 3, 2007 ericdano 5 Comments

The II-V patterns are one of the most downloaded things here. I’m currently working on another revision of them, which would probably make it 400+ pages. That is a LOT to print out. I’m considering making them available to people via Lulu.com for like a $1 over what it costs to print them. So, if the patterns were 400 pages exactly, to print them coil bound, it would be $12.53. So, I’d make them available for $14 or something. The money would go to running this site (which is not cheap people!)

So, here is a poll to figure out how many people would be interested in that.

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Reviews

Fourth Obession – Wil Greenstreet

December 3, 2007 ericdano Leave a comment

Sometimes, people send me stuff to look at. Wil Greenstreet sent me his book, Fourth Obsession – inroads to out there. This book, obviously, deals with Fourths, something a lot of books touch on, but never really focus in on. This book does that. Starting out with the basics, being able to play fourths through the full range of your horn, then applying different rhythms to the fourths. Then backwards, then zig-zags, then zig-zags backwards, then zig-zags with rhythms, then zig-zags with rhythms backwards. You get the idea. And that is only the first 18 pages of 183 pages. Subsequent chapters deal with strings of fourths (in three, four, five, and six), root movements and fourths (whole-steps, minor-thirds, etc), and twelve-tone rows. All these get the backwards, zig-zag, zig-zag backwards, and with rhythms.

Whew! I don’t think he left out any combinations. Maybe I should consult with Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss or Archimedes to see if there are any other combinations.

After playing things out of this book over the weekend, there are some very cool lines to be found. The layout of the book is top-notch (except for the occasional use of the Jazz Text font, which I personally disdain). The material is presented clearly, the text is easy to read, and understand. The exercises, while not completely written out like in Walt Weiskopf’s books, are presented in a way where you can follow them (example being on the left page one would see the string of fourths in a group of five going up in half steps, and on the adjoining page the rhythms to practice them with). Should provide anyone with hours and hours (if not weeks or months) of stuff to practice. One thing that I wish was included were some etudes that encompass all that was presented in the book. I think that would have been a great bonus to have.

Looking for something to dig into? Then get this book. 9.5/10 (.5 deducted for lack of etudes, and illegal use of the jazz text font). The book can be purchased for $23 ($20 + $3 shipping) from Wil Greenstreet.

Reviews

Neff Music Approach Note Velocity Studies

February 23, 2007 ericdano 2 Comments

Every month, I make it a point to buy new music. New music including books in addition to recorded media. I have quiet a backlog of things to review. So, first up are Approach Note Velocity Studies.

I’m not sure when I found these on the net, but Steve Neff’s Approach Note Velocity Studies are pretty darn neat. For $10, you get 90 some pages of great sounding chromatic lines that you can use on Major and Minor vamps. You can incorporate them into other chord progressions as well, such as blues, rhythm changes, etc. If you own the Joseph Viola Chord Studies book, these patterns are similar to those 16th note lines at the end of each chord study. I have also seen patterns like these called neighboring tones or approach tones in other books.

There are two volumes, Major and Minor. Both are great. Check them out.

Sheet Music

II-V-I Patterns

April 1, 2006 ericdano 14 Comments

I have updated the II-V-I patterns yet again. I consolidated some of the other patterns I had (like the Ray Brown ones). There are now 286 pages (or 286 4 bar patterns in all keys) to enjoy. Also gone is the Jazz Font. I am in favor of a more clean, professional look using Bill Duncan’s Fonts for Finale for this going forward.

II-V-I Patterns in Bb (4.6 MiB, 12,479 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns in Bb Pages 1 to 100 (1.7 MiB, 11,482 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns in Bb Pages 101 to 200 (1.9 MiB, 10,976 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns in Bb Pages 201 to 289 (1.6 MiB, 10,992 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns in Eb (4.7 MiB, 11,698 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns in Eb Pages 1 to 100 (1.7 MiB, 10,432 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns in Eb Pages 101 to 200 (1.9 MiB, 10,357 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns in Eb Pages 201 to 289 (1.6 MiB, 10,917 hits)
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II-V-I Patterns Reference (600.9 KiB, 12,091 hits)
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These patterns were designed to be used with Aebersold Vol. 3, Track 2. Also included is a 24 page reference of the patterns.

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